EVEN though the tomato crisis (was there really one..?) will be a distant memory come summer when there will be oodles of them about, there’s nothing like your own.

This year as much theatre will come to my little greenhouse — successful germination permitting — as the media frenzy generated by the shortage of a few unseasonal fruit and veg.

I’m old enough to remember when you largely ate stuff when it was in season in this country and that, of course, included home grown tomatoes, which — unless you have a battery of UV lights and a ground source heat pump attached to your greenhouse — ain’t a possibility here in winter.

I mention ‘theatre’ because at Christmas I was given a Wacky Tomato Kit which will produce six varieties of different shape and colour alongside my old familiars.

It is gimmicky — and not cheap — I looked it up on the interweb, but it would make a great gift for gardeners of all ages, especially young, green fingered ones.

Alongside my old faves, Rosella, from Thompson and Morgan and other seeds-people, with its dark, intense and fruity flesh, and old Stan Jackson’s Queen of Hearts, will be six largely untried toms from the Wacky kit which I reckon the gifters had their eagle eyes
on for a little return produce prezzie in summer.

There is a selection of:

  • Tomato Zlatava. Orange on the outside and red like a blood orange on the inside. Round to heart shaped fruits are said to be excellently flavoured with great eye appeal when sliced.
  • Taiko is a medium-early, tall, variety. Oval yellow fruits weigh about 1.5oz. One cluster has up to 15 fruits and Taiko can be grown indoors or out. They too are said to be very tasty.
  • Heritage Black Russian are top tasters and regularly in my greenhouse. They are a deep purple, to rich mahogany in colour which just say: ‘eat me’. They have juicy medium-sized fruits with a great, sweet, but complex, flavour.
  • Duo is a very new variety that produces unusual looking fruit. It was bred as a field tom bearing slightly oval fruit that reach up to 2in in diameter and have a slightly ribbed surface. Their main feature is the wonderfully coloured, striped, skin. As they ripen the colours turn from green to a mixture of yellow and red stripes.
  • Radana is a small plum-shaped tomato. Smaller than most, Radana is suitable for both salads and cooking. It is said to not be overly juicy and with a ‘reasonable’ mellow taste.
  • Tomato Green Envy F1 is similar to one I grew last year and the year before from seed taken from a supermarket fruit. The slightly elongated grape-sized cherry-tomatoes are an unusual bright green colour. You can tell when they are ripe when they are slightly translucent.
  • Green Envy has a delicate, sweet, flavour, making a colourful and delicious addition to salads and roasted vegetable dishes.

All are indeterminate (cordon) varieties growing on a single stem which need side-shoots pinching out as they develop.

I am sure we will enjoy the summer taste test.

  • A date for the diary. St Helens Primary school is the venue for tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon’s village horticultural society spring show.

                                                                       TOP TIPS

  • A little bit of work now will reward you with better asparagus results later. Mulch asparagus beds and weed them. Asparagus has crowns at a shallow depth, so weed by hand to avoid damage.
  • Dig-in to the veg patch green manures grown over winter. Do it while stems are still soft.
  • Dig compost, well-rotted manure, seaweed or green waste into veg beds to prepare for the growing season ahead. A four-inch layer should be added when the soil becomes workable. Weed beds first!
  • Cover prepared soil with sheets of black plastic or carpet to keep it drier and warmer in preparation for planting.