We’ve come to the end of July and the garden/polytunnel are both doing well with decent harvests of French Beans, Cucumbers and Courgettes adding to the Lettuce (which are still going well). However, the Radishes, Broad Beans and Peas have finished for the year. Whatever I do with Radishes, they never seem to be as…… Continue reading End of July Update – 2019
Category: Greenhouse
End of June update
We’re at the end of June and the garden is looking OK. The vegetables are beginning to deliver with Sugar Snap Peas, Broad Beans and French Beans adding to the Lettuce and Radishes that we’ve been harvesting for a while. Nothing in “glut” volumes yet but the courgettes, cucumbers & French Beans look like they’re…… Continue reading End of June update
How much food do you waste?
The other day I was reading an online article (at theconversation.com) (it was raining) which finished with “people who grow their own waste less” and we should therefore replace the “farm to plate” production line with “garden to plate”. As I had just thrown out some lettuces that had gone over, I had a debate…… Continue reading How much food do you waste?
First Tomato of the year set
Micro Tom Tomato I was just looking in the polytunnel to make sure that the slug hadn’t been having another go at everything when I noticed we’ve got the first tomato set. Its Micro Tom, not one we’ve grown before which I decided we would grow to boost the number of small cherry tomatoes that…… Continue reading First Tomato of the year set
Polytunnel Activity, Planting Tomatoes, Garden Birdlife, etc..
Last year I gave up my allotment. It was too far away and not doing what I wanted (unlike many allotments, despite the fact there are over 100 plots, rarely are there any people about. Everybody seems to go on a Sunday morning when I can’t make it so there’s nobody to see when I…… Continue reading Polytunnel Activity, Planting Tomatoes, Garden Birdlife, etc..
Tomatoes for 2019
Now is the time of year when I seriously start thinking about what cultivars I’m going to grow. I have limited space and, over time, I’ve reduced the number of different varieties and plants I grow from a maximum of 70 down to 35 last year. These are my criteria for choosing: What new cultivars…… Continue reading Tomatoes for 2019
Tomato Balconi Red
Red Cherry heritage tomato on compact determinate plants. Description Acquired through the 2018 seed swap, this cultivar is common on the web. Its a short (12 inch) determinate cherry tomato, similar to Tiny Tim, Micro Tom, Red Robin and others. Our comparison in 2019 showed that this cultivar was a worthwhile competitor to Red Robin…… Continue reading Tomato Balconi Red
Tomato Black Vernissage
A stripy black standard sized open pollinated tomato on indeterminate plants. Description From the 2018 Seed Swap According to the web, its a stripey black Russian cultivar, similar to Black Zebra. However, we’ll have to see which we prefer. 2019 Update It is stripey and Black. However, much smaller than Black Zebra and more like…… Continue reading Tomato Black Vernissage
Tomato German Red Strawberry
Large oxheart red open pollinated tomato on indeterminate plants. Description From the 2018 Seedswap, I grew this for the first time in 2019. Its a bit like Sunset’s Red Horizon although (in my experience) a bit less pointed (searching the web seems to indicate that their shape can be inconsistent). According to the web, its…… Continue reading Tomato German Red Strawberry
Tomato Giallo d’Iverno
A red Cherry open pollinated tomato on Indeterminate plants Description From the 2018 Seed Swap, we weren’t sure what this was going to be as we couldn’t find it described anywhere on the web (the nearest was Grappoli D’Inervo which is a grape shaped cultivar – it was in my database but without an associated…… Continue reading Tomato Giallo d’Iverno