Keeping plants alive, then eating some of them.
Oyster mushrooms! Elm, and blue/grey. First pins appeared on the 18th, and they matured and started dropping spores on the 25th. A fast turnaround! Every time I went in the kitchen they had grown some more. I felt like I could see them growing before my eyes. They are the most beautiful things I have ever had a hand in creating. I used kits from urban-farm-it.
Last of the first flush of mushrooms, on homemade sourdough with homegrown salad.
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I gently and lovingly harvested the beautiful mushrooms, and later gently and lovingly cut them up and seared them lightly with a little bit of coconut oil and sea salt. My delicious babies.
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Baby seedlings: radish, lettuce, carrot, parsley. Sprouted in a tiny pot then planted in the windowbox, but kept inside for the time being. Some cute slug frens, gently evicted after demolishing two whole lettuces. Also Project Mushroom began in earnest.
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I moved my salad windowbox outside, replanted my tiny carrots into the tyre planter, and sowed chard seeds in there as well. I stacked my other windowbox onto rocks, and planted nasturtiums in there. It didn't take long for my lettuces to all die from wind and sun exposure. The radishes look battered, but I think most of them will pull through. I lost a spring onion as well. I direct sowed bok choy where the lettuces were. The carrots look pathetic, but mostly okay for now. I was given a growbag and two healthy tomato plants and a cucumber, and rigged up some string for the tomatoes to climb against the wall. On Sunday I picked up a bunch more big planters from a Freegler as well... so the path-garden is growing.. Meanwhile in the living room, I made makeshift pots from toilet roll tubes and a plastic bottle for chilis and sweet basil. By the end of the week some of the tubes were germinating, but I couldn't remember which were which. I expect they're basil though. By some miracle the chilli seeds I planted weeks ago - at the same time as the lettuce, radish, carrots and parsley - finally sprouted! I also repotted my older supermarket basil plant and moved it to better sun and it's looking happier again. One of my rosemary cuttings sprouted roots, so that's in a pot now too, and I rearranged my windowsill setup multiple times.
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The Cloud Garden. The most beautiful gift I have ever been given. It contains three orchids, a bromeliad (alien pink thing), mosses from local woods, and various rootless air plants.
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Basil and bok choy seeds sprouted. Repotted parsley. Footpath garden was hit pretty hard by strong winds and hail, but my runt radish is doing the best!
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Second flush of mushrooms is not looking good. One small clump, a funny colour, and a couple of sets of aborted pins, and little movement anywhere else.
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The third flush of mushrooms! From both bags. Not as good as the first, but better that the second.
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Harvested a sorry second flush of mushrooms. Potted basil and parsley; seedling corner in the living room is out of hand again.
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Mushrooms ready to harvest when I got back; and inkycap mushrooms growing with my tomato seedling are weird. A hungarian hot pepper finally sprouted.
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Stacked a beach crate on beach bricks and filled it with compost to expand my garden even further. Planted radishes, chicory and land cress in it. A second hungarian hot pepper sprouted in the loo roll seed trays on my windowsill! But it looks a bit unwell.
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New things sprouted (chicory, land cress and radishes in the crate) and other things are growing! Tomatoes are maybe looking bushier, and kale and broccoli and chard certainly are. Bok choy looks spindly but doing its best. Some basil and a couple of parsley are going to make it. Planted out a new cucumber (who had a head start in the polytunnel) to replace the one that died. Very proud of my runt radish, who is now the best of the bunch. The alien orchid has sprung two beautiful purple flowers! The mushroom pins that popped up at the start of the week aborted. Chopped up the substrate of the healthiest (most populous) looking bag and layered into new substrate for a second round of incubation. Put the other bag in a compost bin. So let's see if they go anywhere.
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We let a radish go to seed, and it is getting massive. In my footpath garden, chard and broccoli are looking bushy. Attempt 2 at bok choi sprouted.
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A giant Scottish thistle has joined my footpath garden. And sprouted a mushroom. Things are growing. Caught a loud orchid slug.
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The Cloud Garden, looking lovely.
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Slug damage on the orchids. But new purple flowers on the bromeliad.
