Burnside Vid 1

Time to dish up.

George, my lettuce plant is being eaten at last. I've realised how economical growing your own lettuce is. Think about it, you buy it at shop and it's usually a full head of lettuce, which is typically too much and ends up getting thrown away, here, you plant a seed, wait an eternity, then pick as much as you like and let the plant carry on producing.

Another good thing is we don't tend to eat many salads in this household, so we might be able to be self sufficient off the three lettuce plants I have. Scratch that, four, another one has reared it's head recently and is snuggled in a pot with one of my strawberries. I'm not sure if polyculture covers pots, but I'll pretend it does.

Something less edible but just as majestic has come into bloom. Despite the lily beetles best efforts my oriental lily is now in full bloom, and whilst I can't eat it, it does it's bit firstly by being gorgeous and smelling divine, and then by bringing bees to the garden which will help out my strawberries. Assuming all the bees haven't drowned in the weather we've been enduring lately. I suppose I can also use the flowers for the vase, but it seems cruel to shorten it's life span, but they look so pretty...

Hidden bounty and the semen plant.

Only a couple of days after I bought my chard storm winds came to try and wreak havoc on my garden. In particular peril was my star plants, namely my biggest strawberry and lettuce which I'd perched atop a gas meter box outside, to which they tumbled three foot to the ground. Neither seems to have been damaged by their fall however, and they're still sitting there drinking up the decidedly torrential rain we've been getting of late.

Upon repairing my garden and putting all back where it was, I made a couple of odd discoveries. Amongst them was the delight that my smaller strawberries had been conspiring in secret to feed me. Whilst my largest plant made a big show and dance of having more flowers than Interflora, the little plants too had been busy, and behind the leaves of two other plants I found two tiny unripe strawberries. That was a good day.

Whilst we're on the subject of gardening surprises, I'll never fail to love the regenerative capabilities mint has, not only will it grow in anything you stick it in, but if you've been away or just forgetful, and have neglected it's watering, then it will begin to wilt, and just as it looks like all is lost with it, a trickle of water and twenty minutes later it's cheerily sunbathing again, as if nothing ever happened. As it is, I like to think of mint as quite a forgiving plant.

My lettuce are coming along very well now, and I decided to make a comparison with the bolted and unbolted lettuce I have, to see if there is any difference. Bolting is when a plant suddenly shoots up and as such it can leave the plant with a very bitter taste, like that sort of chemical taste you get sometimes with shop bought lettuce. However, on making the taste test, I found that although the bolted lettuce did have traces of that unpleasant taste, it was nowhere as bad as some of the lettuces I've had, and so I'm calling it a viable crop.

Whilst I was on the scene I decided to see what the Chard tastes like raw. Big mistake. The only comparison I can make to its raw taste is that of semen. Or chicken soup. You had to be there. Anyway, after having flash backs of my sex life, I've decided stewed maybe the way to go with this one.

Charlie the chard.

Swiss Chard is tricky to get a hold of in the shops, and so I've decided to buy one, because, if nothing else it's pretty. I seem to have a bundle of colours, pink, orange and white. I already know the white ones are least likely to bolt, though I'm flummoxed as to why it's the case.

Does anyone have suggestions on what I can do with it now though? I know it's a relative of spinach, but boiling it and making it into soup just seems wrong.

Growing in abundance.

A small hiatus whilst I get some things sorted out, and I'm happy to report back that my earlier pessimism was unfounded as I now have a couple of lettuce plants. They're still a few weeks away from being lettuce proper but that aside they look ready to go I think. I've also had some success with strawberries, having harvested my very first one with more on the way. Sadly it's not all good news, as about two weeks after I bought it a brand new rose bush died for seemingly no reason. I don't think it liked me very much...



That aside the rest of the garden is in bloom, and despite the red beetles best attempts the lilies are still going strong.

Morning Forage.

Never knew you could import a blog into notes on Facebook. It's a funny world.

Anyway, spurred on my Alys Fowler and a lack of sleep I decided to pull some trousers on at about 5:30 and go for a wander around the suburbs of Bredbury.



In Fowler's new BBC series "The Edible Garden" - which yes is on iPlayer - herself and some assembled friends, when not gardening like mad, are basking in the bountiful supplies of fruit, veg, edible flowers and leaves that can be had in and around the urban environment, so, in an attempt to emulate this success I went for a wander to Highfield Cemetery.

