Another source of pleasure and relaxation (as well as a certain amount of frustration and occasional inadvertant exploration of the sunken cost fallacy) is my garden.
Since 2021 I’ve been attempting to grow a range of fruit, vegetables and herbs, with varying levels of success. Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you how ready I am to bore you to tears about the goodies I’m growing.
We predominantly grow in pots, as we only have a single flowerbed, but last year I installed a pair of raised beds at the back of the lawn. This year everything in there has had time to bed in so we’re optimistic for a decent harvest, weather permitting.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not aiming for us to go zero waste or naively thinking that we can feed the family from the garden. But what I can do is supplement our diet with some super fresh salad, grow a decent amount of strawberries and teach my children where their food comes from.
Right. Time to bore you lot… THIS IS WHAT I GROW:
Perennials
- Strawberry. We bought six plants in 2022 (3x Cambridge Favourite and 3x Honeoye) which, thanks to all the runners, now number closer to six dozen and produce a healthy crop each year. I’ve also got a pot of another variety (Summer Sun or something?) that produces gorgeous fruit that tastes as good as it looks.
- Honeyberry. We have two of them for some reason. Everyone is very keen to try a berry. Nobody is keen to have a second one, although my little boy seems to enjoy the odd one or two. It’s like a sour kiwi.
- Raspberry. We have three varieties; Malling Admiral, a Golden variety and my mystery raspberry- it arrived unlabelled in a random bundle, set fruit then promptly died last summer and is now trolling me with a load of new canes- if we don’t get fruit from it this year, it gets binned.
- Tayberry. A mix of blackberry and raspberry with the most murderous thorns on the stems. Expecting a decent crop this year after a year of mad growth. Should be ready for harvest around the time this goes live so keep an eye on the Sussex Smokehouse socials. The fruit looks like a large, dark raspberry and they taste like raspberries too.
- Blackcurrant. I bought one for my raised bed to cheer myself up after being made redundant last year (yes, I’m a walking cliche- I did actual gardening on my gardening leave) and got about 10 currants off it. This year, it has gone wild and is COVERED in fruit. Hopeful of a good crop. They’re just starting to ripen now. UPDATE: poxy pigeons ate them all.
- Redcurrant. I fight the sparrows for my crop each year. It was covered with netting last year, which helped, but now it is a funky shape. The blackcurrant is putting it to shame, in terms of flowering and fruiting. UPDATE: decimated by aphids, slugs and snails this year… ugh
- Rhubarb. Another redundancy purchase. It was difficult watching it grow and not using it last year. This year is different. We’ve already had plenty of crumbles and I’ve got a pot of pickled slices in the fridge that I’ve not been brave enough to try yet. It just keeps growing…!
- Wild garlic. Long past it’s season by now but I’ve got two pots of the stuff and I’m documenting the whole (edible) garden.
- Red veined sorrel. A great addition to salads. Pretty leaves and a lemony flavour. Haven’t touched the pot it’s in for almost four years now.
Ericaceous Plants
- Blueberry. Another troll plant. Two years in a big pot and I’ve only seen flowers. Maybe this year will be different. I may get a companion plant (I like the look of the pink lemonade variety), as apparently having more than one helps berry yield. UPDATE: we have berries! Not sure how many will ripen, but we’ve got fruit!
- Lingonberry. A Scandinavian cousin of the cranberry that was new last year and produced a seemingly never-ending supply of tiny berries. This year, it looks close to death and is barely producing flowers- I’ve probably got some reading to do.
Trees
- Braeburn Apple. Grafted on what I assume is hawthorn root stock. We almost got an apple off it last year- but that was the first year it was in the ground and not a pot so I’m optimistic for this year.
- Conference Pear. Acquired at the same time as the apple tree and also grafted. At the time of writing, it is covered in young fruit. Hopeful we can get a few to ripen.
- Black Mulberry. The latest edition to the gang. A Christmas gift from the inlaws. It survived being potted and has a load of lovely leaves- fingers crossed we’ll get some fruit from it in the next couple of years.
My daughter planted an apple seed in 2022 and that is now almost two metres tall and should start producing fruit in the next couple of years. She tends to it and makes sure it’s watered and is extremely excited about it fruiting. I reckon we’ve got another couple of years to go before we find out whether it makes eaters or cookers.
Last summer I attempted to trick a bunch of plum stones into thinking they’d been through winter. Only one fell for my shenanigans and germinated. It’s either from a cherry plum or a damson. These stones were collected during my son’s first ever foraging trip with me so that will be ‘his’ plum tree. It’s doing well and is already over half a metre tall.
Annuals
There are a handful of annual plants I enjoy growing each year.
- Peas. They rarely make it as far as the kitchen, as most of the family agrees they are best raw popped straight from the pod (although Graham, our dog, prefers an empty pod himself). I try to grow as much as I can- this year we have four pots and three varieties, but don’t ask me which…!
- Peppers. Bell peppers are no fun, but sweet peppers and chillis are great to grow and tend to crop really well, too. I’m the only one who enjoys a bit of heat so these are often gifted once I’m bored of them. UPDATE: my little greenhouse was blown over in high winds and now we won’t have any peppers this year, unless I buy a plant from the garden centre.
- Carrots. We always sow a couple of large tubs of carrots. This year we have one tub of your standard orange varieties, like Early Nantes and one of a purple variety.
- Salad leaves, endives and lettuce. I always grow a few pots of salad leaves. I don’t have much success with varieties that form heads, like little gem, but things like frisee, rocket and mazur work and produce a decent cut-and-come-again crop.
- Potatoes. Before the raised beds, we used fabric grow bags and got a decent crop each year. Last year, I threw some chitted spuds into one of the new beds and they went OFF. I didn’t dig them all up and now we have more. I guess that side of that bed is our potato patch now…
Herbs
I like to keep a variety of fresh herbs available in the garden. I attempted to grow a couple of troughs-full from seed this year- I had lemon basil, some other kind of basil, lemon coriander, two types of parsley all starting to sprout… but the weather (and the pigeons) had other plans.
I have successfully grown (usually from cuttings):
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Oregano
- Moroccan Mint
- Spearmint
- Chives
- Coriander
- Thyme
- Marjoram
The Once But Never Again Gang
There’s nothing wrong with knowing your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to growing fruit and veg.
I usually get a decent crop of carrots but I’m useless at growing cucumbers from seed. I don’t enjoy growing tomatoes either, but I know it’s a real passion for many people.
I don’t think my heart can take another failed attempt at broccoli. Radishes are super easy and crop well, but I’m the only one in the house who eats them so we’ll leave them until the kids’ palates mature a little…
Spring onions and the regular variety seem to be more trouble than their worth. Growing garlic seemed rewarding until they were harvested. Honestly, I won’t write off anything- if the kids want to try growing something in particular, we’ll do it. I will also do lots of expectation management.
What’s Next?
Sort the garden out. I don’t think any of the previous owners were particularly outdoors-y people and the garden has suffered as a result. It needs a complete overhaul. I can’t afford that, but I can do what I can, when I can.
Hopefully that will start later this summer or in autumn when the ground is a bit softer.
What we’re watching: Bob’s Burgers. Love it.
What we’re listening to: Catching up on podcasts- this week is You’re Wrong About with Sarah Marshall. Her voice is very relaxing.
