Now is the time to plant Tom Thumb Lettuce seed on the kitchen window sill for an early homegrown lettuce from the vegetable garden.

As soon as it comes up transfer the lettuce to a frost-free unheated greenhouse, or a very light patch under glass. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, thin out gradually, but keep them about 15cm (6in) apart. Read More »

Tomatoes need a certain amount of direct sunlight daily. Read More »

Winter salads are excellent value, especially oriental varieties. They can be grown outside in the vegetable garden.

This patch of Mustard - variety Mizuna - is doing well in Yorkshire. The center leaves are cut out with scissors, & provide fresh winter salad leaves with a bite! Read More »

The last tomatoes are being picked in the vegetable garden greenhouse. The hours of daylight are decreasing and the nights are getting colder, but the tomato plants may keep going for another week. Read More »

Tomatoes are ripening and some gardeners have started to pick them. The Alicante tomatoes do well in the greenhouse.

The cherry tomatoes are so sweet when eaten straight from the vine.

Scott Aker, from the Washington Post, advises growers to simulate the vibrations of flying insects to pollinate tomato flowers.

Scott says ‘Much of the job is done by the buzzing vibration of the bumblebee’s wings that causes pollen from the flower to land on the receptive stigma. Therefore, many tomato seeds arise from self-pollination.’

The recommended tool for pollination of tomato flowers is an electric toothbrush, which is held against each blossom!  The vibrations caused by the toothbrush result in pollen  shaking off the flower onto the tomato stigma, so fertilising the tomatoes.

Large, yellow courgette flowers are a symbol of sunny summers, but the courgette plants seem to be surviving the rain and producing a reasonable harvest in the vegetable garden.

Joanna has an interesting lemony courgette salad recipe. Although TopVeg is rather conservative, & the idea of thinly slicing courgettes with a potato peeler did not appeal, the simple instructions did: “Use one courgette per person, and half a lemon per two courgettes.” The result was delicious and the courgette recipe is highly recommended!

 A poll in the left margin of this page should simplify the compilation of the League of Lettuce Table.  This table will show the results of the mass tasting of lettuce.  So please have a go!

Charlotte, Alex and Freddie of the Great Big Vegetable Challenge have done the basic research on lettuce taste and texture.

They commented to TopVeg that ‘We would of course encourage a mass tasting of lettuce to get a truly rounded opinion of their taste and texture!’

So now it is open to all of us to follow up the GBVC work & produce the ultimate Raw Lettuce Table.

This will be based on the four main lettuce teams :

• the Crisphead such as Batavia or Iceberg

• the Butterhead such as Round or Butterhead Red

• the Looseleaf such as Green Oak Leaf or Frisee

• the Cos or Romaine such as Little Gem or Romaine

Marks out of five will be awarded for each lettuce based on taste and texture.

Please have a tasting & leave your findings in the comments section below.  Note the average marks out of 5 for each lettuce - but say how many people there were on your tasting panel.

TopVeg will collate the information provided into the Raw Lettuce Table.

Will the TopVeg table support the GBVC findings??

At last we have a League of Lettuce - a table scoring lettuce according to taste and texture.  Thanks to Alex & Freddie of the Great Big Vegetable Challenge, we now know that Little Gem is at the top of the league.

Unfortunately, Butterhead Red is up for relegation.

Thanks GBVC for sharing the results of this interesting project!