More Tomato Talk

If I could grow only one thing it would be tomatoes, even though there's other things which I prefer to eat. I don't know what it is about tomatoes, I just love choosing the varieties I'm going to grow, sowing the seed and watching them grow and produce fruit. The taste of home grown tomatoes is far superior than anything you can buy in a supermarket too, just picked from the plant and warmed a little in the sun.

My tomato growing experience this year has so far been disappointing. I started out with big hopes as this year I was going to have a go at growing lots of plants outdoors in addition to the half a dozen I grow in the greenhouse. The seeds took a long time to germinate, and once they had, the seedlings seemed to stand for weeks without putting on any growth.

The plants are now in their final positions, and the ones in the greenhouse have put on quite a bit of growth since they were potted up but none of my plants look to be really healthy specimens this year, I can only put it down to the weather. I've ended up with just five plants outdoors, I was hoping for quite a few more, but I wasn't going to pot up plants just for the sake of it. There were some really sick looking ones, and when I tipped them out of their pots to put in the compost bin, I could see that they'd hardly made any roots.

So the tomato plants I've ended up with this year are as follows. In the greenhouse I have Tangella, Pannovy, Gardeners Delight, Black Cherry x 2 and Eleanor, a variety which was bred by Kath at Vegetable Heaven. Outdoors in the garden I have Tigerella, Ferline, Pannovy and Incas x 2. The indoor plants have put on more growth than the outdoor ones, but both have just started producing their first flowers. Let's hope it's not too late for them to produce some fruit which will ripen before autumn.

We go away for a fortnight on Saturday to Cornwall so the tomato plants will be left in my dad's capable care. I'm hoping to see some tomatoes on the plants on my return.

A Harvest At Last

At last, I've managed to harvest something from the allotment. These are the first broad beans I've grown, and they look pretty good. I remember hating broad beans when I was a child, but I think it's time to give them a go again, I'll never know if I like them now if I don't try them. I've harvested quite a few pods so there's plenty for all the family to try. I've heard that broad beans suffer quite badly with black fly but my plants haven't been touched, I haven't pinched out the tops either, it must be beginners luck.

My tomato plants are only just beginning to produce their first flowers. They're really late this year so I'm hoping that there's enough time for fruit to set and ripen, if not we'll be eating lots of green tomato chutney. I've heard weather reports that say September and October are going to be warm so perhaps we'll all get late harvests this year. I'm not holding my breath though.

My greenhouse is full of seedlings waiting to be planted out at the allotment. Most things have had to be resown this year as the first batch of veggies have succumbed to either the weather or slugs. I'm hoping that they'll get planted out at the weekend so that they can get established before we go on holiday. I've got visions of coming home to find that the same thing's happened with this next batch but there's not much I can do about that, it seems everything's conspiring against the gardener this year.

Time For Tennis

I'm not a lover of tennis, but I do love it when Wimbledon comes round each year as I know I'll be eating strawberries, one of my favourite fruits. I've created a new strawberry patch at the allotment this year and the plants haven't really got going yet, but I've got lots more plants in containers in the garden which are producing well. Hubby had started digging up and disposing of the old plants in the last strawberry bed we had at the allotment, but he's only got half of it done so far. I'm not complaining though as we're harvesting bowls full of lovely juicy strawberries from the plants which are left. Strawberry plants are supposed to be at their most productive for three to four years, after which, the amount of fruit they produce will start to dwindle. It doesn't look to be the case with these plants and I'm wondering if we've started to dig them up too soon. I think the plants which are left will get a reprieve, at least until they've given us this year's fruit.

I've started potting up my tomato plants in to their final positions. I'm really not happy with the plants this year, it took such a long time for them to put on any growth, and they don't look to be particularly strong plants. I've got quite a few varieties so it will be interesting to see if any do better than others. My plants are usually grown in the greenhouse, but I decided that I'd try some outdoor ones this year too, perhaps it's the wrong year to be trying this with the lack of sunshine we've had so far this year, but nothing ventured nothing gained. I may be eating lots of green tomato chutney come the end of the year.

