Cherry, Plum and other Heirloom Tomatoes

Tomatoes seem to be doing well again this year. Since the small cherry and plum ones did well last year, I planted many more varieties this year.

Also planted bigger varieties this year. They aren't as big as they could be since they were planted in containers (and I did push my luck by planting them close pretty together) but still, they have come out beautifully.

July Roof Terrace Garden Update

The weather has finally started heating up giving the plants lots of sunshine and warmth. I have to water the plants much more often as well to prevent them dying.

We've had more than twice the amount of strawberries than last year but they are much smaller as well. The slugs have also been snacking on them. I'll soon have to find a more efficient way of dealing with them other than beer traps and the daily hunt, since they seem to be multiplying.

The peas were doing well and we had some good sized pods filled with peas which we roasted in their shells but the plants were drying from the bottom, a sign of root fungus I think, so I dug them out and sowed more, but the same thing is happening to the new ones. I will need to find ones that are disease resistant next year.

Finally got the garlic after months of being in the ground. I don't know if I have the patience to grow garlic again! They could have stayed in for a few weeks longer but I couldn't wait.

Since tomatoes did pretty well last year, we are planting lots more and experimenting with some bigger heirloom varieties as well. We have squeezed them into pots, maybe a little too much but the fittest are producing well.

The first of the asparagus pea that we picked from seeds by vegseeds.net. Tasted nice cooked with butter but it did taste mainly of butter!

Mixed radishes

I've only bought radishes about twice in my life as I've never really fancy the spicy peppery hit they gave. But I was getting impatient since most of the plants I had chosen to grow had at least a two month harvest time and I wanted to find something that gave me results sooner. Most sources said radishes took about two weeks so that was enough for me to ignore my past memories to add them to my seed list.

Since I didn't know which type I wanted, I picked a mixed pack that said it had three different varieties from vegetableseeds.net. I sowed some in terracotta pots and some in the hanging baskets that nothing seemed to grow well in. Two weeks passed but the radishes were a bit small to pick but the following week, there were some nice sized ones. 

To my delight, the ones in the hanging basket grew faster than the ones in pots plus they were out of reach from slugs that chomped up their peppery leaves. A nice little surprise was finding not just three varieties, but six! There could be even more but to my untrained gardener's eye, I can only spot these different and beautiful ones.

Mixed radishes

Now to the other important bit, the taste. The sharp, slightly unpleasant kick when eating raw was still as I remembered, but when mixed into a salad with the thin slices soaking up the dressing, that kick mellows out a lot and provides a delicious accompaniment and a lovely textural crunch. My sister has been around for visit this week and have been adding radishes to the lavish salads she loves to make and they are now a little crunchy favourite we look forward to.

Salad leaves, apricot, radishes, raisins, almonds, pine nuts, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, pepper, salt

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How to save tomato seeds

I never bought tomato seeds (nor pepper/chilli) to grow because they are so easy to obtain from the actual fruit. Heirloom tomatoes can be very expensive to buy, so whenever I do buy them, I take the time to save their seeds. It's not as straight forward as chilli or pepper seeds which you can just knock out and leave to dry overnight, but it's not much harder. This is how I go about it.

When you have a nice specimen of tomato that you like (this one is a marmande tomato) remember to save its seeds before cooking or eating it which I have often forgotten!

Slice it down the middle and you should see its seeds. 

You don't have to remove all the seeds, just enough to plant, keep, or give to friends. Put in a glass/cup/jar and fill with water.

Some say to cover with cling film and leave for a few days until mould forms on the top but I didn't like dealing with smelly mouldy water so I leave it uncovered, and change the water every day. But before changing the water, I give it a bit of a stir so any tomato pulp loosens, tip out the old water, with the floating pulp, and add fresh water. Sometimes I do it two or three times if there is a lot of pulp. After about 3-5 days when the seeds look free of most pulp, give it a final good rinse, pour as much water away and take out the seeds.

I found the best place to dry them is on a large ceramic plate spread out as much as possible for quick drying. If there is a lot of water, you can raise one corner slightly so the water drains to one end and soak it up with a kitchen towel. Once the seeds are fully dried, which can take up to a week, they might stick to the plate but are easy to remove by "scratching" them off. (Which is why it is not advisable to dry them on paper like I learnt the hard way!) 

Store your seeds in a dry place, labelled nicely in a paper envelope or jar ready for the next planting season.

