G'day Everyone, I'll be hanging around and editing/uploading videos over the Xmas break, so you'll likely see me regularly here or on other platforms/social media. Thanks for your support, and all the best over the holidays - stay safe and get into it! Cheers :) selfsufficientme.com/
We fought bravely through the storm but the deluge of rain proved to be overwhelming. Our troops began to split in the areas of least resistance. But we shall overcome this slight of nature, because there is nothing to fear but growth itself and we shall GROW!!!
I've been watching Self Sufficient Me for years now. I adore his style, the uncle I wish I had. He's the Steve Irwin of gardening. I'm surprised he's not on TV yet. He's an absolute gem
If he goes on TV they will immediately control the show. He will be forced to shill for bunnings etc every episode like Better Homes and Gardens. It's better this way
I am so in love with how this video, at its heart, is basically "I let nature do its thing and I learned". I feel that sometimes we get too caught up in the idea that we have to do things in a very systematic way, instead of going with the flow.
I had a neighbor who grew up on a farm. She and I had adjacent beds in a community garden. She NEVER staked any of her vining plants. Tomatoes, cukes, squash, etc…were just allowed to sprawl. She did not have quite as good a harvest as me, but she spent very little time in the garden, and got a very reasonable harvest. I am certain she got more weight in good crops per hour spent than anyone else in our community garden.
I planted one cherry tomato plant 4 years ago in my chicken garden, and got a ton of tomatoes since. Every generation seems to be more and more drought and pest resistant
They realized that here at the U of A during the pandemic: self seeded plants know thier environment and thrive. Packet seeds needed more 'babying' and failed more often even when sourced 'locally' from similar conditions. Also, tomatoes are Beasts.
@@dedeg9993 no the plants die, we have a really short harse cold winter here in Namibia. And it grows outside my greenhouses so I don't really bother with covering any of them. But come next spring new plants come up like weeds, so I select a few of the best ones and remove the rest. So the cycle continues year after year.
What a small world it truly is! I’m in the U.S. and I love that you are in the Southern Hemisphere. I can’t grow tomatoes now. It is winter, but you can! So, I get to see your new videos all winter long while I plan for Spring next April! Thank you!
My Pop just let's them grow wherever and leaves them be. He says they thrive on neglect. He just lives at Beerwah. Everytime I go I take bucket loads home. They are so healthy looking and so delicious!
Last year was my first attempt at gardening. I typically kill cacti, so I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. It was amazing! I live in mid-southern Illinois, 6b. Growing different ages of asparagus, had corn, tomatoes, strawberries, okra, potatoes, carrots, a blueberry Bush, and assorted herbs mostly in fabric pots. This gave me such a boost in confidence for next year. We're adding a 16ftx20ft greenhouse, have built a chicken coop and large run for our 15 girls, and I have collected over 200 varieties of seeds! I must give you and several other Tube gardening experts MANY THANKS for keeping me motivated and excited for starting seeds early in 2023. Kevin from Epic Gardening, Jacques from Jacques in the Garden and Epic Gardening, Bruce from RED gardens, and James Prigioni. These resources are INVALUABLE. I would not be so excited for the next season if it weren't for all of you!❤❤ Oops! Forgot Brian at Next Level Gardening!
@@JennTN411 That's great collecting so many different seeds. I collected loads last year but not many this year. i keep indian runner ducks instead of chickens and their eggs are delicious and they're so funny. Swiss chartd is great to grow. Red currant was my best new tomato variety this year. I grew tomatillos for the first time (had never heard of them) and made salsa verde from them (which is amazing). Growing goji berries is easy and they're ripe the same time as tomatoes and goji berry and tomato soup is so good. Tay berries and logan berries are my favourite berries to grow ( like big vining rasperies) and I grow a lot fo black currants. In England, UK. Keep growing :)
@@GunDogSlim unfortunately, I live within village limits, so I don't have much choice in livestock I can legally keep... otherwise I probably would have a few ducks and a calf!😆 Do you know of any local seed sharing sites, or anything of that? If we were in the same country, I'd happily share! Seeds were a bit hard to source here as well, but I had some previous sites that aren't pricey, luckily. Best of luck to you next season!❤
@@JennTN411 I don't know if my village has any limits, but the the world is crazy right now huh?! I got loads of new interesting varieties of organic seeds from premium seeds direct, they're probaby just a UK company. All the best :)
I grew tomatoes that were indeterminate like those. The vines grew to over 12 feet. I didn't trellis them in time and they spilled over out of the raised bed. I live in North Carolina USA, climate is mild. I had tomatoes well after the first frost. My first harvest was three months after planting and I sold 7 pounds to a local café and had plenty to can. Evey day I picked tomatoes. Wonder variety and I will plant them again.
I live in Alaska and we have such an odd growing season but this channel has helped me learn so many tips and tricks to apply to my own garden! You’re on of my favorite gardeners out there and I’ve never been more jealous of someone else’s tomatoes ❤
I live in the far north of Scotland where everyone knows you need a greenhouse or poly tunnel. So I spotted a sheltered sunny spot and grew a load of hassle free toms in the ground outside. Started in a big pot and put them out in June. Watered with a hose about once a fortnight and a little feeding when I remembered. V successful. I'm as smug as
If we're honest, most of us gardeners have several self seeded tomato "experiments" happening if we're lucky. Love your channel and everything I'm learning from you, cheers!
I love my volunteers, if their life energy is enough to prosper in an unlikely spot, who am I to argue. My best cherry toms this year grew In the gravel under my clothes line. I’ve canned up so much passata from this giver.
I bought some Australian climbing tomatoes and they are self sowing wild in the garden, under the fruit trees. I have a big patch of them, you can't tell where one plant starts and the other finishes. I am embracing the freedom of them being wild and untamed
Love this Mark. Last year I planted my tomatoes in pots because that was the only space I had. I neglected one and it "tumbled" over and grew in the grass and I got more tomatoes than all the other staked pots
I had a tommy toe plant come up in my front garden in the last couple of weeks of winter in Newcastle NSW. I have no idea how the seed got in there but i let it grow wild and it filled the entire garden. I was picking a basket full every day. I canned a dozen jars of spaghetti sauce with them and was giving them away as well as eating them fresh. It was one of the best tomato plants I've ever grown! Btw, I love your videos!
