It's started.....

It's started - the next growing season

It's always nice to get the first batch of seed off to a flying start; I am quite tough with mine. These are tomatoes at the back, lettuce on the right hand - front and onions in the others. The toms will be grown on indoors until I work out which one is the best to try and get me early toms [these are all earlyish varieties], the lettuce and onions will go straight outside into the unheated greenhouse once they are an inch tall.

First sowings from the 2011 Seed Circle

Ok, so first to go in were the Babington Leeks and the Egyptian Walking Onions. They have been sown in a try with some garlic inbetween; not much to see yet but photos of starts are always as good as photos of the finished crops!

2012 Tomato Seed Listing...

My lovely friend suggested that we go to an open day 2 hours from home, to get tomato seedlings in March and I've said that I probably won't need any - so I thought I'd list my tomato seed stash to see whether I do indeed need a trip out...

There's those from the 2011 A4A Seed Circle [22]:

Alpatieva 905A

Beijing Yellow

Delhi

Demidov

Dwarf Mr Snow  

Early Tanana

Eli

Green Bell Pepper

He-man rootstock,

Koralik 

Korol Rannikh  

Latah

Michael Pollan

Monkeys Ass

Plumpton King

Prairie Fire 

Yellow Out Red In

Red Pear

Slovienian Black

Tasmanian Chocolate Dwarf

T.C. Jones 

Vova Yellow 

Recent aquisitions [3]:

Imur Prior Beta

Christel's Plum

Sweet Pea Currant

Bush tomatoes from Jeannine in Canada [12]

Homesweet

Kootenai

Pendula Orange

Moskovitch

Oregon Spring

Rutgers

Early Girl Bush

Chico III

Celebrity Bush

Beaver Lode Slicer

Alaska

Sasha's Pride

Bush tomatoes given to me last year by a chum [4]

Scotia

Maja

Rambling Gold

Silver Fir Tree 

Others for my bush tomato project [10]

Texan Wild Tomato

Maskotka

Togi Bush [original]

Togi Bush [self saved, so the next generation]

Koralik [different year from the ones above]

Red Cluster Pear - centiflor type

Dwarf Wax

Lime green salad

Latah [again from different stock from above]

Aurora [earliest I've ever had toms, red on 2nd June]

And Vines [68]

Auntie Madge 

Minabel

Atkins Stuffing

Black Plum

Bloody Butcher

Marmande

Jan's Cherry

Galina

Fablonelistnuj [?]

Roma 

Costoluto Florentino

Speckled Russian Plum [not named, just they looked like this on the packet]

Silach

Blue OSU

Mortgage Lifter

Nepal

Snow White

Golden Sunrise

Principe Borghese

Piccolo

Black Truffle 

Polish Linguison

Red Zebra

Mexican Honey

German Lunchbox [no sniggering please]

Goldkrone

Kenilworth King George

GReen Velvet

Giant Plum

Bruds Blackheart

Depp's Pink Firefly

Purple Cherokee

Cuore Di Bue

Millefleur

De Colgar

Falcon
Purple Ukraine

Amish Paste

Gardener's Delight

Southern Nights

Yellow Perfection [get in, these are fabulous]

Purple Russian [honestly, these are amazing]

Togi Vine

White Oxheart

Grushovka

Chiapis Wild

Spanish Big Globe

Smadar

Togi [the previous generation to the above self saved ones]

Riesentraube

Burpees Delicious

Red Pear [From Brooklyn]

Yellow Pear [from Brooklyn]

Abraham Lincoln

Darby Striped Pink/Yellow

Dawson's Russian Oxheart

Stonor's No 2

Arkansas Traveller

Sreonjevlika

Peacevine Cherry

Sugar Plum
Stonor's Most Prolific

Tigerella

Plum from Coullioure [bought in a market]

Piglet Willie's French Black

Olirose

Sungold

Nior

I've got some others that I will definitely not grow, that I will give away in swaps, and I'll be adding the Costoluto Florentinos to those; plus a couple of others that I won't be growing next year.

