Petite pea

Today my last order from Plants of Distinction arrived - a pea called Half Pint. It's a tiny pea that doesn't grow very tall so doesn't need support. When I first looked at the catalogue, I thought that this variety would be perfect to sow in a window box...so tomorrow I aim to get then in before I go to work. With luck and a following wind, they should be cropping in July. Plants of Distinction have another amazing sounding pea called parsley pea, which has crinkly tendrils that they say can be eaten like broccoli - I'll give that a go next year.

Tomatoes by the gallon

Seedlings at home

Spent a sunny afternoon potting up more tomatoes. At the last count, I have over 50 seedlings...the little darlings have had an astonishing germination rate. I'm a bit tomato bonkers, and this year I'm growing:

• Gardener's Delight - always a favourite, and last year's from the allotment were the best I've ever tasted


• Tigerella - another lottie hit from last year


• Sungold - my favourite yellow/orange cherry


• Sun Cherry - meant to be even better than Sungold - we shall see


• Golden Sweet - another orange contender


• San Marzano - didn't do too well in the damp of 2008


• Costulutto - ditto


• Black Russian - new for me this year


• Black Cherry - so is this one


• Rosada - top in the RHS taste trials last year, so I'm looking forward to tasting this one


• Millefleur - lots of tiny yellow fruit and no pinching out


• Bicolour - huge yellow/red fruit - another new one for me


• Amish Paste - another heirloom and apparently grows very big

Seeds are from Thomson and Morgan and The Real Seed Catalogue. Real Seeds are great - all heirlooms and none are hybrids so seed can be saved for next year. They do amazing veg, including the Fat Baby exploding cucumber and Dead Fingers chilli - both waiting in my pop-up greenhouse to be potted on.
I thought that 13 varieties of tom was enough until Big Bro showed me the Plants of Distinction catalogue - I was smacked gobless by their collection of tom seeds, which is the best I've ever seen. Lots of varieties from the US and eastern Europe and many I'd never heard of before. So even though it's nearly May, I went a bit mad and ordered their black tomato collection, comprising Chocolate Cherry, Black Sea Man, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Japanese Trifle Black and Nyagous. Please let it be a long hot summer so that all these little beauties do well.