Unusual tomato varieties: tigerella, tumbling tiger, black cherry, black russian

A few prize examples of my more unusual varieties.  Ignore the little yellow, one, I hate yellow tomatoes

At the end of the day, all the matters about a tomato is how it tastes.  Ideally not thick skinned and fluffy like a potato in my opinion.  But, if a tomato can be tasty and unusual in appearance then I like it.  I managed to buy some plants that promised a little variety on the usual red round fruit.  Some are heritage, and some are just a bit different.  As long as they aren't yellow, different is good.

Two tigerella tomatoes.  Its difficult to see as the light was bright but they do have a subtle patchy stripe.  Taste just
like a normal tomato

I have two stripey varieties, both named after tigers.  Tigerella produces lovely medium red round tomatoes but with a nice stripey jacket, just like a tiger but in shades of red with a touch of yellow.  Tumbling tiger is a little more unusual.  A very small bush plant it certainly doesn't need a lot of space.  The fruits are really long and elongated, far more oval than round, and the brightest orange colour, but again with stripes.  The orange colour keeps throwing me because I don't think they are ripe, and they are.  I have found one or two on the ground because I ignored them too long.  The colour is the exact same shade as Heinz cream of tomato soup.  I don't remember the tomatoes tasting the same though which in my book is a shame.  Both are pretty productive and great additions.

Tumbling tigers.  To me that orange one is miles off, but it isn't actually far from being ripe, deceptive little devil.  Interesting one to watch with its very elongated fruits and very economical on space

I have also enjoyed growing black cherry.  Small cherry-like fruits similar in size and shape to supersweet, but with a darkened smokey red appearance, these are just a novelty.

These black cherries have a lovely smokey black tinge, the mother thought there was something wrong with them.  She doesn't appreciate style

Another 'black' tomato which isn't really black at all is black russian.  This has really big fruits, nearing beefstake size.  The fruits have changed colour in a lovely way, being mottled green to orange red all at once.  They are also of that more knobbly than perfectly spherical.  They are admittedly exceptionally fluffy in flavour.  Think of these as full of boiled potatoes masquerading as a red fruit.  The fruits are lovely and big, but this means that when we had some impressive storms the resulting deluge popped the skins open like a fat butt ripping open some tight jeans.

Now heres a rustic tomato.  This feels like it should make a bolognese or something.  But of a fluffy one unfortunately

I know a plain red tomato is more than fine, and everybody would rather a tasty one than a fluffy one, but I do enjoy growing the unusual ones.  I would definitely grow different ones again next year, ideally from seed if I can.  I have one more unusual tomato to share, but he, yes he, deserves a whole post all of his own.

And I had a severe case of split with this one

The season as a whole is still progressing well with my larder constantly stocked with home grown tomatoes.  Only this week have numbers slowed as the heavens have opened and temperatures plunged.  But I still have over 50 to ripen if the weather ever improves!

Dwarf beans - productive and tasty, the perfect bean!

A killer on the back but well worth the effort.  Luckily Im young and resilient

I wish dwarf beans had come into my life earlier.  There is nothing not to like; quick to produce, economical on space needs, no wigwam construction required.  Perfect.  Although I will admit that they will do your back in when it comes to picking, but so will the bottom tiers of a wigwam, so thats totally forgivable.

The electric purple flowers, obviously not very big and in-your-face
but nobody is going to say no to a little dot of colour here and there

I would like to say that I saw these beans through from sowing to harvest, but I cheated and bought these as seedlings.  In my defence it was like mid May when the garden space opened up, and always better to cheat and make use of the opportunity than stick to principles and not.  I bought dwarf french beans and the best thing about them, other than the fact that they have produced a veritable hoard of beans, is that the flowers were purple.  A pretty bean is always a bonus in my book.  It was a really nice purple as well, very very pale but quite electric at the same time.  It sung out, one might say, above a sea of green leaves.  The popped into flower around early July, and were out of it and into bean production before I could turn round.

