Suburban Tomato

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Mr Fothergill.  Well actually it wasn’t really from Mr Fothergill, thinking about it is there a Mr Fothergill anyway?   Not sure but regardless the email wasn’t from him, it was from Sarah who works in marketing at Mr Fothergills.  She offered me a packet of their latest product range to try.  In the past I have been a little reticent about accepting things to review but the lure of receiving a package in the mail (I am addicted to ebay for much the same reason) meant that I decided to say yes.

Anyway the goodies arrived this week:

They sent me two mini growing kits – the paper cup looking ones at the back of the above photo.  One is basil and one is stevia which is aimed at kids and promoted as a ‘lolly plant’.  My kids (ages almost 7 and 3) set about planting these the moment I opened the box.  They managed them easily although in both instances they needed to use more water than suggested on the instructions.  The kits consist of discs of peat which you hydrate in water in the paper pots.  You then put holes in the bottom of the pots and sow the seeds.  There were only enough seeds for one smallish sowing in each package.  Although I wouldn’t buy them myself, as they aren’t nearly as cost effective as sowing seeds in punnets, I can see that the kits would be great for kids because that they can do it all themselves and are relatively mess free.

Whilst my kids were sowing their seeds I hydrated the peat for another seed raiser kit – Capsicum 6 colour mix.  This kit consisted a seed tray with plastic lid, some peat pellets and a packet of Capsicum seeds (6 colour mix).  I liked that you got a full packet of seeds with this kit.  The instructions were easy to follow although they suggested you should make holes in the bottom of the seed tray before you mixes the peat pellets with water.  This meant that I had to use heaps more water than suggested as much of it (unsurprisingly) ran out the bottom of the tray.

I’m looking forward to seeing how these do.  The varieties included in the mix (happily they detail them on the packet) are: Golden Wonder Red & Golden, Chocolate Beauty, Diamond, Emerald Giant and Orange Sun.  I have grown the Golden Wonder varieties before but the others are new to me.  It will be interesting to see if I can work out which is which.

The other things in my package were a micro-green growing tray and two packets of micro-green mix seeds.  I haven’t done anything with this yet but I’m looking forward to trying it.

And finally they sent me three packets of seeds: Tigerella tomatoes which I often grow and some carrots – hmmm not sure about  carrots in colours other than orange  – past experiences haven’t been great –  but I will reserve judgement until I try them.  But most excitingly of all the things they sent me – some Edamame seeds!  Don’t you love how Australia seems to have adopted the Japanese name for soy beans?  Edamame does sounds much more enchanting I suppose.  Anyway, I am a big edamame fan – I order them every time I eat Japanese food and would love to grow my own.  I just don’t know if they will work in Melbourne’s climate.  I will try of course but I would love to hear from anyone who has grown them before and has some tips for me.

Thanks Mr Fothergill, or should that be Sarah?  I will enjoying eating this lot when they get bigger.