The micro toms have sprouted

 I've just popped into the kitchen and got the surprise of my life. Four of the micro toms have sprouted and I don't think there was even a sign of them yesterday. These plants are intended for the conservatory windowsill and I am looking forward to seeing how they taste and crop. I think I may well have grown a similar variety of tomato about twenty years ago and they cropped outdoors right through to November. If these are anything like that plant I will be eating fresh tomatoes for months. 

I dug everything that I want to save out of the new raised bed bed today and have put down a heavy duty cardboard box as a weed suppressant.  I'm hoping that Tony can bring me a load of free compost if  'the  pile' is dropped off near to where he works.  Every year a huge pile of old compost is left in a heap for anyone to help themselves.  It's a bit hit and miss as we never know when the drop off will be. It needs refreshing with plenty of home made compost and leaf mould but it does mean that I can almost entirely fill the raised bed for the cost of the petrol it takes to collect it. I'll top it off with a few bags of bought in compost and then the bed will be ready for the start of the growing season. I now have four rectangular raised beds, three of which measure three feet by ten feet. The other measures about seven feet by two foot six.  This means that I have four large square raised beds and three smaller ones.  There's also five half water buts that I have turned into veggies pots. The spare half is now home to my Brown Turkey fig. I plan to grow carrots in large tubs on top of the wood store so that I can protect them from carrot fly . There is another potential empty bed in front of the garage wall so I'm hoping that all this growing space will pretty much feed Tony and I all the fresh vegetables that we will eat through the year.  It's going to be quite exciting in the garden this year.