Saving Seeds

I don't save many of my own seeds. Last year I saved some Tangella tomato seeds, purely because it's not that easy to buy them, there aren't many places which stock them. This year I'm having a go at saving some seed of the mange tout which I grew. These are Robinson and Stephens, which are actually peas, but they can also be eaten as mange tout. They were kindly given to me by Bilbo Waggins from The View From Bag End. I left the pods on the plants to dry, and now that I've snipped them off, I shall leave them a while longer just to make sure that they're thoroughly dry before removing the seeds. Fingers crossed that they germinate for me next year.

I was very sad last week when I came across a goldfinch in the back garden. It was laid on the grass as dead as a doornail. I've no idea what it died from, a cat certainly hadn't had it, it looked so perfect. Poor thing. I've never seen a goldfinch in the back garden before, I've seen them on a few occasions in the front garden.

It's a lovely bright sunny day today. I've been holding out for an Indian summer after the miserable summer we've just experienced, but it's been so cold lately that I'd just about given up all hope. That is until the weather forcasters told us that the temperature is set to rise this week. Perhaps we'll get our Indian summer afterall.

Know Your Onions

These are just a few of the many onions I've got drying out at the moment. They're Turbo which have been grown from sets, and they've done really well this year. There's some quite large ones. We don't use very many onions in cooking so they'll easily last us through the winter months. Next year I'm going to have a go at growing from seed and I've got a packet of Bedfordshire Champion at the ready.

After the gales we had at the beginning of last week, I was expecting to find lots of damage at the allotment. I'm pleased to report that everything was fine, even the bean wigwams were still standing, and we're still picking lots of beans from them. The late sowing of dwarf French beans are now producing, though I think we were a little too late with the second sowing of climbing beans, I don't think they're going to come to anything.

I've eventually got round to sorting out my seeds. I've been quite ruthless putting aside any which I know I'm never going to sow, or any which I've got duplicate packets of, and they've been taken to hubby's workplace for anyone who wants them. There was a full carrier bag full. I made a list of the things I want to grow next year, and headed back to Wyevale for any seeds I was missing. I managed to get everything on my list from the packets offered in the 50p per packet sale, and the total savings I've now made on buying reduced seeds this year stands at £50.01. Not bad.

Carrot Success

You may remember that I named this year the Year of the Carrot. I've never grown carrots successfully on the allotment yet, I manage to grow round stumpy ones in containers at home, but I really wanted to get some growing at the allotment. I've never even got them to germinate in the past. When we took on the allotment, we inherited an old bath which had been left on our plot, and hubby has put it to good use this year filling it up with old compost and sowing some carrot seed in it. Meanwhile, I sowed some carrot seed in the bed which had been allocated for my root vegetables this year. Well, the biggest success has been the bath. The picture is of carrots which have grown there, all different sizes, shapes and colours as hubby sowed all different kinds, he can't remember which varieties though now. The carrots which I sowed in the ground did grow, so I've had a success of sorts, though because I didn't cover them with fleece, they were decimated by carrot root fly. I'm not too bothered, at least I got them to grow, and I know what to do next year now, though I'll definitely be utilising the bath again.

As I've mentioned before, I'm really pleased with my Tangella tomatoes. They've produced a very good yield and are still cropping now. My Gardener's Delight were very leggy and produced tiny tomatoes early on, but are now giving out some decent sized ones. The San Marzano have suffered from blossom end rot and haven't given one edible tomato yet, though there's some ripening at the moment. I might end up with half a dozen this year. I don't grow a huge amount of tomatoes as I only grow them in my 4X6 greenhouse and have already decided that I'm going to grow some outdoor ones in the garden next year. I was telling hubby's auntie that I want to make some soup and sauces next year, and she kindly popped round with a bag full of tomatoes for me from their allotment. I shall turn these in to soup.