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First cucumber! Chillis are looking great. Various leaves are thriving. Purple flowers grow up the side of the bromeliad, working their way towards the top. Plus: mushroom update... chopped up my spent straw substrate and mixed it with grain, into new bags, which are being re-incubated.
Nasturtiums are flowering. Wow they're bright! Damage to the rhubarb. Chillis are looking amazing.
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Tomatoes and cucumbers are developing. Picked a radish and a banana chilli and broccoli. Extended the footpath garden with a new planter made of old wood and washed up fishing crates..
Beets, turnips, and the mega radish (pulled out to dry for seed pods, now it has taken over the entire polytunnel).
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Emerging new oyster mushrooms from remixed substrate.
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The oyster mushrooms are growing fast. Many of them, but they're a bit of a funny shape.
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After a few more days, they're big enough to eat. Some of them are leggy.. I think not enough air circulation?
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Cucumber, carrots and broccoli from my footpath garden. Banana chillis from the polytunnel. Shitloads of rhubarb; other root veg and courgettes from the garden.
The cucumber situation is getting out of hand. All hail our cucumber overlords. Eight out of eleven of my chillis are now bearing fruit! Also courgettes, beets, broad beans. Tomatoes are ripening. Planted some less functional but pretty things in my crate planter to make the place look more presentable.
Interesting clump of mushrooms growing with one of my broccolis. Haven't identified them yet. Everything is getting eaten by caterpillars, but rescuing as much kale as possible before I surrender. Cucumbers and chillis are starting to explode.
Capsicum, chilli and tomato polytunnel excitement. Excessive courgettes. Harvested the turnips too late and they're not good. Got a second freezer to start bulk processing some of this produce and storing for winter.
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Too many variables to know what is causing these weird shapes. Poor light, poor air circulation, temperature, remixed substrate...
A final harvest before we leave for an adventure. My footpath tomatoes are growing.. but..... also horrible mutants.
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Inside cherry tomato has reached the ceiling. Now what? A hole?
Hungarian peppers are going purple. Tomatoes and aubergines... another flush of inside substrate remix oysters.
Cucumber in the footpath garden. Tomatoes in the polytunnel are getting out of hand.
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Chillis abound! Inside tomato has ambitions of the stars.
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Fruits of the chilli farm. (Plus tiny carrots and a celeriac.)
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Picked some carrots I planted last autumn. They're not going to grow any more and if I leave them the slugs will eat them. Not sure what's going on with the chicory.
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Tomato, gherkin, courgette, cucumber and fancy squash seedlings are coming along. My purple sprouting broccoli, that I thought capterpillars killed last autumn, is sprouting once more! And onions I planted in December are still coming up.
Monster leeks from the garden! Also, not pictured, celeriac and salsify. And seedlings sprouting for another round... tomatoes, cucumbers, gherkins, squash, courgette.. and some strays.
A mini footpath garden harvest! (Chard and purple sprouting broccoli.) and a pretty weed is growing in the Cloud Garden.. I'm leaving it be.
Tomato, cucumber and courgette seedlings. Hungarian black pepper is flowering again.
Finally able to work in the garden. Planted tomato seedlings, radishes, dwarf purple french beans in the polytunnel; romanesco, more dwarf french beans, aubergine, celery, runner beans, in trays; beetroot and chard in the garden; and overhauled the footpath garden with fresh mushroom compost; pulled out the chicory (to eat) and dead plants and got it all ready for seedlings in a few weeks. Remember last year's rhubarb that definitely died completely and rotted into a ball of mush? I threw it in the weeds across the road. It... has come back to life. Whilst lying on top of weeds and grass, over the winter. Retrieved it and potted it back up. Who knew.
Romanesco sprouted. A new raised bed erected, new home to a squash and a cucumber. Planted onions, soy beans, mange touts seeds; and pepper plants into the polytunnel. Kale in the footpath garden is flowering; I should probably eat it.
The oxalis is flowering! I didn't know it flowered when I bought it, I just liked the foliage, then I saw one in flower at Inverness Botannical Gardens some months later. So I've been excited for it, but not hopeful, because it has seemed to be struggling. Nonetheless, tiny delicate pale purple flowers have emerged! The tradescantia that I got at the same time has had ups and downs too, but is thriving on the mantel piece at the moment. My chillis are all bearing fruit or flowers now, and my ridiculous inside cherry tomato has three more tomatoes on.. French beans, runner beans, aubergine, onions, romanesco planted last week are all sprouting in the polytunnel.
