Italian Seeds

We’ve just returned from a romantic sojourn in the beautiful, misty and mysterious city of Venice (is Venice a city – I guess it is). First things first – Venice is beautiful and everyone must go to see it at least once in their life. It’s the law. Secondly, there are no taxis (well if […]

Running behind…

I’ve been searching for some Swift onion sets to sow now and harvest in May next year. This, I thought, would help me in my quest to be totally self-sufficient in onions for one whole year. I have around 50 onions in storage right now, and three bags of shallots. This might last us until […]

To Round-Up or not to Round-Up

I had a question from Barry over at Mr Toad’s He asked: “Perhaps I can ask for your opinion on a matter: the field secretary recommended using “Roundup” to knock everything down before I start and assures me that it’s commonly used for such purposes. What’s your opinion of this chemical (the plot is pretty […]

Ready for winter

I’ve potted up some herbs ready for winter. Here you can see Marjoram, Mint, Parsley and Oregano but I also planted up some Chives too. Give them a trim once you’ve potted them up. The mint particularly liked this and has sprung some very vigorous new shoots. They’ll need shelter – here on my kitchen […]

Collecting Seed

This year I have decided to do my first bit of seed collecting. I think I will stick to ‘easy’ seed for the moment, which means large ones like pumpkin, peas, runner beans and the like. I have already collect a ton of Klevedon wonder peas, Futsu and Uchki pumpkin, and the seeds pictured here […]

Spankin’ new Design

The more shrewd amongst you may notice that mtp is looking smarter and more dandy these days. I was inspired by Clare over at Pumpkin Soup to update my look. While my IT support (Ryan) didn’t have time to redesign my site from scratch he did help me to choose a new theme (TerraFirma 3.3) […]