I recently took up gardening. Mum was a great gardener, growing most of her own vegetables: potatoes, cabbages, turnips, onions, carrots, anything and everything really. And she was successful. I had often thought to emulate her but had never had the time nor, if I am honest, the inclination to do so until recently. We have a massive garden but it is mostly lawn surrounded by trees where the Bombers played as they were growing up. We have planted some flower and shrub beds but it has remained mostly grass in all the years we have lived here. The Wing Commander added an apple tree many years ago and I planted a couple of blackcurrant bushes which have produced fruits for jams and crumbles. However, as I am now a pensionista, I thought it was the right time to test if there was a family gene for green-fingeredness.
I have decided to start small and see where my ambitions can take me. Rather than dig out a vegetable patch in the garden I bought a greenhouse. It is one of the pop-up kind with an easy to assemble frame and a green plastic cover. There is a roll up door and just enough room to stand up in with three shelves on each side.
My initial intention was to grow tomatoes, and I am. Three plants with different varieties. I have also branched out into peas, onions, spring onions and lettuce. I was ably helped in planting by my 2 year old Little Explosion so the result was a kind of scatter gun approach. Nevertheless, most have grown and required replanting from clumps of seedlings into more ordered rows in troughs. The lettuce has been particularly successful and we may be eating salad all summer. The others are all doing well too. However, the one I am most excited about was an unexpected experiment.
While filling pots and trays with compost I discovered in the newly opened bag, one single kernal of corn. It had begun to sprout with a couple of centimetres of root showing. I didn’t expect it would grow but it was a bit different from sowing seeds and The Little Explosion seemed interested in poking it into a pot. To my surprise and delight it is currently pushing upward and looking mighty healthy. I feel like a new parent tending the development of my little veggy offspring!
Therefore, let me introduce you to Cornelia!
Significantly Different 