Hurricane Katia was forcast to hit our shores yesterday, and it's certainly given our area a battering. Part of the garage roof over the road from us blew off yesterday and my greenhouse is in bits. Archie, the dog, was frightened on his walk last night as the street lights were out, and temporary road signs were following him down the street being blown by the wind. The rain has started now too and it's being driven by the wind. I haven't been to the allotment so I don't know if there's any damage there, I hope my bean wigwams are still standing.

What A Bargain

I always visit Wyevale Garden Centre at this time of year as they reduce all their seeds to 50p per packet and I stock up ready for next year. The seeds I bought this year should have cost me £42.14, I saved £35.64. Amongst the seeds are five types of tomato. One of the varieties I've chosen is Ferline. I've grown this before and it has good levels of blight tolerance, which will be more important to me next year as I plan to grow some plants outdoors. I also stocked up on Gardener's Delight, a favourite variety. The other three varieties are ones I haven't grown before, Black Cherry, Gold Nugget and Pannovy. All these tomatoes can be grown outdoors.

I also bought some onion seed, Bedfordshire Champion. I've always grown onions from sets but thought I'd have a go at growing them from seed next year. I've heard people say that they get a better crop from seed rather than sets so we'll see, they'll have to do well to improve on this year's harvest.

Other seeds which I purchased, which are new varieties for me, are carrots - Resistafly and Sweet Candle, dwarf bean - Purple Teepee, salad onion - Furio, and cucumber - Swing. I haven't ruled out another trip there once I've checked my seed box and see what I'm missing.

They're Coming Thick And Fast

I'm picking beans like there's no tomorrow. I've got dwarf French beans, climbing beans and runner beans and they're all producing very well. I also made a second sowing of dwarf French beans and climbing beans of which the dwarf French beans are just starting to flower, but the climbing beans are still climbing at the moment. I hope there's enough time left to get a crop from them. Beans have to be my most successful crop, they've never let me down, but have consistently given a plentiful supply every year I've grown them. I've never grown broad beans, I remember not liking them when I was a child, but I'm going to give them a chance next year and grow them for the first time. Who knows? My tastes might have changed.

I found another cucumber hiding in the greenhouse yesterday, that brings my tally for this year off three plants to three. To be fair, I haven't gone out of my way to look after them very well, I've really left them to get on with it, but still, three off three plants is pretty poor. I must try harder next year.

We've been out and about all weekend, making the most of the last few days of the school holidays. We've been really lucky with the weather, avoiding any rain apart from when we were driving home on Saturday evening. Today is a different story though, it's sunny at present but it's windy and we've had some downpours this morning. I'm still trying to hang on to summer for a while longer, but I think it's in vain.

What a whopper

I've never grown marrows before, but last year, after finding some overgrown courgettes which I'd missed when picking, I decided I'd use them to make stuffed marrow. It was a hit with hubby so I decided to grow the real thing this year. This is the first one we've had off the plant and we haven't used it yet. I've heard that it does taste different to courgette so I'm just hoping that we like it.

I've been reading of courgette gluts on many blogs but my plants haven't really got going this year. They're just starting to produce a decent amount now so perhaps the glut is to come. The Firenze courgettes which I grew in containers have given up the ghost, they've been a washout producing a few tiny courgettes before giving in. I've got yellow and green varieties at the allotment and both are now producing well.

It's always at this time of year that my thoughts turn to next year. Already I'm weighing up what's done well and what hasn't and what I'll grow again next year and what I won't. My mum and dad are moving in a fortnight and we're inheriting their freezer, so one thing I definitely want to do next year is grow more things to freeze. I already freeze some things, but even though we've got one of those American style fridge/freezers, there isn't enough space to freeze much. The new freezer, even though it's only small, will give us extra space to store gluts for winter use. It'll be nice to be eating from the allotment right the way through winter.

Bargain Plants

We had a trip out today to the Yorkshire Dales, and whilst there, we visited a candle making workshop. Outside the workshop were some plants which were for sale and an honesty box for payment. I love coming across plants for sale in this way, you can pick up some real bargains, and that's just what happened today. I came away with an Alchemilla Mollis and an Astrantia, each costing just £1.50. I'll pot them on in to larger pots and wait to plant them out until next spring. You can read about the rest of my visit to the Yorkshire Dales on my other blog, Through The Keyhole.