Free and simple garden planner

I've been wanting to bit a bit more organised with my terrace garden space and thought of drawing out what I should plant and rearranging the space as it has been neglected since the end of autumn. I was going to use Photoshop (my usual program for most artwork) but decided to look to see if I could find something online that was free, required no sign ups or downloads, and was far quicker than I could do using my existing artwork program.

And I found this ideal Garden Planner relatively quickly! I highly recommend it if you are thinking of drawing out any garden plans. It's pretty straight forward to use, just select the item you want, drag and drop it to your design board, adjust the width/height/colour to your liking, and keep going until it's all done. 

Trailing plants

Finally after months of trailing leaves we are starting to get lots of beautiful purple flowers on out borlotti bean plants and some have started turning into pods. 

Beautiful borlotti bean flower

Borlotti beans emerging

The cucumber plants are also flourishing with lots of flowers a few cucumbers. This is the first one and I'm hoping the spikes will disappear as it gets bigger.

First cucumber emerging

Unfortunately the pea plants all shrivelled up after a few dry spells. But they managed to give a few pods which we dried to try again for next year. 

Dried pea pods

The bittergourd plant doesn't seem to be doing so well outside surprisingly but we have one indoors that is trailing nicely. Lots of flowers on both but none are fruiting.

Indoor bitter gourd plant

The butternut squash plants are doing okay. We aren't expecting too much as they were planted close together sue to the lack of space so it's a bit of an experiment. There are a lot of flowers as well but again, none have fruited.

Trailing plants are great fun. I love seeing them grow and train them to places I want them to go. Since we have slugs, its a good way to keep them from eating everything. Next year, green beans are on our list of things to grow.

First potato harvest

Growing potatoes were a bit of an experiment as we had some store bought heritage potatoes that had sprouted and we thought instead of throwing them out, we'll try to grow them. 

It was a bit frustrating seeing all the leafy green shoots but not been able to use them, plus not being able to see the growth progress of potatoes beneath the ground. But all was revealed at the end of July when we dug it all up consisting of the two heritage varieties of Shetland Black and the other one we can't remember! We probably could have left the Shetland Blacks to get a little bigger

Although it was a successful experiment, I'm not sure if it's worth growing them next year unless we have a large spare planter box.

But the potato plant also produced some fruit after flowering which makes me tempted to experiment growing from seed.

We have pigeons!

Since we've moved in, I've noticed pigeons landing on other roofs but not ours but recently, there have been signs that they have arrived... Tuffs of coco lining from a planter, strawberry tops out of the compost bin, and droppings scattered around the terrace. Thankfully, I think they didn't meddle with the strawberries on the plants but I think they might be culprits who nipped of my first pea flower shoot.

I then remembered that the previous owners had a cat and thus their avoidance until now. They must have been spying for a while and finally picked up the courage to land (and destroy).

So whilst we would love a cat, it's not something we can afford to have so after the 3rd day of coco lining bits floating around, we made the hasty decision of hanging old CDs around the terrace.

DIY bird scarer

Not the most attractive thing and sometimes feels a little like a discoteque rather than a calm green environment, but it's preventing the pigeons from landing. 

We also put a small dish of dried cloves, chilli and pepper near the coco liner planter just in case they get brave. Don't know how long the CDs will keep them away but will try to change their placement once in a while. So for the moment, we (don't) have pigeons! 

Blooming vegetable flowers

We've had lots of sunshine these past few days and the plants seem pretty happy starting to show their blooms. We had quite a few first with flowers.

First pea flower

However a couple of days after this photo was taken the tip of this pea shoot seemed to have been snipped off. The end was on the ground so I don't know if I can blame the pigeons? But another flower has formed and hopefully lots more will come.

First courgette flower

It's been a bit of a struggle deciding whether to eat or leave that first courgette flower. We've never had courgette flowers but heard only good things about them, but we thought to leave this very first one to mature and we'll have the opportunity to pick others. 

Bolting salad flowers

Some salad varieties have bolted which is a bit disappointing considering they hardly matured. Produced about 4-6 tiny leaves and then bolted. But at least they are producing pretty flowers that I'll try collect seeds of.

Second batch of broad bean flowers

The broad bean plants have produced a second batch of flowers. The main stem was producing side shoots and I wasn't sure if I should cut the main down but looks like that worked! 

