Kitchen Garden Forum

I was taken by surprise yesterday when we ran a fund raising plant/ seed swap at our local library at the number of people who had absolutely no idea what some of the plants and seedlings were. I'M first to admit that there are some perennial flowers I'm not terribly familiar with but what really surprised me was the number of people who pointed to tomato and runner bean seedlings and asked "What are they?"

Now I know not everybody will be interested in growing vegetables but it seemed sad to me that some people hadn't the faintest idea of how their supermarket purchased vegetables started their life. It reminded me of our window cleaner who a couple of years ago wouldn't eat a yellow cherry tomato I gave him to try, picked from a plant growing in a patio container because "they don't make yellow tomatoes and are you sure it's not something poisonous?"

There are not too many flowers I can recognise from a seedling Primrose, but have always known what most veg plants look like but I grew up with it & dabbled a bit on my own before I got serious - but I was fortunate not to live in a high rise & always had a some land. The supermarkets don't help as any pictures they do have is of the actual crop, not the plant, so I can kind of understand why there is a generation that missed the experience & knowledge.

Funny you saying that, Primrose. If you look at that rather good painting on pages 94 and 95 in the current KG magazine, you might notice that the artist is certainly not a vegetable gardener because the tomato leaves and stems shown look rather like clematis!

This is my first year of growing plants from seeds never realised tomatoes plants were hairy.

I am like the child who was asked where do eggs come from and they replied a shop.

Don't forget you don't harvest Cucumbers until they develop the plastic coat.