Collecting Seed in the Garden

Collecting seed from anything you grow in the garden is a simple task, but not everyone is enthusiastic enough to get into the habit. Amongst what I've saved this season are some Russell Lupin seeds (below) which are easy to collect now that the flowers are finished. All of these seeds are from the plants we grew to attract bees to our garden, so really no effort involved and a great result without even trying.

How easy is that.Russell Lupin Seed Pods

The end result - but not all.

Or maybe the 28 varieties of 'bagged blossom' Tomatoes that I've saved seed from this season.

Almost Done

With the tomato season coming to a close for us here, I spent the afternoon pulling out tomato plants, but still have a few plants left that I want to get at least one fruit from.

Here's some from today, including an almost Black/Red with a beautiful sweet flavour and no sign of acidity along with a nice clear yellow.

These are Negrillo de Almoguera and Merciano Amarillo, both from Spain together with Caro Rich and Chocolate Stripes.

Negrillo de Almoguera 9/10

Merciano Amarillo 8/10

Caro Rich 8/10

Chocolate Stripes 8/10

Our Top Tasting Tomatoes 2010/11

We've started to pull out our tomato plants as quite frankly, we're getting sick of eating so many. The season here has been the best we've had in years and all plants have produced abundant amounts of fresh tomatoes of every shape and colour.

Our very best tasting tomatoes this season has to go equally to Morado and Malakhitovaya Shkatulka, which are both fabulous and get a 10/10 from us.

Here's Malakhitovaya Shkatulka we cut earlier - notice how big it is on the scales.

Off To School

Monday the 7th February 2011 sees me start a year of study at the local Chisholm Institute, where I will be doing my Certificate 3 in Production Horticulture Course. Depending on the workload as to how much gardening I'll get time to do, but I feel competent enough to say that I should cope with the course subjects, plus I may even get some time for propagating some Tuberous Begonia's.

It's Tomato Season here.

As you will soon see, it's tomato growing season here at The Junction and we're having a great season too. We've had a mild and moist Summer here this season and together with some humid weather, it has been great for tomato production. I've posted a great selection of the ones we liked and have rated them out of ten, to our taste.

Japanische Zwiebel

First on the list are Japanische Zwiebel which translates to Japanese Onion which I've been waiting on and just picked these earlier in the week and as far as taste goes they're nice, but we'd rate them 6.5/10. They have a firm flesh which soften when ripe.

Ozgrow Cherry 9/10

Next on the list is a pink Cherry that grew as something else, so rather than just call it an unknown because I can't find the true name, I'm going to name this one Ozgrow Cherry after my garden forum. A lovely tasting cherry.

McSee's Grape 8.5/10

Then comes another unknown from a stray seed, this time it's a Grape tomato so as it doesn't have a name either, I'm going to call it McSee's Grape. I like this one very much and think I'll be growing it again. Taste is great.

As there are so many photos to post, I'll just add their names under the photos and if there's any further comment to make about any of them.

Ghost Cherry 8.5/10

Powers Heirloom 8/10

Miel du Mexique (Honey of Mexico) 8/10

Malakhitovaya Shkatulka 10/10

Morado 10/10

Old Ivory Egg 7.5/10

Black Cherry 9/10

Chocolate Cherry 8/10

Totem 9/10

Sara Black 8/10

Little Heart 7.5/10

Le Case de Apulia 8/10

Grub's Mystery Green 9/10

Rosado de Ademuz 8/10

UK2000 9.5/10

And these aren't all of the varieties grown here this season.