Down on the Allotment

Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a Hampshire garden. I've been growing veggies since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Some traditional varieties and old favourites as well as new ideas. I share my garden with my allotment assistant Daisy the Labrador. On Twitter as @MatronsVeggies

Saturday, May 03, 2014

Tender Plantings

  Now that the temperature is really warming up, I am planting some of my more tender seeds in a heated propagator in the greenhouse.  These veggie really don't like the cold so hopefully in a couple of weeks' time when I plant them out all danger of frost will have passed.  I obtained a variety of Purple Runner Bean from Gwilym at the Aeron Vale Allotment Society.  He has been trying to breed his own variety of dark coloured runner bean.  I will grow only this variety this year to avoid cross pollination - then share some seeds.

I used up some of my toilet rolls, then made some paper pots from newspaper.  This will give the beans a nice start with a long root run.  I can plant out the whole paper pot without disturbing the roots too much.
 I am looking forward to growing quite a few varieties of veggies from Franchi Seeds.  There are so many lovely varieties of veggies from Seeds of Italy with each variety traditional to a particular area of Italy.  Most of these do really well in the UK climate. These two cucumber varieties are 'melon cucumbers' which have a really lovely crisp, fresh texture of a melon and the taste of a cucumber. One of these Cetriolo Melone is from Arbruzzo, and the other from Manduria. 
 and... there I was minding my own business in the greenhouse when I spotted an intruder on my patch!
 How dare he!  This is why I can never plant a row of seeds in my own patch!! he just uses it as his own private toilet!  Poor Leo is resting indoors at the moment, recovering from a small stroke last week.  He is improving day by day, but a bit too wobbly on his pins to chase this intruder away.  So, after grabbing my camera and taking a few pics.... I chased him away! Shoooo!

7 Comments:

At 8:17 AM, Blogger Midmarsh John said...

Poor Leo. Penny sends sloppy kisses and says get well soon.

 
At 11:34 AM, Blogger Captain Shagrat said...

Really sorry to hear that Leo is not well at the moment, hope he gets back to fine fettle soon. Please give him an extra squeeze from me xxx

 
At 7:20 PM, Blogger Robert Brenchley said...

I'll be growing Aeron Purple Star as well, but deliberately crossing it to create my own mix. I need to find out more about runner bean breeding - or learn by trial and error - since I want to keep the stringlessness in my own 'black' variety.

 
At 8:02 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Hope Loo gets better soon ... beautiful bengal cat, suprised he is outside !

I've got beans at various stages ... it is a master plan to avoid a glut :D (pretty certain it'll make no difference whatsoever !!)

 
At 8:49 PM, Blogger Peggy said...

I hope Leo is feeling better soon and up and about. I am glad you are only sowing your beans now as I thought we were 'way behind due to changing allotments and the cold weather

 
At 9:20 PM, Blogger Dewberry / Amanita said...

Leo is cute :)

 
At 8:34 AM, Anonymous Lisa said...

I am glad Leo is feeling better. regarding cats and their lavatory habits,I seem to have many of the local cats visit my garden, although I sure it's in the dead of night as I never catch them in the act!

 

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