Same, I live in Newcastle as well and the house I bought 7 years ago and every year the tiny toms come up in late winter and I get kilos of tiny toms that family and friends loves. At the end of summer I just hit it with the slasher and next year they come back.
I toil away in my garden bring to do all the right things and my harvest very good. A neighbour plants and does not spend as much time in their garden and gets about 65% of what I do. Now you make a great video on this and I question time verses reward. I guess the only added award I get is the mental calmness of being with my plants. Very interesting on your experiment. Cheers
I have been watching a few of your videos. they all inspired me and i now have started being "self sufficient" as well. You give great advice and i use alot of your ideas. thanks
There is a tomato here in Florida that grows wild, drought tolerant, heat tolerand and can handle the humidity. It's called the Wild Florida Everglade Tomato. You can buy the seeds on line. They are small, indeterminate carefree. Only possible issue is they'll take over a small backyard, but they are tasty!
I planted 2 last year, just died. Found what I thought was a volunteer about 6 ft away, it was actually 7 baby plants. I replanted near my chicken run/fence and to to nurse them through winter. I’m in NW Florida
Those tomatoes remind me of the Florida everglades tomatoes. If you ever grow one on your property, you will always have tomatoes. They self seed and take over large spaces similar to a huge briar patch.
Had the same results over here in central west Queensland - lots of rain made feral cherry tomato plants pop up everywhere. I left quite a few to do their own thing as they were doing so well, and gave them a bit of a water whenever I was near. No feeding! And we have sandy soil. I ended up with so many tomatoes I made puree, sauce, froze them whole (totally works!) and dried them and made delicious tomato powder. As well as eating them at almost every breakfast on toast. I was just about sick of the sight of them when they stopped producing with the heat. Great to see that you did the same thing, makes me feel a bit more organised than I really am! Another very good video, thank you.
My son and I love your channel! We're in the US, so it actually helps us plan next year's garden better when we can see what you've been experimenting with six months before us. Thank you for all the accessible, great ideas!
G'day Tracy, thanks for commenting and your support! I do the same... Watching international gardeners to get ideas and see what people are growing for the coming season. Cheers :)
95% of tomatoe products in the US are grown here, in the Central Valley of California. They are all grown as "field tomatoes" ie, no staking, just grown on the ground. I personally stake my tomatoes vertically. Steve in Sacramento.
Mark l have enjoyed watching your work and passion in these videos. I am a 49 year old that is learning the importance of something that you have already embraced. Thank you for your time in sharing your knowledge and it is very much appreciated. Best wishes to you from Melbourne Victoria.
G'day Jason, thank you for sharing your feedback and thoughts mate. You have a good climate for growing food down there so all the best on your self-sufficient journey! Cheers :)
I did this myself when I had more seedlings than space- I started chucking them in random places in my side yard back in June and there were still 2 alive just last week, even through frost after i'd cut down all my regularly planted tomatoes. They're surprisingly resilient when you decide not to care about them.
Truth. 8 or 9 yrs ago we planted some "swamp tomatoes " the father in law brought up. Basically a small indeterminate cherry. Edit: actually, they look just like his everglades, guess that's their proper name. They grew ok that year, but self seeded and got into the cool compost. Not they're everywhere, and I actually end up mowing about half of em lol.
"They're surprisingly resilient when you decide not to care about them." Can...can I try that with my kids? Just to see what happens? xD Making your own dinner builds character, or something!
I've noticed that cherry tomatoes/indeterminate tomatoes also sprout extra roots along their branches if you let them trail along the ground, almost like pumpkins. I wonder if that's why they do well there on the ground.
That's part of it, try dropping some dirt on any stem thats low on the ground & you essentially end up with 2 plants. Works great to keep the distance from origin to fruit from becoming too long. I've grown tinys called Everglades tomatoes here in South Florida, USA, for years. They self seed, prefer to be just left to "do their thing". ( A little extra water in dry season, please! ) Very prolific!
G'day Elizabeth, that's a great point about "stem rooting" that I forgot to mention in my video. Yes, the plants tend to root down in some places where the stem touches the ground, giving it more water and nutrients. Cheers :)
I read an article somewhere online, someone actually tried that, thinking that tomatoes in the wild would just sprawl all over the ground like pumpkins. They decided to try it and it turned out they got more tomatoes that way without staking them. The only thing they did was put straw under the tomatoes to keep them from rotting as quickly.
Got some bigger size tomatoes 4 years ago, they keep coming back every year, no maintenance at all, no watering except for the rain. Best tomatoes ever, in the good climate of Southern PA. I used to stake and trim my plants and always had issues anyway. Now I still have the same issues (cracking and sometimes diseases), but since there is no work except when I cut them in salads, I think it's a win :-).
Looks my veggie patch. Just one big mound in my backyard that has been built up over years. It started as a small compost pile where I put my garden waste and kitchen scraps. Now its a huge messy pile with a variety of veggies that have grown from seed from the scraps. Once a year I cut it down, turn it over and add a couple bags of manure. It thrives without any maintenance or watering.
It's good to see you back to posting videos again, Mark! I have to say, I really like the idea of just letting the tomatoes grow wild, like a "happy little accident". It's a lot less stress on the gardener! lol ;)
This year, I had 3 volunteers that were also growing on some neglected areas of my land, and I just let them go. They were huge and soooo good. They did better and lasted longer than my babied tomatoes. I'm surely going to be taking a lazier tomato approach!
Mark gotta say, I’m having the best tomatoe season I have ever had 👍. Thanks for all your tips and I have learned one thing manure manure manure 😂. Cheers
Love all your Videos, I live In The United States, east Coast, in Maryland. I started growing tomatoes the lazy way two years ago, It was by accident as well, I noticed that the Tomatoes I just let grow without Steaks or cages did way better. Now I just plant the Tomatoes and let em go how they want.. I do also lose some to Rot and pests but the plants still always seem to produce way more usable fruit this way. I also notice that the ones that grow in the weeded areas seem to last longer as they are not scorched by the hot summer sun as badly... Thank You so much for the entertaining and informative videos. Since your Summer is our winter, your videos help get us Northern Hemisphere folks get through the long winter a litter better...
My vege garden is 20 years old and this is the only way I grow tomatoes. They appear where they will and produce like mad. Cherry tomatoes give me no trouble with fruit fly either! If I do put in heritage seed like the Thai Pink Egg, the next season I get gifted with some weird cross breeds, which is always fun. Thanks so much for your great local-to-me content!
