Way back in March, when I started off the tomatoes, I knew there would be too many but it seemed so heartless of get rid of the seedlings. So all 36 of them got potted up….but then only 12 made the final grade to go to Big School in the greenhouse.

The rest soldiered on, in tiny pots, not enough soil or water to get the nutrition they needed. Then to add insult to injury, whilst the privileged-few (the Etons) got a support system and daily watering behind glass, the Grange Hill lot were put outside to fend for themselves.

And you know what, the plucky devils made it through. There’s hardly any fruit, a lot of green, but it shows that things want to live no matter how much the odds are staked against them.

Eton 1, still ripening

Eton 2, getting some colour

The Grange Hills, hanging in there

Also today: took up the feeble summer lettuce and planted mixed winter leaves. Also put in florence fennel, hoping for some fat bulbs in a month or two.

Fun as all this is, it’s nowhere near as good as the 11ft hop… More about that another day.

Challenger hop

What artists refer to as ‘form’

Hoppity-hops