Why Do Supermarkets Taste So Bland?

For me even the organ vine-ripened varieties don’t come a patch to one freshly picked from my own plant. The thing about supermarkets is that choose varieties that look good on display, have a long shelf life and are not easily damaged by customer handling. They also stop the fruit from fully ripening by putting it cool storage. If you want really tasty tomatoes, my golden rule is never ever put them in the fridge.

Tomatoes are very easy to grow. Virtually any container, some decent compost, a bottle of liquid feed and your away. The problem is that it’s a bit late to start growing them from seed. Late in the season the plants on sale can also look a bit sad. Fortunately, tomatoes are exceptionally easy to grow from cuttings. Take a side shoot, trim the bottom and remove all but the top four leaves. Poke it into a pot of compost and it will start growing within a week or so.

If you don’t know a friend or neighbour who will give you a small bit of one their plants to get started, even starved and leggy plants from market stalls can be made young and healthy again if you use it for cuttings.

Written By Alistair Ayres

Nurseries come to farmer's markets!

I like visiting London’s Farmers’ Markets. There’s something reassuring about seeing vegetables sold in random shapes and sizes. There’s the homemade bread and scrummy cakes too. This year, gardeners are in for a special treat as nurseries have been invited along to sell their plants on selected dates through April, May and June at Farmers’ Markets throughout London.

They run from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays and 10 to 2pm on Sundays. Dates for markets with Plant Fairs are:

4 April Holly Road Carpark, Twickenham
5 April and 24 May Walthamstow Town Square
26 April Bonneville Gardens, Clapham
3 May and 21 June Salusbury Road, Queens Park
9 May Wimlbledon Park Primary School
1o May and 14 June Islington Town Hall
16 May William Ellis School, Parliament Hill
17 May Blackheath Station

Written By Alistair Ayres

(We'd like to hear about what you think of your local farmer's markets. Please let us know and we will promote them for you. We want to support local British produce of the highest quality - the little green space ladybird says)

Recipes

Guy Awford of Greenwich's finest restaurant 'Inside', is writing some recipes to use with our Herbie on the Sill herb garden!

We are all very excited at little green space.

We will be featuring them on our site very soon,
- so watch this space...