Share your pleasure at picking your first tomato, strawberry or whatever of the year with us. Are they earlier or later than last year? 


Last year (2025) https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=2329
Previous year's threads at https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.p...d+my+first

In my search for Cut and Come Again (CACA) plants, I found this article about CACA flowers. https://celticrootsfarm.com/14-best-cut-...er-garden/

To save you reading it, the 14 best CACA flowers are:-
Zinnias
Cosmos
Dahlias
Sweet Peas
Strawflowers
Statice
Gomphrena
Amaranth
Phlox
Marigold (Tagetes)
Celosia
Scabiosa
Nasturtium
Cornflower

I rarely cut flowers from the garden as I prefer to see them growing outdoors. Cutting flower heads off seems so ungrateful !! I might cut flowers from a shrub that wouldn't miss a few flowers but otherwise I only pick damaged flowers, like the daffodils that have snapped off in the wind. 
Maybe, if I grow CACA flowers, I could convince myself that I'm not being ungrateful!!

I thought I would try to figure out the identity of some of my random flower seedlings. Join me if you like and win fabulous prizes!*§^

*Prizes not that fabulous. Mostly kudos and seeds saved from seedlings.
§Prizes not at all contingent on winning and quite definitely contingent on actually growing any of these seedlings into successfully flowering plants.
^Prizes also contingent on you wanting to give me your address and grow my no-longer random varieties.

I'll start with the seedlings that I think I have identified.

Lupin
   

Marigold
   

Zinnia
   

The good news - they were believed to be extinct - but they're back.
https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-...ss-england

Has everyone decided what varieties and how many they’re growing this year? 
Do tell. Don’t be shy, we know how the tomato addicts are already   

I have a short list. I have to reduce it to 11 varieties. One plant of each.

If anyone has advice on which 11 I should go with , I’d be grateful. 

Tomato Black Russian  ( not optional. Definitely growing)
Tomato rosella   ( not optional. Definitely growing)
Tomato matts hornet 
Tomato EM champion 
Tomato  northern lights 
tomato oleron yellow 
tomato orange banana
tomato orange jazz 
tomato Oregon spring 
tomato indigo pear drop
tomato sweet casaday 
tomato santiam sunrise 
tomato mountain princess 
tomato gourmet bite size 
tomato girl girl weird thing 
tomato juaune flamme 
tomato piglet Willie 
tomato red zebra 
tomato buffalo horn 

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/le...ies-guide/

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/le...umblebees/

Has anyone heard of this before? It's a relatively new open pollinated, blight resistant tomato bred by Simon Crawford (breeder of Red Alert, the Crimson line, Honeycomb etc.) It's a semi-determinate which produces medium red fruit. Apparently it was released last year but this is the first I've heard of it. 

https://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/ne...ance-0518f
https://www.simplyseed.co.uk/tomato-seed...rance.html
https://www.seedhub.wales/seed/endurance...or-tomato/

The outlaws ( Bob’s brother ) is having his first polytunnel arrive and constructed on Monday. We’ve been discussing seeds. I’m always happy to help someone else become addicted     . Oh gods , does that make me a pusher   . 
So which companies will send seed to Northern Ireland? He’s buying from eBay! He could be growing anything! But probably not what he thinks!

A Daily Challenge to SPY wildlife in your garden/outdoors. 

The aim is to SPY and identify each of the following:-
A Bird
A Butterfly or Moth (incuding caterpillar, chrysalis and imago)
A Bee or Wasp
A Mollusc
An insect or spider
Another living creature (you can only use a "named human" or a "pet" once )

Every day must be different - for example, once you're seen a Robin, you can't SPY him again.

The point has been made on a thread about Kales that they all taste the same - so why grow several varieties when one will do? 
We know that a mix of varieties will extend the cropping season but, if we ignore that,.............my question is.......in your opinion which other vegetables or fruit "taste the same"? 

For me, its Leeks. There may be blue ones, yellow ones and green ones, some are early, some late, some overwinter, some crop in summer - but when it comes to eating them, they all taste the same.