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Just a quick heads-up about an event I'm doing this weekend - it's not a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ or Dig In event, but it is gardening based.Ìý I'll be encouraging people to grow their own as part of Planet Havering, at the at Harrow Lodge Park in Hornchurch, Essex.Ìý Basically I'll be making paper pots, picking the seeds out of lettuce heads and demonstrating just how smelly comfrey tea is.

If you're based in the East London/Essex area and find yourself at a loose end this Sunday or Monday and, come and say hallo!Ìý There's a funfair and stuff as well, it's not just me.

Have a great Bank Holiday everyone.

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I'm still staying one step ahead of the blight, thanks partly to the lovely weather we had last week. Two whole trusses have now ripened.Ìý

I celebrated by knocking up a Dig In salad - sliced beetroot, tomatoes, the last of my lollo rosso and grated carrots (preparing that was a bit tricky, as my carrots have been a bit wee this year).Ìý Plus cucumber - also homeÌýgrown.

At risk of sounding disloyal to Dig In, I'm actually more excited by the ripening of another tomato variety on the allotment - my 'Scotland Yellow'.Ìý I got the seed for this from , and like all the veg they have, it's a rare,Ìýold-fashioned variety, no longer available to buy anywhere.Ìý

Garden Organic look after hundreds of theseÌýheritage varieties,Ìýgrowing some at theirÌýheadquarters, and relying on people like me to grow others and then send saved seed back. So, I'm made up that I'll be able to save at least one tomato's-worth of Scotland Yellow seed, and do my bit towardsÌýkeeping thisÌýrare breed going.Ìý

ButÌýyou don't need a rare plant to make seedÌýsaving worthwhile.ÌýÌýSeed saving gets you seeds for free, and it's environmentally sound. Plus, if you grow seed saved from plants that did well in your garden, allotment or balcony pot, it should do well too. KeepÌýusing saved seeds for a few years, and you mayÌýbreed yourself a micro-variety that's specially adapted for your plot.Ìý

One word of warning - if you grew any plants from seeds described as "F1s" on the packet, any seed saved from these won't grow into the same variety.Ìý F1s are special hybrids, which usually grow fast and strongly, but don't "come true" - the plant that grows from the seed won't look like it's parent.

Here's my guide to the easy and not-so-easy candidates for seed saving:

A doddle
Squashes, marrows, tomatoes, chillis - just scrape out the seeds and leave them somewhere cool to dry.Ìý Tomato seeds are coated in a sticky goop that stops them germinating, so you need to remove that by Ìý´Ú¾±°ù²õ³Ù.
Peas & BeansÌý- leave on the plant until they go dry and the pods go crispy, then store in a dry cool place
Spinach - just wait for it to go to seed, then pull up once it's covered in small seed pods and leave somewhere to dry. Give it a good beating onto newspaper to remove the seeds.

Medium

Ìý
Tricky
Carrots, beetrootsÌýand parsnips - these take two years before they flower and go to seed, but usually they don't get the chance because we scoff them too quickly.ÌýCarrots will often need a bit of protection to survive the winter.Ìý In the second year, they'll grow large sprays of flowers and then seeds.

If you've got more than you can use of a particular seed, a nice way of exchanging it for something you do want, and socialising at the same time, is going along to a seed swap. In the south-east, runs a yearly swap, but there are many local events - keep an eye out in local newspapers and noticeboards, or even set one up yourself.Ìý You can also swap online - try the forums below for a start.Ìý And there's absolutely loads of seed saving advice on theÌý Ìýsite.

Ìý

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I have beaten the blight!Ìý I have red tomatoes!Ìý All that time cutting away every speck of blight and ever so carefully wateringÌýat the base to stop evil blight spores splashing around has paid off.Ìý Yesterday I got my reward - a delicious Gardener's Delight tomato, sun-warmed from the vine - yum yum.

I've only slowedÌýthe diseaseÌýthough - it'll be back to full speed the moment I take my eyes off it.Ìý Knowing that, and reading the horror stories some of you have related in your comments, makes me a bit nervy of leaving my plants to go on holiday.Ìý

Spraying may be my only answer -Ìýprobably withÌýtraditional copper-based Bordeaux mixture, because it's OK for organic gardening. Anyone got any experience of how well it works? Do leave comments.Ìý

Tomatoes aside, the big worry during holidays is the watering.Ìý I'm very lucky with the neighbours on my allotment who'll step in when I'm not around.Ìý In fact, I suspect that sometimes they water when I am around, obviously they think I mistreat my plants!ÌýÌý

But if you haven't got nice neighbours, there's still a lot of tricks you can use.

• First off, give everything a really good soak.Ìý

Drench the ground.ÌýÌýThen, to get even more water onto your plants, cover the soil around them with a thick mulch, and drench that too.Ìý A mulch - basically just a layer of something on the soil - will not only soak up and hold water itself, but it also stops water in the soil evaporating away.Ìý Good mulch materials are woodchips, compost, hay, or even shedded cardboard.Ìý Use on pots too.

• Keep the water coming.

If you're really into your gardening, and don't mind spending a few bob, there'sÌýseveral automatic watering systems on the market.Ìý The ones that use "trickle irrigation", where the water seeps out of holes in pipesÌýon the ground,Ìýare most efficient, because the water goes to where it's needed.ÌýSome systemsÌýneed mains water - you just connect them to a house or outdoor tap, others can use water stored in waterbutts.Ìý You can't mix or swap the two, so it's the main thing to be aware of when you're choosing one.