Tomato flowers and buds

The first lot of tomatoes planted have shot up quickly into proper plants after months of being trapped in small containers as little two inch seedlings. A few tiny flower buds have appeared and I pruned them back as the books, cutting everything under the first bloom (and also anything that didn't have a bloom - I got a little enthusiast with the seceateurs) so hope I haven't pruned too harshly but they seem to be holding up alright.

Onion flower buds

I know you are meant to dig up onions before or when they start to flower but I had a look at mine and they were so tiny I thought I'd leave them in to bloom and collect the seed. I did plant them from an old onion so maybe that's why they didn't swell up.

Potato flowers

I can't wait to dig up the potatoes and I think the flowers and yellowing leaves are meant to be a sign that it's soon. I'm hoping it's not going to be an anticlimax (like with the onions) where the tops are doing well but nothing much beneath the soil. 

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June garden update

Our potato plants seem to doing well. Very green and leafy, and I wish the leaves were edible! 

Potato plants

The broad beans plants have only 5 pods from our 9 plants (one plant had 3 pods, so 6 plants didn't have any) so I'm not sure if it was really worth growing them. There are new shoots growing from the bottom so I'm thinking of pruning the main older shoot and hopefully the new ones will flower and fruit. 

Broad beans

Strawberries are doing well. Probably the most rewarding plant so far. 

Strawberries

Salad have been left to grow but some are annoyingly bolting. I read it's normal because of the longer hours of daylight and nothing much can be done but sow more seeds every few weeks. A bit tricky when you have little growing space. But I won't complain as I love the long summer days.

I've let the pak choi and mizuna go to seed but at least I'll have some seeds to harvest and use next year.

Pak choi flowers and seed pods

Mizuna seed pods

The courgettes are getting bigger, so are the tomatoes. Borlotti beans and peas are starting to trail up the fence. Bitter gourd, cucumber don't seem to be growing as fast as the rest but at least they are looking healthy. 

Butternut squash seeds germinate really quickly. I decided to plant them just over a week back and they are already bigger than some I planted 2 months ago.

Butternut squash seedlings

Potato plant

My potato plants seem to be doing well, popping their leaves above the soil so I'll add a bit more soil like I've read should be done so it buries the potatoes deeper, allowing more room below for growth. So will keep adding until the soil reaches the top of the box and hopefully will have some potatoes later in the year.

Potato plant

Plants from Portugal

Every time I go to Portugal I take the opportunity to collect as many plants as I can. Previously, I only brought back indoor plants but now I can go a little crazy and get outdoor ones! Of course I have to limit myself so I only brought back edible producing plants.

The previous owners left some strawberry plants but I couldn't resist bringing back more especially a different variety. 

Strawberry plants

Raspberry plants were such exciting find. These were in our aunt's garden which no one in her family are that keen on and she thought they were something else when she planted them! She says they fruit 3 times a year, always too much fruit for their need and grows like a messy weed. All things I don't mind if they produce anything edible.

Raspberry plants

Bay is another we brought back. I've considered buying a bay tree as we do use bay leaves in cooking, so it was a great joy to find that my in-laws had some in their garden from wind blown seeds and they didn't want them. For such little plants, they had very long and strong roots!

Bay trees 

So I've potted all these up and we'll see how they fair over the next few months.

Potted strawberry plants

Potted raspberry plants

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Garden in Portugal

This weekend (plus a few days extra) was spent in Portugal visiting family. It's always nice going there especially when the weather starts warming up as the family has two plots of land for gardening. This time of the year in early spring, we should have been able to pick broad beans but with the late start to spring, they weren't ready. The neighbours did have a couple ready to be picked as they sowed them earlier.

Broad bean

There were however still lots of tangerines. 4 trees in total but only 1 was still producing fruit juicy enough for juicing. 

 

Lots of little tangerines on the tree

Basket of tangerines

There was also an orange tree with very good oranges which was also less work to get some juice out of.

Orange tree

Juicy oranges

4 oranges made 3 small glasses

The pear trees were in bloom, as were the cherry trees and neighbours quince tree.

Pear tree in bloom

Also managed to help plant some potatoes which was incredibly hard work! But glad I was able to help (even though just a little) and have a better idea on how to plant some for the future.

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Our terrace

A little snow on the terrace this weekend. Very pretty but too cold and wet to go out to start any of my garden chores. Looking forward to the weather warming up.

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