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...]
Growing Bananas at Home – Success!
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...]
Trying different tomato varieties
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...]
How to tell when Rock Melons are ready to pick
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...]
The Birds and My Berries
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...]
Growing Sweetcorn
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...]
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...]
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...]
Growing Pumpkins or Butternut Squash
I've never grown pumpkins or butternut squash before because they take up too much precious garden space but this year I decided to plant one and see whether it could grow in amongst my other plants - with a surprising result. This worked well to start with and the plant trailed its way around, producing lots of flowers and little butternuts started forming. But it succumbed to powdery mildew very quickly and the little butternuts dropped as the leaves shrivelled up and died before I had a … [Read more...]
Growing Eggplant or Aubergine
I hadn't had much luck growing eggplant previously. It seemed a bit of a lottery as to whether I'd get any eggplants at all: some years I'd get a few and other years none at all. There would nearly always be flowers but few or no fruit. A few years back when I was clearing out the remains of my summer vegetables, I was about to pull the eggplants out in disgust (again) when I noticed that there were some little fruit setting. I left the plants there and was rewarded with quite a good crop of … [Read more...]