Toms

It's that time of year again when I sow my tomatoes. Our absolute favourites are Garden Pearl - a determinate (bush variety) cherry that produces masses of sweet firm fruit. I'm also sowing 3 other varieties simply because I have the packets of seeds:

Duchy Originals Falcrosso F1 Hybrid - Large plum-sized cherry. I think this is a bush variety as no pinching out of side-shoots is required. Seeds in date.

T&M Black Cherry - The clue is in the title with this one! This is a cordon variety. Seeds are 7 years out of date.

D.T. Brown Bejbino F1 - Another cordon variety, seeds 5 years out of date.

Unlike some types of seeds, tomatoes will often germinate and grow on to produce healthy plants well past their sow-by date. I am sowing 5 seeds of Garden Pearl and 4 each of the others in 3 inch pots.

In other news we now have lots of seedlings in the pots on the windowsills. The leeks sown 19 days ago are germinating - I counted 5 this morning. To my absolute delight the spring onions sown 9 days ago are also germinating. In the chilli department we have 1 Cayenne pepper and 2 Aji Wrecking Balls. The lettuce are germinating and so is the parsley. It has definitely been milder over the last few days and is likely to remain so for the next week so maybe spring is just around the corner...