[Anton 2]

It never stops raining here in Belgium and while my crimson crush tomatoes have so far survived  the fate of other tomato growers at the allotment, there are still no signs of any other colour but green.
Do you think there is any point covering them with fleece at this point to protect them from further rain damage (is blight still a problem this late in the season)?

[Growster...]

I guess that while the weather is so awful,Anton, your toms need every bit of light they can get! They can at least dry out quicker if it ever stops pouring down!

I've taken the shading off our GH to try and get them going, but it's not easy at the moment!

[Anton 2]

Thanks for your prompt reply, Growster. Yes, that seems like very sound advice.

[Growster...]

Off topic, but we just love Belgium!

Had a great cycling holiday up North one year and marvelled at all the fabulous gardens we could see over the fences!

(Also went over on my scooter with a chum in 1965 to Herentals/Grobbendonk...another story that..;0)

Lucky you!

[Anton 2]

Still off-topic, glad you enjoyed your visits to Belgium, Growster.

You were in Flanders (the Flemish-speaking part of the country). We live in Flanders, too, but just outside the capital, Brussels, in what is known as "the most beautiful municipality in Flanders it is blessed with a huge park and forest). Although, the most beautiful countryside is in the French-speaking part of the country, Wallonia, particularly the Ardennes.

"Also went over on my scooter with a chum in 1965 to Herentals/Grobbendonk...another story that..;0)" 1965, that was a long time ago. I arrived here, to stay, in 1975, on a busking holiday.

[Growster...]

Would you believe that we usually had lunch in the restaurant in the gorgeous station in Antwerp! They made the best hot chocolate I've ever had!

Beer was 'Wiels', and just a few francs, frites were sold with mayonnaise and tiny pickled onions and I still have an empty fag packet - 'Sprint' - somewhere...

Busking was a great way to go then - I tended to do that in the local pubs around here, and am in the process of doing up my old 12 string and one or two others!

Nephew (musician) used to live in Mechelen...

This is all much more interesting than worrying about tomatoes!

[Anton 2]

Much more interesting than worrying about tomatoes. Very true.  My instruments were, and still are, guitar and mandolin.
I met an Irish mandolinist in Brussels at that time and formed a group with a Belgian fiddle player, so we did some concerts in youth centres, busked in the street and even played on the
radio. My Luxembourg girlfriend, also a fiddle player, joined the group, and then became and still is my wife.

Happy days. I am still playing for family and friends. Billy, the Irishman, who became my best friend, started a vegetable garden at the same time I started one with my girlfriend and we used to compete to see who could produce the best vegetables. He generally won. And I have been growing vegetables ever since, with hiatuses (owing to changes of residence, children,...).

My favourite Belgian beer, before the children arrived (when I switched to the much lighter Jupiler) was Triple Westmalle, brewed by Trappist monks.

What is your musical and vegetable background, Growster?

[Growster...]

What a great story - especially having a fiddle player on board, it's a super sound!

My guitar days started around 1962, when I was at school! I never went 'pro', but we used to have a lot of fun later in pubs and my rugby club! The best we ever got to was a cabaret for the Annual Dance, and I still have the script, and a tape of the 'dress rehearsal' somewhere...

Stating to grow veg was an even simpler intro! Mrs Growster's dad once turned up at our new farm cottage (rented), with a couple of pots of runner bean plants and later some toms, and we started properly in 1974 and never looked back!

The first allotment days were down to a great chum who ran our local ironmongers, and was a keen gardener! He organised our 'Patch' from the council for us, and we worked it until we moved here and had to stop as the place was a wreck! We restarted again around 2010, when the UK had an awful recession problem, and I really needed to get out more and feed ourselves! We only gave up a couple of years ago, when we were just giving everything away, so now we just garden at home, and that's about right!

Back on topic, I've just checked our toms for nasties, and touch wood and whistle, they're OK, but still so slow...

[Anton 2]

Yours is an equally fascinating story. How did you other gardeners get started and when,...?

My tomatoes are OK as well although some of the leaves at the bottom of the plants are a bit yellow. I don't think that is blight though.