Weeds and seeds....

	My late return from the UK coupled with guests in the holiday accommodation has made a significant impact on my seed sowing and  garden preparation for the 2010 season. The no fly zone over northern Europe has also resulted in some unexpected meals being served. However, I am at last getting down to some serious work in my garden.  Well, when I say getting down to some serious work, I guess I really mean getting down to some serious thinking about the work I need to be doing.
	I sowed a few courgettes the other day and as you can see they are developing nicely.  I have prepared a bed in the garden and shall be putting them out in the next few days.  These are Courgette d'Italie and were very successful last year.  I have grown these from seed I saved.
	I've had a great deal of success with this little red cherry tomato which last year I called Ian's Red Cherry. The seeds have survived the best attempts of all the mice in south west France to devour thyem and as you can see, rather a lot germinated. These were saved late in the season and I did nothing whatsoever to help them on their way.  The seeds I originally saved were eaten so I took a few tomatoes I had left and scraped the seeds out onto paper kitchen towels.  By this spring, they were such a mess that I simply put the whole towel in the seed tray, covered with potting compost and hoped.
	Last year I grew some Veeroma tomatoes from seed I was given by Miss Fuggles.  They were big and juicy and beautifully elongated and made fabulous sauce.  I enjoyed eating them fresh but I know the rather fleshy texture is not to everyone's taste. Well, I'm growing them again this year and am very seriously hoping to haveboth  Ian's Red Cherry and Veeroma tomato seed to swap next year on the bloggers seed network. sadly, I lost all my Ananas tomato seed over the winter but I gave a few seeds away last year and am hoping to get a few plants back from that gardener.  I saw them today and they are a bit slow starting but doing ok.
	I've also sown some Marmande Tomatoes and just a few Moneymaker Tomatoes.  These will both be new varieties for me, although I love the taste of the Marmande Another success last year was some "Joy's Cos Letttuce" grown from seed given to me by Kate of Tasmania, originally from the Hills and Plains Seedsavers of South Australia. They grew well and I enjoyed eating the tasty cos lettuce. I'm hoping that this year I'll have enough plants to add significantly to my salad garden
	And finally, I thought you might like to see what I still have left to sort out. This bed is my winter salad and brassicas bed which had quite a rich variety of things including lettuce, cabbage, beetroot and chervil.  By the time I got back from the extended stay in the UK, it had quite a rich variety of weeds as well....