We always have volunteers grow up and around our compost bin. We've had pumpkins, gourds, but mostly cherry tomatoes. If they are not growing in an inconvenient location, we let them go and harvest completely free tomatoes!
We have a weed heap that the occasional tomato or pumpkin will sprout in. We just let them do their own thing and reap the rewards when they are ready to pick :-) When I try to grow veg I'm not very successful but when they sprout of their own accord, they seem to do well.
I always wondered if those plants that need propping up should be naturally be growing on the ground where they want to, like tomatos, melons etc. It's only because of our intervention that we expect them to grow vertically. Fascinating.
I love the idea of "lazy gardening." It's a very good strategy. As long as you give them what they need, the plants know how to do the rest. Maybe some of those techniques will appear later on ;-). Happy New Year Mark, family, and SSM community!
I thoroughly enjoyed the video and the tips, considering that my tomato plantation was a huge flop this season. Writing from Tanzania. I am on unfamiliar grounds, new to the country and I am acclimatizing to the land and growing season here. 🇨🇦🇹🇿
I inadvertently grew my maters this way in New Hampshire. They were indeterminate variety and were a solid 3-5 feet above the cages. Storm blew through and knocked them down. I gave up, but the tomatoes didn’t. I’ve never had more tomatoes than this passed year. Unreal how they grew on the ground.
Yes the lazy way isn’t always planned but it does happen for whatever reason. Very productive but hard to weed. You would think diseases would be common yet it seems plants are actually healthier. Many times we’ve had unplanned crops that actually out produced the planned crops. Plus with all the weeds the crops actually produced longer than expected. 🥰👍❤️
I have silver beet and Pak choy everywhere in the garden. Just keeps coming up. This year the winners for the wild pop-ups are chilies (there’s nowhere in the garden they aren’t coming up - pity the weather hasn’t been on their side, but they’re persevering) and coriander. The chilies are all coming up from my liberal use of soil from the compost heap (get a lotta avocado plants from there too - a nice indoor plant in Tassie, but I’ve never had one bear fruit). The coriander is all from one plant I put in last summer which bolted pretty darn quick, but I shook the dried plant ‘round the garden and this year it’s everywhere; which is great coz I use a LOT! Thanks for yer work, Mark. Always enjoy yer vids. 👍
I remember growing up we had pumpkins that ended up completely dominating the yard for years, because one year we pitched jack-o-lanterns off the porch, and didn't bother clearing the plants when they popped up in the spring. Well, they exploded halfway across the yard, and grew that year's jack-o's just fine, so we did the same thing. Worked good for several years until we moved out when I was a teenager.
I had (7) small yellow pear tomato plants volunteer in the dogs area run. Worst place to be at but they just kept growing and producing beautiful sweet miniature sized tomatoes. The best I have ever had. I used the tomatoes from one plant to wash then air dry to be planted next year, but I will pass on a lot of those seeds as I stopped counting at 400 seeds. I have a feeling my neighbors will be getting either the seeds or a little cherry tomato plant next spring.
Love your clips Mark,thanks mate,just started my raised beds here in Paramatta hope the rain doesn't continue so much also had a look at Eric's site love his info as well but I can't stop laughing when the American accent pronounce compost cumpost,I'm still a kid
Mark I live in coastal Victoria and we we can get some brutal hot still days 45 Celsius and if we train our tomatoes up structures we lose nearly all of them to sun burn but if we let them sprawl across the ground unpruned the leaves form a canopy over the fruit and we hardly lose a tomato. We have tried both methods and in our area the lazy way is the best way for all our tomatoes.
I had some volunteer tomatoes come up in my pumpkin patch this last year, and I didn’t do anything to help them since I wasn’t sure what they were. They did great, even mixed in with the pumpkins and flopped over.
My best volunteer this year was a huge butternut squash that grew in the compost heap ... and 3m or more up a fir tree! My climate is marginal for squash so I guess the extra warmth and moisture helped. The heap was mostly straw, leaves and apples!
Very interesting! I’m in San Antonio Texas and I was letting my Early Girl tomato plants dry out for the winter and they’re still producing. I love cherry tomatoes because they’re so hardy. I love your show. It’s so informative! Thank you!
I grew up on a farm in upstate New York and we had a garden with a huge tomato crop every year. Honestly never heard of staking or cages for tomatoes until I moved away.
Its one of the easiest and greatest of growing areas - with a barrow method, that has greater landsurface for growing than flatlander gardening. The higher and longer the barrow (even in the veg garden vs raised beds) the greater options for allowing tomatoes, potatoes, corn on the slope, watermelon, cantaloupe, melons, squash, gourds, zucchini, and strawberries with high production rates. Barrows allow proper irrigation and rainfall irrigation and runoff keeping the barrow properly (and not soaked) garden soil. One can easily toss fertilizer, compost, lawn grass cuttings, onto the surface and it continues to provide proper nutrition for the barrow.
@@sarebear5207 I'm just guessing here but I think barrow might be a synonym for swale/swail/swhale (no idea how to spell that and neither does firefox)
@@KN-xl6lw If you stack organic material for the base, yes. Traditional hügel mounds are built with a base of logs, then twigs and leaves, then upside-down turf to hold the roots in place, and finally compost with the crops you wanna grow.
The few tomatoes I’ve purposefully grown in a pot have been disasters, I think due to heat reflected off a nearby wall in summer. But those disasters self-seeded a plant amongst a nearby rosemary hedge and that rogue plant, un-staked and untended, has been wonderfully productive as it drapes itself over the rosemary!
Goood day to you Mark! A horticulturist informed me a few years ago that what you are describing is the natural course for them especially in jungles. Apparently the vines get huge!
I have something similar from a low raised bed and it was nice to pick cherry tomatoes that way as well. It will be funny if the plant comes back in the next season.
If you plant the seeds from the store bought tomatoes and grow them the next season, by the third generation (or third tomato season after you originally purchased them) the seeds will have naturally adapted to their environment. I’ve tried this with corn, tomatoes, and butternut squash seeds to great success. 👍🏻
Lazy tomato gardening is my kinda thing Mark!! With radishes (french) I seed roll them and use aquasol a couple of times and they get watered now and then with some snail bait around them.....works for me!!
