Things still alive in my garden

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

This year i decided was a good year  to try growing vegetables. Something needed to be done with our front garden, and that was a good plan.

For a first go, I think I did OK. I had some carrots and onions, which were quite tasty. My garlic died and my broccoli is small but perfectly formed so I'm wondering if I should eat or leave to grow some more.

Herb wise, i have chives, angelica, tarragon and parsley still alive. One random pink flower: next year I'll buy slightly bigger fuchsias to make a tiny hedge. One currant and one blueberry fine but I should have planted more to begin with. Two rhubarb surviving, one dead. The big success is the chili, which is on its third crop! Even if it dies over winter as I'm expecting, we got a lot out of it and I'm glad the children talked me into it.

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I think getting some edible things is really good! And yay for planting tree.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Yes, I wasn't really expecting much this year, but I had a go, and got some food.

[liv]

Yay you grew things! I love your front garden, and I'm so impressed it made produce you actually ate. I especially love the chili, it makes me smile whenever I walk past it and see its little baby peppers. Also yay you have angelica with its excellent systematic name.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

:) yes, mostly I love the name.

[hooloovoo_42]

Strawberries and raspberries are great for the summer. If you've got a patch where they can just take over, you'll have loads in a few years.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's a good idea. Are they the kind of thing that can be planted around a tree?

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Sort of as long as they're not right next to it where the light never gets to and the soil wears off as its roots grow. If they are under the tree the berries will be more vulnerable to (a) slugs, because it is wetter and darker, and (b) birds, because they sit in the tree and then go "ooh, nice red things, I must shove my beak in and eat a quarter of every single one".

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Our tree is new (planted yesterday) but maybe it's best left alone.

[hooloovoo_42]

Strawberries are OK in dappled shade, but under big trees is probably not the best place. I don't water my garden and the fruit gets along well enough (zero attention other than picking!), but trees may take away too much moisture.

Both will run if left alone. Strawberries are easier to relocate the runners. And also nice to give to friends.

There are 2 types of raspberries - summer fruiting, which produce fruit in the second year, and autumn fruiting, which grow and fruit in the same year. Some of each help to keep the season going.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Hmm, maybe I should leave that area alone then and focus on the patch without a tree. I just realised I can put raspberry canes along the boundary on the other side and that would work quite well, so I might give that a go next year. Or beans, which are really pretty.

[hooloovoo_42]

Not sure if it's too late now, but if you plant broad beans at this time of year, they don't suffer as badly with black fly.

Broad beans are great to start off in egg boxes on the window sill. You can pot them on into something like toilet roll inners or pots made of newspaper. Then plant them out and cover them with fleece when they're 6-8" tall.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Garlic has always died on me too. Nasser next door can just put it in the ground and it grows but I never remember to ask him for advice.

When the rhubarb gets bigger, you'll be glad you don't have three of it. There was a well-established rhubarb in Deborah's garden and it could literally half-fill the freezer all by itself. I ate a hell of a lot of crumble.

You have just reminded me I promised myself to plant raspberry canes if I stayed in Sheffield, so I should when Spring comes.

[hooloovoo_42]

Where in Sheffield are you?

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Heeley but down by Chesterfield Road.

[hooloovoo_42]

Pa has a house in Heeley Green, but is currently living oppposite Abbeydale Park. I'll be up there tomorrow for the weekend.

I grew up in Sheffield and all my family still live there.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

There's a nearby house where they grow aubergines in pots. I was assuming that's an advanced plant, but I don't know where I got that idea.

[hooloovoo_42]

You should be able to take cuttings from the currants to grow more. Not sure about the blueberries.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I have never grown from cuttings. Maybe I should give it a go.

[hooloovoo_42]

Pa has currant bushes and is always taking cuttings, which seem to flourish.

[badriya.livejournal.com]

We got an apple and pear tree in a pot this year, or was it last? and a plum one.We had a couple of pieces of fruit, small and sour. We also planted herbs in pots and those went well but although the parsley is still healthy the mint is all dying, and we had three lots. The basil died a month or so ago. It it because of winter?

[hooloovoo_42]

Probably.