In tandem with our Reusable Runner Bean Bag Trial, we’ve also be trialing growing our own tomatoes using the Bosmere Reusable Vegetable Patio Planter/Vegetable Bag pictured on this page.

Apparently designed with people like us in mind (those with postage stamp sized gardens), this year has seen a plethora of ingenious container solutions come on to the market which would seem to make it possible for those of us with small gardens to grow at least some of our own fruit and veg.

We decided to trial a few, starting with the Bosmere Reusable Runner Bean Bag, in one of which we are growing runner beans and another French beans which can be seen by following the link above.

As with their Reusable Runner Bean Bag, Bosmere’s Reusable Vegetable Patio Planter/Vegetable Bag is dark green and made from high quality, wipe-clean polythene with drainage holes, “U.V. stabilised for longer life,” according to the label.

It is not unattractive, which means it will sit more than comfortably in the average small garden or patio. It is suitable for most deep rooted vegetables such as carrots, onions, swedes, cauliflowers, parsnips and broccoli to name but a few.

In our case, once we filled it with our chosen growing medium (we used a 75-litre bag of multi-purpose compost), we planted four tomato plants potted on from their original 3″ pots as purchased from our local nursery, interspersed with lettuces.

We plumped for Gardener’s Delight and the F1 hybrid Juliet, for the tomatoes, and for the lettuces a mixture of Dynamite, Cos Lettuce Pandero and Cos Lettuce Lobjoits Green.

Aided greatly by our astonishing June and early July weather and copious amounts of water, the tomatoes in particular are romping away and should be ready for harvesting in a couple of weeks.

We’ll let you know how we get on!

(For the results, see: How to Ripen Your Tomatoes – Part 1, How to Ripen Your Tomatoes – Part 2).

Editor, Third Age.