I have two tomato bushes in one of my raised garden beds, I was doing the right thing with them. As we get a lot of strong winds in Toowoomba, they fell over one night and they also seemed very happy to grow that way. It is not very pleasing on the eye but they are producing so I am happy to leave them be. One plant a San Marzano and the other an Orange Cherry I am sure we will have them like weeds, as the bush is massive.
Really interesting. Tomatoes are a vine after all! I follow a RUclips allotment gardener in the UK and she has covers her ground in black plastic, cuts out holes to plant seedlings like tomatoes and just lets them ramble! I love it!! I had a few spare seedlings this year so I'm actually trying it out. I have transplanted them in a low, 30cm high raised bed and I'm just going to let them do their thing. Got nothing to lose. Thanks Mark. 🍅🍅🍅
G'day Tamsin, yes, that's right "nothing to lose" and at the least a good learning experience that can only help to improve your gardening knowledge overall. Thank you and all the best :)
I guess I came across your channel from selfish motives. My wonderful Australian husband recently passed away and I miss him terribly. He was wonderful. I miss his voice so much so I began listening to your program. I am learning a lot about creative gardening too.
Sorry for your loss🥹 Welcome to our community, I’m glad you are drawing some comfort from our Mark :) Mark is a lovely, lovely guy, and funny as well. Very easy to listen to. I always learn something from him, and always feel happy after he posts a new video. Wishing you better days ahead.
I'm so glad I found you this past year. You really helped me get my raised bed gardens going in March. I'm in the Northern hemisphere so I am going to get my garden fix from you during my winter and then use the additional things I learn from you in my next garden.
G'day Rhonda, I'm glad you found me too - thanks for watching my vids! All the best with your garden prep this winter, and may you grow a ton in the coming season... Cheers :)
I have a garden at my school. Over the summer, a pear tomato grew up and through our chicken wire compost bin. The bush is producing so many tomatoes! We can’t lift the lid of the bin, but that’s ok!
I just harvested my last load of tomatoes today. The 9th of December and still having tomato plants producing fruit is a total surprise for me in the UK. Black cherry tomatoes seem to be very healthy even after a couple of frosts and even a little snow
Yeah thanks Mark, love the tomato videos. I've seen some huge ' thickets ' of toms come up accidentally and been left to sprawl. Now to find a place to let them go feral and throw some seed around. Probably wait till our SEQ summer starts to end though 😉
I have a volunteer tomato plant that looks pretty much like yours. At one point I pulled 2kg of cherry tomatoes out of it. I still have some in the freezer. The patch is in a spot that is shaded by a shed most of the day, and the plant/s continued to produce through winter (in VIC). Big fan of "feral" tomatoes. Got a few coming up in various places and they are welcome to go their hardest.
Followed your advice and cleaned up my tomatoes so they could grow up their new trellis. Only a week later and they've rewarded me with my first fruits!!!
Last spring, we put out tomatoe plants at my moms.. we thought since my husband and Ibset them out, my brother would put tomatoe cages around them.. mom wanted to Zinnias planted in the bed with them (In the ground)..being ninty years old, she just threw the Zinnia seeds in the bed. To our Surprise... they turned out to be the BEST tomatoes we had ever grown! No trellis or cages of any kind! We just let them do what they wanted to do.. turns out.. they were the biggest not to mention tastiest we had ever grown! So.. this year, we plan to do the very same! Thanks for your video!
I have always said that the best tomato is a volunteer one 😂😂 Mark any news on your Kitchen remodel? I hope you're not still waiting for it to be finished 😊😊
😀 I love how you you get amazing tomatoes without even trying! We are just starting our off grid, self-sufficient, YT adventure, not too far from Self Sufficient Me actually in the NSW Northern Rivers and we love your videos, such an inspiration for us and so plenty of useful tips!
G'day Everyone, I'll be hanging around and editing/uploading videos over the Xmas break, so you'll likely see me regularly here or on other platforms/social media. Thanks for your support, and all the best over the holidays - stay safe and get into it! Cheers :) selfsufficientme.com/
Merry Christmas Mark and thanks for all the knowledge, inspiration and Aussie humor over the years, you have made my time in the US bearable 😂🎉
🎄🇺🇲🎄. Crikey!!!❣️❣️🍀
"You scared me! Don't do that again!!"
We're making no promises!❣️😊
Awesome Chrissy break is coming! Looking forward to the content 😊
We fought bravely through the storm but the deluge of rain proved to be overwhelming. Our troops began to split in the areas of least resistance. But we shall overcome this slight of nature, because there is nothing to fear but growth itself and we shall GROW!!!
It's like a non-wooded hügelkultur 🤔
I've been watching Self Sufficient Me for years now. I adore his style, the uncle I wish I had. He's the Steve Irwin of gardening. I'm surprised he's not on TV yet. He's an absolute gem
Be thankful, in a way, he's not on TV. It often ruins the product, and even sometimes, the person.
If he goes on TV they will immediately control the show. He will be forced to shill for bunnings etc every episode like Better Homes and Gardens.
It's better this way
Xin chào ❤
I am so in love with how this video, at its heart, is basically "I let nature do its thing and I learned". I feel that sometimes we get too caught up in the idea that we have to do things in a very systematic way, instead of going with the flow.
Xin chào ❤
“Growing with the flow”
I had a neighbor who grew up on a farm. She and I had adjacent beds in a community garden. She NEVER staked any of her vining plants. Tomatoes, cukes, squash, etc…were just allowed to sprawl. She did not have quite as good a harvest as me, but she spent very little time in the garden, and got a very reasonable harvest. I am certain she got more weight in good crops per hour spent than anyone else in our community garden.
I planted one cherry tomato plant 4 years ago in my chicken garden, and got a ton of tomatoes since. Every generation seems to be more and more drought and pest resistant
They realized that here at the U of A during the pandemic: self seeded plants know thier environment and thrive. Packet seeds needed more 'babying' and failed more often even when sourced 'locally' from similar conditions. Also, tomatoes are Beasts.
Survival of the fittest! Darwin would be sooo proud!
Noice
What do you do at the end of the growing season? Do you prune back the plant?
@@dedeg9993 no the plants die, we have a really short harse cold winter here in Namibia. And it grows outside my greenhouses so I don't really bother with covering any of them. But come next spring new plants come up like weeds, so I select a few of the best ones and remove the rest. So the cycle continues year after year.
