A tomato contradiction without objection

Posted on April 23, 2025 by onedeckpete

Of late we’ve been looking online at various gardening forums where there’s been many questions that go like “Can we put our tomatoes out in the back garden now?” and at times we are thinking the same, what with our lack of patience combined with the wonderful weather we’ve had recently (although it’s tipping it down here today).

You’ve got to remember it’s only April and you know anything can happen weatherwise here in the UK. We read on the Gardener’s World website here: “Tomatoes can suffer outdoors during spells of cold weather, with ideal temperatures from 18 – 24°C and no lower than 13°C” so we’re being careful and not putting most plants out until mid/end of May. They still will be left outside during warmer days and taken in at night (if we remember) to help with the “hardening off” process.

As we’ve a lot of seedlings in pots indoors we’ve put a small handful of tomatoes plants out to make a little bit of space (to put more pots in). We’re taking a big risk but it’s only a small number and they are under makeshift protection made from bubble wrap and kebab sticks, jam jars and seed tray lids up on bricks. It may not be the most glamorous of frost protection but who cares what they look like if they do the trick.

Wade in the water

Posted on April 18, 2022 by onedeckpete

We hope you had a good Easter and all is well in the garden now that the good weather is upon us. We’d still advise to take it easy putting tender plants outdoors as you never know what the weather will be like and it’s still only April. We’ve been hardening off the veg plants (pic below) by sticking them outdoors for most of the day to get them used to what it’s like out there in the real world.

The pond (top pic) has really woken up now with some frolicking frogs, the odd newt and goldfish sharing the space. The Lewisham pet shop bought water lily is starting to sprout and we welcome a new addition to the pond, some bare rooted stuck Watermint procured off ebay in an old chimney pot which was elsewhere and now submerged in its rightful place (above).

And we’ve gone right off the idea of the Dalek type compost bin as the old fashioned wood version is doing well and giving off some warmth from the grass clippings after a good old weekly mix using a garden fork.

And while we were writing this post we’ve been listening to the latest This is a music show as recorded by @DazDude4000. It’s a lot better quality this week. Enjoy the Bank Holiday!

Some plants are softies some plants are hardy

Posted on March 26, 2021 by onedeckpete

On Wednesday morning the weather weren’t too bad so we put out the tray of sweet peas and tomato seedlings and all the other stuff we’ve got on the go on the kitchen windowsill to give them a taste of the outside world of SE23.

This process called “hardening off” allows the plants to get used to the change of temperatures outside compared to the relatively controlled conditions of our kitchen windowsill. There’s a very good chance if you just plonked a plant outdoors without any hardening off that would give it a right old shock thus checking its growth and it may even possibly keel over depending how much the contrast is.

We’re a tad early on doing this as it’s still nowhere near the climate you can be putting out plants like these. When the weather gets a bit milder we’ll stick them out on good days and take them in at night for a week or two until conditions are right for a permanent move. More on “Hardening off” here.

As another example of impatient gardeners we sowed some wild flower seeds in the strange bed behind the decking. Spot the old kitchen clock, the champagne box which magically appeared on our doorstep overnight years ago and fence post footings which should be covered over.

And also this week this tune from many moons ago from Tranquility Bass (think we originally heard it on Patrick Forge on KISS) popped up a couple of times in our head this so it has to be put up now.

We’ve heard it’s going to be a nice weekend by the way!

Live at the seed trials

Posted on May 24, 2019 by onedeckpete

Thanks a million to all at the Thompson & Morgan blog for sending us a lovely package a few weeks ago that contained some packs of yet-to-be-released 2020 seeds to trial in our garden. They came in a nice green wallet and the actual seeds (that were in sealed plain white metallic packs) were labelled simply “spinach 201902”, “squash 201904” etc as the proper names of the varieties are under wraps and will be given out later this year. We love that sort of thing here at Weeds. Very GCHQ. Walls have ears and all that!

Above is a bit of an experiment, we recently moved a small silver birch we originally found in the street a couple of years ago (post here) and around it we planted a ring of broad beans, don’t ask us why but it made sense at the time!

In the circle we thought we’d sow a row of the lettuce and spinach. Hopefully the shade will be just enough to keep the plants growing but not bolting (aka going to seed early) as spinach and lettuce do have a tendency to do so if the weather is too hot. It’s only an idea, let’s see how we get on.

We’ve already started off a fair few tomato varieties this year but we welcome another one with open arms especially one in a plain white envelope just called “tomato 201905”. We may have started them off too late (and we didn’t write down the date of the sowing sadly) but it seemed like they took their time to germinate on the kitchen windowsill (compared to the spaghetti squash that was planted on the same day). Out of the three tomatoes that have germinated so far, nearly all of the seedlings are nowhere near the centre of the pot. When/how did the seed move? There must be a scientific explanation, answers on a postcard please. We look forward to finding out what varieties these are. Will they be small cherry tomatoes or beefsteak ones the size of your hand?