Beans forming on the plant

Im totally sold on french beans, stuff broad beans with their months of development only to find the tiniest beans ever snuggled in those fluffy casings.  Dwarf beans produce and they produce fast.  No sooner had I spotted a few thin beans beginning to form, than a quick rootle in the undergrowth revealed fully formed beans.  How they grow so quick is beyond me, but I like these short turnaround times.  Im all about an investment of time, but lets get some edible results!  They were by far the earliest out of all my french and runner beans this year, and while the others are just getting going I am sadly beginning to near the end of the dwarf crop.

The beans in question

Not only do they produce fast, but they produce a lot.  They require picking every couple of days and my fridge has been stuffed out for a couple of weeks with them now.  We have had several meals off them, and if there wasn't currently four adults living at home, im sure I could have exclusively lived off them for vegetables for several weeks.  Considering how few plants I have, I think this is really impressive.  And very satisfying!  At last a vegetable that has performed just as it should and given bountiful reward.

Nothing better than a good bean pick on a sunny day.  Less so like it was tonight - hammering down with rain

Obviously volume is always welcome, but they also need to taste good as well, and these really do.  We tend to top and tail them, cut them into two centimetre sections and steam them, although they also got thrown into a stirfry the other night as well. Delicious.  Obviously it helps to pick them before they get old and touch, which I try my best at, but try as one might you always come across a huge old fat bean and think, how, how did did I miss you?!  As clear as the nose on my face.

Some of the beans early on, they are good and tasty, and as long as they are picked early enough, tender too

Dwarf beans will definitely be featuring in my garden again next year.  They are just such a handy productive bean.  In fact two varieties for next year are already in my possession.  I bought a packet of purple queen, which is unsurprisingly purple, and ferrari which is your standard fillet type green bean.  I have also seen a strange yellow one which grows in containers which I wouldn't be sad to have in my possession.

We had some in a nice stir-fry, it added a bit of green to the mix, but normally we just steam them

Annual flowers - Cornflowers black ball

I had to get hand-sy with my cornflowers to get the blooms within the one
frame

Having spent virtually every weekend from January until April huddled in my garage sowing annuals I thought I would share the fruits of my labour.  I sowed a lot, so I will take each individually in turn.  First up is the humble cornflower.  It was the first to flower and still continues to be a star of my annual border.

I had about ten seedlings germinate readily from easily the strangest seeds I have ever seen.  I talk about it more here, but boy were they odd.  They grew quickly, moved outside and were potted up well ahead of the other annuals. Growth in the garden has been equally rapid, shooting up in height and branching out.  This however is a bit of a problem because all except one have apparently no ability to stand upright on its own and flop everywhere, over the path, under the runner beans.  I discovered a whole plant the other day busily flowering away under the runner beans, completely out of sight.  I had to go and buy some really short canes to try and prop them up.  This is probably the only negative I have come across, that and being a bit leggy without much in the way of foliage.  But they are meant to add height to the patch, not bush, so one can't expect too much.

Cornflowers reach up towards the sky on long leggy stalks and very little greenery,
good for adding a little height to the border.  Excuse the dying gladiolus in the front

I have to admit I was a little surprised when the cornflowers started flowering.  The week before I had seen some lovely blue cornflowers in full bloom at the Hampton Court flower show and really thought they looked nice. I was really pleased that I had already decided to grow some and only had to wait a few days until I had some of my own.  What really struck me was the colour, so so blue.  I am a sucker for blue flowers.  So I was a little shocked when mine burst into flower and they were burghundy.

Cornflowers mingling with runner beans

I was a little taken aback, but eventually remembered that I had decided blue cornflowers weren't particularly special and decided to go for something a little different in the form of black ball  Just goes to show how the pictures on seed packets can really undersell the flower and seeing it in real life is necessary.  Not that I don't like the burgundy, because I do.  The are the most gorgeous dark winey colour, adding a little depth to all the bright summery colours of the other annuals. Its just if I could make the choice again I would go blue.  Next year I plan to buy some blue ones to add to the mix alongside my burgundy ones.  That or snaffle some seed from a verge down the road which some soul has sowed annuals on.  They don't really belong to anyone, so I think it will be fine.  Just need to take a pair of scissors with me when I next go running!

