Saving Tomato Seeds As It's Raining

 

Looking at the weather forecast for the Allotment and out of the window this morning it's not looking promising for a visit to the plot today. 

• Tuesday mist in the morning but no rain just overcast all day
• Wednesday high chance of rain for most of the day. 
• Thursday mist in the morning and cloudy and rain in the afternoon
• Friday rain most of the day.   

As no allotment action today I spent some time this morning spreading out some Crimson Cocktail seeds out on a plastic lid saved from a tin of Christmas KP nuts to dry off before packing them into seed bags for the seed box.

Yes I know they are F1 and I know they may not run true, but I did this with Crimson Crush from the plant I got before the seeds became available and followed the plants that grew more in keeping with the original plant and they have always produced good tomatoes and have not suffered from blight.

A Suttons Crimson Cocktail pack with 10 seeds was £4.49 last year and I only grew 5 seeds on, so in 2025 I will germinate 5 of the original F1 seeds and 5 of the F2 saved seeds and see how close the copies are to the original and look for any difference in the foliage and the fruit. 

If the F2 seed produce as the original I will save seeds from the F2 fruit in 2025 for F3 Seeds to be used in 2026 as I have done with the Crimson Crush.  

Finishing Off The Paths Around The Potting Shed.

Another couple of hours on the allotment today getting barrowloads of woodchip to complete leveling off the path to the rear and the slope on the gable end of the potting shed, then getting the mulch worthy woodchip that I had been scraping off the top of the pile and putting a layer on the raised bed. My Robin was all around me again today.

View looking from the Door Gable end looking down the plot.

View from the rear Gable end looking up the plot

Raised Bed and mulch worthy woodchip.

Mulch worthy woodchip.

Raised bed with a barrow load of mulch on.

Eating into the woodchip pile.

Woodchip Paths Around The Potting Shed

A couple of hours on the allotment this morning getting rid of the dip at the entrance and laying woodchip around the gable end and back of the potting shed now the two tree stumps have been removed. A little bit of cut and fill using a couple of old scaffold boards to tidy up and define the edge of the plot on the rear gable end.

Rear of the potting shed now the apple tree stump has been removed and the Hawthorn stump has been cut down to ground level. Where the scaffold board was laying can be seen.

Excavated soil put in front of the scaffold board and woodchip behind infilling the gap to the paving, thus levelling the entrance a little more and getting rid of the dip that was there.

More woodchip needs to be added and the two 600 x 600mm paving slabs will go between the next raised beds I install as a secondary path. This will be an ideal location to store my blue water pipes when not being used on beds to support debris netting.

Make the allotment look much neater and once the slabs and tarp has been removed I will infill the rear corner with woodchips.

Too early to cut back the raspberries, but itching to do so. The water butt will be moved back in to protect the potting shed windows from flying stones when they trim the main path, which is why the temporary glazing in the the front bottom panel.

John and I have made quite a dent in the woodchip pile in the last week.

So brave and not afraid of me at all, and with me all morning even followed me to the car park to see where I was getting the woodchips from.

Harvesting Java Main Crop Potatoes

A couple of hours on the allotment this afternoon, feeding the worms in the Hotbin and harvesting my first bucket load of Java main crop potatoes. Emptied the bucket into the tray and liking what I saw straight away.

Nice size of Java maincrop potatoes, from first view. 

Java Maincrop potatoes extracted from the compost & soil and brushed off and left in the sun to dry out a little.

Decanted the Java spuds into a tray with some onions to bring home. I have another 9 buckets of Java Maincrop potatoes to harvest, but by time some have gone to my eldest daughter and sister when I share the love, it will be time to harvest the next bucket load, and repeat the process. The soil in the buckets will top up the raised beds that are already consolidating and need topping up.

Organic Vs Conventional

Brilliant explanation of the soil food web from Weedy a professional photographer turned organic gardener that puts his amazing skills to great use exploring the natural world.

Painting The Potting Shed Day 4

Day 4 of painting the Potting Shed with the 33V Teak Extreme Protection Woodstain and finally getting all four external walls and the interior of the door that becomes external when open painted with V33 Teak Wood stain.

Photo above taken to show before and after on the rear of the shed before it was finished.

The black marks were on the shed on delivery

Nice to have the first coat all round done, the second coat can wait until spring next year. There is just under half a tin left so should be enough for a second coat as it's not starting from scratch and should go further.