I've made the decision that I'm definitely going to have a go at growing tomatoes outdoors next year. I'm not going to grow them at the allotment for fear of blight, but I shall grow them in containers in the garden. I now need to do some research as to which tomatoes grow well outdoors, so if any of you have any recommendations I'd be happy to know.

It's been an extremely wet week compared to the summer we've just experienced. I had hoped to lift my onions this weekend, but I'll put it off a while longer to see if the rain stops. If not, I shall have to find room for them in the greenhouse until they're dry. I should have been weeding at the allotment this weekend too but I've put that off in favour of some trips out. Any excuse.

How Long Till Christmas?

I couldn't believe my eyes the other day when, along with my monthly RHS The Garden magazine, this RHS Christmas Book & Gift Selection brochure dropped though my door. It's still August for goodness sake. We may not have had much of a summer but we're still four whole months away from Christmas. It won't stop me leafing through it though, and I will make a mental list of the things I would quite like to find at the bottom of my Christmas stocking. I've had some great gardening presents bought for me over the last few years, I always appreciate something new for the garden.

I popped to the allotment last night to harvest a few things and noticed that my onions are just about ready to be lifted. They've done extremely well this year and some are quite large. We don't use that many onions in cooking so we'll be able to provide my mum and dad with plenty too. I love to have an excess of produce as it feels so good to share it with friends and family.

The beans have now started to produce and we're getting a good amount to harvest already. We made some follow up sowings too of which the dwarf French beans are just about to flower, so we should get another later crop, but the climbing beans are still, well, climbing, so I hope there's enough time left for them to produce some beans. We should be eating beans for weeks to come.

Arabian Night

I bought four different varieties of dahlia at the start of the year. The plan was to grow them on the allotment, but I never got round to allocating a patch of ground to them. Time had run away from me before I decided that I had better get them planted in to containers in the garden, or else all would be lost. This variety is Arabian Night and it's just come in to flower. One variety has been totally eaten away by slugs, and the other two don't look near to flowering at all. It's a lovely late addition to the garden so I shall save the tubers to replant next year, hopefully not so late.

I'm still emptying out my containers of first early potatoes - Arran Pilot. They've given a fantastic crop this year and I'll definitely grow them again next year. The maincrop potatoes at the allotment - Maris Piper haven't put on much top growth at all. Time will tell if there's anything going on under the ground, though I'm not holding out much hope.

It's bad news on the sweetcorn front. They didn't look like they were going to make it when they were planted out, so it's not a total surprise, but it's a bit of a disappointment as I haven't harvested any sweetcorn since I've had the allotment. They were started off on time and grew well in the plant pots, but they were left to languish for rather a long time before we got them planted out. I will make every effort next year to grow some decent sweetcorn as you really can't beat the taste of fresh picked corn cooked within minutes and devoured with lashings of butter.

My Favourite Tomato

Ever since I've been growing tomatoes, I've tried a new variety every year. I was so pleased with the tomatoes I grew last year that I decided to grow exactly the same varieties again this year, so this is the first year that I don't have a new variety to try out. A friend on one of the forums I read sent me some Tangella seeds last year and I tried them for the first time. I loved them, but because they're a heirloom variety, it's not easy to find anywhere which sells the seeds so I had a go at saving seed for the first time myself. I'm pleased to report that I had 100% germination with them, so I've got fruit again this year, and they're just as delicious as I remember. They've got a very fruity taste and are extremely juicy. They give a very good yield, in fact I can't think of anything bad to say about them. I'll be saving seed again this year for sure, they're my favourite tomato. 

