I started blogging last year about growing fruit and veg at home. As I mentioned previously, veg grown at home tastes better and have travelled a very small distance, which means less road and air freight.
Yesterday I tipped out my last bag of homegrown spuds and made a handful of them into a salmon, broccoli and potato pie for our baby girl. She absolutely loved it and gobbled a big bowl down for tea. I used a recipe from the Truuuly Scrumptious Book of Organic Baby Purees, it is brilliant, I haven't found a recipe that our baby doesn't like (yet!).
This year, I have very little time for gardening with a young baby to look after. But I've still managed to grow some spuds, tomatoes, blueberries, pak choi, various salad leaves and lots of herbs.
Due to lack of time, I chose flowers that were tough and could look after themselves with very little help from me. One plant which thrived on neglect was the Ragged Robin Poppies. The original seeds came from a friend's garden in North Wales, so they have travelled quite a distance. They are absolutely stunning, although they are short lived.
I also love these Balloon plants because the slugs don't eat them and they are a perennial so no faffing about each year, it just dies down over the Winter and reappears in the Spring.
I try to be a thrifty gardener and very rarely buy plants and always try to grow from seed or cuttings. This Hydrangea came from a cutting my Gran took about four years ago.
Likewise the snapdragons were grown by my Mum from seed, they don't get eaten by slugs either and look after themselves, so a big thumbs up from me.
These Allium bulbs were a gift from my Mum and the bees love them, which is always a bonus as their habitats and survival are under threat.
There was one weird thing which happened with my potato plants this year, they bore 'fruit'. I'm not sure what they are, I thought their fruit was underground in the form of spuds. I'm thinking maybe they flowers were cross-pollunated by an insect from my tomato plants? What with me not being a botanist, I'm not sure if this can happen!
Beautiful photos! Growing your own edibles is so satisfying - while I only have a smallish balcony, I have managed to grow tomatoes, radishes, peas and herbs this year.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I think the potato fruit is normal. :) I remember my parents warning me not to eat any from the potato field as they're poisonous.
thank you Morrgan, I do love my garden and I just have to eat homegrown tomatoes in the Summer, they taste so much better :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info about the potato fruit, they looked horribly hard and green, so I wasn't tempted to eat them!!
Your flowers are so beautiful. I only started gardening last year and have a ways to go until I'm comfortable venturing into the world of growing fruits and vegetables. I love when others share their homegrown vegetables with me! They really do taste better than what you get at the market.
ReplyDeleteooh Nicola that is exactly my sort of gardening - nick it from someone else, stick it in a pot and then ... nothing, it does it all itself! So lovely, well done you x
ReplyDeleteWell done! I think the technical reason for potato "fruit" is that potatoes and tomatoes are the same family and if I were a potato flower I would want to turn into a seed! So pleased that you were not tempted to eat them! Don't throw the loyalty cards away quite yet, but like the man says "Every little helps" and even one or two meals of zero miles food and a few extra flowers for the bees must make a difference!
ReplyDeletewow! those potatoes look so yummy!
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