Plus I have got a couple others saved from this year drying out which I haven't added on here - yet.

I get 109 different varieties from that list ready to sow. Only 1 [Smadar] has one seed; the others have plenty for me to be getting on with.

The sowing starts tomorrow for my bush tomato project; I got great results with bush toms and want to try more this year. Bring it on.

The List

Following on from this Blog post

I will be recording and documenting these seeds to show the benefits and results of partaking in a seed circle with like-minded individuals. 

Somewhere over the next growing season, I will be sowing ALL of these seeds, and tracking their successes, failures and the yields that I got from them.

Achocha Lady’s Slipper (cyclanthera pedata)

 

Alliums

Babington Leek (allium ampeloprasum babingtonii)                     

Stamme onions

Egyptian Walking onion Catawissa allium cepa proliferum

Broad Beans

Vitelotte 

Unknown Variety

French Beans

Major Cooke 

Bonne Bouche

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Succotash

Magpie

Madeira Maroon

Edamame

Swedish One Dot

Runner beans

Mrs Connell’s Black 

Corn

Painted Mountain

Herb

Borage

Dill 

Quillquiña = Bolivian Coriander

Rocket

Turkish Rocket (Bunias orientalis).

Lovage

Flat Leaved Parsley

Sorrel Belleville

Kale 

Siberian Kale

Nero di Toscana aka Black Kale

Lettuce

Grandpa Admire’s

Pommee Brune d’Hiver

Pink

Parsnip

Avon Resistor

Peas and Mangetout

Golden Sweet mangetout 

King Tut/Pran’s Pea 

Magnum Bonum

Paula

Salmon-Flowered Pea 

Skånsk Märgärt

Stephen’s Pea 

Suttons Purple Podded 

Pepper, Chilli

Alberto’s Locoto, a Rocoto pepper

Chilli de Cayenne 

Small Unnamed Chilli 

Anaheim Chilli

Pepper, Sweet

Napier Pointy Red

Pumpkin/Squash

Hungarian Zucchini

Georgia Candy Rooster Squash 

Waltham - butter nut squash

Zapallito Squash 

Tomato

Alpatieva 905A

Beijing Yellow

Delhi

Demidov

Dwarf Mr Snow  

Early Tanana

Eli

Green Bell Pepper

He-man rootstock,

Koralik 

Korol Rannikh  

Latah

Michael Pollan

Monkeys Ass

Plumpton King

Prairie Fire 

Yellow Out Red In

Red Pear

Slovienian Black

Tasmanian Chocolate Dwarf

T.C. Jones 

Vova Yellow 

True Potato Seed

Blue Belle TPS                            

Spring Cabbage Durham Early

Tzimbalo Solanum Caripense

Sweet Peas [mainly pink]

Helianthus Sungold

A little part of a big picture....

So today I took delivery of the results of one of the Seed Swap Circles that I am a contributor to.  This is year 2 of this particular circle; which is run through a popular allotment forum. 

72 bags of seed I received, the list is below. 

A decent photo will follow, once I've found the lead! For now though, the image was taken on my blackberry....

Now, I've not knowingly met any of the people in this community; and I know I've swapped with them informally, and perhaps some of the seeds that were shared were grown from seeds that I originally swapped with them, or from last year's circle. But the bigger picture here is that we are saving and swapping from seeds from all over the place, from HSL, from Real Seeds, from friends, family and overseas; and we are helping to save a little piece of our history in these lovely seeds. 

It's blooming marvelous, and I am hoping that the participant of my own circles will feel the same once their seeds are sent out in the New Year. 

And a very timely delivery, with tomorrow being the solstice, I'm going to get the Babington Leeks and Egyptian Walking Onions into soil first thing tomorrow. 