Or, you can save money by rigging something up out of junk. An empty pop bottle can be turned into a waterer by piercing a couple of very small holes in the cap (left), then filling it up andÌýscrewing the cap back on.

Stick it into the earth or compost next to your plant (below), and the water will slowly dribble out (try a few experiments with different size holes for different speeds of dribble). Perfect for pots!

Another good trick with pots is the "wick" method. Put a container full of water next to a potted plant, and run an old teatowel or other strip of cloth between them. It'll act like the wick of a candle, soaking water up itself and into the plant pot. Works best if you put a tray under both of them to catch any drips.ÌýÌý

• Don't let the water get away.

Hot sun will soon evaporate away all the water you've painstakingly put on your plants, then wilt them,Ìýespecially if they're under glass.Ìý So moving them into the shade, just while you're away, will help conserve moisture.Ìý Greenhouses can be dimmed with shades, or just by taping paper to the inside of the windows.

Mulch, as mentioned earlier, will help to keep hold of water, and you can also stop it dribbling uselessly away out of plant pots by bunging a folded newspaper beneath.Ìý

Finally, a lot of the water the plant uses is just lost from the leaves by evaporation - the plant uses it to carry nutrients from its roots to the leaves, then just abandons it.Ìý You can stop that water escaping by putting a clear plastic bag over the plant - you'll see condensation form on the inside, which is the water the plantÌýwould otherwiseÌý"transpiring" away.ÌýÌýUsing this method, water will runÌýdownÌýthe bag back onto the soil, andÌýthe plant can use it again.Ìý

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Just letting you all know that Chris is off on holidays, so the wise words and fab veg pics that we enjoy on his behalf,Ìýwill be on hold until next week. It's great Chris is getting a chance to unwind from his veg-craving days in North America, but what will become of his delightful tomatoesÌýand, more intriguingly, his struggling squash, whilst he is away? We shall find out next week...

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Blightwatch latest!

Ìý

I've been recommended to spray my plants with semi-skimmed milk against the blight.Ìý Never heard of this before, anyone out there tried it?Ìý Any advice or comments would be great.

Ìý

On a lighter note, may I present the embodiment of evil in a root vegetable - the Bloody Baron Beetroot.Ìý He vants to suck your sap.Ìý This is my contribution to Dig In's veggie doll gallery - please send us more, because they're really making me laugh.Ìý The triple potato wedding picture sent in by Pauline is a work of sheer genius.

Ìý

Then onto bees.Ìý Illy, who also works on Dig In, asked me a question which set me thinking about a delicate subject - plant sex.Ìý So far, she's had plenty of flowers, but no fruit on her squash plants, suggesting they're not,Ìýahem, getting enough.ÌýÌý

Ìý

I think it'sÌýbecause herÌýsquash flowers aren't getting pollinated, perhaps because the bees don't visit her urban balcony as much as they do my smalltown allotment.Ìý It could be that some of you reading this are having a similar problem.

Ìý

Unlike tomatoes, which have flowers with both male and female parts,Ìýsquash flowers are strictly one or the other.Ìý If pollen from the male flowers doesn't get to the "ovules" (a fancy term for eggs, really) of the female ones, they won't be fertilised and no fruit will grow.Ìý Normally bees do the job of carrying the pollen from one to the other, but their numbers have been dropping for the past few years, causing problems with pollination.

Ìý

Ìý

If you're planning on saving seeds, you've really got to do it this way.Ìý Bees can carry pollen a fair distance, and butternut squash can cross with all other types of squash, as well as pumpkins.Ìý It won't affect the taste of the fruit that grows this year, but any saved seeds may well grow into strange hybrid of butternut squash and whatever your neighbours were growing.Ìý Hand pollinating lets you know exactly what you'll be getting, though to be really sure you have to stop inseacts doing any sneaky pollinating when you're not looking, by clipping flowers shut or putting a bag over them.

Ìý

It all goes to showÌýhow important bees areÌýto keep our veg growing.Ìý I don't mind pollinating the oddÌýplant here and there, but I'd never manageÌýall of them.ÌýI'm definitelyÌýgoing to add bee homes to my garden and allotment, and I can't think of a better reason to bung in a few more pots of , such asÌýlavender, thyme and catnip in.

Ìý

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Hello all. I've had a count up of my tomatoes and so far there are... drum roll please. ten tomatoes! Ten, very small, green tomatoes on threeÌý large plants. The plants themselves are huge. So big in fact that a small tribe of settlers could've set up home in the depths of theÌý undergrowth and I'd be none the wiser.

Is it normal for such a large tomato jungle to produce so few fruit? Admittedly there are lots of lovely little yellow flowers too, so hopefullyÌý they will turn tomatoey.

Elsewhere in the patch, some of the carrots are huddled together and others, like lovers in a floundering relationship, are being given someÌý space. I'm hoping this space will give them the chance to plump up. It will be interesting to see what happens. The small skinny ones areÌý delicious, but dangerous to prepare; don't want St John's ambulance on standby every time I reach for the peeler.

The broccoli is huge and, IÌý believe, should be ready sometime at the turn of the century. Ok I exaggerate, but it does take a while according to Ann's blog. Hopefully, itÌý will survive long enough to blossom - at the moment something has been holding delightful dinner parties on the plants and munching greatÌý whacking chunks out of the leaves. These pests always scarper before I get down to the patch so I don't knowÌý who's responsible... The beetroot is being left alone to grow big and fat so hopefully I can get pickling soon and turn my green(ish) fingers pink.

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