Tomatoes are one of my favourite crops. I spent hours trying to decide which varieties to grow: shape, size, colour and culinary use all play an important part in the decision making, and I have ended up with far more plants than I intended.

My tomatoes are grown in large self-watering pots with built-in support stakes. The system works very well: the containers are filled with water once a week and they rarely dry out. From time to time I find visiting frogs in the base of the pots. The manufacturer recommends one plant per container, but I usually have two, and they seem to manage fine.

I start pinching out the tips once the first trusses of fruit appear, which helps to focus the plant on fruit production instead of new foliage. From time to time I will cut back the foliage more harshly to give more sunlight to the growing tomatoes. Other than that, they seem to take care of themselves.

It is lovely to be able to wander out in my PJs every morning to pick a small bowl of multi-coloured tomatoes - a quietly productive start to my day.

Next year I will be experimenting different ways of growing tomatoes. There is an interesting chapter about tomatoes in James Wong’s ‘Grow for Flavour’ book from the RHS. He recommends a number of different ways to improve the flavour and quality of the yield, so I am keen to try those.