Variations on a theme - Tomatoes

At the beginning if June I would not have believed that the summer would be so gloriously warm and sunny! It's been such a treat to eat all our meals outdoors (I think we had two meals outside last year) and in the greenhouse the tomatoes have been thriving.

Today I was able to pick some of all the seven varieties
Red Cherry
Liguria
Imur Prior Beta
Orange Strawberry
Madame Jardell's Black
Marianna's Peace
Tigerella

I love the variation of shapes and colours. Even more interesting is the subtle differences in texture and flavour.
I'll try to add some tasting notes later, but for now here's a photo.

Celia
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As UN-alike as peas in a pod

Here is the promised review of the peas growing in the Pigeon Proof Pen, I've introduced them in their flowering stage: Curruther's and Robinson; Shiraz and Tutankhamun; and Salmon Flowered.

Here are their pods . . . definitely not all alike!

Let's start with the green pods . . . 
Tutankhamun's pods all develop near the top of the plant, the pods are medium sized, straight and usually in pairs. The pale green peas inside are beautifully sweet and have a classic pea flavour - perfect to sprinkle in a salad without even needing to cook.
If you want to win a prize at the village show, grow Robinson! the pods are magnificent – they grow singly on long stalks, the pod is attractively long and curved and contains up to a dozen beautiful bright green peas which have an excellent fresh garden-pea flavour.

After the clusters of gorgeous flowers, the petite pods of the Salmon Flowered pea, develop in clusters at the top of the plants. These are perfect pea pods in miniature and when young the peas are sweet and very flavoursome. Older pods will contain firm round peas which are lovely added to pot-cooked pork or chicken dishes.

Shiraz is the first purple podded pea commercially marketed as a 'mangetout', these pods here have gone over – you need to catch them young before the peas start to swell to use them as 'mangetout' but I can confirm that stir-fried or steamed the young pods remain blue-purple in colour but don't have the flavour of a classic green mangetout like Carouby de Maussane. At this later stage the peas can be shelled - they are sweetish but lacking in a good pea flavour. Next year I will grow a green mangetout alongside so I can use a mix of the two and have the flavour and the novelty colour to use together.

Curruther's is an old fashioned purple podded variety with tough leathery pods – these are translucent and become more red as they age, with a pale bloom on the outside. The peas inside are pale pea-green and tightly pack the pod; even at this stage the peas taste sweet with only a slight mealiness. Cooked, the peas change to sage-green in colour but don't be put off - the flavour remains very good.

I can't resist snacking on a few pods of peas when I check the Pigeon Proof Pen, and there are plenty for using in our suppers. I will of course be saving a few pods for seed for next season . . . the new pea in the pen, Robinson, is a keeper and I'll save most of this year's modest trial harvest to sow next year.

Celia
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The Three Sisters (plus support act) 2013 gig

Yesterday, with enthusiastic help from Cheep and the team of under-gardeners http://twitter.com/celiahart/status/350924596121333761/photo/1 I tidied up and filled the Three Sisters pit with compost from our two-year-old heap. The compost mound is now planted with this year's 'sisters' . . .

Beans: Runner Bean 'Black Salford' plus one plant of Climbing French Bean 'San Antonio' (the only one that I managed to germinate)

Corn: 'Rainbow Sweet Inca'

Squash: 'Black Futsu' x 2 and Marina di Chioggia x1


Interplanted with Sunflower 'Earthwalker' (because I needed somewhere to plant these and I don't trust Cheep not to peck them if they are planted in the new cut-flower bed).


This was posted directly from the vegetable garden by the magical means of wifi :-)
Celia
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The 5th pea in the Pigeon Proof Pen is . . .

The Salmon-Flowered Pea

Isn't she pretty! Like a Thomas Hardy heroine in a cotton sun bonnet.

It's not a purple-podded pea, but it's a must-have decorative vegetable. If it wasn't for the pigeons, I'd grow this in the flower borders. 

It grows to about 1.5 metres and as it gets taller the main stems thicken and the top gets bushy.

Clusters of buds appear at the top of the plant.

 The flowers are smaller than the other pea flowers but because they are in clusters they make quite an impact; posies of white and salmon pink.

These will be followed by clusters of small pods containing tiny sweet-flavoured peas.

I'll compare the pods from all five pea varieties next month.

Celia

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More pea portraits from the Pigeon Proof Pen

In the previous post I introduced you to the first two peas to flower in the Pigeon Proof Pen, now here are two more and as you can see in the following photo, they are very different from each other . . .