What a small world it truly is! I’m in the U.S. and I love that you are in the Southern Hemisphere. I can’t grow tomatoes now. It is winter, but you can! So, I get to see your new videos all winter long while I plan for Spring next April! Thank you!
This man's energy is something else 😂😂 Love the content mate! I'm just gonna pop one in meself!
My Pop just let's them grow wherever and leaves them be. He says they thrive on neglect.
He just lives at Beerwah.
Everytime I go I take bucket loads home. They are so healthy looking and so delicious!
Hello Jillian
Just shows us that nature will always find a way to get it done!
I love how enthusiastic Mark is about this. ❤
Last year was my first attempt at gardening. I typically kill cacti, so I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. It was amazing! I live in mid-southern Illinois, 6b. Growing different ages of asparagus, had corn, tomatoes, strawberries, okra, potatoes, carrots, a blueberry Bush, and assorted herbs mostly in fabric pots. This gave me such a boost in confidence for next year. We're adding a 16ftx20ft greenhouse, have built a chicken coop and large run for our 15 girls, and I have collected over 200 varieties of seeds!
I must give you and several other Tube gardening experts MANY THANKS for keeping me motivated and excited for starting seeds early in 2023. Kevin from Epic Gardening, Jacques from Jacques in the Garden and Epic Gardening, Bruce from RED gardens, and James Prigioni. These resources are INVALUABLE. I would not be so excited for the next season if it weren't for all of you!❤❤
Oops! Forgot Brian at Next Level Gardening!
Good work Jenn!
@@GunDogSlim thanks!❤
@@JennTN411 That's great collecting so many different seeds. I collected loads last year but not many this year.
i keep indian runner ducks instead of chickens and their eggs are delicious and they're so funny.
Swiss chartd is great to grow. Red currant was my best new tomato variety this year.
I grew tomatillos for the first time (had never heard of them) and made salsa verde from them (which is amazing).
Growing goji berries is easy and they're ripe the same time as tomatoes and goji berry and tomato soup is so good.
Tay berries and logan berries are my favourite berries to grow ( like big vining rasperies) and I grow a lot fo black currants.
In England, UK.
Keep growing :)
@@GunDogSlim unfortunately, I live within village limits, so I don't have much choice in livestock I can legally keep... otherwise I probably would have a few ducks and a calf!😆
Do you know of any local seed sharing sites, or anything of that? If we were in the same country, I'd happily share! Seeds were a bit hard to source here as well, but I had some previous sites that aren't pricey, luckily.
Best of luck to you next season!❤
@@JennTN411 I don't know if my village has any limits, but the the world is crazy right now huh?!
I got loads of new interesting varieties of organic seeds from premium seeds direct, they're probaby just a UK company.
All the best :)
Cherry tomatoes are hugely underrated in the home garden! They are my absolute favorite.
I grew tomatoes that were indeterminate like those. The vines grew to over 12 feet. I didn't trellis them in time and they spilled over out of the raised bed. I live in North Carolina USA, climate is mild. I had tomatoes well after the first frost. My first harvest was three months after planting and I sold 7 pounds to a local café and had plenty to can. Evey day I picked tomatoes. Wonder variety and I will plant them again.
I live in Alaska and we have such an odd growing season but this channel has helped me learn so many tips and tricks to apply to my own garden! You’re on of my favorite gardeners out there and I’ve never been more jealous of someone else’s tomatoes ❤
I highly recommend the channel Simple Living Alaska they are great 👍
@@subjecttwilight9 oh thank you!!!! I’ll give em a follow because I need northern based gardening tips badly 😂
I live in the far north of Scotland where everyone knows you need a greenhouse or poly tunnel.
So I spotted a sheltered sunny spot and grew a load of hassle free toms in the ground outside. Started in a big pot and put them out in June.
Watered with a hose about once a fortnight and a little feeding when I remembered.
V successful.
I'm as smug as
If we're honest, most of us gardeners have several self seeded tomato "experiments" happening if we're lucky. Love your channel and everything I'm learning from you, cheers!
I love my volunteers, if their life energy is enough to prosper in an unlikely spot, who am I to argue. My best cherry toms this year grew In the gravel under my clothes line. I’ve canned up so much passata from this giver.
Hello Fiona
I bought some Australian climbing tomatoes and they are self sowing wild in the garden, under the fruit trees. I have a big patch of them, you can't tell where one plant starts and the other finishes. I am embracing the freedom of them being wild and untamed
Love this Mark. Last year I planted my tomatoes in pots because that was the only space I had. I neglected one and it "tumbled" over and grew in the grass and I got more tomatoes than all the other staked pots
Hello there
I had a tommy toe plant come up in my front garden in the last couple of weeks of winter in Newcastle NSW. I have no idea how the seed got in there but i let it grow wild and it filled the entire garden. I was picking a basket full every day. I canned a dozen jars of spaghetti sauce with them and was giving them away as well as eating them fresh. It was one of the best tomato plants I've ever grown! Btw, I love your videos!
Likely from a bird eating a tomato have had that happen before
Same, I live in Newcastle as well and the house I bought 7 years ago and every year the tiny toms come up in late winter and I get kilos of tiny toms that family and friends loves. At the end of summer I just hit it with the slasher and next year they come back.
Xin chào ❤
I toil away in my garden bring to do all the right things and my harvest very good. A neighbour plants and does not spend as much time in their garden and gets about 65% of what I do. Now you make a great video on this and I question time verses reward. I guess the only added award I get is the mental calmness of being with my plants. Very interesting on your experiment. Cheers
I have been watching a few of your videos. they all inspired me and i now have started being "self sufficient" as well. You give great advice and i use alot of your ideas. thanks
Volunteers always seem to do best in strange places. Lol
There is a tomato here in Florida that grows wild, drought tolerant, heat tolerand and can handle the humidity. It's called the Wild Florida Everglade Tomato. You can buy the seeds on line. They are small, indeterminate carefree. Only possible issue is they'll take over a small backyard, but they are tasty!
I planted 2 last year, just died. Found what I thought was a volunteer about 6 ft away, it was actually 7 baby plants. I replanted near my chicken run/fence and to to nurse them through winter. I’m in NW Florida
Those tomatoes remind me of the Florida everglades tomatoes. If you ever grow one on your property, you will always have tomatoes. They self seed and take over large spaces similar to a huge briar patch.
