Autumn Gardening | Tomato and Basil Seedlings

I have some tomatoes that came off a heirloom thessaloniki tomato plant, the plant never really grew and the tomatoes are more like cocktail tomatoes. So, instead of planting more seeds, I decided to see if there were seeds inside these mini tomatoes. I cut one open and what do you know!... there were quite a few seeds.

I planted the tomato just as I cut it and I think just about all the seeds that were inside this tomato have grown. This is by far the easiest way to grow tomatoes that I have tried.

Tomato Seedlings

Companion Planting Tomato and Basil

I have organic sweet basil seeds that I've been trying to grow the whole summer. I tried starting the seedlings indoors and then transplanting but the seeds simply refused to grow in the soil that I planted it. I had some success by putting some seeds in a container with wet paper towel but the seedlings died after transplanting it into the soil.

Rain :-)

Now that we're having some cooler weather and also some rain, I decided to try planting some seeds directly outside in the soil and finally I've got some healthy basil seedlings.

Basil Seedlings

I've read many articles about how beneficial basil plants are for tomatoes and I've never done this before, so I'm hoping the basil & tomato combination works out for me. According to the articles basil is not only a great pest repellent but also enhances the flavour of tomatoes, actually making it sweeter. Wow! I can't wait to see if that is true.

---

All photos are my own

Team South Africa banner created by @bearone