I extended my vegetable bed a bit in July and took the opportunity of additional space to sow some more dwarf french beans. They’ve grown well and are extending my french bean season as they started cropping at the beginning of the month (September). However, they are becoming infested with blackfly. As you will know,…… Continue reading Assisted Natural Pest Control (Harlequin Ladybirds)
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Recipe – Courgette Pickle
Unlike 2022, 2023 was not a fantastic year for cucumbers, there were as many as we needed (around 10 over the summer months) but not enough to make pickle. However, the courgettes have done well, particularly the “Tromba d’Albenga”. These are a climbing variety which grow fruit up to about one metre in length. The…… Continue reading Recipe – Courgette Pickle
Apple Harvest, Wildlife & Raspberry Pi
A mix of news in this post, some interesting and some not so interesting. Starting with the interesting. We’ve had (what seems like) an increase in the number of Red Admiral butterflies this year and, looking around the web, it seems this is a by-product of global warming (see its not all bad). Red Admiral…… Continue reading Apple Harvest, Wildlife & Raspberry Pi
Tomato – Tsungshigo Chinese
A brown plum shaped tomato on Indeterminate Plants Description A mid/late cropping brown plum shaped tomato very similar to Black Plum. The seeds were part of the 2019 swap but we didn’t get around to growing them for the first time until 2023. Fortunately the seeds seem to have kept and there was no issue…… Continue reading Tomato – Tsungshigo Chinese
2023: A Slower year for tomatoes
Every year, I try to keep a record of how my tomatoes (and other vegetable & fruit) are harvesting. Its interesting how each year is different. 2023 has been slow for tomatoes and, as I’ve said elsewhere, the tomatoes are ripening unevenly with greenback on many cultivars. So far (24th August) we’ve had around 12kg…… Continue reading 2023: A Slower year for tomatoes
Recipe – Tomato & Courgette Risotto
This year (2023) we seem have a glut of Courgettes. We have grown five plants (the same as we did last year) but so far (mid August) we’ve had more courgettes than we did for the whole of 2022 and there are more growing quickly. The tomatoes are not going as quickly (we’ve currently harvested…… Continue reading Recipe – Tomato & Courgette Risotto
How Much is Growing Your Own Worth?
We grow our own. Not on a large scale and certainly not enough to be self sufficient. Its essentially something to keep me occupied and for fun. However, I’ve always kept a record of what we harvest and tried to assign a value to that. My better half (frequently) gets cross because when there’s a…… Continue reading How Much is Growing Your Own Worth?
Tomato Greenback
Greenback (as the name suggests) is a problem with the tomato fruit where the shoulders of the fruit fail to ripen properly leaving you with hard, tasteless parts of the fruit. Its causes are similar to whitewall, too much light and/or heat as the fruit are maturing or lack of potassium or feed whilst the…… Continue reading Tomato Greenback
Tomato Seed Collection (2023)
Every year I collect tomato seeds for a number of reasons. Its simple to do and means that you only have to buy tomato seeds if you want to (my main reason to buy seeds is to increase the number of varieties I’ve grown in my effort to find the “best” range of tomatoes. Summer…… Continue reading Tomato Seed Collection (2023)
Tomato – Rainbow Blend
Multiple colours of small plum tomatoes on an Indeterminate Plant Description This is an F1 Hybrid which comes in a packet of multiple colours (red, yellow, orange). However, it is possible that the open pollenated plant will run true to the original colour (or at least the selected yellow tomato first grown in 2022 grew…… Continue reading Tomato – Rainbow Blend