It's been forecast that a month's worth of rain is expected to fall in just two days in some parts of the UK this week. It looks like it's already started here, it's been raining all morning with no sign of any let up. I'm starting to think that summer is going to pass us by this year, it doesn't look like it's ever going to arrive.

Broad Beans

My first time growing broad beans and the pods are forming. Some plants are still in flower with immature pods, but as you can see, some plants are further on. I've read about black fly attacking broad bean plants, but so far, my plants haven't been affected. I hope I'm not speaking too soon here, most other things I'm growing have been held back by one thing or another. I've only got a dozen plants, I'm hoping that I don't take too much of a liking to them otherwise I'll regret my meagre sowing, though I can always remedy that next year. I've had to stake the plants as the weather has taken it's toll and a couple of them were near to collapse, and some are still looking a little worse for wear. I'm just grateful that something on the plot is producing as so many things are a washout this year.


My allotment is looking very untidy at the moment, to say the least. I never got round to giving it an autumn dig, and some of it still hasn't seen a spade since last year, but I'm really surprised at the state of some of the other plots on the site. My next door plot neighbour usually has a really tidy plot and raises lots of healthy plants, but this year, it looks like he's given up. Weeds cover the earth and there really isn't much growing. Further down the site, another plot has weeds neck high. I think it's a sign of what's been thrown at us this year weather wise. I could easily give up, my sweetcorn hasn't grown an inch since it was planted out, the mangetout and French beans have been devoured by slugs and the weeds are in a bid for ultimate control. It's a challenge though. I might not get to harvest much this year, but it's still fun trying to get things to grow.


A few carrots have now germinated but the beetroot hasn't. I shall have to have a go at sowing them in modules before transplanting them. Hubby had a major sowing session last week, peas, mangetout, French beans and courgettes among others. I had said that we wouldn't grow runner beans this year, opting for more French beans instead, but they seem to be a none starter this year, so even runner beans have been sown. It might be a late harvest but anything's better than nothing.

Ten Minute Gardening

The rain is back with a vengeance, so I'm really pleased that I treated myself to this set of three books by Val Bourne. Not only will I have something to read whilst waiting for the next spell of half decent weather, but they will also advise me of the key tasks I can be getting on with, even if the rain gives in for just ten minutes. Each book concentrates on one aspect of gardening, vegetable growing, flower growing and fruit growing. The books are split in to months, and the essential tasks of that month are covered as well as secrets for success with crops, organic tips and snippets of interesting facts. They're the kind of books which you can delve in to when you have a few spare minutes. The recommended retail price is £9.99 for each book, but I picked them up for a mere £4.99 for all three from The Book People, a website I often use when purchasing books.

It looks like I've completely lost the French beans and mange tout which were munched by slugs. More have hastily been direct sown, but it means that my first harvest, if I manage to get that far with them, will be much later than last year. I had such a good crop of both these last year, so much so that my freezer was full of them, and we were eating them until the end of winter. I can't see me being as successful this year with such a poor start.

The squash bed has been dug over and plenty of organic matter added. I've only ended up with two varieties of squash, Uchiki Kuri and Sunburst. I was also hoping for Blue Kuri but after waiting many weeks, not one of the seeds have germinated. I've also got two varieties of courgette which will be planted in this bed, Soleil and Mikinos. I just need a break in the rain so I can get them in.

On A Positive Note

After my last post, which was full of woe, I decided that I needed to be more upbeat, so I toddled off in to the garden to look for some good things which are happening at the moment. The first thing I came across was this Typha Minima or Mini Bulrush. I added it to my tiny pond three years ago when I first set it up, but this is the first year that it's produced the brown seed heads. Gardeners do need to be patient sometimes. I'm hoping that now it's got going,  it will produce them each year as they certainly add something to the little pond. I've also had my Caltha Palustris or Marsh Marigold since the pond was set up and that's come on leaps and bounds, in fact, it could do with a trim. It flowered profusely earlier on in the year. It's blooms are a wonderful cheery yellow and are a welcome sight in spring.

