I found this whilst going through some old pictures from the past year and thought I'd share. Although the bulk of our garden in the UK is devoted to naturalistic planting and attracting wildlife in as aesthetically pleasing a fashion as possible we always grow some annual vegetables. When we held a garden open day for charity this year it seemed to be one of the areas people found most interesting so I thought I'd share.
I struggle to get excited about rows of food staples one could buy from a farm down the road but I really like growing things a bit more unusual, delicious and harder to get. This is also environmentally friendly as the food miles on these items tend to be higher so by growing these rather than vegetables that have been shipped from another continent we're helping the environment. I know; I'm a real martyr!
This butternut squash got massive whilst hidden away on the far side of the garden as we picked more easily accessible young squash. I really like growing different squashes because a) I really like eating squashes; b) they look aesthetically pleasing and wildish compared to most vegetables and c) they look after themselves and just ramble away producing the delicious goods.
I don't know why garden nurseries don't sell a mix of young squash seedlings. That's what I'd be keen to see as that way people could grow a mix of varieties (butternuts, zuchinis, crook stems and so on) without wasting a load of seeds or risking the potential minefield that is the mixed seed packet (nb if any nursery is reading this ditto for named chillis and other peppers!). Nonetheless I'm happy growing just a couple of varieties of these delicious fire-and-forget vines and our toads like to shelter amongst them.
This year now I'm here in the tropics I'm trying a small squash on our balcony...perhaps I'll share a few photos of 2007's harvest in 365 days. Happy New Year.
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