Around where I live almost everyone has a vegie garden. Some people grow loads of fruit and veg, enough to feed whole families. Some grow enough to eat and preserve for a lot of the season. While others grow little bits and pieces, enough to supplement their meals, or to add a little flavour.

I love living near a rural town. I love that the conversations down the street change according to the season. Early in the year we might have discussed ripening corn or what to do with all that zucchini, then apple harvests, then preserving, then broccoli recipes and now tomatoes.

When I popped into the fruit and veg shop today to deliver eggs, the friends I bumped into had dirt under their finger nails just like I did. We discussed the old local theory that it is safe to plant tomatoes out after Melbourne Cup Day (yesterday) and we chatted about varieties and quantities.

I planted hundreds of teeny-tiny seeds into seed trays of home made seed raising mix in the hot house a few months ago. Then as each seedling rose up out of the mix and grew four leaves, I transplanted it to its own little tube full of compost. Some times I planted straight into pots.

I adore this work. This fussing and pottering over my future tomatoes. The hot house is right next to our house so I can escape for a few minutes at a time and sometimes for hours. It's almost like meditation. Filling pots, pricking out seedlings, making a hole with a chopstick and then carefully replanting being careful to cover the roots and relabeling.

And then today, being the day after Melbourne cup day and a cool enough day to work in the poly-tunnel, we carried a whole lot of the tomato pots over to the poly tunnel, ran some irrigation lines down the sides, and set to planting, fertilising and then watering.

Miss Pepper worked along side me and was boss of the worms, collecting chicken feathers out of the straw and was chief water-inerer.

I guess at some stage soon I'll be brave enough to plant some of my babies outside too, but at the moment all I can think of is that year we had a frost at Christmas time. I'm thinking we might have to put up the other hot house soon.

I'm thinking I just love this time of year. Everything is green and bursting with growth and promise of a wonderful season.

What's it like in your town?
Are you discussing your tomatoes with everyone who stands still long enough to listen?
Do you have a Cup-Day type rule?
Are you loving your season?
Do you say tomaydo or tomarto?

Ciao chickens. x