First New Potatoes

This is one of the most keenly anticipated events of the allotment gardener's year! Back in February when my seed potatoes arrived I planted 3 tubers of the 'ultra early' 'Rocket' in a compost bag turned blackside out. These had been nurtured in the greenhouse since then, and earthed up a couple of times. You can usually tell when potato tubers have started growing because this is when the tops of the potatoes have small flowers on them. It is best practice to pinch out the flowers when you see them as this diverts energy away from the tubers.

1130am these potatoes were happily growing in my greenhouse
1200midday they were dug up
1215pm they were washed
1245pm they were eaten

Food miles ????...FOOD YARDS!!

Absolutely brilliant!!

Cucumber arch

I had an idea inspired by last month's copy of Gardeners' World magazine. I don't buy the magazine you understand, just the usual 100 pages of flowers and (if you are lucky) 2 pages of veggies. Last month there was a photo of an ornamental gourd arch. Lots of different shapes, colours and sizes of ornamental gourds hanging inside an arch. Hmmm.. I had planted 5 different varieties of cucumbers this year as I was going to experiment with the 'ridge' type, outdoor cucumbers this year instead of the greenhouse varieties. The varieties planted are; 'StraightEight' (from USA), 'Marketmore', 'Crystal Lemon', 'Long Green Ridge', and 'Odys' (from Poland)

I am always looking for different ways of using what little space I have on the allotment, I am trying companion planting, dwarf varieties, successional planting and now I am growing things up poles and wigwams. Here I have used 8 x 8ft bamboo canes and somehow attached the white plastic arches from my cloches. I have lashed a few cross canes to the bottom for stability and will add more as the cucumbers grow. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Tomato growth habits

There are 2 different types of growth habits in tomato plants. Indeterminate or cordon tomatoes, and then determinate or bush tomatoes. There is even a half way tomato which is semi-determinate.. basically it can't make up its mind what it is!

Cordon tomatoes, also known as vine tomatoes are the plants which are trained up a single stem and secured to a cane or string. Occasionally you will find a lateral shoot coming out from the main stem at a leaf joint, (I call these armpits) you must pinch these out so that there is only one growing point at the tip of the plant. This type of tomato will just keep going up and up and the top lead shoot (the terminal shoot) should be cut off when you have 4 or 5 trusses of fruit. This will make sure your plant puts its energy into swelling the fruit rather than growing green stuff upwards! If you don't do this you will end up at the end of the season with 8 foot tomato plants with loads of little green marbles which will not ripen!

The Bush tomatoes (determinate)...er... you just leave them to turn into a bush! (it does exactly what it says on the tin!) You can tie them loosely to a short cane. These are usually the smaller varieties - but check on the packet.