In My Seed Box For 2025 - Celery

   

Celery was the one vegetable that I have tried to grow from seed in the past but have never had a great deal of success with until I got some Tango Celery Postiplugs from Suttons in 2022. There were 18 Postiplugs when I used them in 2022 but they all went in at the same time, I just harvested from the tallest to the shortest. 

In 2023 I was planning to grow them from seeds but, the cancer and mobility issues meant that it didn't happen, so the plan was to try and grow them from seed in 2024, but my mobility issues didn't allow it. 

I will not try them in pots in the greenhouse as I have in the past but in the square foot gardening beds again on plot 1 as they were really such a success in 2022.

New to Suttons for 2023 was the Tango F1 Hybrid Seeds in 2023 they were £3.49 for 40 seeds, and they are still £3.49 at the moment.  

The web site says sow in March and April, but I think these need to be sown in mid- February and brought on before planting out after the danger of frost has passed.  I'm planning on sowing 7 seeds in Mid-Feb, 7 seeds in Mid-March and another 6 in Mid-April so I can do some successive sowing and harvesting during 2025. The first 7 plants will go out under a cloche.

The harvest period is between August to the end of October or the first frost.   

The average life expectancy for Celery Seed is 8 to 12 years, and 40 seeds should hopefully last me for 2025 and 2026, as I aim to use 20 seeds a year.  This makes the cost of growing your own celery 8.7p per plant. 

Price of Celery in 2023 was, Sainsbury 43p, Waitrose Green Celery Essential 79p Sainsbury Organic £1 and Tesco organic £1 and that's why we allotment holders and gardeners have a bash at growing a vast range of vegetables each year. 

It's a challenge, they taste better than shop bought, and they save us money, at least during the harvest period. 

 

In My Seed Box For 2025 - Index

Painting The Potting Shed Day 3

 

Not what I had planned for todays visit to the allotment, but all the weeds were still wet from the overnight rain and I was pondering what to hit next when John arrived and we had a chat, and he suggested finishing off the rear gable and front of the shed as it was above 10C today, but rain was on its way lunch time. 

He offered to come and do the top of the gable as my frozen shoulder and mobility issues prevented me from doing that area. So I opened the tin and gave it a good stir. I really need to remove the restraining timber and paint around the frame of the windows but it needs to be warmer and I need more time, to get the windows out painted, dry and then put the windows and new windows back in.

Wally came in just as I had finished the rear gable panel under the window and the front and he also offered to do the high apex area and bargeboards off the scaffold board on paving blocks I had placed there. I am blessed as I have a couple of good plot neighbours who are always willing to offer help.   

It will be interesting to see how this dries out but at least it has a first coat before Winter really sets in. 

I didn't take photos of the patio and path slabs I sorted out the other morning so I took some photos today. 

Slabs moved closer together and the gap between the slabs and Square Foot Garden Bed 2 packed with fresh woodchip. Two long narrow slabs replaced the small rectangular slab and the holes in the paving infilled with woodchips.  

View from the Potting shed door of the paving slabs once the gaps were closed up and woodchip infill around the edges added. 

Mares tail on the end of the Raspberry bed needs digging out and the woodchip replaced on a future visit. 

I used the brush and painted as much as I could of the inside of the door, then it started to spit with rain, and it was getting near lunch time, so a quick tidy up and exit before the rain came down as the forecast for today.  

Re-taming The Bindweed

A couple of hours on the plot On Saturday morning working on the main path, getting the slabs back in line and filling the gaps between the edges of the slabs and the square foot garden beds with woodchip. harvesting another bed of onions and starting to clear the area around the Hotbin of stinging nettles

Clearing stinging nettles from around the Hotbin, and trimming back the tree. Topped the Hotbin up again.

Daleks will go to the edge of the path once I have trimmed back the tree and removed the square bed

Sweetcorn consumed by rats with fluffy tails and bed behind all growth and no Butternut Squash to harvest, so that will all go in the Daleks once relocated along the path

Onions from third bed of onions

24 Hours later Sunday morning ......

I started by removing the cable ties on the netting and clearing the bind weed on the path to the left of the 4th onion bed. 

Once the majority of the bind weed had been removed from the path, and put in the Dalek on the left I started hitting the bindweed on the path on the right of the onion bed. I'm only putting the weeds in the Dalek to keep them dry so I can burn them without generating too much smoke once I have cleared around the incinerator.  

