Seriously, the flowers are as good as an old-fashioned sweet pea (albeit not scented) and with its enormously long curvy stems I think this one would appeal to flower arrangers as well as vegetable gardeners. The added bonus of 3 potato fruits being found still attached was immediately seized, they were a lovely dark green ripening to a dark purple colour and eventually yielded larger than normal dark brownish seeds. Hear how Maria and Hellen came up with the name and inspiration for their brand (SPOILER: it’s a great story. Like, really great).

Inspired by the recent discovery of some yellow carrots thriving under a heap of last year's poppy twigs, I've decided to have another go at carrot cultivation in 2008. Maria: At the moment, I can’t get enough of the Baobab & Rooibos Body Wash because it is so refreshing and uplifting! It effectively cleanses and conditions my skin at the same time. I love to follow with a light textured, silky smooth Baobab & Rooibos Body Lotion. Bellamy's early green marrow. — 4 to 5 feet high; pods cylindrical, straight, containing generally six to seven peas; a good bearer and excellent pea. The crosses I've made so far are quite diverse, but the project mainly centres around two principle varieties which have been used as mother plants. They proliferated so much, in fact, that it all got pointless and confusing. Dozens of new varieties were almost impossible to tell apart. Richard Bradley, writing in 1724, complains "I have often wonder'd at the Indiscretion of some People, who Delight in giving cramp Names to Plants, and make it their Business to multiply Species without Reason, as if a Fruit would be the better for a Name." Nevertheless the trend continued and reached a peak in the mid- to late 19th century. By this time peas were so popular that vegetable seed catalogues featured them in pride of place at the top of the list, with all the other vegetables listed alphabetically behind them.We had beautiful blue skies today and bright sunshine. Joy! Time to relieve the bulging washing basket of its contents which have had to sit there for a couple of weeks because the weather has been too miserable for laundry. (I don't have a tumble-dryer, I like my clothes to smell of fresh air.) I was literally just pegging the first clean garment on the line when there was a loud vrooooom! from the other side of the hedge and I found myself engulfed by a filthy smoggy cloud of poisonous petrol fumes. Fairbeard's champion of England—5 to 6 feet ; seed large ; wrinkled when dry ; bluish green. One of the best of the wrinkled marrows, and well adapted for general crops, as well as early ones, being about as early as the Charlton. From seven to eight large peas in a pod. Potato apples are not a lot of use ... they just divert energy away from the tubers. But to nerds who like raising brand new things from seed they are a gift. Inside them are lots of seeds which, if planted and viable, will grow into a new and unique potato variety. Potatoes don't tend to come true from seed, so even if my fruit was self-pollinated or pollinated by another Marfona plant, the resulting offspring would not be Marfona. It would be a reshuffled combination of various genes that went into Marfona. That doesn't mean it will be anything special ... but it will probably be unique. My life as a gardener doesn't usually have much overlap with my life a Ironically it was during this boom period that almost all of the older pea varieties were lost, including the Rouncival, the Sandwich, the Spanish morotto and a once ubiquitous English early-maturing type called the Hotspur. So great was the demand for the new sweeter varieties, the centuries-old staples just disappeared. In 1855 Charles McIntosh regards the Charlton Hotspur (sounds more like a football team than a vegetable) in his Book of the Garden as "too well known to require description, having been in cultivation for upwards of a century." Yet within a couple of decades it had vanished forever.

Hellen: The skin is the most visible organ of the body, so maintaining its overall health is important. Healthy skin is radiant and smooth and can be achieved by making the right choices. We choose natural weapons and strategies to nourish, moisturise and protect the skin you’re in. This first world war postcard shows what the basilica and golden virgin looked like in 1915, after a year of bombardment. You can imagine what state it was in by the end of the war. Even when the plants have completed their life cycle and started to die off, their beauty takes on a new phase. The leaves fade to a golden yellow flushed with rose, and the magenta in the leaf axils and stems becomes very deep and intense. The overall effect is very striking as the green gives way to all these other shades, and makes a beautiful contrast with the pods. The easiest way to prevent this problem is to freeze the beans after harvest, which kills off any insects and their eggs which may be lurking within the seed. Seal the seeds inside an airtight and freezerproof container, and freeze them for at least three days. Then place the container somewhere at room temperature for at least another day before opening it, otherwise you'll get condensation on the seeds which may ruin them. It's also very important to make sure the beans are thoroughly dry before freezing them, as the low temperature can damage the plant tissues within them if there's still moisture in them. This treatment can also be used with peas to get rid of pea moths. Woodford's green marrow. — 3 feet in height; pods large, flat, containing six large well-flavoured peas, and an excellent bearer.Apart from the broad beans, which were from W Robinson & Son, all these vegetables came from the Heritage Seed Library.