Growing Ratatouille in the greenhouse!

As this summer has been so long and warm, the vegetables we have been growing in the greenhouse have loved the conditions and we have harvested a wonderful crop.



The Aubergines are swelling bigger and bigger and the colourful peppers are ready to be picked. We have been growing a colourful selection this year including some black one, which eventually ripen to bright red.

Whitefly has been a bit of a nuisance through the summer, but we have controlled this organically by spraying soft soap onto the underside of the leaves, where the whitefly tend to collect.

Watering need to be regular and using tomato feed on all the plants each week has helped the plants to crop well, and stay healthy too.




All of these plants can also be grown in a sunny sheltered spot in the garden, but will benefit from a period in the greenhouse in spring to give them the long growing period they prefer to fruit well.


A bumper crop of tomatoes were grown, again relishing the long summer, and the sweet gardeners delight were delicious.










Another easy crop we grew were the chilli peppers. They not only look fantastic, but add a real kick to the ratatouille!

potager for vegetables and cut flowers

Our ornamental potager at Toddington Manor is growing away now, after dire weather for the first six weeks or so. This is Rachaels (our WRAGS trainee) project this year, to design a planting plan, which was colour themed with rich purple and reds, along with creamy white cut flowers such as ammi major, antirhinuums, helianthus 'Vanilla Ice' and wonderfully scented sweet peas - 'Beaujolais' and 'Mrs Collier'.









Earlier on May 2nd, we organised a workday for the WFGA (Womens Farm and Gardens Association) to plant and sow our potager. Members pay a small fee to attend the workday, and have chance to be taught new skills, we manage to complete the sowing and planting in one day, and we all enjoy the cakes! The gardeners had started sowing seeds back in March in the greenhouse so a few plants have a head start before being planted out in modules. Others were sown direct into the prepared soil.







Rain followed the following day, and was followed by cold wet horrible weather for the next two weeks - not great conditions for seeds to germinate. The plants sat and sulked also, until the sun came out, and for four weeks, baked dry under the relentless hot sunshine.

Now... I know gardeners tend to moan about the weather (it is never quite right!) but it has been extremely unusual this year. The result is that a few seeds didn't make it, so have been resown and to add insult to injury, a rabbit seems to have made its way into the walled garden, and is enjoying the lettuce...





But nature has its own way of dealing with these trials, and although, as the photo shows, it is a little bare in places, it will catch up and be as beautiful as it was last year. The sweet peas , mange tout (the curiously named 'Ezethas Krombek Blauwschok'), ammi major , euphorbia oblongata are all flowering well, and as I write this, the vase of sweet peas smell wonderful!

Growing tomato plants

This year we have made time to grow a few indoor crops in our Victorian greenhouse and vinery, including Cantaloupe melons (Blenheim Orange), Ridge cucumbers (Marketmore) and 3 different varieties of Tomatoes (Gardeners Delight, Sakura F1 and Brandywine)

We sowed our Tomatoes on 6th March in a heated propagator, by 21st March they were ready to prick out into larger, individual pots.

The trick with tomatoes is to keep them moving itno a bigger pot as soon as the roots have filled the pot - without letting them get potbound.



Three pot sizes later.... and they also needed tying in to a cane, to stop them falling over. We create a neat figure of eight using string, and not too tight as the stem will expand as the plant grows.

All our varieties are cordon tomatoes or indeterminate, which means the main shoot will continue to grow - given its own way. However, the growing tips will be pinched out after a certain number of fruit trusses have formed depending upon whether it is growing in the greenhouse, vinery or outside.

With this type of tomato, the side shoots need removing so growth is directed into the developing fruit, not excess foliage. At the axil of each leaf the tiny shoot is just pinched out with my fingers. If you miss one, it will get quite large quite quickly, so be sure to keep a eye on them!

As they need watering most days in the warm weather it is easy to look along the stem each time to see if any need removing - and you enjoy that lovely scent of tomatoes each time it is bruised - takes me back to my childhood each and every time!

Constant watering is best - they dont like being either waterlogged or too dry, but a little every day ensures the fruit will not be prone to splitting. Also, we spray a few whitefly with insecticidal soft soap on the tips.


10th of May, so about 2 months after they were first sown, the first exciting tiny green tomatoes are developing now - we now start feeding every two weeks with a high potash feed to ensure the best quality crop.

Plenty of high temperatures and sunshine means the fruit grow quickly and start to ripen, the first to turn red is Sakura F1, and looks like Gardeners Delight will be next, all by the 8th June. Picked fresh and warm from the plant, a quick wipe on my sleeve - I really should just check if they are fully ripe yet!!!

Sowing seeds and more seeds...

The greenhouse is a frenzy of pots, seedlings, trays and watering cans. This time of year, however big your greenhouse, it always ends up shuffling pots around as they grow and fill their allocated space, seedling get pricked out and use up 10 times their area, and young plants need transferring to our frost free vinery to start hardening off before planting out.

The last few seeds are going in the propagator now, large seeds of the Melons and Cucumbers for training up the metal framework in the vinery - compare these to the tiny grey-white seeds of brachysome, hardly visible when sown. It is always interesting when growing from seed opening the packet of something you have not tried before. The shape, colour and size of different seeds are so varied!

Just remember the rule of thumb for beginners sowing seeds - cover the seed with about the same depth of compost, this way the food reserves can power the seedling to the surface. Too deep and it will run ot of energy before it reaches the surface. The tiniest seeds do not even need covering, just ensure they are kept moist. And there will always be exceptions to this rule as some seeds require light to germinate so if you can always check before you cover them up!

Onion sets or onion seeds?

Which will be better onions - those grown from seed or from sets?

To settle this dilema, this year we shall be growing one onion from seed (Red Baron) - and one from sets (Snowball). The sets arrived in Feburary and were planted in multi-purpose compost in pots on the 8th, the seeds were sown in March in the heated greenhouse.

So place your bets now....