Unfortunately, the other two varieties I've grown again this year aren't doing so well. San Marzano is a plum variety and I enjoyed them cooked last year. This year they've developed a bad case of blossom end rot. This is where the bottom of the tomato develops a black patch, probably due to erratic watering or lack of calcium, but as I was away for a fortnight and relied on my dad popping round every couple of days, I'm going with the watering. Hopefully, now that they're getting a consistent amount of water, they'll recover. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The third variety I'm growing is Gardener's Delight. I've grown these for many years and they've never let me down, until this year. I knew I was in for trouble when the plants grew very leggy at the start of the season. They were grown exactly the same way as the other two varieties, started off indoors then moved in to the greenhouse which wasn't heated. They had plenty of light and very little heat so I don't know what caused them to grow this way. This is a cherry variety of tomato, but a cherry would look huge in comparison to most of the tomatoes being produced on my plants. There's plenty of tomatoes on the trusses, they just don't seem to be growing.

I'm considering having a go at growing some tomatoes outdoors next year. I did grow tomatoes in containers outdoors before I had my greenhouse, so I don't know whether to go down this route again, or have a go at growing some at the allotment. I'll still grow some in the greenhouse as I do now, but as my greenhouse is only 4X6 I don't grow many plants. There's only me who eats tomatoes in our house, but I'd like a few more than I'm getting at the moment, and would ideally like enough to have a go at making some sauces and soups.

I've been meaning to mention in my last couple of posts that Bilbo Waggins from The View From Bag End has very kindly offered to send some of Ollie's Sunflower seeds to any of my readers who would like to grow some. If you look back a few posts, you will see my post about Ollie's Sunflowers. Ollie was Bilbo's Bearded Collie and he sadly passed away in August 2009. You can read about the connection with the sunflowers in my post of 25th July 2011. If you would like some seeds to grow this sunflower, you can contact Bilbo through an email link on her profile.

The Year Of The Carrot

I'm so determined to successfully grow carrots this year that I've adopted a few different methods to ensure a positive outcome. You may remember that at the start of the season I sowed some seed for a stumpy round carrot variety in a container. That worked out and the carrots grew well. I've also got some carrots growing in the ground at the allotment. I've never got seed to germinate there before, and they look to be doing well, but you can never tell what's going on below the ground until you pull them so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. Hubby's little project this year has been to utilise an old bath which was left on the plot when we took it over. He's drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage and filled it up with old compost from used containers as well as compost we had left over from last year. As you can see from the photo which was taken before we went away on holiday, the carrots which he decided to grow in there look to be doing ok. We may be lucky and be successful with all our methods of growing carrots this year.

I've got some gorgeous gladioli in a vase on my windowsill at the moment. Hubby's uncle always keeps me in flowers at this time of year and when the gladioli finish, the chrysanthemums start. Gladioli are such long lasting flowers and they're so bright and cheerful. I know they're not everyone's cup of tea but I love them.

I haven't made it down to the allotment since the weekend. I'm still ploughing my way through all the washing and ironing that holidays produce, but I'm hoping to get down there over the next couple of days to get some much needed weeding done.

Everything Survived

We're back from our holidays and I'm pleased to report that everything survived while we were away. My dad came round every couple of days to water my tomatoes and there were a few ready to pick on my return. We went straight down to the allotment when we got home on Saturday just to have a look how everything had fared whilst we'd been away, but we were short on time so hubby went back on Sunday to harvest everything which was ready. As you can see, I had the obligatory courgette turned marrow ready to harvest, which will be stuffed with mince and tomatoes for a meal later in the week. The yellow dwarf French beans have started producing and were delicious with our meal last night. The cavolo nero is still going strong and I'm still getting small quantities of calabrese. There's loads of beetroot ready to harvest, but hubby left most of it in the ground and brought just four home for the time being. There was a small cucumber ready for harvesting, my first one of the year, they haven't done very well at all. I'm still harvesting first early potatoes from the containers, they've done great this year. I left the shallots drying whilst we were away, these are just a few of those we harvested, there's a bag full ready for use.

The climbing beans and runner beans are covered in flowers and small beans are just beginning to form so it shouldn't be long until we start to harvest those too. We put in another late sowing of climbing beans and dwarf French beans a few weeks ago so I'm hoping there's enough time left for them to produce more beans for us this year.