It is impossible to get cornflowers in focus, I think some in the back are! But you see the lovely colour and overall impression

They really are good flowerers.  The first one to flower has been solidly covered for the last five or six weeks without break.  Im out there dead heading on a fairly regular basis, but they are a solid addition to an annual bed.  Admittedly some of my ten plants have not done so well, failing to get to the size or have the number of flowers that the biggest plants do, but thats plants for you.  Nothing is consistent.
I would wholey recommend, in blue, burgundy or any other colour.  I plan to have some of each for my border next year.

Growing tomatoes : early ripening and a good crop

A rare appearance by yours truly clutching my precious bounty of tomatoes.  Having this many makes me so proud

The time has come for an update on how my numerous tomato plants have been getting on so far this year.  Unlike some of my other vegetable crops (ie broad beans and peas) my tomatoes have done me proud.  They have ripened really early, producing a nice steady stream for the last few weeks that means I haven't eaten a shop bought one for quite a while.

Some lovely medium sized fruits ripening on the vine

I know they have ripened early because the mother's friend said she didn't have a single red tomato on her plants in the greenhouse when I had already started eating mine which had ripened outside on the patio.  I may not have a greenhouse, but my patio gets really nice and hot with the sun baking down, and therefore I don't do too badly with the tomatoes.  Last year was a different story, but that was because I had to shift them into a darkened corner of the patio while the roof was taken off.  This definitely affected the crop, even thought this year has probably been less warm and sunny overall.

I have about 15 plants of differing varieties, all different sizes and shapes and even colour.  Most are from Gardener's Kitchen, a good reliable source of tomato plant in my opinion. I am really enjoying growing heritage varieties and unusual coloured ones.  Somehow a stripey tomato such as tumbling tiger and tigerella are just a little more thrilling than a supersweet 100, however good supersweet may be.  I am a sucker for unusual-ness, and as you can't buy stripey tomatoes in shops, im sold.  Having taken a thousand pictures I will share the varieties I have particularly enjoyed growing in more detail in another post, otherwise this will get very picture heavy!

They may not be traditionally pretty but I find a patio full of tomatoes at various stages of ripening really attractive

Every year I think I will keep detailed notes about how many tomatoes each variety gives and the taste, and I never do.  I think all have pulled their weight, except one, which has decided to just grow one whopper that has kept the whole household fascinated.  The bigger fruited tomatoes obviously produce less quantity but I get a kick out of watching them grow huge, so I don't mind.  Two great big ones I have been watching and waiting for like a hawk split right round the centres just as they ripened because the heavens opened and we had an absolute downpour, saturating them.  Unfortunate, but still edible in my eyes.  Thats tomorrow's lunch!

This shows off some of the different varieties, including a sneaky yellow one, not something I approve of in tomatoes 

Currently I have a whole pot full of tomatoes waiting to be eaten in the kitchen, so things are good at the moment,  However there are not that many new flowers coming on the plants so I am concerned that I will get my crop early and they will be over quick.  The mother says this is a good thing because it means they will have all ripened, but I like getting some green tomatoes at the end.  What will I make my green tomato chutney with if I don't have any?

Perfection

You've got to love it when a tomato plant surprises you.  The other day I was watering one of my pots of sweet peas, a job I do every day, when I spotted some leaves amongst the stems which did not look sweet pea-esque.  There is only a two foot high tomato plant growing up amongst them.  I have never spotted it before, I don't know how, and I literally have no clue as to how it got there.  Clearly I did manage to grow one tomato from seed this year, just not quite in the way I had planned!  I have got to stop throwing seed compost in too pots im potting up, not that I thought I did on this occasion, because then you have a tomato in your peas!

So part one of the tomato season has been a resounding success, hopefully part two will continue in the same vein.

Peas and sugar snap: a bit of a disaster

In my mind I took loads of pictures, but this is it.  A few of my sugar snap crop, there was more than this, but not endless amounts.  The variety is Jessy

Like everything in life, you have great successes and you have complete and utter failures.  Last year my sugar snap peas and normal peas were two of the true successes of my vegetable growing exploits, with nice big bountiful crops.  This year has been a completely different story.  It has been poor, very very poor.  A few mistakes I made during the growing season have made numbers lacklustre at best.  What I have had has tasted great, but it has been a morsel rather than a feast.

