Not all the great horticultural achievements of the Big Apple are to be found in Central Park or the NY Botanical Gardens. Despite the immense visual rewards of $42.4m spent annually on the Park, or the undeniable status of the Monet exhibition at the Botanical gardens this year, there is a greater achievement happening in East Midtown. My place, to be exact, and I claim full bragging rights. In the lofty heights overlooking the Morgan Library, and in full view of the Chrysler Building, I have hands of plump healthy tomatoes not just growing, but flourishing.

Peter Crundall would be proud of me. Before we went to Turkey at the beginning of May I planted all the seeds from the sunflower heads I kept from last year’s blooms. There were dozens, but thinking only a few would shoot and survive without my daily tendering, I threw in the lot. Of course I returned home three weeks later to find a thick crop of skinny seedlings too advanced to cull. So I green mulched them back into the pots and planted tomatoes and capsicums. And basil and rosemary. And Turkish parsley. The results are amazing and groundbreaking. All my previous antipodean attempts to growing tomatoes were a disaster and only succeeded in draining Australia’s precious water supplies.

So it must be the location, the view, and the inspiration of a city that never sleeps. Whatever it is, move over rooftop honey , terrace tomatoes are in town.