Hi Angi, sounds like the answer is to go over to your Mums and taste her local toms! I only ever tried Marmande once, a few years ago and made a hash of it. Maybe it's time to try them again next summer? Can you say whether yours did best in a greenhouse, or outside? So far, I have tried each variet...

Do you recommend germinating dwarf beans on moist paper before planting into the ground? Hi Mike, I don't know about recommend, but I germinate & start nearly all my beans before planting them. I'm sure I may be taking a risk with the transplating. However I use Root trainers and you get a love...

Great list of choices so far. Can I add Fenugreek? In the past, I've only ever seen the seeds for this in the kitchen, but 2 sowings last month have shot up and are already around 4-6" tall. The bonus? You get a supply of fresh "Methi" (useful if you're into Indian cookery). Apart fro...

Now that you've started gathering some of this year's tomato harvest, would any of you care to recommend good Beefsteak Tomatoes? Having tried a few that were ok, but nothing like as good as I've bought or eaten in Europe, can you pick out ones that had: - Excellent flavour - Reasonably good size - ...

That's an interesting poiny Mike. The other thing is feeding, especially if the toms are in growbags. One bottle of liquid feed I had recomended feeding up to every other day once the second truss had formed for growbag toms (compared to a max of once a week for outdoor ones). I'd guess you only hav...

I've planted Pantano this year. One or two in the greenhouse have ripened (though they're not very big).

However the ones outside are a "proper beefsteak" size, but not yet ripe:

Mr Potato Head wrote:I'll see what I can do... please be patient...

Hi Mr P.H. Are you having any luck?

I have decided not to continue growing globe artichokes next year. Much as I love this splendid vegetable, I'm just not getting the amount of heads to justify keeping the plants in the border. Yes Marge, I came to the same conclusion last year. Because they hog the space they're in, they also mess ...

Yes, I tried a couple of years ago. I was given some bulbs as a birthday present and bought some more (quite expensive ones) from www.rareplants.co.uk/ I did get some saffron the first year (minute quantities) but obviously didn't look after the plants well enough afterwards. Since then, they've pro...

Thanks for all the previous comments. I'd like some advice on the best compost containers. I have the following plastic bins (all sold for composting): - A square one 3x3 foot and about 4 ft 6 high, with air vents - A round one about 2 foot in diameter, about 4 ft 6 high (supplied by local authority...

Two points that may help: 1) If you fry chillis for a bit before adding the other ingredients, that can help reduce a bit of the heat. However it's often the case that a hot chilli stays hot! When frying, you may need to put the extractor fan on (the fumes can be choking!). 2) I just bag chillis str...

Have a look at this posting:
viewtopic.php?t=2046

Seeds gathered like this are superb in cooking, as they retain their flavour. Great in anything spicy (curry, chilli etc), would probably work quite will in a fish pie too.

Generally speaking, this site is very good at highlighting posts that are new or have been updated since you last looked at them. This can save a lot of looking around. However it seems to do it by looking at the date & time you last visited, then marking everything submitted before then as read...

Just a couple of observations on the relies so far. I have three varieties on the go this year: - Pantano (Italian Beefsteak) - Alicante - Sweet Olive I have some of each in: - Growbags in the greenhouse - Out in the allotment Out of the ones in the growbags/greenhouse: - All of the Pantano have sho...

I've posted this before, so please excuse me if this is old advice for you. Like many people, I love the flavour of coriander leaf. By contrast, the dried seeds have a pleasant subtle flavour, but one I don't find so useful. At this time of year, it can be hard to get any new Coriander to grow much ...