My vegetable garden experiment continues. There are pleasant successes and utter failures but I am hopefully learning something from both and not discouraged by the latter. Lettuce and mixed salad leaves are probably my biggest success, alongside potatoes. I now need to work on how many I plant at one time so that I do not get a sudden glut of salad leaves. There are, after all, only so many salads I can eat in a row!
My peas are growing well and I even got a small harvest of gooseberries – although I picked them too soon out of desperation as the caterpillers were munching their fill on the leaves. I need to work out bug spraying while the fruit is still growing.
On the negative side, my carrots, turnips and parsnips have been an utter failure. I planted my carrots directly into the ground this year as I only had very limited success by growing them in pots last year and planting them out as they grew. I have now replanted carrots in tubs to see if I can have nore success there. It is infuriating as Mum grew carrots effortlessly while expert advice I am receiving is that carrots are ‘very difficult’ to grow! I will continue to try to grow them but it is not as easy as I thought!
My eldest Little Explosion has been a great help in preparing and planting and is enjoying watching things grow. She still insists that peas are, and I quote, “Yucky” but hopefully she is, in some small way, learning about the food she sees on her plate and how it gets there. She has been instrumental in getting a blueberry bush added to the garden and she is looking forward to harvesting the apple tree and blackcurrants. The garden is therefore a double joy; learning to grow and tend my own food and watching my grandchildren take part in the the adventure.
Significantly Different 