Strenuous work for someone who can't get down on their knees to work and is worried about falling over or tripping on so much bind weed. It did catch me a few times. 

That bindweed that got in the bed has circled around the timber framing and gone round and round and in and out of the planting membrane. It's grown so fast this year plot 1A was clear of all bindweed until I was diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago. 

It's going to take a few more visits to remove all the bindweed and harvest the onions which are really small and only a couple of sizes larger than the sets that went in. The foliage got nobbled by slugs and snails early on and I think that was what stunted their growth this year. 

The woodchip on the path on the right has totally broken down into soil and both paths need removing and replacing in full like the one in the photo three up. 

What it did enable me to get at the apples safely and harvest them ready to process so my daughter Emma can make some cake and crumble with them.   

I was down on the allotment early and went to TESCO on my way home at lunch time, only to find a numpty had parked over my car that was in the disabled bay when I came back from getting my shopping.  

It does annoy me when people don't consider others, I backed in there because it's easier to get out if there are two cars parked more sensibly. 

New Tomatoes From Suttons

I have four New varieties of tomato coming from Suttons to add to my tomato seed collection and to trial next year. 

Tomato 'Vivacious' F1 - 8 Seeds - £3.99 a pack

• 
  
• Perhaps the healthiest tomato there is!
• 40% of your Vitamin A in one fruit!
• Up to 70 fruits per plant

 

Tomato 'Fraise' - 6 Seeds - £2.99 a pack

Heart-shaped tomato delights

Incredible shelf life after harvest

• Resists cracking and fruit drop

Tomato 'Toddler' F1 - 8 Seeds - £3.99 a pack

• 
  
• Exceptionally sweet
• Cocktail tomato
• Good resistance to late blight

 

Tomato 'Tiny Temptations Mixed' - 6 Seeds - £4.99

• 
  
• Trailing/basket type
• Brightly coloured super-sweet fruit
• Good disease resistance

New Tomatoes From Organic Gardening

I have two New varieties of tomato coming from Organic Gardening to add to my seed collection and to trial next year. 

Tomato 'Ormato' (Organic) - 5 Seeds - £3.99

High yielding with trusses often branching

Plum-shaped orange fruits

Sweet and firm

Tomato 'Fraise' - 6 Seeds - £2.99

Heart-shaped tomato delights

Incredible shelf life after harvest

Resists cracking and fruit drop

New French Dwarf & Climbing Beans

Suttons Seeds have kindly sent me two packs of French Beans one Dwarf and the other a Climbing variety that they have added to their catalogue and range for 2025 to trial in my Climbing Frame Greenhouse.

Climbing French Bean 'Vine' - 40 Seeds - £3.99 

• From the same breeder as 'Cobra'
• Same quality and flavour as Cobra
• But extended cropping period for even bigger harvests!

Dwarf French Bean 'Quartz' - 120 Seeds - £2.49

• Superb heat tolerance
• Good for areas with warm summers
• High yielding

Organic Gardening have sent me a new variety added to their 2025 catalogue 

Dwarf French Bean 'Faraday' (Organic) - 200 Seeds - £2.99

New dwarf variety

Popular with professional growers

Excellent disease resistance

Dalek Storage Solution

A question that comes up on Gardening Forums on a regular basis is regarding tools on the plot. Either a new user who has not yet acquired a shed, or someone who has a shed and it has been broken into and the tools stolen, and is now thinking of humping tools backwards and forwards to the plot and is asking for suggestions how as they don't have a car, or someone on an allotment where sheds are not allowed.

here is my solution to the problem. Dig a hole and bury half a blue barrel, B&Q builders bucket or bottom of a kitchen swing bin in the ground, then place a plastic Dalek over making sure there is enough height from the bottom of the blue barrel, builders bucket or kitchen bin and the lid of the Dalek to drop in the rake and long handled gardening tools.

Place hand tools in a B&Q builder bucket and lower into the Dalek, even better if the diameter of the container in the ground is a smaller diameter than the bottom of the Plastic Dalek, and you can offset the two slightly, then you have a shelf you can place the hand tools in the bucket on.

No body is going to look in a Dalek for tools on your allotment, especially if you have three or four Daleks in a row and it will save you humping gardening tools backwards and forwards to your plot each visit.