If you have never saved seeds, or if you do save and are not part of a circle, I heartily recommend it. Have a look at our Seed Saving in Schools document which may give you some ideas as to how to save your own seed and activities to get people interested in saving their own seeds....oh, and it also saves a fortune each year as 72 varieties from a seed catalogue would be about, well, probably about £140.

Here is the list:

Achocha Lady’s Slipper (cyclanthera pedata)

Alliums

Babington Leek (allium ampeloprasum babingtonii)                     

Stamme onions

Egyptian Walking onion Catawissa allium cepa proliferum

Broad Beans

Vitelotte 

Unknown Variety

French Beans

Major Cooke 

Bonne Bouche

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Succotash

Magpie

Madeira Maroon

Edamame

Swedish One Dot

Runner beans

Mrs Connell’s Black 

Corn

Painted Mountain

Herb

Borage

Dill 

Quillquiña = Bolivian Coriander

Rocket

Turkish Rocket (Bunias orientalis).

Lovage

Flat Leaved Parsley

Sorrel Belleville

Kale 

Siberian Kale

Nero di Toscana aka Black Kale

Lettuce

Grandpa Admire’s

Pommee Brune d’Hiver

Pink

Parsnip

Avon Resistor

Peas and Mangetout

Golden Sweet mangetout 

King Tut/Pran’s Pea 

Magnum Bonum

Paula

Salmon-Flowered Pea 

Skånsk Märgärt

Stephen’s Pea 

Suttons Purple Podded 

Pepper, Chilli

Alberto’s Locoto, a Rocoto pepper

Chilli de Cayenne 

Small Unnamed Chilli 

Anaheim Chilli

Pepper, Sweet

Napier Pointy Red

 Pumpkin/Squash

 Hungarian Zucchini

Georgia Candy Rooster Squash 

Waltham - butter nut squash

Zapallito Squash 

   

Tomato

Alpatieva 905A

Beijing Yellow

Delhi

Demidov

Dwarf Mr Snow  

Early Tanana

Eli

Green Bell Pepper

He-man rootstock,

Koralik 

Korol Rannikh  

Latah

Michael Pollan

Monkeys Ass

Plumpton King

Prairie Fire 

Yellow Out Red In

Red Pear

Slovienian Black

Tasmanian Chocolate Dwarf

T.C. Jones 

Vova Yellow 

True Potato Seed

Blue Belle TPS                            

Spring Cabbage Durham Early

Tzimbalo Solanum Caripense

Sweet Peas [mainly pink]

Helianthus Sungold

Here is the photo:

 and I'm off now, to prepare some seed trays for tomorrow. 

Happy Winter Solstice to you all for tomorrow, I'll have my head down sowing seeds and especially planting Garlic.

OCD - ish

I am currently in a job where I teach Organic Gardening to SEN teenagers. As part of this, I have spent some time with the Garden Organic Growth project. One of the things that they are taught is to be very specific about what is composted where - so perennial weeds are burnt, and annual weeds are chopped down and composted in their compost bin. Ever since, I have been ever-so-slightly obsessed with chopping down my own 'to be composted material' at home. This for example, is the foliage from 24 tomato plants, 9 pepper/chilli plants and the droppings from our very large grape. I collected them and as the bag filled up, got the choppers out and chopped them down. Then filled it again, and again and again; possibly about 12 times. And then I added today's potato peelings, carrot peelings and coffee grounds. So there is alot of 'stuff' in here - probably 2 wheelbarrows full if it wasn't chopped down.

This is a shopping bag, not a huge composting bag; from a popular supermarket.

It can be quiet therapeutic, just chopping down stuff for composting.

Village Show and peas

 I've added this as I put it on faceache just to start a new album and I had so many 'likes' that I felt bad deleting it. So now it has it's place somewhere....It needs cropping now it's on here but what the heck...

We had our village show in Sept and I just wanted to showcase a couple of cup cakes. These first ones were made by my chum, Debbie - and I thought they were fantastic

Whereas these were the winners, made by the 'only goths in the village' [so they think] and I bought these afterwards in the raffle and can concur - they were fabulous.