I had always assumed I was destined to be hopeless at growing tomatoes. Every attempt I had ended in failure. Whether I bought seeds and grew from them, or went to a garden shop and bought ready to go plants, they would start off great and then just die really early in the season.
My garden beds have now been in for about 3 or 4 years, and started off using the no-dig garden technique which is to use alternate layers of greens and browns. I started off using lucerne hay and chicken manure, and now just top up with sugar cane mulch each year ($10 a bag from a warehouse in Epping). The worms absolutely love the sugar cane mulch, and it all gets converted into rich soil that the plants love.
Last year I got a Tommy Toe plant from Bunnings and thought I'd pop it one of the garden beds for a bit of a laugh, thinking it would follow in the suit of other failed attempts. To my surprise, this plant got so big and so heavy, I was forced to to tie multiple stakes together to keep the plant upright, the thing grew HUGEEEEEE!
One windy day in Melbourne over summer last year, the stakes could not handle the weight and bent in half. The plant at this stage had already grown 2 metres, and I was quite upset by the incident. But I could not give up, and decided on a different strategy of using a 1 metre wooden stake, followed by a 3 metre 90mm PVC downpipe. This seemed to be a lot better, and can't really see this snapping or falling over despite the weight.
So this year I eagerly anticipate both the height and the number of tomatoes I will get in the garden beds. All 6 of the garden beds have 2 plants each, so I may even create an aussie version of the famous Passata making day that the Italians have each year.