I made a new strawberry bed at the allotment this year, but I've also got lots of strawberries in the garden too. Some of them are new plants, but others were from runners off the plants which were dug up in the old strawberry bed. I'm really pleased that these new plants seem to be producing well already this year, there's lots of strawberries on the plants and I've noticed that some of them are just starting to turn red. I'm hoping for a good strawberry year.

I had a great harvest of blueberries three years ago, but they've been pretty poor for the last two years so I decided that I'd try replenishing the ericaceous compost in the pots they're growing in. I never got round to doing so, but it seems they didn't need it as it looks like it's going to be a good year for blueberries, the plants are covered in them. It won't be long now until they ripen and then it will be blueberry muffins for tea.

Tales Of Woe

We had a quick trip to the allotment last night, just to check on things as we'd had a particularly bad downpour on Sunday night. This is the sight which greeted us, lots of boggy areas. We used to get a bit of flooding on the plot when we first took it on, but Mick laid drainage pipes underneath which seems to have worked really well, until now. I think this has happened purely because of the amount of rain that fell, the main road through where we live was closed in both directions because of flooding, and even the M1 was closed in West Yorkshire overnight after flooding left debris on the carriageways. I've heard predictions that the rainy weather is going to last for another month yet. Let's hope they've got that wrong.

The climbing French beans and mangetout which are planted out against wigwams have been eaten by slugs. They've left a little bit of leaf behind so I'm hoping that they might just cling on to life and grow, but I'm not holding my breath. The beetroot still hasn't germinated, this wet, cool weather isn't doing anything to help, and only half a dozen carrots have popped their heads above the compost in the old bath.

On a brighter note, we visited Temple Newsam, a local historic estate, over the jubilee weekend. A popular feature is the Rhododendron Walk, and we visited just at the right time as rhododendrons flower in May and June so they were providing a stunning display. I wrote about our visit on my Through The Keyhole blog if you'd like to take a look.

The First Of The Year

My mum and dad came for dinner on Sunday, roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, so I decided that I would empty out one of my potato containers so that we could have some lovely new potatoes alongside the beef. Ideally, I would have left the container a little longer to allow the potatoes more time to grow, but I was very happy with what I found. They did for Sunday dinner and the rest were eaten last night with pork chops. I usually plant two or three potato tubers in each container, and when I weighed what I harvested, I found there was around one and a half pound. I started off with a three kilogram, or six pound six ounce, bag of tubers which cost around £3.00, and I've still got fourteen potato containers in various stages of growth to empty, so I don't think I did so bad with this one seeing as how I emptied it early. They were absolutely delicious, cooked with mint and drizzled with butter, it won't do my diet any good though.

I managed to get to the allotment for a short time over the weekend. The weeds have been enjoying the weather, even if we haven't, the plot is in a bit of a state to say the least. We really need to put some work in. The sweetcorn - Sweet Bounty got planted out, and there was a little space left at the end of the bed so I planted two courgettes there. The varieties I've gone for this year are Soleil, a yellow variety and Mikinos, a green one which I haven't tried before. I finally got the onions - Bedfordshire Champion which I started off from seed planted out. I'm a little late with these but they have two chances, either grow or don't. They look to have put on some growth in their cells though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The beetroot which I sowed direct quite a few weeks ago never germinated. I think the seed got washed away in all the rain, so more has now been sown, and only a few of the carrot seed which was sown in the old bath on the plot has germinated, so more of that has been sown too.

You may remember that I sowed some carrot seed in containers and overwintered them in the greenhouse, hoping for an early carrot harvest this year. The tops never seemed to grow very much, and I didn't really hold out much hope for what was happening under the soil. I emptied the container out at the weekend and the carrots which had managed to grow were tiny, certainly not big enough to eat, so the rabbits got them. They enjoy the tops so they had a tasty treat. As the saying goes, you win some, you lose some.