Hello Mary
No kidding! I germiated a whole bag of Everglades and now have more than my small garden can handle. I've been giving them away!
Had the same results over here in central west Queensland - lots of rain made feral cherry tomato plants pop up everywhere. I left quite a few to do their own thing as they were doing so well, and gave them a bit of a water whenever I was near. No feeding! And we have sandy soil. I ended up with so many tomatoes I made puree, sauce, froze them whole (totally works!) and dried them and made delicious tomato powder. As well as eating them at almost every breakfast on toast. I was just about sick of the sight of them when they stopped producing with the heat.
Great to see that you did the same thing, makes me feel a bit more organised than I really am! Another very good video, thank you.
Tomato powder... Cool! Cheers :)
My son and I love your channel! We're in the US, so it actually helps us plan next year's garden better when we can see what you've been experimenting with six months before us. Thank you for all the accessible, great ideas!
G'day Tracy, thanks for commenting and your support! I do the same... Watching international gardeners to get ideas and see what people are growing for the coming season. Cheers :)
I absolutely loved this video! Love your accent and I love your sense of humor. Keep pulling tomatoes out your grass!
95% of tomatoe products in the US are grown here, in the Central Valley of California. They are all grown as "field tomatoes" ie, no staking, just grown on the ground. I personally stake my tomatoes vertically. Steve in Sacramento.
Mark l have enjoyed watching your work and passion in these videos. I am a 49 year old that is learning the importance of something that you have already embraced. Thank you for your time in sharing your knowledge and it is very much appreciated. Best wishes to you from Melbourne Victoria.
G'day Jason, thank you for sharing your feedback and thoughts mate. You have a good climate for growing food down there so all the best on your self-sufficient journey! Cheers :)
Love how you roll, Mark. I'm definitely a fan of "let's just leave this here and see what happens". The garden is always full of surprises. 🙂
Hi beautiful 💗💗
How are you doing ?
Wish I had your garden! Thanks for making me laugh once again... love your videos!
I did this myself when I had more seedlings than space- I started chucking them in random places in my side yard back in June and there were still 2 alive just last week, even through frost after i'd cut down all my regularly planted tomatoes. They're surprisingly resilient when you decide not to care about them.
Truth. 8 or 9 yrs ago we planted some "swamp tomatoes " the father in law brought up. Basically a small indeterminate cherry.
Edit: actually, they look just like his everglades, guess that's their proper name.
They grew ok that year, but self seeded and got into the cool compost. Not they're everywhere, and I actually end up mowing about half of em lol.
Had what I thought was an overgrown volunteer tomato it ended up being 7 plants, relocated them and try to nurse through winter
"They're surprisingly resilient when you decide not to care about them."
Can...can I try that with my kids? Just to see what happens? xD Making your own dinner builds character, or something!
@@evage99 😂
Mark, you are a joy to watch. Keep it up
I've noticed that cherry tomatoes/indeterminate tomatoes also sprout extra roots along their branches if you let them trail along the ground, almost like pumpkins. I wonder if that's why they do well there on the ground.
I'll be keeping this in mind for next year!❤
That's part of it, try dropping some dirt on any stem thats low on the ground & you essentially end up with 2 plants. Works great to keep the distance from origin to fruit from becoming too long. I've grown tinys called Everglades tomatoes here in South Florida, USA, for years. They self seed, prefer to be just left to "do their thing". ( A little extra water in dry season, please! ) Very prolific!
G'day Elizabeth, that's a great point about "stem rooting" that I forgot to mention in my video. Yes, the plants tend to root down in some places where the stem touches the ground, giving it more water and nutrients. Cheers :)
I read an article somewhere online, someone actually tried that, thinking that tomatoes in the wild would just sprawl all over the ground like pumpkins. They decided to try it and it turned out they got more tomatoes that way without staking them. The only thing they did was put straw under the tomatoes to keep them from rotting as quickly.
Got some bigger size tomatoes 4 years ago, they keep coming back every year, no maintenance at all, no watering except for the rain. Best tomatoes ever, in the good climate of Southern PA. I used to stake and trim my plants and always had issues anyway. Now I still have the same issues (cracking and sometimes diseases), but since there is no work except when I cut them in salads, I think it's a win :-).
I’m not much of a gardener, but I love this guys energy.
Looks my veggie patch. Just one big mound in my backyard that has been built up over years. It started as a small compost pile where I put my garden waste and kitchen scraps. Now its a huge messy pile with a variety of veggies that have grown from seed from the scraps. Once a year I cut it down, turn it over and add a couple bags of manure. It thrives without any maintenance or watering.
I have them come up every year in my flower garden. They are beautiful.
It's good to see you back to posting videos again, Mark! I have to say, I really like the idea of just letting the tomatoes grow wild, like a "happy little accident". It's a lot less stress on the gardener! lol ;)
Bob Ross Gardening
@@KristiContemplates Exactly! LOL
Thank you, and yes, so true, gardening should NEVER be stressful! Cheers :)
This year, I had 3 volunteers that were also growing on some neglected areas of my land, and I just let them go. They were huge and soooo good. They did better and lasted longer than my babied tomatoes. I'm surely going to be taking a lazier tomato approach!
Mark gotta say, I’m having the best tomatoe season I have ever had 👍. Thanks for all your tips and I have learned one thing manure manure manure 😂. Cheers
Mark's garden is so epic it even grows volunteer video content 🍅
I’m drooling just watching it. Fresh tomato, onion salad. Nothings better. Thank you❤️🙏🏻🎊👏🏻💕💗🕊☮️🌏🇺🇦🌎🌈👍🍀🌻❤️
“Why garden hard, when you can garden easy” 🎉🙌🏼💯
Love all your Videos, I live In The United States, east Coast, in Maryland. I started growing tomatoes the lazy way two years ago, It was by accident as well, I noticed that the Tomatoes I just let grow without Steaks or cages did way better. Now I just plant the Tomatoes and let em go how they want.. I do also lose some to Rot and pests but the plants still always seem to produce way more usable fruit this way. I also notice that the ones that grow in the weeded areas seem to last longer as they are not scorched by the hot summer sun as badly... Thank You so much for the entertaining and informative videos. Since your Summer is our winter, your videos help get us Northern Hemisphere folks get through the long winter a litter better...