On the right is a shorter more compact group of pea plants, they are a new variety and have obviously been bred not require tall supports and it also looks as though it will have a large yield, it's named

Shiraz

I don't usually grow modern commercial varieties of pea, but Shiraz promises to be a purple-podded mangetout, which is the holy grail for pea breeders! Here is a review of Shiraz by plantsman Graham Rice. As you can see in the photo above, the  whole plant is much more compact than an old fashioned tall pea; the flowers curl over coyly and there are two or more flowers on each stem. The wine red splashes where the leaves join the stalk is a tell-tale sign that the pods will be purple, I can't wait to see if the pods really are the colour of red wine AND tender enough to eat as a mangetout.

The pea on the left couldn't be more different in character . . .

Tutankhamun

When I saw this offered in Heritage Seed Library catalogue a few years ago, I couldn't resist adding it to my pea collection even though it doesn't have purple pods. It made up for it by having an amazing provenance:

"Thought to be originally from the garden of Lord Carnarvon at Highclere Castle, Berkshire. Lord Carnarvon, along with Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922. Could this variety be a descendant of the peas allegedly taken from the tomb? A tall pea (150-180cm) that produces its white flowers followed by pods of sweet tasting peas at the top of the plants making them easy pick."

Well, it probably isn't a pea from King Tut's Tomb, but I discovered it's a beautiful pea to grow. Everything about it is big and robust – it towers over the Shiraz, it towers over me! and the leaves and tendrils are sturdy and huge. The flowers are pure white and are held elegantly on the end of long slightly arched stems, like art deco lanterns. I love growing Tutankhamun alongside my purple-poddeds, and he's already almost reaching the roof of the Pigeon Proof Pen!

The fifth pea variety in the Pigeon Proof Pen has yet to flower, but when it does I'll take some photos . . . and this one really is something different!

Celia

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Blooms in the Pigeon Proof Pen

At last! a post about Purple Podded Peas . . .

This morning two of the pea varieties growing flourishing in the Pigeon Proof Pen, have their first flowers . . . and what beauties they are! Proving that growing heritage peas is not just for the shelled peas, it's also about the beauty of the plant, the pods and the flowers.

Let me introduce you to . . .

Curruthers' Purple Podded

Well, just look at the deep colour of the wings! the intricate veining on the standards!

For me, not the most productive of peas (although that may have been down to pigeon attacks in the past) but supposedly one of the best purple-poddeds for flavour. I see Curruthers as a polite, elegantly attired, gentleman gardener. My seeds were originally from a swap with Rebsie, you can read her expert review of Curruthers here.

Robinson

I don't just grow peas with purple pods . . . Robinson is a green podded pea and my selection this year from the Heritage Seed Library. The donor of the seeds had acquired them from a Mr Robinson, who had got them from somewhere in Scotland. The HSL catalogue describes Robinson as being vigorous and a favourite amongst exhibitors for their long, slim, slightly curved pods produced over a long season. The peas are reputed to be "extraordinarily sweet" . . . I'm looking forward to tasting them and if I'm impressed I'll save seed to grow lots next year.

As you can see in the photo, its flowers are white with beautiful green shading and a very attractive shape . . . I think Mr Robinson is a very handsome chap indeed!


More reports for the Pigeon Proof Pen soon,
Celia
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The Three Sisters 2012 – an unexpected bonus veg

If you're a long time follower of PPPs you will know that each year I grow 'the three sisters' – squash, sweetcorn and climbing beans planted together on a circular mound of compost.

I tweak the arrangement each year, I've learnt that it's better to have a central tall bean support with the corn in blocks around it and just 4 squash plants in between, as the squash grow I spiral the vines around the mound.

I would normally make the mound before Easter and plant it up in May, but this year was so wet and so so cold and horrible that beans were rotting in the ground and the courgettes were looking sulky and sad so I delayed planting until late June. You can see pictures of the mound making and planting here on Pinterest.

Well, here we are in September and already a few days ago in the last week of August some parts of the Midlands and West Country had the first frosts of the Autumn! So, although the three sisters look fine and lusty, I'm worried that the frosts will come before I get any beans or squash to harvest; my fingers and toes are crossed for a lovely late season Indian Summer.

 Beans
The beautiful scarlet flowers of Salford Black Runner Beans
and the white flowered Lazy Housewife climbing French beans

 Sweetcorn

The variety is Sweet Nugget and it's looking good –
we'll soon be harvesting the cobs

 Squash

I planted two varieties: Waltham Butternut and this
is the largest of the Galeux d'Eysines – still very small
so I doubt that we'll have giant orange pumpkins for Hallowe'en!

To encourage growth to the fruit rather than the vines of the squash, I decided to cut back the growing tips. The squash plants are now putting out side shoots and they are threatening to take over the garden!