It's Raining It's Pouring

The gorgeous weather we've had for the past week or so has broken. We've had rain here for the past two days, and things are looking a little washed out. I've got a few of these poppies in both my front and back gardens this year, though I didn't plant them, they're self sown. I don't know much about poppies, but I think this may be a Welsh poppy. It's looking very sorry for itself in the rain.

I'm hoping that the weather improves for the Jubilee bank holiday weekend as I want to spend some time at the allotment, I've still got lots of things to plant out. I also need to do some direct sowing as the beetroot I sowed quite a few weeks back didn't germinate, I think the seed got washed away in all the rain. The parsnips still need to be sown, and I also want to make some direct sowings of French beans to give me a staggered harvest.

My mum and dad are coming for dinner on Sunday so I'm going to have a little feel under the soil in one of my potato containers. If there's anything there I shall empty it, the first potato harvest of the year, which I shall boil with a little mint and drizzle with butter. I don't mind if the potatoes aren't very big, just so long as there's plenty of them. I think bit sized new potatoes are just delicious.

Chive Talkin'

I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I don't grow many herbs, but chives are one of the few herbs that I do grow. I enjoy chives snipped on to scrambled eggs and also in cheese sandwiches and baked potatoes, they add a light onion taste. I also grow chives for the bees which love their flowers. When I planted up my small border three years ago, I chose plants with wildlife in mind. Chives were one of the plants which made it in there, knowing how well the bees would enjoy it. Many of the plants in this border have now outgrown their space, so I'm hoping to move them in to the front garden at some point, and though the chives have put on lots of growth, it's one plant which will be staying.

In my last but one post, I told my tale of woe at the Uchiki Kuri squash seeds not germinating. When I looked at the plant label again, I realised that I'd made a mistake. It isn't the Uchiki Kuri which haven't germinated, but the Blue Kuri. I had one seed of each variety left so I sowed those and have just noticed today that the Uchiki Kuri has germinated again, but still no sign of the Blue Kuri. There's still time though so my fingers are still firmly crossed.

We've managed to get the bean wigwams up at the allotment and the Blue Lake French beans have been planted out. The Purple Teepee, which are a dwarf variety, are still waiting to go out, but I've only had a few of the Safari dwarf variety germinate, even though they were sown at the same time. I shall be sowing more French beans soon to give a staggered harvest. My sweetcorn is now ready to be planted out too, but it's bed isn't yet ready for it so that's next on the to do list.

It's Not Looking Promising

After last year's fantastic cherry harvest, I was hoping for more of the same this year. The blossom's been and gone, and what's set doesn't look very promising, certainly nothing like last year. It's only a small tree so it's not too difficult to throw some netting over it, which I shall definitely have to do if I don't want to share the few cherries there are with the birds. It's just a case of waiting for them to ripen now.

We've finally got round to planting out the peas - Hurst Green Shaft and mangetout - Reuzensuiker. They've been languishing in the greenhouse since the end of March, so they look a little worse for wear, but I'm sure they'll soon pick up now that they've got their feet in some soil. The next things which will be turfed out will be the French beans. I'm hoping that they'll be in the ground within the next couple of days.

The allotment is in a bit of a state to say the least. Although many things I've wanted to grow have been held back by the weather, this isn't so with the weeds which have grown astonishingly well. I can see we've got out work cut out this year to bring everything back under control.

Last Year's Harvest

We had such a good onion harvest last year that we're still eating our way through them. We checked on them last weekend, and unfortunately some had started sprouting again while others had started going soft. We sorted through them and this is what we're left with. It's a shame that some have had to be composted, but overall we've done well with them. These were grown from sets, but this year I'm having a go at growing them from seed. They're still in the greenhouse at the moment but I'm hoping to get them in the ground this weekend, though they're still on the small side. They may not do very well but I won't know unless I try.

My blueberries haven't done very well for the last couple of years. I'd decided to repot them in some fresh ericaceous compost this year thinking that they may need a bit of rejuvenation, but like many things, I never got round to it. I'm pleased to say that they're covered in flowers so I'm hoping that the last two years have just been a blip and that we'll end up with lots of berries this year. Blueberry Muffins are calling.