Planted a ton of chilli seeds of various different kinds. Most of them were out of date. We'll see what comes up. Also potted up a thousand romanesco cauliflowers... not sure where they're all going to live when they're bigger.. Oxalis flowers are lovely!
Planted out tomatoes, cucumber and dwarf french beans in the footpath garden. Some things are sprouting in places I do not remember planting them. Also more aubergines have come up, some very belated sweet peppers, and a whole load of long slim chillis.
A wee chilli harvest. Many long peppers are growing. Planted out brussels sprouts and romanesco in the garden. Potted up aubergine, sweet peppers and yet more celery. Planted sunflowers and rockery plants in the footpath garden. Look at the flower on the salsify we have been neglecting!
Flowers and beans in the footpath garden. Planted brassicas, mounded potatoes. Look at the salsify flowers!
Potatoes are thriving; purple beans and lemon chilli are happy in the polytunnel. Planted out celery in the footpath garden at last, but it's a bit cramped.
Planted turnips, carrots, mange tout and choy sum seeds, and lettuce seedlings in the garden. Got first courgette/squash harvest, and purple french beans, plus raspberries and lots more strawberries. In the footpath garden, I have a self-seeded nasturtium bent on world domination. And its minions, which are crowding out the beans and celery. Rhubarb is finally coming back to life.
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Mega strawberry harvest, and first artichokes.
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Nasturtiums, pansies and daisies are flowering. Ladybirds in the polytunnel seem to be finally getting the aphids under control. Dwarf purple french beans and strawberries are abundant; raspberries are starting.
Nasturtiums are going large. Cucumbers emerging. Footpath garden generally looking great.
Caught up on garden work. Harvested many things, including but not limited to: tomatoes, potatoes, chillis. Protected brasscas from the butterfly threat. Courgette apocalypse may soon be upon us.
After most of the week in London, it was nice to get back to the garden(s). Stocked up on mega UFO squash, courgettes, tomatoes, chillis, potatoes, three kinds of beans and various lettuce. First cornflowers bloomed in the footpath garden. I grow edible flowers on purpose, but because I want the path to look pretty I never end up picking them to eat.
Footpath garden: cool spider, second(?) tomato, pretty wild flowers.
First poppy in the wildflower bit of the footpath garden. More cornflowers and teeny pansies.
A tiny wee harvest from the footpath garden. Enough courgettes? Big enough tomato?
Caught up on work in the garden and had a couple of big harvests. Loads of tomatoes and courgettes, UFO squashes and chillis, green and purple beans. Fewer cucumbers than last year. The raspberries are wrapping up but the blueberries are starting. Picked my first celery! Relieved the heat wave didn't wreck it. The rest of my footpath garden sunflowers have opened and are making the place look nice. Distracting from the caterpillar apocalypse that is shredding everything else.
First mange tout and carrots. Picked a load of celery. Romanesco looks like it's trying, but may be suffering from caterpillars. Not sure if it's right or not. Rainbow chard still going strong. Small sweet turnips. Tons of chillis. Mutant giant capsicum.
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After some time away, a bit of work in the garden. Dug potatoes. Lemon chilli is going wild. Brussel sprouts are coming. No idea what the romanesco is playing at though.
Tomatoes in the polytunnel are still ripening. Chilli harvest is also still huge. Giant brussels sprouts from the garden. Picked the last of the tomatoes from the footpath garden as the plants are basically dead. These can ripen on the windowsill.
I woke up one morning last month to strange bulbous shapes silhouetted against my window on my big orchid stem. Almost overnight, it seemed, it had put out a load of blossoms! I'd given up on seeing it flower again. One of them has opened this week. Other photos show inside and footpath plants in October and November.
Enough purple sprouting broccoli to eat in the footpath garden! And the rhubarb is coming back better than ever.
Time in the garden yesterday. Promoted tomatoes and gherkins/courgettes/cucumbers to bigger pots or the ground in the polytunnel. Harvested chard and purple sprouting broccoli. Mange tout and beans have sprouted, but my soya beans are a no show. Again. No sign of beets or carrots yet. All of the labels washed off so we've kind of lost track of what else went in the trays. Also made experimental mustard green kimchi. I do not have high hopes.