Being a Weetabix man I know that they go with anything, including V05 styling mousse, and so I was hoping if even Bristol has an abundant supply of fruit and veg, surely an ex farming village would too?

The results of my hour long wander, I came to the conclusion that the three usable commodities of Bredbury that featured on the show are as follows:
1.) Dandelions
2.) Nettles
3.) Elderflower

Basically anything that grows in your hair is harvestable in my area. All the same there were some mushrooms growing on a tree, but I'm too wary about wild mushrooms to go for them. I did notice some bright red berries on my way back. They were in the garden of a house 2 doors down, and I suspect they suit a blackbird's stomach more than mine. Still, there's an abundance of fruit else where in Bredbury. Sadly, it's in Morrisons.

Not a good year...

It would seem a few days later I was expecting too much for my lettuce to survive, as they're now becoming limp and lifeless, still I have two pots on the go, but I may well lose those too in time.

It also seems to be a bad time for plants in general as this year seems ready to be even more catastrophic for plants than last year. Snow. In May! And according to the latest weather reports we can expect frost. Just in time then for my Strawberries, which I recently transplanted out into the soil. One thing that arrived today too were some Foxgloves I sent off for recently, which I hope will serve a practical purpose as well as an asthetic one. Foxgloves, or Digitalis attract bees like mad, which are vital if you want a crop of fruit, and hopefully they'll serve their purpose. With luck nothing will be dead in the morning.

Eating my lawn.

With the little space I have, I've inevitably had to turn to pots for much of my things. However, they seem quite happy to sit there and sun themselves as if they were in the soil. Outside I have some Daffodil bulbs, which haven't done too well sadly. You win some and lose some. All the same, my strawberries are doing well, flowering without me even noticing at first. Alas in a few weeks time I'll have to part with one, so it can fulfil its purpose in life as a birthday present, hopefully they'll fruit just in time for his visit to Wimbledon.

I'm a big fan of being able to eat your plants (though maybe not so much the dandelions), and that's why I'm taking up planting some lettuce, which so far are doing very well. I've planted three pots in total, bringing one inside as insurance, and after a couple of days it's utterly booming in there. Meanwhile outside there are no signs of life. However, I don't want to talk too soon, as my luck with seeds has been truly pitiful. Fingers crossed.

Last year I took a whack at growing my own, and being a chilli addict I couldn't resist. Sadly my first go at propagating some seeds started promisingly, but then they all gave up and died. So, exasperated, I turned to Homebase and eBay, where I ended up with an Apache Chilli plant, and three Jalapeño plants. Sadly we didn't have the kindest of Summers last year, and I suffered a miserable chilli crop of three, yes three Apache chillies, and despite multiple attempts to flower, my Jalapeños died without giving me a thing.

My Garden

Hello, my name is John, I'm a teenager, a student, and rather oddly, a gardening enthusiast. Recently I've been hoping to expand on my efforts and branch out with some more diverse greenery in the tiny space we have, but this won't be easy for me, as like with most students, I'm flat broke. All the same, this hasn't deterred me from trying to build up a bit of greenery over the years, as I want my garden to be something beautiful. Again, this won't be easy, as compared to what we used to have, our space is now mainly taken up with a socking great driveway that looks awful.

Currently my garden is set out something like this:


So I've had to cram in as much as I can in the available space, all the same it's still doing nicely, I have Lilies and Daffodils, they're new this year. Unfortunately I also have a ton of dandelions. Happily however, Alys Fowler has recently exposed they go nicely in pancakes. I may have to do some harvesting. That said, I don't find the idea of eating dandelions too appealing, as a child I used to have an irrational fear of them. Not that I do now, you understand.

I'm also a big fan of recycling, there seems to be something very zen and karma-like in the idea you may see that bottle again. However my garden has taken to slightly different ways of being green. Now I know what you're expecting, I'm gonna start rabbiting on about how when my plants die they give back to the earth, this is all good and true, I have some well established reeds that are a great example of this, but my green gardening comes in a much more modest form.



This, until recently was my favourite coffee mug. Sadly after a drunken night out I came in and knocked it over, resulting in a large crack, rendering it unusable. However, it's perfect as an alternative to plant pots, which I admit I'm in no short supply of, but it seemed too good an idea to pass up. The mint you see sitting happily in the remains of my caffeine fixes was dirt cheap, pardon the pun, because I bought it from the produce isle in Morrisons and saved myself a good 40p on what Homebase was asking next door, and trust me, it'll thrive. But then again, if you can't make mint thrive, chances are you're the grim reaper.