I was quite excited by the appearance of flowers on my tomato plant a few weeks ago, but that first bunch of blossoms failed to set fruit. While I waited impatiently, the plant branched out more and put out more sets of flowers.

Now, I’ve read the advice about trimming off suckers or side shoots from the main stem of the tomato plant to allow it to focus energy into growing fruits. However, I didn’t want to do any pruning until I knew where the fruits would develop – and mind you, there were flowers growing everywhere! I would go every day to peer at the flowers, hoping to see the swelling that would indicate a growing fruit, but day after day, all I’d see were drying flowers and more buds coming up.

Naturally, the first fruit set on the days I didn’t look closely enough. By the time I noticed the tiny tomato developing, it was already about 1cm in height. But, oh, what a lovely sight it was! Pale green and egg-shaped, and furry like the rest of the plant, with the flower petals stuck to the bottom like a drying umbilical cord. Like a proud parent, I snapped as many pictures possible from different angles before choosing the best to share with you…

Introducing our first tomato, with a sibling in the background...

Ladies and gentlemen, we have tomatoes growing in our garden!

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