My vege garden is 20 years old and this is the only way I grow tomatoes. They appear where they will and produce like mad. Cherry tomatoes give me no trouble with fruit fly either! If I do put in heritage seed like the Thai Pink Egg, the next season I get gifted with some weird cross breeds, which is always fun. Thanks so much for your great local-to-me content!
great video for not only the everyday gardener but especially the elderly or those with disabilty to still have a veggie garden. Well done Mate
We always have volunteers grow up and around our compost bin. We've had pumpkins, gourds, but mostly cherry tomatoes. If they are not growing in an inconvenient location, we let them go and harvest completely free tomatoes!
I might have to try it next year. It would certainly be much easier! 😆
We have a weed heap that the occasional tomato or pumpkin will sprout in. We just let them do their own thing and reap the rewards when they are ready to pick :-) When I try to grow veg I'm not very successful but when they sprout of their own accord, they seem to do well.
I've seen this done before. Apparently tomatoes do well on a mound amid grass and weeds, and left untrimmed. No-fuss growing! I love it.
I always wondered if those plants that need propping up should be naturally be growing on the ground where they want to, like tomatos, melons etc. It's only because of our intervention that we expect them to grow vertically. Fascinating.
That's how my sister n law grows everything. And she gets an awesome harvest every year. How is the house renovation going?
I love the idea of "lazy gardening." It's a very good strategy. As long as you give them what they need, the plants know how to do the rest. Maybe some of those techniques will appear later on ;-). Happy New Year Mark, family, and SSM community!
So lovely to see your videos Mark - sometimes its such a relief - especially if I need to get on track and away from things like the news.
Not only does Mark make great informative videos but they are so funny 😆 😄 🤣
I thoroughly enjoyed the video and the tips, considering that my tomato plantation was a huge flop this season. Writing from Tanzania. I am on unfamiliar grounds, new to the country and I am acclimatizing to the land and growing season here. 🇨🇦🇹🇿
Another banger. Thanks for the excellent ideas on alternative ways to bring tomatoes into my life
I inadvertently grew my maters this way in New Hampshire. They were indeterminate variety and were a solid 3-5 feet above the cages. Storm blew through and knocked them down. I gave up, but the tomatoes didn’t. I’ve never had more tomatoes than this passed year. Unreal how they grew on the ground.
Wow... What a comeback! Great to hear and all the best mate :)
Yes the lazy way isn’t always planned but it does happen for whatever reason. Very productive but hard to weed. You would think diseases would be common yet it seems plants are actually healthier. Many times we’ve had unplanned crops that actually out produced the planned crops. Plus with all the weeds the crops actually produced longer than expected. 🥰👍❤️
I have silver beet and Pak choy everywhere in the garden. Just keeps coming up. This year the winners for the wild pop-ups are chilies (there’s nowhere in the garden they aren’t coming up - pity the weather hasn’t been on their side, but they’re persevering) and coriander. The chilies are all coming up from my liberal use of soil from the compost heap (get a lotta avocado plants from there too - a nice indoor plant in Tassie, but I’ve never had one bear fruit). The coriander is all from one plant I put in last summer which bolted pretty darn quick, but I shook the dried plant ‘round the garden and this year it’s everywhere; which is great coz I use a LOT!
Thanks for yer work, Mark. Always enjoy yer vids. 👍
I remember growing up we had pumpkins that ended up completely dominating the yard for years, because one year we pitched jack-o-lanterns off the porch, and didn't bother clearing the plants when they popped up in the spring. Well, they exploded halfway across the yard, and grew that year's jack-o's just fine, so we did the same thing. Worked good for several years until we moved out when I was a teenager.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. I hope to one day have a garden I can be proud of. Time to get to work.
Thats really cool that the bugs don't go after them more in the grass! They sure are gorgeous! I love volunteer!
I had (7) small yellow pear tomato plants volunteer in the dogs area run. Worst place to be at but they just kept growing and producing beautiful sweet miniature sized tomatoes. The best I have ever had. I used the tomatoes from one plant to wash then air dry to be planted next year, but I will pass on a lot of those seeds as I stopped counting at 400 seeds. I have a feeling my neighbors will be getting either the seeds or a little cherry tomato plant next spring.
Hello Deborah
I accidentally opened a seed bag upside down and spilled some random seeds in the garden. This has produced some of my best tomatoes ever.
I love seeing all the different ways of growing lazy! Nice to see delicious tomatoes coming up without all the extra work!
Pretty cool way to grow tomatoes without much effort!! Thx😊
Love your clips Mark,thanks mate,just started my raised beds here in Paramatta hope the rain doesn't continue so much also had a look at Eric's site love his info as well but I can't stop laughing when the American accent pronounce compost cumpost,I'm still a kid
Mark I live in coastal Victoria and we we can get some brutal hot still days 45 Celsius and if we train our tomatoes up structures we lose nearly all of them to sun burn but if we let them sprawl across the ground unpruned the leaves form a canopy over the fruit and we hardly lose a tomato. We have tried both methods and in our area the lazy way is the best way for all our tomatoes.
I had some volunteer tomatoes come up in my pumpkin patch this last year, and I didn’t do anything to help them since I wasn’t sure what they were. They did great, even mixed in with the pumpkins and flopped over.
My best volunteer this year was a huge butternut squash that grew in the compost heap ... and 3m or more up a fir tree! My climate is marginal for squash so I guess the extra warmth and moisture helped. The heap was mostly straw, leaves and apples!
Hello kristy
Very interesting! I’m in San Antonio Texas and I was letting my Early Girl tomato plants dry out for the winter and they’re still producing. I love cherry tomatoes because they’re so hardy. I love your show. It’s so informative! Thank you!
Good on you Debra! Thank you and all the best :)
I grew up on a farm in upstate New York and we had a garden with a huge tomato crop every year. Honestly never heard of staking or cages for tomatoes until I moved away.
Its one of the easiest and greatest of growing areas - with a barrow method, that has greater landsurface for growing than flatlander gardening. The higher and longer the barrow (even in the veg garden vs raised beds) the greater options for allowing tomatoes, potatoes, corn on the slope, watermelon, cantaloupe, melons, squash, gourds, zucchini, and strawberries with high production rates. Barrows allow proper irrigation and rainfall irrigation and runoff keeping the barrow properly (and not soaked) garden soil. One can easily toss fertilizer, compost, lawn grass cuttings, onto the surface and it continues to provide proper nutrition for the barrow.
