Tom Thumb visits Elyburg

Latest post from MARKSVEGPLOT – a blog about food and gardening in England”

This year I am growing lots of different types of Lettuce. We like variety in our salads, and besides, if you grow all the same type they tend to all mature at the same time.

In this photo you can see “Amaze” (the red one), “Webbs Wonderful” (the frilly green one), “Tom Thumb” (the small green one, bottom left), and “Elyburg” (the upright Romaine type, top left).

“Tom Thumb” is one of those I have grown from seeds kindly supplied by Marshalls. It is a lettuce ideally suited to small gardens, because it is very compact. It is a “butterhead” type, with soft (buttery?) leaves.

“Elyburg” is a new, experimental, lettuce variety developed by Thompson and Morgan. It is a cross between Iceberg and Little Gem. It has firm, crunchy leaves. Good for a Caesar salad, I’d say.

Perhaps the best-looking of all the lettuces I am growing this year is “Amaze”, another from Marshalls. It is a Red Gem type. The leaves are a mixture of red and yellowish-green.



If you look over at the right of this next photo (in the sunny bit), you can see my little patch of Cutting Salad.

This is the second generation of it this year. Being so closely-spaced, it matures very quickly and runs to seed very rapidly, so needs to replaced frequently. My (home-made) mixture includes lettuce, cress, Mizuna, rocket, mustard and Pak Choi.

I do also have some Endives, though perhaps this is not wise. We love Endives, so I am always trying to grow them, but they never do well during the Summer, even though I sow ones that are supposed to be suitable for this time of year. Whatever I do with/for/to them they always bolt. They perform much better during the Autumn.



This is Plan ‘B’:

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