Summer is a duplicitous beast; pushing you into the garden to tend to all the plants, whilst at the same time tugging your bottom towards the nearest deckchair for a snooze. It makes sense then to stick to jobs that can be done in a half-awake state, so that you can feel accomplished, even in a soporific doze.

Tomato care is one such job, as these plants require gentleness above all else. Keeping up with the watering is the most important factor here, whether your tomatoes are in the ground, or in a container or grow-bag (and watering is vastly easier here if you keep them inside a pot within the grow-bag). This year I’m growing a hanging basket full of tumbling cherry tomatoes.

All tomatoes need regular and copious amounts of water, so make a point of filling watering cans again immediately after watering, and leave these cans out in the sun to warm (an un-proven tip, but if I were a tomato, I’d prefer it).

Feeding is simple - just add a cap-full of liquid from a bottle of tomato fertiliser every week once your plants have started flowering. If you’re growing cordons, a pocketful of ready-cut lengths of string will help you when you need to tie the growing stems gently to their cane. And lastly, carefully rub or snap off the side-shoots that appear in the axils (that intersection between the main stem and the leaves), so that the plant can concentrate all its energy into producing fruit.

x Laetitia