The Uchiki Kuri squash which I sowed nearly three weeks ago now haven't germinated. They've been kept indoors on a warm windowsill along with the Blue Kuri and Sunburst squash which were sown at the same time, and which have both germinated fine. I don't usually have many problems with none germination, at least some of everything I sow usually germinates, but I've also had problems with the Tigerella tomatoes this year too. None of those germinated in the first sowing, and only two in the second batch, which actually look quite deformed. It's definitely a funny year this year. I only have one Uchiki Kuri seed left so I shall get that sown this weekend and keep my fingers crossed.

Pesky Molluscs

I've been out to the greenhouse this morning to find that seedlings have been munched away. These are, or should I say were, a couple of Salad Bowl lettuces. One looks to have a tiny bit of damage, whereas the other has been totally decimated. There's even the tell tale slime trail on the top of the compost that shows me the culprit is slugs. This isn't the only damage, the slugs have had a right old meal. All my brassicas which were doing so well have just about vanished, only stalks left where yesterday were healthy leaves. I shall have to start again.

Some of the squash which I sowed a couple of weeks ago have now germinated. These have been kept indoors on a windowsill, but I'm also pleased to see that the courgettes which I sowed four weeks ago have also germinated. I've kept these in the greenhouse, and although they've taken longer to do their thing, they should make strong, healthy plants.

The weekend has started off nice and bright, though it's a little breezy. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to the allotment due to other commitments, but I'm hoping the weather holds out this coming week as there's lots of things just waiting to be planted out. I also need to get my parsnips sown otherwise I'm going to miss the boat, and that really won't do, parsnips are mine and my daughter's favourite.

Some Things Are Doing Well

Even though many things have been held back in the garden this year due to the cold spell we've experienced, it's not all doom and gloom. These are the potatoes which I'm growing in containers. As you can see, the foliage has reached well above the top of the container and looks nice and healthy. These are Arran Pilot, a variety I grew last year which did very well for me, but I've also got a few Nicola. I'm hoping that things are growing just as well below the soil, and that I get a decent haul.

Last weekend, I sowed my sweetcorn and squash. These are quite tender so I've kept them indoors on a windowsill rather than outside in the cold greenhouse. I'm pleased to say that most of the sweetcorn has now germinated, though I'm still waiting for any sign of the squash. It's early days yet. The sweetcorn I've gone for this year is Sweet Bounty, this is one I haven't tried before. The squash I'm growing are Sunburst, Uchiki Kuri and Blue Kuri.

It's bright and sunny today, and much warmer than it has been just lately. Ideal gardening weather, though we won't get much done as we're in the middle of decorating at the moment. It's typical that the weekend we decide to give the hall, stairs and landing a make over, the weather decides to play ball.

Inspired

There's been many posts about herbs on blogs just lately which have inspired me to give them a go myself. I don't really use herbs very much in cooking so I don't have that many in the garden, though many of them attract bees and butterflies and other beneficial insects as well as having attractive flowers and foliage, so they're useful in more ways than one. I visited my local nursery at the weekend who had quite a good range and I came away with Flat Leaf Parsley, Compact Marjoram, Spearmint, Painted Sage and Archers Gold Thyme. I forgot all about the rosemary in the garden which I wanted to replace as it's gone rather woody, but I can pick that up on my next visit. Perhaps now I'm growing them, it will also encourage me to use them more when I cook.

The tomato seedlings which I moved in to the house from the greenhouse have really picked up and seem to be growing well now, in fact, they're ready for potting on, a job I'll get round to this week. The back up seeds I sowed last week are also starting to germinate, so I'll probably end up with more plants than I need. There's always someone willing to take them off my hands though.

I popped down to the allotment at the weekend, not to do any work as it was like a bog down there with all the rain we've had, but I wanted to check on the onions, shallots and broad beans which I had planted out. I was relieved to see that they were all doing well, and had grown too since I left them there. All this rain is good for something then.