I remembered reading that the tender shoots of squash plants are edible, so I checked in my well-thumbed copy of 'Oriental Vegetables' by Joy Larkcom – sure enough, the shoot tips and young leaves can be used as 'greens'.

I cut a generous bunch of squash shoots to cook for supper – you can substitute them for any recipe that uses pak choi or similar tender green leafy vegetables. We ate ours in a pork and vegetable stir-fry with rice, I added the squash shoots last and after a stir around, covered and steamed until they were wilted and tender but the stalks still crunchy. If you plan to use chop-sticks, cut them up before cooking!

A delicious vegetable! Don't waste them!

Celia
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The Three Sisters – the movie

We had noticed that the leaves of the squash plants in The Three Sisters bed, move and turn with the sun and heat. Today I set up our 'scouting camera' in the veg patch and set it to take a photograph every 10 minutes. I've put together all 123 photos to make this movie.

Celia
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Yes, I still love growing peas!

There's a reason why this blog is called "Purple Podded Peas" –  I love to grow peas with purple pods

wigwams of beautiful colourful pea-pods make me smile

and this one is my favourite: Victorian Purple Podded

 The flowers are bi-colour, deep purple and bright mauve-pink; they are held on long sturdy stems above the blue-green foliage. The flower-stalks and nodes are burgundy – a giveaway that the pods will be purple.

 The pods are mainly in pairs and as they mature they become mottled with green. The long flower stalks mean that the pods are held away from the foliage, making a beautiful display of long purple pods.

 The average pod size is impressive!

"As alike as peas in a pod."

 As with all purple podded pea varieties, the peas inside the pods are green. 'Victorian Purple Podded' may not be the sweetest of peas but it wins on looks and is very tasty when picked and cooked fresh from the garden.

Not all the peas in my garden have purple pods . . .

here's another favourite: Golden Sweet

 Another wonderfully decorative pea, the flower stems are bright golden yellow, with a little pink tinge at the top and bottom. The foliage is a lovely bright pea-green and has attractive veining. The pink and purple flowers don't open fully and fade to shades of indigo.

You can see that the pods as mostly singles and the plant has a zig-zaggy appearance in contrast to the very up-right 'Victorian Purple Podded'.

 Often marketed as a mangetouts, I've let the pods mature; you can see that these softer pods curl as they grow fatter and the cosh (pod or shell) is soft and breaks easily.

 The small round peas are sweet of course!

  Every gardener needs a helper!

Celia

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Grow your own

Well, I'm no longer a member of the RHS (the stack of un-read copies of The Garden and unused membership card just didn't warrant the sub) and I only rarely watch Gardeners' World (sorry all you Monty fans but he just doesn't inspire me to garden) BUT apparently it's National Gardening Week, so why not? Let's go for a little tour of my plot . . . I've been beavering away with renewed enthusiasm this year!

It's that time of the year, twixt cold frosty nights and very warm sunny days, when there's not room to move in the greenhouse! I daren't risk putting those tender plants outside; the tomatoes are getting bigger every day; I need space for more seed trays and modules; and when that chill wind is blowing I need a place to sit and have a cup of tea ;-)

I've planted the potatoes . . . International Kidney in large pots which will be topped up with leaf-mould as the shoots peek through the soil (thanks for the tip Fiona). Juliette and Ratte in the new bed along the side of the greenhouse.

The 'fairy-fences' (Fiona's term) or 'slug-hotels' (Cliff's term) are looking good . . . whatever they're called they stop the soil falling onto the paths, the planting area is maximised and they are made from pruning and cost nothing. And I had fun weaving them and they look pretty.

The pea wigwams this year are made from home-grown miscanthus grass stems and dog-wood prunings. I am waging war with the pigeons, I know that they plan to wait and lull me into a sense of security before they strike and peck my precious pea plants. I have wrapped the bottom half of the wigwams in wire netting – it's not visible from a distance but is protecting the young pea plants as they get established. To deter those pesky pigeons without compromising on style, I've made yards of APB (anti-pigeon-bunting) from coloured plastic mail-order packaging and scrap bias binding – again this cost absolutely nothing. Cliff says they look like prayer flags. I'm praying that the pigeons are scared of APB.

Now this is a good sight :-) Aspargus poking their fat little noses through the soil!

The Artichoke survived a -16C freezing and is looking good; and yes, more APB!

The recent rain has refilled the Dragonfly Pond; and there's a new dragonfly sculpture – Cheep the cockerel jumped onto the wooden chain-saw sculpted dragonfly and snapped off one of the rather rotten wings! So I bought this new metal one when we went to Belton House at Easter.

Yep! The Orange 'chicken-proof fence' is still in situ and it's worked pretty well. The Round Garden and Box-hedge Border are beginning to look good again. When will I take the fence down? Er, pass!

