First tomato

With the severe drought and uncommonly high temperatures here this spring my work in the garden has almost collapsed to nil.

The drought has forced the local administration to impose severe water restrictions, and, whilst I fully understand the need to contain the supplies, I do find the practicalities bizarre to say the least.

At present I'm not allowed to wash my car at home.  Well, that's ok.   I'm not allowed to water my lawn.  Again, that's sad but ok.   I am allowed to drive to the local car wash and use it! Silly!  I'm not allowed to water my vegetable plot.  Which means I cannot grow my own vegetables but am therefore forced to buy farmed vegetable that have probably travelled thousands of miles to get to me.  Where, exactly, is the sense in that?

Anyway, all that aside, I today found a lone tomato luxuriating in the sun.   I got my tomatoes in the ground long before the water restrictions were imposed and I laid a mulch over them which is about 300mm (12 inches) thick.  They are struggling but surviving.

I'm glad to have this particular tomato, as it was a plant from my friend  the nurseryman, at Villereal market.   It was not a variety I had ever heard of called Cobra.  Searching on the internet, I could only find an F1 variety called that, but my man assures me it is not F1 and the seeds can be saved.  In fact, when  I asked him, he rather looked at me like I was stupid, and asked in return, "How do you think I get the plants?  I just save the seed from one year to the next!"  which, thinking about it, I know is true for everything else he sells!

So I now have a nice Cobra tomato, which at the moment I'm managing to resist the urge to eat, so that I will have seeds next year.

The only things I'm growing this year, apart from my permanent beds and the orchard, are tomatoes, beans and courgettes (zucchini).