Recent content by Branching Out

Very similar colouring for sure-- but totally different leaf structure if this photo is an accurate depiction of Maglia Rosa. These mystery tomatoes are primarily slender, and not plump like a typical plum or Roma. It's interesting to note that Speckled Roman is one of the parents of Worry--...

I picked a tray of Greek Asemina tomatoes yesterday, and found this little guy stuck in the retaining wall beside one of the plants. It must have got shoved in between the rocks when it was still small and green. I had to cut it to get it out. 😊

This spring I sowed an entire packet of 25 seeds of Worry tomato. It's a 60cm(2') tall dwarf cultivar with thick rugose potato-leaf foliage that produces gorgeous medium-sized orange striped beefsteak fruits. Once the seedlings developed I noticed that there was one plant that looked different...

My first time for Koronis Purple, a Robert Lovitz dry bush bean, and I was able to harvest some very pretty seeds. There were just 8-10 plants, grown in a rather punishing hot and dry location in the garden. Some descriptions suggest that early pods can be enjoyed for fresh eating as a snap...

This time of the year I like to have a big salad for breakfast. This morning it's both English and Lebanese cucumbers, mini red sweet peppers, and cherry tomatoes.

Amazing similarity but I agree that my beans curl quite a bit more.

September heat records falling all over the place here in the past couple of days too. Yesterday it hit 40C(104F) in Lytton, which is a few hours from Vancouver and traditionally the hottest spot in British Columbia. Today is forecast to be even warmer...

Sort of. I quickly realized that my bamboo poles were far too short for this cultivar, so I ran a line of baling twine horizontally to where I could attach it to a tomato pole about 15'(4.5m) away. It worked really well, and looks kind of like a clothesline for beans. 🫘

Brilliant Heirloomgal-- that could well be it. It's Italian for 'Little Yellow Ring.' Thank you! https://www.theheirloomseedstore.com/product/pole-bean-anellino-giallo

The first harvest of Zlatava tomatoes has started, and I now realize that a photo that I posted of this tomato in this thread on July 26th was incorrect. It's my first time growing this variety and clearly I did not know what to expect. They are in fact small firm orange globes-- not beefsteak...

An elderly Italian gardener gave me seeds of a small crescent-shaped yellow pole snap bean. She told me that they're really good-- but she didn't know the name of the variety. Has anyone grown something similar to this? It would be helpful to identify them.

Twice now I've found a bunch of bulgy pods that my elderly mom picked because 'they were getting too big.' If this continues I won't be able to harvest much seed. I may have to pin a note on the bean poles saying 'Please Don't Pick!' 😄

The fall-bearing raspberries have started, and they taste really good with yogurt.

Trees are tricky! In my limited tree growing experience fast growing specimens can become a problem much quicker than slow growing ones-- and when they do, you need to remove them and start over. That can waste a lot of time. (Ask me how I know!!)

In my experience sunflowers have been one of the trickier seeds to save because the plant tissue on the back of the seed head holds a lot of water, and can be difficult to dry down. If you decide to try saving sunflower seeds take measures to quickly move the moisture out of the spongy white...