The tropaeolum (nasturtium) was sowed directly outside in the Lewisham Council recycled bottle bin and has germinated like a treat. We’ll transplant a couple of these around the garden. We like the look of the darker leaves than the usual varieties of nasturtiums we usually put or self seed in our garden.

The spaghetti squash is something new to us and it will be great to see what they look like and actually taste like. The seed was germinated on the kitchen windowsill and went out in the garden just when it had two seed leaves on with the minimum amount of hardening off (one night under a cloche!) and it’s doing well!

Apart from spinach in a pot on the kitchen windowsill (above) there’s sunflowers in a seed tray, some lettuce sown (in the ridge) in between earthed up potatoes and zinnias (that we have never grown before but look interesting) sowed straight into the ground. We will keep you posted!

On a bargain tip!

Posted on May 14, 2015 by onedeckpete

Big shout to our good friend Paul W who on his way home from work tonight, bought four courgette plants for £2 (that’s 50p each!) from a plant sale outside Charlton Station. How good is that?

If you are buying plants now, do make sure they have been “hardened off” and can go straight out into the garden. The plants may have been started off indoors/under glass and won’t be used to the ever changing weather outside and there’s always a risk of frost that might knock them for six too!

So just to make sure, leave the plants outside during the nice days and take them in at night so that seedlings become accustomed to the strong sunlight and varying weather so toughening them up a bit. Then in a few days they can be planted outside and if you’re still in doubt that there may be frost about, wrap some horticultural fleece (net curtains or newspapers) around them at night.

Also watch out for those slugs and snails, as they love those young plants too!

So keep em peeled (for cheap plant sales and the slugs and snails) as Shaw Taylor (RIP) used to say!

They’re under starters orders

Posted on April 20, 2015 by onedeckpete

I’ve got a collection of leggy tomato plants waiting to go in the garden until after the risk of frost has gone, like I have every year. After starting them off on the kitchen windowsill a couple of months ago, I put them in the plastic mini-greenhouse outside with the front open during the day to harden them off. This weekend I stuck one of them under the terrarium outside and also sowed a mixture of seeds beside it. There’s onions and garlic on their way in the bed behind and in the raised bed furthest away have seed potatoes under a good deal of earthed up soil. Seed bed of the week The bed at the bottom of the garden which I was going to keep veg-free this year has now a row of leek seedlings which I sowed indoors on xmas eve last year and a couple of courgette seeds which went in over the weekend under jam jars for extra protection. The rest is a mixture of flowers, a purple sprouting broccoli gone to flower, rocket and strawberries. It won’t be long now until “they’re off” and we can’t wait! back bed of the week

Eye eye eye eye moosey

Posted on March 25, 2012 by onedeckpete

A weekend fit for gardening or what? Here in the UK it was! Yesterday while thousands of others were sunning themselves crammed onto Brighton beach I was weeding in the back close to the house listening to the excellent slow-mo electonica of Andrew Weatherall on the red bull music academy site recorded in one of the pods of the London eye last year. Lovely stuff!

Things are starting to roll now in the garden and not forgetting the windowsill! There’s three pots of “cut and come again” cos lettuce mix ready to eat soon. The seeds cost me £2.35 and just add to that the price of a pot of compost, it’s cheap as chips to grow it yourself. As it was “leaf day” yesterday too, I took the chance with the weather and sowed outdoors two sorts of lettuce; artic king and little gem plus some spinach in a part of the garden that throughout the day will get some dappled shade which will stop the plants from bolting and going to seed early. If there’s any sign of frost I’ll stick some fleece or an old net curtain over the seedlings.

Today I did another couple of jobs in the garden, including making a very simple raised bed out of a couple of scaffolding boards given to us by the Portugese man with a van (an excellent bloke who does removals and house clearances at a decent rate, contact number on request!) who sometimes uses our garage combined with three end pieces found in a skip last weekend. Those with a couple of screws and voilà, a raised bed! Now I’ve got to give them a lick of weather protector when I do the fence next month and find some compost to fill them with.

I’m also in the process of “hardening off” some `sweet peas (I’ve jam jars on them at night which I take off during the daytime to get them used to the weather conditions outdoors as they were started off on the windowsill). I couldn’t find any bamboo canes to put in to support the plants when they grow taller, so used the prunings off the apple trees from early this year as a substitute. I knew there was a reason I kept them!

The Andrew Weatherall mix is here: http://redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/4555/

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Tag Archives: hardening off