We had a wonderful time in Cornwall and Devon, though the weather was mixed. It didn't stop us from doing anything though, and we've heard that the weather back here in Yorkshire was worse, all that rain has made the weeds grow at the allotment so I really need to tackle those.

Snack Size

When I look through seed catalogues, I notice more and more seeds being sold which are suitable for growing in containers. Having grown edibles in containers myself before taking on my allotment, I know you don't need a huge garden to grow at least some of your own food. I decided I would have a go at growing some courgettes - Firenze in a container this year. This is one of those varieties which is billed as ideal for growing in containers. I've grown Hestia runner beans in containers previously. This is also a variety which is especially suitable for growing in containers, but I wasn't very impressed with the amount of beans I got from the plants. I was much more successful planting normal runner bean seeds and giving them some canes to grow up. I'm afraid that I'm of the same opinion with these Firenze courgettes. I have previously grown normal courgettes in a container with great success, whereas the ones I have just harvested from my plant are extremely small. I've grown lots of things in containers before I got my allotment, all regular varieties, and was thrilled that most things did extremely well, even things such as sweetcorn which I thought would need a much larger growing space. My advice would be to give anything a go, I've found that most things work, just so long as you give them a little extra attention, especially making sure that the container doesn't dry out.

It's a lovely day today so I shall take a trip to the allotment. I need to harvest anything which is ready as we go on holiday on Saturday for two weeks. Let's hope the gorgeous weather we've got today continues.

Ollie's Sunflower

The sunflowers I've grown this year are very special indeed. Let me tell you all about them. Earlier on this year I mentioned that I was going to have a go at growing mange tout for the first time. I received an offer of some seeds from Bilbo Waggins from The View From Bag End. The seeds were Stephens and Robinson, both of which are actually peas but can be used as a mange tout, and both have performed very well. Enclosed in the parcel were some Ollie's Sunflower seeds which I've felt very privileged to be able to grow. Ollie was Bilbo's Bearded Collie, a once in a lifetime dog, and he sadly passed away in August 2009. On that very same day, a bird sown sunflower bloomed for the first time in Bilbo's garden. She collected seeds from the plant and whenever she sends seeds to anyone, she also includes some of these sunflower seeds in the parcel too. What a wonderful way to keep Ollie's memory alive. If you'd like to read about Ollie, you can visit Bilbo's blog via the link, and you will find the label for Ollie down the right hand side.

I got my leeks planted out yesterday, there's fifty four of them in total, so they should see us through the winter months. We also planted out another sowing of dwarf French beans and climbing beans. The first sowing are just starting to come in to flower now so this second batch should extend the season. I'm hoping to be able to freeze plenty. I also lifted my shallots and they're now drying.

All the brassicas which I sowed a few weeks ago have been devoured by slugs. I'm having lots of trouble with the little blighters this year. I was hoping to have plenty to plant out for winter, so I'll have another go at sowing them this week, though I might be a little late now, only time will tell.

Sunday Harvest

It's great to be bringing plenty home from the allotment again. It gets to that time of year when more than one or two things make their way in to the trug and on to the dinner plate. Last weekend I picked the first of the cavolo nero, beetroot, and calabrese of the year, and there were also more mange tout and peas which were ready. For our meal on Monday evening we had Beef Bourguignon with home grown potatoes, carrots, calabrese, mange tout and cavolo nero, you can't get much better than that. It was all very tasty and there were four empty plates at the end of the meal.

I'm still not sure if the sweetcorn is going to make it. After languishing in their pots for far too long, they were planted out late at the allotment. They're very yellow at the moment so we'll have to see if they stop sulking and put on some growth.

The shallots look to be ready to pull. Their tops have started to die back, so it's time for them to be lifted. They seem to have done very well, each set having produced lots of shallots, though a couple did try to flower. I'll remember to use those first as apparently, they don't store as well if they've bolted.