The first and main problem is the size of my vegetable patch.  It is simply too small.  I have to plant things far too close so everything just ends up merging together into one huge mass.  There is also no access route to the back other than through the plants at the front, leading to an often neglected back row.  I had the same problem last year, but this year I have had enough.  I am digging up the lawn, with or without permission.  I am also moving that random allium at the front which is perpetually in the way.

The second thing was a dumb move on my part.  My labelling of the seed trays wore off, leaving me unable to tell which tray were Kelvedon Wonder peas and which Jessy sugar snap.  To add to this I planted the two right next to each other, one row actually made up of a combination of the two.  I thought as they grew the difference between the two would become more obvious.  Certainly last year my sugar snaps and peas were very different looking plants to each other, the sugars being thin and spindly while the peas had those thick juicy stems.  Not this year.  This year they were identical.  The problem with this is I couldn't tell when to pick the pods, so decided to wait until some puffed up, evidence of pea making.  But virtually all of them puffed up, leaving me thoroughly confused.  While the variety of pea I grew this year was absolutely fine, I have to admit that I did prefer the great big marrowfat peas I grew last year.  Yes the taste is less refined, but they are just such good solid peas.  You really feel like you have grown something substantial.

A few of my early summer pickings, peas, sugar snaps, sweet peas and broad beans

I also need to learn my lesson that sugar snaps, and I imagine peas and broad beans, can not be planted in succession to try and extend the season.  Despite what the packets might say.  The last batch never grows well and this was the case this year.  Small spindly pants that haven't grown tall and had very few flowers.  What beans it did produce mainly hung in the soil and were eaten by pests.  In my mind they last all summer when in fact they are basically over by the start of summer.

It was such a sorry state of affairs down there that I was desperate to rip out all the plants to remove the continual reminder of the failure.  In the end I picked what had virtually formed and then took the whole lot out.  The last few peas didn't have much inside, but those that did also had a few little unwelcome friends wiggling within, a sign they were getting old.  Its definitely enough to make the stomach turn.

My thoroughly unruly vegetable patch.  What a mess

Im really beginning to question the value of growing peas, along with broad beans, although less so for sugar snap.  There seems to be a lot of effort for very little reward.  Had I not already bought next years crop I would swap them up for something else.  As it is I think I will have a completely different approach, sow lots, get them in quick all at once to make enough for meals and then get them out and move on.  The packets imply you can get a crop right through until the end of summer, but I think get in there early and then move on.  Unfortunately a lack of forward planning this year means my vegetable bed in the back garden is currently lying empty, awaiting what will be my first attempt at a winter crop.

So all in all, a bit of a disappointing year.  What I did eat was great and really tasty, there just definitely wasn't enough to share.

The cypriot plant - Lantana speciosa

The Lantana speciosa I bought at Hampton Court flower show

One of my purchases at Hampton Court was most definitely an impulse buy.  A pretty flower consisting of two colours; pink and yellow within the one flower head. I was immediately taken with it.

Lantana Speciosa randomly growing all over Cyprus.  This is my favourite colour, its so summery and fun

I took a picture on one stand and then when I saw it later for sale on another, bought it.  I had never seen or heard of this plant before.  I can now tell you anything you want to know about Lantana speciosa.  I know which colours it comes in, its growing habitat, how big it gets and its spread.  This plant grows absolutely everywhere in Cyprus.  I know this because I visited the island for a lovely ten day holiday last month, and I saw it a lot.  Its funny how that happens, once your aware of something you notice it everywhere.

I still like it as a plant, but had I known its status just above a cypriot weed I may not have bought it.  It grows next to the coastal path, it is involved in hedges in what was my hotel, it bordered the holes on the miniature golf course.  If its green, its this plant.

It comes in a variety of colours, the prettiest being the pink and yellow one I have and a really beautiful menagerie of colours that resembles fruit punch.  The flowers consist of a blue toned pink, coral, orange and yellow.  It also comes in firey red and orange, and solid white and yellow, and white and pink.  I don't know how it achieves such a split of colour, but it is one of the nicest bicolour flowers I have seen.  They are just such feminine combinations.

