As it's Friday I'm joining in with Amy's Five on Friday post and this time I'm talking about gardening. Following on from my last post about the box containing packets of seeds chosen by our son and DiL who have an allotment themselves and know what we like to grow, it's time to sit down and take a look at some of them.
I was pleased to see that there were herbs and several varieties of tomato as we grow as much as we can to use in a lot of basic recipes. For example, a pan of tomato sauce was used as a topping on a pizza base when our grandson came for lunch after a football match at the weekend and for an evening pasta meal for ourselves.
My husband is quite conservative in the varieties of tomato that he likes to grow, mostly plum, because with plenty of pulp they're good to use in cooking. He saves some seed from these, but since we have been given new seeds we'll try them out. One variety might be good for our limited space in the covered yard - F1 Sweet 'n' Neat - which is a dwarf plant. It's yellow so that will be interesting to grow for salads. Two others are Gardener's Delight and Heartbreaker Vita F1.
Lettuce and Mixed Salad Leaves
The varieties of lettuce also look interesting. There's a red leaved 'little'gem' called Dazzle, and two packets of mixed leaf. The Salanova Mix with baby-sized leaves has a dark tinge to the outer leaves and a green-red heart in the picture on the packet! That will be different!
Root Vegetables and Beans
We're not very adventurous when it comes to root vegetables. We like carrots and parsnips and although they're a challenge to grow we're very grateful when we harvest a few.
How about yellow beetroot, Yellow Cylindrical? That would be interesting to try and grow.
Beans of all kinds are always welcome. A packet of dwarf bean seeds - Bobis d'Albenga - will definitely get sown.
Fruit
The biggest growing challenge would be the melons and even the strawberries. Now that would be something to be pleased about if we got some fruit from either. The variety of melon is Musk Melon F1 Emir. I imagine it has a lovely aroma when cut into. The strawberry is F1 Sarian.
Packets of seed are expensive so it was a welcome gift to receive and hopefully we'll enjoy some produce later in the year. Have you grown any of these varieties of fruit and veg I've mentioned and if so, how did you get on with growing and harvesting them?
Flowers
There were no packets of flower seeds in the box and that's fine. We already have some lupin and sweetpea seedlings coming on and plenty of other plants being overwintered that will fill the flower beds later on after the Spring bulbs have flowered and gone over.
On the way back from shopping our daughter came by and gave me a pot of three pink hyacinths. They replace some white hyacinths I prepared at the end of last year that flowered over the Christmas season. Pink makes a change and like the tulips I bought recently they do look pretty. The three bulbs are quite crowded in the pot and one is a little stunted, but they should bloom at different times and last a little longer. I've put them on the corner cabinet in the entrance hall and the fragrance is quite delicate.
I'm going to be busy for a while with a family member coming to stay, but I'll be in touch.
Have a good weekend and week ahead.