We bought four small tomato plants from the local grower in June, as Lumia got some vouchers for that shop for her birthday. We had to buy pre-grown plants because season was already upon us as we moved from Germany to Finland in May, we simply had no time to start growing tomatoes from seed.
In order to give them a good place and shelter I built a small green house, capable to house 4 plants. It is made from old wardrobe and cupboard parts. For the roof I used 14mm Plexiglass. The walls are made of polytunnel foil. I consider it my first upcyling green house I ever built.
"With a good shelter you can grow good tomatoes" I thought and we started filling up the raised bed with tree logs for drainage, foliage and on the top soil from our garden.
We planted the 4 plants some distance apart from each other in order to get them as much light as possible. To accompany them we planted some basil and onions between them. Happy growing I would say!
After one week, as the plants had already grown a bit, the problems started. First one plant got yellow leaves and finally the plant died. Then the same happened to the second plant, while the two others didn't have any problems. The two remaining plants grew further until the same problem started. I tried to look at the plant more closely and found that the entire raised bed had become an ant home. While searching for a cure we first found lavender and applied it, but it didn't do mucch. Then I simply destroyed their homes with a stick. Which didn't help either. Then Lumia used baking soda to change the pH - and that finally helped and the ants moved on. Since then the two surviving plants have been in a very well and so the harvest can begin!
