Dear all,

I´m a newbie to this. I´ve decided I want to grow my own vegetables now and am just learning how to go about it. Last year I planted 6 lettuces, 5 of which were eaten, the other one failed! So that´s the extent of my knoweldge.

This year I want to continue with this on a slightly larger scale and have just started to research growing my own tomatoes.

I live in Pamplona in Northern Spain and yes the climate is different, but not as much as one might imagine. The seasons are the same, the winters are often colder, however we do get a lot of sunlight between April and September. I have a terrace which receives direct sunlight from the hours of 0800 until 1530, and it can get very hot between June and August. This is where I´d like to grow these tomatoes (and much more!)

Through the research I´ve done it seems the process must be started indoors, before repotting your tomatoes and taking them outside. The process in general seems very long and complicated. I want to ask you all if there may be a simpler way, starting outside from day one (with tomatoes from seed)? And just general advice about how to go about this, or links to a good website which has good advice for an amateur like me!

My sincerest thanks in advance