Clearly this plant likes it hot, and rather dry, neither of which the UK regularly is.  It will be interesting to see how it gets on back in my garden.

Alliums - red mohican, hair, and bizarre

The magnificent red mohican, the topknot is just beginning to pop out here 

Red mohican alliums are all I have ever wanted from an allium.  A strong statement but one I fully believe in.  Im fond of any allium, but now my mohicans are out they take the top allium spot in my heart without competition.

My first batch of alliums were the usual purple and white fair with large spherical balls of flower.  These early bloomers have all died and dried now, the stems hacked off and stuffed in a bush to ensure the bulb is fed rather than seeds made and we have great big balls next year as well.

Red mohicans are totally different.  Even the buds tread a different path to the rest, with little wizend peaks like witches hats setting them apart.

The colour started out this lovely dark burgundy with flecks of golden

On opening they are dark dark burghundy red with little flashes of yellow.  Definitely one of those flowers that are great because they are not traditionally attractive.  There is a slight menacing angry aura  to them, perfectly befitting their punky 'mohican' name.  The name also obviously refers to their bizarre topknot.  After being open for a few days, the part of the flower at the very top slowly reaches up and breaks the spherical shape.

There is only one thing I don't like about red mohicans, I planted three bulbs and I have two flowers.  The third is pants, flopping helplessly on the floor rather than standing upright for no apparent reason at all, the flower is barely out and very small.  I am disappointed, very disappointed.  To be fair one of the other two is a bit meagrely proportioned, but this can be forgiven.

My other allium-type flower is also blooming.  Spaerocephalon, which coincidentally is also the longest word I know how to spell, are raspberry coloured 'drumsticks'.  The 'it' plant at Hampton Court last year, I of course also succumbed to their charms and bought three.  Happily three have come up, so they have proven themselves more reliable than the mohicans.

Sphaerocephalons are a lovely raspberry colour, and a nice compact drumstick shape,
they do however have a faint pong of onions

If you want to buy a plant that is attractive to bees, this is hands down it.  I remember at the show seeing one of the layer cake displays absolutely swarming with bees.  Heaving, jostling, it was like a nightclub on a Saturday night.  It resulted in one of my favourite pictures.

Bees are particularly fond of sphaerocephalons, there is always one in residence

But even with my meagre offering of just three bulbs has them flocking.  Virtually every time I go down there a bee is in residence, working away.  The raspberry colour of these is what really makes them.  Everywhere I read it says plant them in great drifts for a sea of colour at height.  Thats a little difficult to achieve with only three.  I do however have two small pots of baby bulbs which didn't flower this year but hopefully will next year when they get big enough.  Then I shall get my drift.

I bought three of these lovely summer drummer flowers, a particularly pretty variety

So all in all I am very happy with my little collection of alliums.  However, as ever I have grand expansion plans.  Despite the slight whiff of onions or leeks that accompany especially the sphaerocephalons, I want more.  I have already bought three summer drummer bulbs, a classic allium that is frankly, rather pretty.  It has quite an open structure and white, touched with pink, in colour.  I bought summer drummer at Hampton Court, and would have bought other varieties but none of the nurseries brought the ones I wanted.  I have my eyes on allium bizarre, its crazy.  Kinda pretty, definitely nuts, I just think this would totally liven up a border. I haven't been able to find somewhere to buy these yet, but when I do I will be buying a few.  They are only small so im sure I could stick in a few here and there.

Bizarre by name, and bizarre by nature.  Still pretty though

Another crazy allium I have my eyes on is 'hair'.  Almost completely green with a small burgundy centre, this is more of a structural rather than pretty addition, but every border needs a bit of structure.  I would also like one or two of these flowerless alliums.  They curl like snakes ready to strike, but do would add a bit of interest.

More of a structural one, but every garden needs a bit of frondy green

Im not all about crazy odd structural alliums though, everybody likes a good pretty flower so I would also like some white-pink decipiens, or cute silverspring.  Space is always a concern, so these may have to wait until I move out, but no doubt I will have bought one of these by allium planting time.