Lovely visit to Tatianas tomatoes today..

[Jeannine]

 Many of you are aware of Tatiana's  on line database which is a fabulous site for interest, locating varieties of tomatoes especially and  second to none for info on thousands of tomatoes.

She lives less than 10 minutes drive from me and I got great pleasure in meeting her today.

We had as super visit, she was a pleasure to meet and her gardens were to die for, she had greenhouses every place I looked all built from scratch by her husband. We walked round  and she pulled fresh winter veggies for us which included fresh garlic and rhubarb,lovely bright red short stalks which will be a real treat..first of the year.

I took her some squash seeds that she didn't have and one tomato.I believe she said she has a collection of 2500 toms alone.

It was interesting to see she had her veggie garden totally enclosed in a very high fence we were warned not to touch, it is electrified because the deer come in and eat her stuff plus in season she gets the bears too.

Her house is in a small village completely surrounded by fir trees but her gardens are in a very large clearing.

I was surprised to hear that her garden is probably 2-3 degrees cooler than the plot we will be getting on Colony Farm, yet she manages to grow 500 varieties of toms each year.

I forgot to say her greenhouses are plastic covered and completely movable, her growing patches are raised beds and she plants and pops a greenhouse on top, very interesting.

Half of the seeds I brought home are Russian, very early and none I have heard of before.One I think would be particularly interesting to UK growers as, to quote Tatiana"It survived late blight in my  garden when every other tomato was long dead Her favouritetomato which she describes as one that gives high yields of beautiful purple/black medium sized fruit , the darkest she had ever seen in blacks and the interior color is gorgeous  with excellent taste and texture..gosh no wonder it is her favourite...name, sorry..is Chernomor.

Another one I was delighted to get was a de hybridised Tumbler  which is sweeter than the original, very early and extremely productive so with Tumbler seeds the price they are it is great to get one I can save seeds from this one she has named Anmore Treasures, Anmore is the village where she lives.

We mentioned we were getting a plot at Colony Farm after coming back from holiday in April and she kindly offered to give me tomato plants.she apparently has several friends who garden there too and told me it is a great site,very sunny and much warmer than her gardens.She very kindly offered to give tomato plants when we get home from holiday in April.

You can see  the data base on   http://tatianastomatobase.com    while there check on her personal page for seeds for sale..they are very cheap by most standards and postage seems more than reasonable and her selection is excellent. The data base also has many links to other seedsman.

So off now to do something wonderful with my precious rhubarb.

XX Jeannine


Sorry for the typos, this laptop is driving me nuts, if I try to correct them it wipes out the whole sentence one letter at a time in front of me...

[Jeannine]

[Jayb]

Jeannine, I wonder if the overtype mode has been turned on. If you are typing in Word this may help or point you in the right direction. I thought it was called something else,  but just had a look at Word help:

Overtype mode 'types new characters replacing any existing characters to the right side of the insertion point'.

For word 2007
1.   'Click the Microsoft Office Button  , and then at the bottom of the dialog, click Word Options.
2.   In the left pane, click Advanced.
3.   Under Editing options, select or clear the Use overtype mode check box.
(From word help)'

Or if you are in an older version of word, go to the tools menu, click options, then click the edit tab. Look for overtype mode and make sure it is not ticked.

[Mortality]

Sounds like a lovely woman and a fantastic place, did you enjoy your rhubarb? ;)

[Jayb]

I bet you had a fantastic time, I'm very envious. But I love her site and it is almost like being able to put a name to a face now, thanks for sharing your visit. 500 varieties is an awesome amount to grow, manage and process.

Are they all grown within a greenhouses? She does sound very nice and lucky you, veggies and plants too. That's a fantastic offer from Tatiana, made me smile thinking you are off holidaying while she looks after the plants.

Some of those varieties she lists are just so tempting , it is hard to know where to start and end!  Similarly I chose several Russian varieties in my selection I ordered earlier on.  Have to say I agree, seed cost and delivery is very reasonable. Her Sseeds are well packaged, delivery is prompt,  and germination is good, plus a packet of free seeds  ;D

[goodlife]

Oh dear...I can feel order coming on... ???..so much to choose...
I'll have to leave it now till back end of the year,,,my greenhouses are stuffed for this year...
Thanks for sharing the info...have to start saving my pennies..a lot of pennies...   ::)

[Bugloss2009]

does Tatty Anna accept Paypal? Thanks for the link by the way

[Jayb]

does Tatty Anna accept Paypal? Thanks for the link by the way

I don't know but Tatiana's does  ;D

[Bugloss2009]

thank you. Couldn't be bothered to put through a fake order to find out

[Hyacinth]

What a lovely post Jeannine 8)  Occurred to me that it's not just your plants that are putting down roots. It's a joy to read of the lovely new friends you're already making. :-*

[lottiedolly]

Im not envious  :P what a lovely post, i have looked on Tatianas website recently it is another lump of seed porn, i keep looking at the seeds on her site and at my little greenhouse which will soon be packed to bursting point and i keep telling myself must resist (until end of the year anyway hee hee). I think it is lovely that you had the opportunity to go there and she seems a generous woman. I am sure that you just cannot wait to get stuck into the lottie now.  ;D

[Jeannine]

Yes I do feel like getting stuck into the soil now..she had huge heaps of compost/manure all ready to go on the land  right where we parked our car, I felt like a puppy that wanted to roll in it.

I got the impression that she wasn't doing this to make money, I think she is much like us and is saving seeds because she wants preserve the types, she is lucky that she has the space and time to be able to indulge this,,selling surplus seeds is and obvious second step,  and she deserves to do so as her database must have taken a very long time to do and we all benefit from that.  Of course her gardens also grow her own food.

We did have a chat about the costs of seeds and she felt that most places are over the top for price and I agree with that. eg I got 28 de hybridised improved Tumblers  costing $2  a packet  from her, Tumblers  from usual places cost about $7 for 5 seeds.  She is working very hard too to find ones that do well in cool weather,short seasons and are disease tolerant. Even her seed packets have a good description and a bit of history about that type. I was also impressed that if there is a down side to a type she tells that too..eg one I got she says to eat it straightaway as it doesn't keep well after picking.

XX Jeannine

[angle shades]

 :) very , very, jealous Jeannine sounds like paradise to me, pleased you had a fab time/ shades x

[nilly71]

She must get so upset when hit with blight with so many tomatoes, i was gutted with only about 10 plants hit.

Neil

p.s, for your laptop problem try tapping the insert key once, at the top right of your keyboard.

[Jeannine]

Thank you Neil, I will try that next time it happens, you could be right as I think I nudge something without realising it, I have my laptop  balanced on a pillow on my lap, sometimes when I am feeling really rough my hands are often laying on the laptop so I do tend to bump buttons. XX Jeannine