Life's Bounty

My Lifestyle Blog

  • Home
  • Travel
    • General
      • Armchair Inspiration
      • Travel Tips
    • Africa & Middle East
      • Morocco
      • Dubai
      • Egypt
      • Jordan
    • Asia
      • Borneo
      • China
      • Hong Kong
      • India
      • Nepal & Bhutan
        • Bhutan
        • Nepal
      • Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia
        • Cambodia
        • Laos
        • Thailand
        • Vietnam
    • Australasia & Pacific
      • Australia
      • New Zealand
      • Vanuatu
    • Europe
      • Denmark
      • England
      • Greenland
      • Iceland
      • Russia, Belarus and the Baltic States
      • Spain & Portugal
    • Latin America
      • Ecuador & Galapagos
      • Mexico, Guatemala & Belize
      • Peru
    • North America
      • Canada
  • Garden
    • General
    • Maintenance
    • Plants
  • Kitchen
    • Recipes
    • Drinks
    • Equipment
    • Preserving Methods
  • Craftroom
    • Bath & Beauty
    • Cards
    • Featured Artists
    • Jewellery
    • Other crafts
    • Powertex
  • Gift Ideas
  • About Me

Growing Mushrooms at home

November 16, 2021 By sue Leave a Comment

There's a few coming up now

Ages ago I tried growing Oyster Mushrooms and found it quite easy and satisfying. I do prefer button mushrooms or brown 'flats' though so this year I decided to grow them instead. The kit was from the same company so I was quite surprised to find the process seemingly much more complicated and taking a much longer period of time - there were pages and pages of instructions that were a bit daunting. There are 2 separate incubation stages: firstly to get the mushroom spawn established in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Mushrooms

Growing and Enjoying Globe Artichokes

October 26, 2021 By sue Leave a Comment

Globe Artichoke

Globe artichokes are basically a giant thistle that comes originally from the Mediterranean area. They are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables in the world and were eaten by the early Greeks and Romans - although why you would think to try eating a thistle I don't know. Still they must have been onto a good thing because artichokes have remained part of Mediterranean cuisine for thousands of years. The edible portion of the plant is the young flower buds before they open up to become … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants

Growing Asparagus at home

September 2, 2020 By sue Leave a Comment

Fresh asparagus

Growing asparagus at home has been a long time dream of mine but it needs a fair amount of space in a permanent home so I haven't previously been able to justify allocating precious space for it. However, now that I have expanded my edible garden somewhat, it is such a joy to be able to harvest my own asparagus. I grew mine from seedlings but you can buy dormant crowns in the winter or grow it from seed. It needs a nice sunny, well-drained spot with lots of organic matter like sheep pellets … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Asparagus

Growing Bananas at Home – Success!

June 14, 2018 By sue Leave a Comment

Year 4 - fruit

Back in 2015 I first wrote about growing bananas at home and how I had got some ladyfinger banana suckers from my friend Michele. Three years on I have finally seen success: this year I have 3 bunches of bananas. I had been beginning to wonder whether I would ever see success with my bananas. I had taken care to provide water and nutrients. Soil moisture is apparently one of the most important factors: lack of water at any time may cause a reduction in fruit numbers and size. Even though … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Banana

Trying different tomato varieties

March 12, 2018 By sue Leave a Comment

Tomatoes: range of sizes and colours

This year I experimented trying different tomato varieties from my usual tried and true varieties. Kings Plant Barn had some Epic Collection tomato varieties that I hadn't seen before so decided to try them out as they seemed to be a good mix of sizes and colours: Molly Jane Oxheart (new generation) Tomato Savour Sugar-gold I got them quite early season and was very pleased to be able to say "I have a greenhouse" when told that it was still to early to plant them outside. I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Tomato

How to tell when Rock Melons are ready to pick

March 5, 2018 By sue Leave a Comment

Ripe Rock Melon

This year I decided to try my hand at growing rock melons and faced the challenge of how to tell when rock melons are ready to pick. The descriptions I read were a bit confusing but then I ended up with 3 melons side by side at different stages and once I saw it, it was so obvious. So I thought I would share the pictures with you. I've never grown any melons previously because I didn't have enough space but having expanded my fruit and vegetable growing spaces, I thought it would be a good … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Melons

The Birds and My Berries

January 30, 2018 By sue 2 Comments

There must be another way to get those blueberries!

I have a love-hate relationship with the birds in my garden and have written previously about feeding the birds and stopping the birds from eating all the plums. This year I have been fighting a losing battle between the birds and my berries, particularly my blueberries. There must be something special about blueberries or maybe it is that blackbirds really like a challenge. I'm tending towards the challenge explanation and have evidence that they keep learning new tricks to get to the netted … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Berries, Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries

Growing Sweetcorn

February 18, 2017 By sue Leave a Comment

Cook in the microwave whole with husks on

Why would you bother growing sweetcorn yourself when you can buy sweetcorn very cheaply at the supermarket at the height of the season? For me there is nothing like picking a cob straight from the garden, popping it in the microwave and eating it 3 minutes later. I always put a few plants in my garden each summer just for this simple pleasure. Sweetcorn is easy to grow. I've never grown it from seed but seedlings from the garden centre seem to do well if you stop the birds from digging up the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Corn

Growing Peas & Beans

January 22, 2017 By sue Leave a Comment

Growing peas & beans

There is nothing as satisfying as picking a big pile of beans and peas fresh from the garden and serving them ready to eat 10 minutes later. Peas and beans are very easy to grow from seed or from seedlings from the garden centre. Just make sure you protect them from the slugs and snails that love the fresh new shoots and the birds that dig them up and toss them around when they are looking for worms. There are several different types of beans to try. I'm growing Scarlet Runner beans this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Beans, Peas

Growing Kumara in Containers

July 14, 2016 By sue 2 Comments

Growing kumara in containers

Growing kumara in containers is a great option if you have limited space in your garden. I had never grown kumara (sweet potato) in my garden before because they spread and use up too much valuable space but when I saw a bunch of kumara slips or shoots for sale in the garden centre, I couldn't resist giving it a go and thought I'd try growing them in containers. The kumara shoots came in a big bunch that I couldn't possibly use all of but I shared them with friends. If you want you can grow … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Garden, Plants Tagged With: Kumara

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »
Life’s Bounty is about all the things I enjoy experiencing, creating, and sharing. Join me as I travel in search of new experiences; coax more produce from my backyard in Auckland, New Zealand and preserve the harvested bounty; and try my hand at making anything from cider to jewellery to cards to gift packs of soap.
Adventure Tours Australia
Peregrine Adventures AU

Connect with me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest

Sign up for weekly updates

Categories

Tags

Apple Arctic Armchair Inspiration Aubergine Australia Banana Bath and Beauty Berries Bhutan Blueberries Broad Beans Card Techniques Cheese-making China Chutney and Relish Courgette Drinks Edible Flowers Eggplant Feijoas Figs Galapagos Gift Ideas Ginger Greenland Guatemala Herbs Iceland Jams Jellies and Marmalades Jewellery Techniques Lemon Lime Mexico Nepal Preserving Recipe Recipes Russia & Baltic States Sculpture Strawberries Tomato Travel Travel Tips Vegetables Zucchini

Copyright © 2022 Sue from Life's Bounty · Log in

Posting....