Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Saturday, 21 April 2012

As you saw in my video, I have been very busy potting  on tomatos and peppers recently.  I now have around 150 tomato plants in the polytunnel and around 60 pepper plants in the porch as well.
Tomato varieties I have grown this year

Matina, Salt Spring Surprise (HSL), Latah, Roma - Very early, hardy varieties

Costoluto Genovese, Costaluto Fiorentino - Early. big, intense flavoured beef varieties
Atkins Stuffing (HSL) Big, intense flavoured beef varieties
Shirley, Moneymaker -"Ordinary" red tomatos.
Golden Sunrise, Yellow Russian (HSL) Yellow tomatos
Gardeners Delight, Pink Cherry (HSL), Fox Cherry (HSL), Aunty Madge (HSL) All delightful Cherry tomatos of various shapes and colours.
 I grow them all in organic certified growing medium and all are now in 4 inch or bigger pots and about 8 - 10 inches high. I start them off by sowing the seed in molules placed in a heated propagator in the porch. I then prick out the small plants into individual pots and pot them on into larger pots.
I grow about 50 plants for my own use which go into the Polytunnel. Some plants are pre ordered and collected by customers and I also sell any surplus at the gate. The HSL seed plants I donate half the sale price to Garden Organic. 

I usually harvest my first tomatoes early - mid June from my unheated polytunnel from my plants. 
I only sell the surlpus plants of varieties I also grow for my own use, so I KNOW they are wonderfully tasty, if people ask. I also know what variety does best for salad, chutney, bottling, freezing etc, from knowledge and my own experience.


These are the early varieties Matina, Salt Spring Suprise and Latah. They are all "Potato leaf" varieties and these seem to crop earlier and be a bit hardier than the "tomato leaf" varieties.


 

Lots of pepper plants to pot on and bring out of the porch into the Polytunnel, next.
 

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