I’ve started writing every day, the story of my garden and, it seems, the story of my gardening life. To avoid blog reader fatigue I will publish here now and again. For the rest you will have to wait for The Book! This is

Day 10

I went to the allotment today with my bike trailer containing tomato plants and French marigolds. I cleared the other half of the greenhouse up there and planted two more rows of tomatoes and I scattered the marigolds around the edge. I now have five rows of tomatoes. They are not quite big enough to take the strings that will hold them up. I will add those when they are a little more established and have put some roots down into the greenhouse mould. I tie a string between the bottom of each plant and wires that run along the roof of the greenhouse and then twist the tomato round as it grows. I take out the side shoots at the same time. The marigolds are there to keep away whitefly. It’s the same plan as in the garden at home. I may add chives and basil later. Also I bought some alyssum seed which I have yet to sow, but which attracts predatory insects like lacewing. While writing this I have just found a packet of radish seed on my table. It is time to have a go at growing radishes. Any schoolchild can grow them, they say, but I don’t seem to be very successful. It can’t be that hard!

The greenhouse at the allotment is rather falling down. The winter before last there was a storm which broke about half the glass. It will be expensive to repair and so last year I grew tomatoes and cucumbers in it as it was with a reasonable degree of success. I’m trying that again this year. I will eventually have to make a decision about it. Most of the roof is still intact so it provides some protection. That also means no rain gets in so it has got rather dry. I watered the new tomato plants and the soil around them as thoroughly as I could, but I think I will need to keep watering very regularly. Adding the chives and basil and alyssum will also help with water retention. A plan is forming. The only other issue up there is slugs and snails. I can keep on top of them here in the garden because I go out each night with a torch and relocate any I find to the compost heap. The allotment is a mile away so I don’t get there and the snails know it. I have planted some sacrificial plants around the edge and also replaced all the marigolds that have been eaten. They seem to eat the marigolds first and once the tomatoes get to a certain size they are no longer vulnerable. I don’t use any sort of slug pellet anywhere. I don’t even kill the ones I collect. Onto the compost heap or over the fence. I’m told they come back, but with any luck they find something better to eat on the way, or someone steps on them. A bit of passive culling is OK, but nothing direct.

Here at home I have finally discovered the name of the climbing spinach that someone, (Clare, I’ve now discovered), gave me two years ago. It came up again last year, and again this year. It is identified by my plant app as deadly nightshade, which it isn’t but that identification made me reluctant to eat it until I had positively identified what it actually was. I couldn’t remember who had given it to me, but thought it might have been Polly. Every internet search for climbing spinach gave me Malabar spinach, which I had also been given, but which I knew this wasn’t. Anyway I messaged Polly and she said she thought it was Clare. I went to message Clare and in the message thread from two years ago there it was. Caucasian spinach. I looked it up and discovered the Latin name was  Hablizia tamnoides and it is my plant! Now I can eat it. It is a great plant that will climb and tastes like a mild spinach, can be eaten raw or cooked and comes back every year – that much I know!

I’m rather pleased about this.