Black Tomatoes

No, didn't close the gate - when I clicked on it all I could see was the tomatoes, so I don't know if it was a glitch. I can always put it on properly if you are really that interested - but once you've seen Zephirine Drouhin for the 20th time you may feel like crying.

Waitrose sometimes sell Heritage tomatoes, some of which are nearly black, and purple carrots.

DD does a lot of her research on tomatoes and she brought home some dark brown ones. They were a nice flavour but quite thick skinned.

I think Jane must have closed the gate for the evening...

I can't see a pergola, only tomatoes.

It really grabs you doesn't it? I did the RHS General purely to learn how to garden 'properly' and not just a hit and miss approach. I then stayed on to do a year's Garden Design which was very rewarding because although I'm not exactly brilliant at technical drawing I do love planting plans. Sucker that I was, I then went on to the RHS Diploma course which was very hard work because it normally takes longer than a year. This was sixteen years ago when I was younger and fitter!!

No, it's still on my computer, there's just a couple of pics of when we started it last summer.

I did it partly at Hadlow in Kent, and then some more in Lincs when we moved up there, at Riseholme, I went to work for a big tree nursery there doing graftings and cuttings and what have you. Also propagation of perennials. Then had a herb nursery for a while and planned and worked people's gardens. It was MiL's idea initially after DBH had made me move yet again, she thought it would help me to make friends in a new area if I went on a garden design course, so she bought me one as a birthday present.

Yes, I do always have cake. Can you see the new pergola, is it in there? I haven't added many photos lately because as poor Phoenix found out, Photobucket is a right b****r lately. I suppose I ought to sort it out properly really, it used to be very organised.

Oh Merlot you are so lucky I wanted to do that but was not allowed .
Still my DS who has set up his own little gardening business is going to one , so will be able to get tips from him.
Am off out now to see a sick friend , try and cheer her up !

Where did you do your horticultural course, jane? I did mine at CCAH, Milton which is now the College of West Anglia.

not sure about about & [cake] , will have to check with *JANE!
She will probably take pity on us though !

Do we get and ?

I think we have Mexican mice in our garden. This morning I discovered they'd nibbled the tops off all the chilli pepper seedlings

Jane is a decent sort she would be pleased for to just wander round !
Just so long as we don"t take cuttings !

Well, I was waiting for permission, but I will now have a look, Nonu!

Well I am going to look all round JANE"S garden now , care to join me ANA?

Luckily for me I am not a mad axe murderer...

Well, most of them are fairly old ones of this garden, because I only started to put photos in photobucket 6 years ago, when we moved here. It's quite a big garden.

Jane, it seems we can see all your albums!

I don"t know but whatever it was was great ! pm"d you

Yes - and they taste different too, don't they?

I was a gardener. As in, started out in accountancy, hated it, wondered about teaching, went on a horticultural course and loved it so became a gardener, so I had access to some quite weird seeds very early on.

The mice LOVE those small pink beetroots, I had to give up.

Some of the Black Russian tomatoes really are very black, but they need a lot of sunshine to achieve it. So it is a bit of a lottery to grow them. I had one very good year and a couple of fairly bad ones.

Those tomato photos were on my 'miscellaneous' thread, so heaven only knows what else you saw, nonu!

Agree about the tough skins nannyfran

We grew pale pink beetroots last year (I think it's an Italian variety) - they were delicious, with a delicate flavour. They were sort of stripy with a dark circular stripe running through them, but mostly pale pink.

Just looked. They're winter camone tomatoes from Sardinia. ( well I was almost right with sicily)

Jane those look like the Sicilian ones I get from ocado. I love them. Might save some of the seeds and try and grow them

I know I'm being fussy, but I really wanted to see a black tomato!

I like the look and sound of them.

I can just see a dish of salad with black tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, orange, green and red peppers, purple broccoli, green lettuce and celery, beetroot and balsamic vinegar. Nice to look at and even better to eat, yum.

Have many of you used pansies and nasturtiums as a compliment to a salad?? I always think they look lovely but I have never tried it for myself.