Plum

Inspiration and ideas needed

Love the sleepers, including the black ones.  I think the others will weather into a uniform colour quite quickly and will end up the same as the fence.  One other thing crossed my mind, if your garden is north facing will the lawn grow successfully? In my last house the lawn that was always in shade was very mossy and looked a mess so I gravelled it with a random crazy paving area so that ground cover plants such as thyme could grow through. If you did that then the bed at the front could be a flower bed, trailing plants over the front edge would soften the black if you find it overpowering.  As an aside, I have recently moved to a property on clay which is permanently flooded in this wet weather. Contractors have just dug a six foot deep hole for a soakaway and haven't found soil yet! I'm thinking of buying a kiln and going into the pottery business!

The free tomato seeds on the mag cover

After much research I think the spotting on my Maskotkas was caused by a fungus infection referred to as 'ghost spot', apparently due to water being splashed on the fruits - not by me but because they are outside in the rain!  They are OK to eat by the way. The newer fruits seem to be OK now but the plants are huge and weigh a ton!  I'm glad I didn't put them in hanging baskets, they are in pots with stakes but due to the heavy rain and wind many of the stems have broken so are a mass of stakes and bandages! 

Next year I would like to grow a bush variety as close to Piccolo as possible.  I love this variety but it is a tall plant and I don't have the room (grew it last year with saved seeds from supermarket purchase).  Can anyone recommend a near equivalent?

The free tomato seeds on the mag cover

I planted my Maskotkas in big pots and have had to stake them as the stems are big and heavy, if they were allowed to trail I think they would break!  Now I have a problem - as they are beginning to ripen the fruits have tiny dark green spots all over them.  I picked one to try and find the skin much tougher than the piccolo variety from the supermarket which I adore .  They are also much larger than I expected a cherry tomato to be.  Does anyone know what has caused the spots?  I don't know if they will spread to blotches as the tomatoes are only just ripening. Oh, and are they ok to eat?