Potting started

Today I started sowing seeds in pots to put in the mini-greenhouse outside my house. I sowed pumpkin (probably too soon), Gardener's Delight tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, purple-sprouting broccoli, Bedford Brussels sprouts, and a half-tray of basil. The Italians grow rows of basil. Joe puts it in with his tomatoes when bottling them.

The potting compost I used was dreadful - Tesco's Cheapest - I had to crumble every handful before using it, and it was full of great fibrous lumps.

I've still got a lot of potting to do, but I will leave the courgettes and cucumbers till a bit later.

The cucumber...swelling to greatness

The bloody cucumbers are swelling a bit too much, if you ask me. The cry on the allotment is "Do you want a cucumber?" "Have you enough cucumbers?" Yes thanks, billions of the buggers. And when they swell to greatness, the seeds become too apparent. However, my cucumbers are delicious: Burpless Tasty Green; unlike some of the nasty bitter things I grew last year. I tried to explain to some of the Italians what an F1 hybrid was, and that you couldn't use the seeds next year (they grow the majority of their crops from saved seed), but they did not believe me. They make me feel guilty and extravagant about my lust for novelty, and my desire to buy new seeds every year.

Cucumber and Marigolds

I had my first cucumber this week. I have grown Burpless Tasty Green this year, a huge improvement on last year's bog standard ridge, and on shop bought cucumbers for that matter.

They grow to a good size and are very sweet, with thin skins.

The Marigolds are an Afro-French F1 Hybrid from Suttons called F1 Hybrid Super Double Mix. I grew them to ward off greenfly, etc., but all they seem to be doing (apart from looking ornamental) is crowding out the tomatoes.