; How To :- Grow Your Own Tomatoes :--->, page-30

I am a very avid gardener, live in suburban Sydney, on a block that measures 254 square meters including the footprint of the large building. My gardens are small but extremely effective as well of the 14 square meters of lawn. I had start up costs, but because I been growing for 15 years, those small costs have now been swallowed over time, not that they were much. My garden beds are mostly made of 3mm steel that was being discarded, and because of the small gardens space I had to work with , the less wide the garden bed wall the better. Bit of welding from a mate, permanent structure that rusts beautifully.
Worm farm, for all the kitchen veges scraps, (xmas present) compost heap (council clean up) for the bigger stuff. Matter of fact. today I'm doing a horse poo run, free, except for the couple of bucks of diesel, but as I get 4 or 5 hundred kilos of it a time, pretty cheap. I do that twice a year.
Bought about $25 worth of seeds and garlic knobs recently, 350 seeds per packet, so a few years worth. The garlic was 4 knobs for $15, 20 of which have sprouted and in the ground, another 20 germinating, still some left over, that goes to the cook, but as long as I want to replant the garlic, the cost will diminish over time, whoa, they have already paid for themselves, imagine that.
I supply the street with all manner of veges and herbs, from a small but productive garden out the front, I encourage people to help themselves, and finally they are. My 1 chillie bush produces thousand's of chillies per year, and the neighbor's love them, I have people at work I give them too.
1 Bush. 1 thyme bush, productive for several years, about 10 basil plants, producing like mad, keeping many people supplied, Oregano (can't kill it),
All pick and come again plants, so by taking their leaves and fruits, encourages them to grow and re-harvest.

My tomatoes this year were 3 different variety, but went bananas (bad pun) but because I wanted to get rid of old seed, I supplied several hundred seedlings to anyone that wanted them. Below is a photo of my crop, we were getting this amount every second day, and doesn't include what went to the neighbors and friends.
I put several big days work into my gardens each year, and average about 5 minutes per day after that.
Anyone who says they can't profit from home gardening, is either, not knowledgeable enough to try, too lazy to have a go, or a know it all that won't have a go.

Dr E.