Joy Michaud

We have been selling seeds to the Eden Project for years for a capsicum display in the Mediterranean Dome. So we took a trip to Cornwall to see it. Our chillies look great, and the labelling gives us full credit for varieties we bred. #chillies #edenproject

We found this cabbage white caterpillar on the netting surrounding our kale. It had succumbed to an attack of parasitic wasps, which themselves became enclosed in yellow cocoons after doing their job. Too bad there are not more of these wasps around.

We produce seed of over a 100 Capsicum varieties, all grown behind screens to stop any cross pollination. But elsewhere, where we are not producing seed, we encourage these lovely friends as much as we can. #seeds #chillies #capsicum

Every year since 2021, we've donated chilli seed to the Iwerne Horticultural Society; this year it was 'Pixie Lights'. Interested members raise a plant then enter it into the Iwerene Horticultural Show. This summer there were 13 entries, producing an impressive set of plants.

Anyone desperate to satisfy their heat fix will be pleased to know we have now started selling fresh fruit of Dorset Naga. To buy go to seaspringseeds.co.uk/product… #chillies #DorsetNaga #seeds

Extracting seeds from our Bangladeshi cucumbers, "Keera". #cucumbers

Speedo carrots growing in one of the bathtubs we keep by the back door of our house. Despite the weather, they have performed extremely well from a 19 April sowing. Today we harvested an excellent yield of large-sized roots from just a 60cm row.

Tomorrow we're off to the Great Dorset Chilli Festival. At 12 noon Joy will be giving a talk on Top Ten Tips for Growing Chillies, while later in the day Michael will be judging the chilli growing competition sponsored by Sea Springs Seeds and Simpson Seeds.

We are growing long-fruited snake gourd for seed production in one of our polytunels. They are heat lovers that originate in the tropics, and are popular in Asian cooking. They are eaten at about this size, but will get much longer when grown to maturity.

Tiny Tim tomato. Probably the smallest tomato plant there is. They taste ok, but plants only produce up to 50 small fruit. But they are cute! #tomatoes #seaspringseeds #tinytim

Look what single seed must have escaped when we sowed our kohlrabi for the Chelsea Flower Show back in February. Only just noticed it now!

This year we trialled seven different varieties of chillies to see which were the earliest to ripen. So the earliest were Hot Juan and Hot Juanita; after that Dawn and Dusk (all varieties we sell). Basket of Fire and Quickfire (which we don't sell) followed.

Our greenhouses with pepper seed crops behind screens in today's early morning sun.

Tequila is an amazing sweet pepper. The fruit have a pretty standard blocky (bell) shape, but the plants are SO productive, and the fruit start a beautiful purple, then ripen to stripy purple/yellow/orange, before finally turning red.

I picked my first blackberry of the year today. Last year, I also had my first blackberry of the year in June. I remember when blackberries didn't start until the end of July.

We are growing a trial to find the earlist dwarf chilli. Seeds were sown on 3 March, and some fruit of Hot Juan have already ripened from yellow to a bright red. That is a little more than 4 months from sowing the seed to a red fruit. A remarkable achievement.

55 fruit of padron chillies picked from three plants! (last picked 3 days ago)! To get the fruit at the perfect stage for the Spanish "mangetout" tapas, the chillies need to be picked at about 4cm, any larger then you risk getting one that has started to get some heat.

In another few weeks this view will be much more colourful as the chillies ripen up. These plants are for selling at the RHS shows: • Badminton Flower show (8-12th July) • Hyde Hall garden flower show (5-9th August) • Wisley Garden Flower show (2-6th September).

Just to let everyone know, we have now started selling chilli plants online. See seaspringplants.co.uk/produc…

Our chillies featured on Alan Titchmarsh's ITV show "Love your Weekend". The purple fruited plants in the planter on the left are "Dusk", a beautiful, early, hot chilli. To see the show see itv.com/watch/love-your-week… (43 minutes in). #chilliplants