First one fellow volunteer sent me an email exclaiming ‘Adam has sent a Patch tomato update…. amazing!’ Then a phone message was left for me from another ‘Did you get Adams photos? All those tomatoes!!!’. Adam is the Coordinator of the Food Garden at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (RTBG) that any one of us would weed for ever if he so asked.  If you are reading this blog for the first time you need to know that all our volunteering at the RTBG has been suspended due to constraints required to manage the COVID virus.

After those contacts, I checked my phone and read the text message ‘Hi fellow food gardeners, hope all are well and adjusting to the new world we find ourselves in! A chance to up production in our own gardens (smiley emoji). Anyway, here’s a pic of today’s dispatch to loaves and fishes (now known as Second Bite) – the tomatoes just keep on giving. 48kgs!!’  Adam’s photograph shows the tomatoes and a few handfuls of cucumbers.

What a sensational harvest!

My fervent wish is that the COVID virus stops its impact so that we can plant new tomatoes in October this year. If the virus continues to cut contacts and keep us isolated, then these volumes of harvests are unlikely to be seen at the RTBG next March.

Meanwhile anybody with a piece of garden or space for a few pots should plan to plant tomatoes in October (that’s if you live in Tasmania – check planting times for other locations).

I recommend you Google which seeds you could plant now. Find out how to grow them: what soil they need, how much water they need and when, how much light they need, how much sun they need, how deep a pot you will need if the seed is not going directly into the ground, if they can be grown inside – and start small and slow. With one vegetable. How about having something like lettuce growing all through winter – that is probably the easiest to start with.  But please Google what you should do so you are more likely to have success. Then imagine how good it will be to have a juicy crunch available to add to any meal through any week – even if you cannot get to the supermarket or produce markets in the next few weeks. Once you have success with growing one type of plant then try another seed.

Meanwhile, thanks Adam for continuing to show us what the Food Garden at the RTBG is providing those in need in our community.