The view through the severely pruned Hazel Arch across the Round Garden to my studio. I've planted Sweetpeas around the metal obelisks and sowed seeds of Gypsophila, Amaranth and Ammi Majus – all flowers for cutting. The seeds are from Ben aka Mr Higgledy (his excellent web site will make you want to grow flowers and smile all at the same time!)

Happy gardening . . . let the growing begin!

Celia
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Labour of the month: May

My Labour of the Month for PPPs this May was truly Herculean – and I forgot to take the 'before' shots, so you'll just have to take my word for it ;-)

PPPs Labour for May is . . .

Planting out the tomatoes

The day started quite sensibly – I cleared out the staging from one side of the greenhouse and swept the floor in readiness for the potted up tomatoes. I don't use grow-bags any more, pots are much better for tomatoes as they like to be planted deep – in fact I nip off the bottom two or three leaves and plant the lower 5cm of the stem below soil level, the plant will make extra roots and take up more water/nutrients.

So far so good.

Then I thought about where to put the outdoor tomatoes, it's best to keep them away from the potatoes as blight can be a problem later in the summer (if it ever rains – and it still hasn't!). I also need to keep the hens away from the tomatoes! so that rules out a large part of the main garden. In recent years I've grown tomatoes in pots in our courtyard, but it's shady and cool for half the day, so we don't get ripe tomatoes until late September. Cliff had suggested putting tomatoes in our front yard which gets full sun for most of the day – the best place is against a south-facing wall out of sight from the road and next to the outside water tap.

A brilliant solution! Except that the area is where we keep the dustbins and we've allowed nettles and ivy to run riot for at least three years – have you tried to pull up thick nettle root matting?
It took me hours labouring in the hot sunshine, I completely filled the council compostable-waste wheelie bin with nettle roots, and the result is this . . .

I put the pots of tomatoes into some old resin faux-lead planters that are far to manky to look good anywhere else, and I've left a few self-seeded perennials to give the area a casual 'tidy-but-not-too-tidy' air. (In case you're wondering, that large thing is a stable yard mounting block made from an old cistern filled with concrete – it's not going anywhere! but is useful for resting the watering can on while filling it with water.)

There are still lots of tomato plants left –

plenty for the gate-side stall . . .


It's my contribution to the Village Fete's plant stall, people don't want to buy tomato plants in late June so I sell them now and give the stall the money.



This year I'm only growing four varieties:

RED CHERRY – it's a cherry tomato and it's red (duh!)
I bought the seeds on our holiday to Tenerife in March, I wanted a bog-standard, good flavoured, easy to grow, cherry tomato; to graze on and to use in salads.

TIGERELLA – it's stripy!
For something a bit different.

LIGURIA – an Italian paste tomato
I bought the seeds years ago while on holiday in Italy – the packet was huge but tomato seeds stay viable for a long time. This is one of those big tomatoes you see on Italian market stalls, like a full sack gathered at the top; it's perfect for the topping on bruschetta – skinned, chopped and warmed with a little garlic and olive oil.

IMUR PRIOR BETA – you what?! exactly!
This was my choice from this year's Heritage Seed Library list, here is the description:
Indeterminate. Cordon. Donated by John Yeoman, this variety was selected from high altitude areas in the Chilean mountains and developed in Norway for growing in cooler regions. Also thought to be blight resistant*. The juicy red fruit have soft, smooth flesh and are slightly acidic in flavour. Let us know what you think**.

* mmmm? I think I'll put some in the vegetable garden and give that a test.
** Must remember to send feedback to the HSL.

Celia
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Labour of the month: April

My Labour of the Month for PPPs this April has to be garden related – this is the peak month for sowing and planting, that window of opportunity when the soil warms up, the hours of daylight lengthen and frosts are few and far between (and hopefully gone until late autumn).

April is traditionally the month of heavy showers, when the sky turns an inky grey and the rain pours down drenching the soil; then the sun comes out again and the air smells fresh and drops of water glisten on the leaves like diamonds . . . yeah OK I'm dreaming!

This April, have we actually had any rain at all? I've been trying to remember when it last rained and I can't recall even a short shower – did it perhaps rain a teeny bit on Mother's Day on the 3rd April? So the laborious labour of the month has to be . . .

Watering the garden

We have three large water-butts in the vegetable garden,
the one next to the greenhouse is almost empty
so I'm now using water from the two linked butts
which take water from the house roof.

Everyday there is more to water!
More seeds sown and plants getting larger
and needing potting-on.


The sunshine is gorgeous,
it's lovely to wander around in sandals
– but I would like some help with the watering!

If it rains on the parade on Friday
please can my garden have some too!


Celia
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