Cucumbers, courgettes, gherkins, tomatoes, chillis sprouting. Moved the salsify into a line.
Loads of flowers on my oxalis. A sneaky nasturtium in the tradescantia. An early veg harvest: carrots, mustard greens, land cress, rocket, sprouting broccoli, chives.
Courgettes are already fruiting. Planted cucumbers/gherkins (we'll see) and tomatoes into my footpath garden. Gave away the rest of the tomatoes that we had no space for.
Pulled out all the flowering salsify, as pretty as it is, and self-seeded potatoes. Planted chard, carrots (god knows what happened to the last lot), land cress, radish, radicchio, rocket, purple sprouting broccoli, kale. The beetroot crop is patchy. Lots of other things just didn't sprout. Some sunflower seeds from a flower head I left lying around last year in my living room got damp and sprouted, so I've potted them up..
Managed to stay on top of watering the footpath garden this week. Veg seems to be coping. Flowers are also looking good. Self-seeded nasturtiums are still popping up at a rate of about two per day. Sunday in the main garden. Some of the tomatoes are nearly as tall as me already. Dug the chillis out of the ground in the polytunnel into big pots, so we can move them when it's cold. Replaced them with aubergines (from the RNLI plant sale). Propped up the broad beans and sweet peas. Mounded potatoes. Improved anti-sparrow measures for the chard, beet, carrots, whatever other unlabelled things that have started sprouting.
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Arranged wildflowers I picked at dawn on the solstice, on the way back from rose petal harvesting. Also, mystery (self-seeded) bean growing with one of my tomatoes.
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Nasturtiums are opening gloriously, including the "black" one from D. It's a gorgeous deep red. Tomatoes in the polytunnel are getting out of hand. Squash are becoming rather large. Bottled a ton of rhubarb.
Flowers, opening! And look at that cute little self-seeded poppy.
Potatoes soon! Jalapeno flowers. Harvesting gooseberries and blackcurrants.
Went to work in the garden with Max. He wanted to sit on me practically the whole time while I was shelling broad beans. Such a cutie.
Two days of garden catchup. Massive harvests - runner and french beans, courgettes, cucumbers, gherkins, tomatoes, rhubarb, blueberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries. New chilli plants are starting to fruit. Pulled out mustard greens and dying squash, and planted leeks.
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A ton of beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, courgettes. Beyond manageable.
More beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgette... all I'm eating. Nice little escapees from my footpath garden in the local area..
Tomato and chilli harvests from Nov and Dec.
I went to the polytunnel to pick the last of the tomatoes. Some still turned ready! Cleaned everything up, and then got trapped by a blizzard. Very conveniently, there were also some blewits growing in there. Does it count as foraging when they're in the polytunnel?
Planted several varieties of tomato and chillis, aubergine, pumpkin, butternut squash. Covered them in clingfilm in a desperate attempt to deter the remaining fungus gnats from moving in. Diego2 has produced a teeny tiny flower.
Tomatoes and pumpkins sprouted. No chillis, aubergine or squash yet.
Seeds are germinating. Planted lettuce and chard. Potted some things on and put some tomatoes in the ground in the polytunnel. The different varieties are all mixed up already, of course, despite my diligent labelling efforts. Chocolate habaneros in the living room have sprouted!
Planted tomatoes and beans in the footpath garden. I wasn't planning to have tomatoes there this year, but there are surplus seedlings...
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Broad beans, peas, courgettes, tomatoes, squash.
The cabbages are completely swiss-cheesed, entirely caterpillar buffet. The mice got some pumpkins. Max got some courgettes..
Max goes undercover as a potato. The aubergine plants collapsed so we just picked them.
R away this week, so I've been gardening at my own pace. The tomatoes are getting blighted, but still producing more than manageable quantities. Still harvesting beet, rocket, mustard greens, celery and some runner beans. The peppers and chillis seem to have got the message and started ripening, better late than never. Put some sprouting broccoli, asparagus kale, belarussian cabbage, red sorrel and spinach in the ground, and planted cauliflower seeds in the polytunnel. For hopefully some early greens in spring.
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