Mmm.. okra

Untitled, a photo by uselessdevice on Flickr.

Not grown by me but tasty :)

mini succulent plant

Not much left in the garden now, well at least not any tomatoes. I haven't had the time or will to tidy up or plant spring bulbs yet. My purple osteospermum is the best surviving colour out in the garden.. the dahlias are over now. This baby plant is growing indoors in soil from a leaf of a bigger plant (the stem you can see is a different one though, dragon plant).

This pansy only flowered briefly but was really unusual looking, frilly and purple!


I saved some tulip, narcissus and alium bulbs from this summer - I've never tried re-planting bulbs before. I may try to see what I get rather than spend a lot on new ones this spring, perhaps try to save the dahlia tubers too, although the red ones I had this year aren't as nice as the big bold purple and white ones I had a couple of years back.

Finally, another old pic from October - showing 1 of my strawberry plants sending out runners, which I've put into another pot beside it. Sorry not very clear with the long grass around it. I must go out and rescue them into the warm before any frost.. perhaps they will have fruit next year. I think it is the bought plant rather than the from seed 1 that had the runners.

mystery berries, Sungold toms, strawbs

Speaking again of the "potato" plant (grown from a pack of dahlia tubers) carrying little green fruits. A few of the green fruits have turned into small blue berries - I wondered then if they are blueberries or blackcurrants! But after searching the web I found a page saying that these berries could still belong to a potato, since that is where the seeds are. How strange! I haven't tried to dig down and see if there are actually potatoes yet as it is right in the middle of my flower bed amongst poppies and sunflowers, but I should do at some point.

More gardening advice from the web - a branch had almost snapped off in the wind from a tomato plant with several green tomatoes on. Apparently I could have taped it up and it might have healed with time, but since I've already broken it off fully, I have pushed the branch down into a new pot of soil to see if it may grow roots and start a new plant. (As apparently this can work). Last time I threw a branch of tomatoes in the compost bin not knowing this, hope it works!


I had thought none of my sungold plants had made it, but now I can tell the difference between the larger red Gardener's Delight tomatoes and the more plentiful and flavourful yellowy-orange Sungolds so I do have both after all - in fact more Sungolds than GD's. I thought they were ripening past yellow (to red), but they stopped at orange. The smallest ones are the tastiest. I've been able to pick 5-10 at a time (only 1 or 2 GD), and there are always more green ones growing to take their place. It does make growing them worthwhile - enough to put in a salad whenever I want. It's cost a bit to buy seeds, tools and compost etc but is better value than buying a big box of cherry tomatoes and wasting most of them each time, as is normal from a supermarket. The plastic packaging is wasteful too, and they taste nicer. Also of course it is fun to grow them. :)

F1 Sarian strawberry plant - grown from seed and now complete with little baby strawberries! It is a couple of months since the Homebase Cambridge Favourite strawberry plant stopped fruiting (bought as a small plant). But now this one has nearly got to that stage. I'll be very pleased if I see ready to eat berries, after all the other seedlings didn't germinate or died.

tomatoes turning orange

I think these are the red rather than yellow ones, will let them carry on ripening..

Also, I bought a pack of 2 dahlias from Homebase (red cactus style, in 1 packet) - 1 is growing normal looking flower buds and leaves, but the other appears to actually have been a potato! It has little white flowers which have turned into green "fruits" which I believe can happen in potatoes, and maybe the tubers can look the same as dahlia tubers. Anyone know? At some point perhaps I will dig down and see if I have unexpected veg. :)

tomatoes getting bigger

taxi courgette growing

One flower of each sex:

And a baby yellow courgette growing! Hopefully it has been pollinated either by bees or by me with my cotton bud trying to transfer some male pollon onto the female flower :)

tomatoes and strawberry plants

Plant on the left is a small Cambridge Favourite "cheat" since bought as a plant (it has produced 3 edible strawberrys so far), on the right is F1 Sarian grown from seed in January, the only survivor and finally big enough to go outside!

Gardener's Delight cherry toms still making progress.