It has been an excellent summer for the kitchen garden. A good 3 months with all tomatoes, salads, beans, courgettes, cucumbers, basil and chilli peppers coming fresh from the garden each day. However, even with a small garden, it is possible to preserve and save produce from the garden to last the next 6 months. …Read More about Garden to plate
Posts relating to tomatoes
Summer colours (Tomatoes)
It has been an exceptionally good year for tomatoes (so far) and an even better year for trying out new varieties. The Russian and Eastern European varieties were all started before the European and Mediterranean varieties and are now coming into full bloom while the regular European types are still green. It is amazing to …Read More about Summer colours (Tomatoes)
Experimental tomatoes
In recent years European tomato growers have taken an interest in varieties from Eastern Europe; Russia, Poland, Ukraine and even Siberia. These sturdy types of tomato are often early starters, late finishers and have increased resistance to tomato blight and other health problems that affect tomatoes grown in poor or unpredictable weather conditions. The many …Read More about Experimental tomatoes
Regular city tomatoes
There was a time when growing tomatoes outside in Belgium was considered impossible, what with cold and wet summers. The last few years with heatwaves have changed this. Choosing which types of tomatoes to grow whether in garden soil beds or in pots on balconies or on roofs usually takes a year or two of …Read More about Regular city tomatoes
Summer gardening 2018
The spring season this year has been a bit of a mess with extreme cold in March and extreme heat in April, continuing into May. These unusual conditions make starting plants from seed and nurturing small plants quite difficult. Cold temperatures at night following hot days can damage young plants. Better to skip over spring …Read More about Summer gardening 2018
Potting up time in Spring
The only rule in gardening is every year is different. The timing for starting seeds to bringing on young plants to moving them outside is always set by the subtleties of weather and cold. With the recent extreme cold and the possibility of an unexpected cold snap still, the whole process has been slowed down …Read More about Potting up time in Spring