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Pumpkins
Richard decided to try and grow giant pumpkins this year; he could not have timed it worse – late frosts...
Bare-root and Root-balled hedging
We have started to get availability lists for bare-root and root-balled hedging. Lifting will not start for a week or...
Colour on the Nursery
We have plenty of colour – pansies, violas, Bellis and cyclamen. We carefully choose pansies and violas which will flower...

Category Archives: Salad

Tomatoes at Downside Nurseries

Posted in: Salad, Vegetables | March 25, 2024 at 12:40 , by Downside Nurseries

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For those of you who have frost protection, the first tomatoes are potted now. We have 13 varieties again this year from cherry to beefsteak. Honeycomb (yellow cherry) and Nagina (plum) proved to be very successful, so we have repeated them. Maskotka, our long-standing basket variety, was not available, so...

Vegetables and Salad

Posted in: Salad, Vegetables | July 22, 2018 at 12:03 , by Downside Nurseries

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Vegetables We will try and keep lettuce plants in stock until the autumn. Even ‘cut-and-come-again’ types will run to seed eventually and need replacing. Runner beans are reaching the tops of their canes now. Keep pinching the tops out as this will encourage new growth from the base and avoid...

Vegetables at Downside – tomatoes, sticcoli, squash, kale and lovage

Posted in: James Wong, Salad, Vegetables | March 20, 2018 at 10:25 , by Downside Nurseries

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Tomatoes There really is nothing like the taste of home-grown tomatoes. Part of the reason for this is that, unlike other fruits, say apples or bananas, they stop producing the volatile flavour-giving molecules once they have been chilled. The reddening and softening process continues but the flavour does not develop...

Confusing Curcubits – Cucumbers

Posted in: Salad, Vegetables | June 3, 2016 at 09:28 , by Downside Nurseries

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Bright yellow flower of cucumber and ripe vegetable behind

Cucumbers can be very bitter if they are pollinated. In the old days, gardeners had to be vigilant and remove the male flowers as soon as they appeared. Nowadays, we have F₁, varieties that only have female flowers, so you do not have to worry. These are much more vigorous...

Vegetables at Downside Nurseries

Posted in: Salad, Vegetables | May 28, 2016 at 10:25 , by Downside Nurseries

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The vegetable bench is fully stocked now – the first of the kale is ready and there are still peas and sugar peas. The last sowings of these will be the end of May. It is warm enough now for sweetcorn, courgettes and marrows to go out. All the beans...