About

My name is John Hayes. I grew my first tomatoes when I was 9 and I have grown vegetables and fruit in North Yorkshire since 1998.

I spent my childhood in Africa and have experience growing in a wide variety of climates and conditions.

Below: This years giant pumpkin which got to 61 inches and 30 stone or 190 Kg despite the terrible summer.

What you will find in these pages is the reality of growing (mostly heritage and traditional varieties) of vegetables on a day to day basis rather than trying to get the biggest and best yields.

Below: I manage to grow some beauties without trying. This is an 845 gram tomato from 2022.

You can read about my gardening failures here and some of my success stories here.

I love trying out new veg and varieties and especially like producing food that doesn't normally grow in the cold and wet of Yorkshire like figs and passion fruit. I even managed to grow a reasonable crop of ginger the year before last.

Below: This is tomato indigo rose, one of this years trials.

I have had my fair share of both successes and failures and have even managed to grow pineapples in Yorkshire. I have yet to produce everything I need to sustain myself for the whole year but I have come pretty close on a few occasions.

I also keep a poultry including chickens, ducks, guinea fowl and quail.

I'm interested in all types of growing, including hydroponics and indoor growing and have both poly-tunnels or hoop houses and greenhouses.