By barrow do you mean mounded surface
Hi, I’m not familiar with the term barrow. Are you referring to a type of berm?
@@sarebear5207 I'm just guessing here but I think barrow might be a synonym for swale/swail/swhale (no idea how to spell that and neither does firefox)
Sounds like Hügelkultur?
@@KN-xl6lw If you stack organic material for the base, yes. Traditional hügel mounds are built with a base of logs, then twigs and leaves, then upside-down turf to hold the roots in place, and finally compost with the crops you wanna grow.
The few tomatoes I’ve purposefully grown in a pot have been disasters, I think due to heat reflected off a nearby wall in summer.
But those disasters self-seeded a plant amongst a nearby rosemary hedge and that rogue plant, un-staked and untended, has been wonderfully productive as it drapes itself over the rosemary!
Goood day to you Mark! A horticulturist informed me a few years ago that what you are describing is the natural course for them especially in jungles. Apparently the vines get huge!
I have something similar from a low raised bed and it was nice to pick cherry tomatoes that way as well. It will be funny if the plant comes back in the next season.
If you plant the seeds from the store bought tomatoes and grow them the next season, by the third generation (or third tomato season after you originally purchased them) the seeds will have naturally adapted to their environment. I’ve tried this with corn, tomatoes, and butternut squash seeds to great success. 👍🏻
Hi beautiful 💗💗
How are you doing ?
Lazy tomato gardening is my kinda thing Mark!! With radishes (french) I seed roll them and use aquasol a couple of times and they get watered now and then with some snail bait around them.....works for me!!
I have two tomato bushes in one of my raised garden beds, I was doing the right thing with them. As we get a lot of strong winds in Toowoomba, they fell over one night and they also seemed very happy to grow that way. It is not very pleasing on the eye but they are producing so I am happy to leave them be. One plant a San Marzano and the other an Orange Cherry I am sure we will have them like weeds, as the bush is massive.
I have them in my compost heap growing crazy😊
Learn so much right here --on this channel--thank you!
I love you dude! You are so funny and down to earth, no pun intended.
10:30
I was scared Mark was gonna fall LOL
Really interesting. Tomatoes are a vine after all! I follow a RUclips allotment gardener in the UK and she has covers her ground in black plastic, cuts out holes to plant seedlings like tomatoes and just lets them ramble! I love it!! I had a few spare seedlings this year so I'm actually trying it out. I have transplanted them in a low, 30cm high raised bed and I'm just going to let them do their thing. Got nothing to lose. Thanks Mark. 🍅🍅🍅
G'day Tamsin, yes, that's right "nothing to lose" and at the least a good learning experience that can only help to improve your gardening knowledge overall. Thank you and all the best :)
I guess I came across your channel from selfish motives. My wonderful Australian husband recently passed away and I miss him terribly. He was wonderful. I miss his voice so much so I began listening to your program. I am learning a lot about creative gardening too.
Sorry for your loss🥹
Welcome to our community, I’m glad you are drawing some comfort from our Mark :)
Mark is a lovely, lovely guy, and funny as well. Very easy to listen to. I always learn something from him, and always feel happy after he posts a new video. Wishing you better days ahead.
I'm so glad I found you this past year. You really helped me get my raised bed gardens going in March. I'm in the Northern hemisphere so I am going to get my garden fix from you during my winter and then use the additional things I learn from you in my next garden.
G'day Rhonda, I'm glad you found me too - thanks for watching my vids! All the best with your garden prep this winter, and may you grow a ton in the coming season... Cheers :)
Interesting! You actually give me hope for the coming tomato season! 😁👍
I have a garden at my school. Over the summer, a pear tomato grew up and through our chicken wire compost bin. The bush is producing so many tomatoes! We can’t lift the lid of the bin, but that’s ok!
Hell carole
I just harvested my last load of tomatoes today. The 9th of December and still having tomato plants producing fruit is a total surprise for me in the UK. Black cherry tomatoes seem to be very healthy even after a couple of frosts and even a little snow
I've heard that the black cherry is pretty good in cooler climates, so you have proven that! Cheers :)
Great video about lazy flopped tomatoes. But I especially liked Father Christmas and the Kangaroo in your raised bed! CUTE!!!
Yeah thanks Mark, love the tomato videos. I've seen some huge ' thickets ' of toms come up accidentally and been left to sprawl. Now to find a place to let them go feral and throw some seed around. Probably wait till our SEQ summer starts to end though 😉
I have a volunteer tomato plant that looks pretty much like yours. At one point I pulled 2kg of cherry tomatoes out of it. I still have some in the freezer. The patch is in a spot that is shaded by a shed most of the day, and the plant/s continued to produce through winter (in VIC). Big fan of "feral" tomatoes. Got a few coming up in various places and they are welcome to go their hardest.
Love the humour in ALL l your vids, what a CHAMP!
I did this year in iowa, they grew like bushes, easy maintenence and more than enough to harvest
You’re always so inspiring.
Followed your advice and cleaned up my tomatoes so they could grow up their new trellis. Only a week later and they've rewarded me with my first fruits!!!
Last spring, we put out tomatoe plants at my moms.. we thought since my husband and Ibset them out, my brother would put tomatoe cages around them.. mom wanted to Zinnias planted in the bed with them (In the ground)..being ninty years old, she just threw the Zinnia seeds in the bed.
To our Surprise... they turned out to be the BEST tomatoes we had ever grown! No trellis or cages of any kind! We just let them do what they wanted to do.. turns out.. they were the biggest not to mention tastiest we had ever grown!
So.. this year, we plan to do the very same! Thanks for your video!
I have always said that the best tomato is a volunteer one 😂😂 Mark any news on your Kitchen remodel? I hope you're not still waiting for it to be finished 😊😊
😀 I love how you you get amazing tomatoes without even trying! We are just starting our off grid, self-sufficient, YT adventure, not too far from Self Sufficient Me actually in the NSW Northern Rivers and we love your videos, such an inspiration for us and so plenty of useful tips!
I think the spoon tomatoes taste the best I've ever put in my mouth. I can't wait to start next seasons plants💜