We are practically self sufficient already. So far this year, after many hours hard graft over the crops in the field... back garden... growbags on the patio, I have grown and fed to the family:
8 large lettuces
A couple of meals worth of rocket and other small salad leaves
2½lb of potatoes (no idea what breed, my mother gave me the seed potatoes, but they were fairly small and waxy, very tasty)
25g of runner beans
Half a dozen very mini beetroots, picked to thin out the bed to encourage the others to grow bigger
Impressive, nay?
Ok, so I'm not exactly feeding the world. Or even, in fact, our family of three, one of whom only eats a few mouthfuls of food a day. But it's a start. This is the first year I've ever tried to grow anything more ambitious than one of those bulbs that you put in water to make a flower to give your mother at Christmas. You know, they always make you do in primary school in late autumn. What the bloody hell were they? Mine was usually the bulb that turned up its toes and died within in a week, so I'm pretty gosh darned proud of my harvest so far.
In other news, I got three nice books for the princely sum of £6 today from a secondhand bookstore near us that's sadly closing down in a few months - including one called 'Country Bazaar' that details a million and one country pursuits, from beekeeping to beer making.
Oh, and it was a hyacinth. I just googled.
8 large lettuces
A couple of meals worth of rocket and other small salad leaves
2½lb of potatoes (no idea what breed, my mother gave me the seed potatoes, but they were fairly small and waxy, very tasty)
25g of runner beans
Half a dozen very mini beetroots, picked to thin out the bed to encourage the others to grow bigger
Impressive, nay?
Ok, so I'm not exactly feeding the world. Or even, in fact, our family of three, one of whom only eats a few mouthfuls of food a day. But it's a start. This is the first year I've ever tried to grow anything more ambitious than one of those bulbs that you put in water to make a flower to give your mother at Christmas. You know, they always make you do in primary school in late autumn. What the bloody hell were they? Mine was usually the bulb that turned up its toes and died within in a week, so I'm pretty gosh darned proud of my harvest so far.
In other news, I got three nice books for the princely sum of £6 today from a secondhand bookstore near us that's sadly closing down in a few months - including one called 'Country Bazaar' that details a million and one country pursuits, from beekeeping to beer making.
Oh, and it was a hyacinth. I just googled.
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