2023 Gardening Decisions

At this time of year when everything in the garden is quiet, thoughts turn to deciding what to grow next year. I’ve increased the space in the tunnel dedicated to strawberries which means there won’t be as much space for beans but it will be easier to separate them. There will still be space for…… Continue reading 2023 Gardening Decisions

Effects of Dry Weather

The weather this week has been hot, dry and windy. As a result, whilst the plants in the greenhouses are doing well and the tomatoes are starting to ripen in quantity, all the outside plants are suffering and need copious amounts of water. Even so, the runner beans have lost all their flowers and no…… Continue reading Effects of Dry Weather

Planting out Tomatoes – 2022

So, the plants have got to the stage where they’re large enough to plant out. I grow my tomatoes in a couple of small greenhouses (since my polytunnel failed last year) in “Morissons Flower Buckets (MFBs)”. (For those of you who don’t know about them, Morissons is a UK supermarket and one of the things…… Continue reading Planting out Tomatoes – 2022

Sowing Tomatoes – 2022

I selected the tomato seeds I planned to sow this year and found that many of them are quite old. Nonetheless, I’ve given them a whirl and hope that they will germinate. I’ve sown 29 different varieties (30 pots because I’ve grown two different lots of my Oleron Yellow because I still seem to have…… Continue reading Sowing Tomatoes – 2022

Tomato – Golden Grape

Small Yellow Plum tomato of Indeterminate plants. Description This heritage tomato is very similar to Ildi, a small plum shaped tomato which hangs in large numbers in the truss. Its tasty, and ideal for snacking/ using in salads. There are a number of competing cultivars, all of which are very similar which is one of…… Continue reading Tomato – Golden Grape

Tomato – Gourmandia (F1)

Red Oxheart Beefsteak on H1 Hybrid Plants Description This F1 Hybrid Beefsteak tomato sounds very similar to Sunsets Red Horizon although (with a bit of luck) it sounds as though it might ripen a bit earlier in the season. The fruit are said to have few seeds and be meaty. The issue becomes whether they…… Continue reading Tomato – Gourmandia (F1)

Tomato – Rubylicious

Red Cherry tomato on disease resistant plants. Description This blight resistant Open Pollinated cherry tomato has small (15g) fruits and is supposed to have an excellent flavour, a mixture of sharp & sweet which is good in a cherry tomato. One of the free seeds we received in 2022, its unlikely that we can make…… Continue reading Tomato – Rubylicious

2022 – Deciding which Tomatoes to Grow

At this time of year, I always have a problem deciding which tomato cultivars to grow. When I first started growing tomatoes and recording what I’d grown (a long time ago now it seems), I had plenty of space and an allotment so I grew lots of plants of lots of different cultivars (my record…… Continue reading 2022 – Deciding which Tomatoes to Grow

Tomato – Indigo Cherry Drops

Purple Cherry tomato on Indeterminate plants Tomato Description An improvement on Indigo Rose, this purple cherry tomato was bred at Oregon State University by Dr Jim Myers. Its colour is derived from the parents which include wild tomatoes from Peru or the Galapagos Islands. Its a prolific cropper with up to 1000 30gram fruit in…… Continue reading Tomato – Indigo Cherry Drops