Eddo
Apparently tender, or is there a rumour it can take a bit of frost if dryish? These two plants have been romping away in my greenhouse for 3 years (there's three big leaves on the big one in a large pot at the bottom, and smaller leaves on a multi-stemmed smaller plant in a smaller pot higher up), having spent the winter indoors. They get semi-dried it off over winter, and the leaves are cut off as they get messy with aphids. Looking forward to a good harvest - those leaves are the biggest I've seen on them, size of dinner trays!
Easy from seed, being my first year with it this is growing in pots. It's currently in 2.5 and 3 inch pots, and been flowering all summer - but it's the leaves I'm after. They've a mild taste, more than lettuce; they're succulent in texture (as you might expect from a seaside plant), and unlike lawn plantains, there's no stringiness (except there's a little in older leaves). There's a little attention from slugs - we'll see how much damage they cause when I start growing them in the bed.
Physalis peruviana, Cape Gooseberry
I started growing this a while back - now one of my plants is in its third season. They take a while to mature from seed sown in spring, and you may get the odd fruit in that year - not like tomatoes! But they are perennial, and will grow from underground if protected overwinter. They don't suffer potato blight, and are happy outdoors in summer. So mine are all in pots that I can move in and out. My seed comes from bought fruit: so another of my plants has calyces the shape of pumpkins.
At least some varieties appear to be day-length sensitive: one grown from seed has never started flowering at a sensible time to form fruit, it's much too late for the middle of the UK.
Total change in 2022: had a packet of random tomato seeds, plus Sheboygan and Piccolo. Some in this picture:
Oyster Mushroom
Our local coffee shop offers its coffee grounds to gardeners to compost. It's a fantastic medium to grow oyster mushrooms on. Mix in the spawn, and as the grounds come a bit dry, add some water, then seal up the bag and wait, After a few weeks you can puncture holes in the side to let the mushrooms grow out, but it'll likely start pushing heads out of any gap possible, I've also had success growing these by chopping up an oyster mushroom head and mixing with the moistened coffee grounds, I don't advise growing them in the house - when the heads are forming they bring me on coughing. I no longer grow this.
Japanese YamThis crop is not instant! From the pea size aerial tubers I get a couple of leaves in the first year. I grow these indoors, as slugs like to eat them. In time I get climbing stems that can be grown into a tree. Permanent home for the perennial root is in the pot, which stands on a dustbin of enriched soil under my hazel (a lighter canopy might be better). The pot is lifted in winter, and roots extending into the bin are the crop, while the pot and crown are moved to the greenhouse for frost protection. In spring I start them off again indoors, away from slugs, with a dead raspberry cane to start climbing up, before hardening off and replacing on the bin, attaching the vines to hanging twigs (again, warding off slugs). When they've got a grip I break off the canes to dissuade molluscs from climbing up. I feel that its first season in the pot it should be stood on a saucer, so that the root can't extend out: otherwise it sends out a good storage root that you crop and leave very little in the pot for the next season.
This was a job lot, all in one pot, found at the back of a nurseryman's stock. The label, when I came across it buried in the pot, only showed the price, the name had faded. The Allium has a lovely garlic scent and pretty flowers, which took me, as well as the knock-down price (thanks!) Evidently it was the Allium that was the original occupant, and what I was buying it for, however after much detective work I ID'd the weed. Cyperus eragrostis is from North America and is reckoned to be invasive, but has edible tubers according to the USDA. I found no tubers, so scrapped it. The flowers seem to set seed without ever appearing to open, so I've taken to cutting them off. It's not yet on the UK list of invasive species.
Musk Mallow
This came up easily from seed, flowers are lovely, and the leaves have a flavour of okra. It's perennial, so dead easy.
Allium triquetrum, Three-cornered Leek
In flower, in a pot in the greenhouse (hence the potato leaves), and the bulbs, happily matured on a shady pavement. Spring onion taste. In the UK, this is an invasive species, not to be released in the wild; so I remove the flower heads as soon as they finish opening flowers, and before they fall horizontal - they're easily lost in that position, so can set seed. You get plenty of bulbs.
Black Raspberry, Rubus leucoderma
New from seed sown autumn 2021, first fruits on one plant 2023. These fruits are in early October: I was waiting for black fruits but they seem to drop off before that stage. The taste is sweet but rather different to Rubus idaeus, common raspberry. The plant's a clumper rather than spreader - I'm expecting its shoots to flop to the ground to take root. The stems are armed with a few small but robust thorns (technically prickles).
Loquat, Eriobotrya
Grown from a pip from an imported fruit about 35 years ago, this is now a pruned evergreen tree. Apparently they flower and fruit regularly in London, but in NW England I only get flowers after a hot summer - when if flowers overwinter, with inconspicuous flowers but noticeable marzipan fragrance. In London they flower in October/November - mine flowers later, so may miss many pollinators. 2022 was a really hot summer, with wildfires elsewhere in the country: my tree was providing useful cool shade, much apppreciated. In 2023 it bore a few branches of fruit. On the performance of this tree, it wouldn't be a commercial proposal here! The fruit was enjoyed.
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