Grow Your Own Magazine

We had our first tomato this week - a Bloody Butcher fruit from an outdoor plant sown in late January. There are about three others that are ripening well (on two plants) but there will be a gap before any other varieties are ready. Next will be some Golden Sunrise by the look of it, then maybe Olivade or some of the tumbling Gartenperle.

It's definitely the earliest tomato I've had but it remains to be seen if it as tasty as those which ripen later.

Cutecumber

This has been a really exciting week in the garden and my early sowings have been paying off.

We've harvsted:

Strawberries - Marshmello
Cucumbers - Rocky (mini fruits)
Lettuce - Salad Bowl
Carrots - Ideal
Potatoes - Foremost
Beetroot - boltardy
Cauliflower - Graffiti
Mixed oriental leaves - mizuna, mustard, etc

I am about three weeks ahead of last year, according to my diary, except with the beetroot which...

Cutecumber

I can now categorically state that it was worth starting some vegetables off early this year.

I sowed a few brassicas and lettuce at the end of January and into February and they have come to fruition as expected - we've had a couple of cabbages and a couple of cauliflowers and lettuce by the bucket-load!

As the brassicas have now been harvested I can use the containers they grew in for the next generation of crops - some dwarf runner beans, for example.
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Cutecumber

The wonderful is having fresh lettuce every day for my lunch...

...the weird is a garlic plant around which are sprouting chive-like shoots. Very odd.

So far, we've had some little Gem lettuce, some Salad bowl and Bijou. The cool spring has been great for lettuce.

One the way are some Sangria, Freckles and Chartwell - all new to me this year - and then more salad bowl and little gem which are still in their modules.

Cutecumber

Yahoo! Picked my first hearted cabbage of the season this morning!

It's a green pointed type, Advantage variety, which can be grown at any time of year. I sowed in February and it started life in a greenhouse, growing to maturity in a pot outdoors with a cauliflower and two lettuce for company.

I also picked a fully grown Little Gem lettuce, which looks great - it seems a lot heavier than some I've grown before, so hopefully the heart is good and dense.
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Cutecumber