This week in your Kitchen Garden.

[Epona]

Have we had the "try growing some ginger" conversation? It makes a lovely indoor plant and you get a potful of ginger. Just stick a bit of supermarket root in some compost. Now would be a good time to start.

You did give me some info a couple of years ago, the ginger I got didn't form any shoots though - thanks for the reminder to try again though, I do use a lot of ginger so growing it would be most useful!

Unfortunately I'm quite limited for growing space - only the kitchen window is suitable in terms of light, and the sink is in front of half of it

 

[Epona]

Oh btw the chilli plant I acquired is in a tiny pot, it's very small, it has started producing flowers - I think the correct thing to do is repot it into a big pot and pinch off the flowers so it puts energy into getting bigger before flowering and fruiting?

 

[seeformiles]

Risked putting my runner beans outside last week. Out of 12, only one has been munched so far but I’ve got another dozen seedlings in reserve. Rhubarb is doing well as is the beetroot despite some early interference from squirrels. Oregano is going mad and has filled its pot to bursting.

 

[StoneRoad]

was about to plant out a few things ... inc some runner beans.
however, just seen a grey squirrel digging, so that's out - even if it wasn't tipping down - until s/he has gone elsewhere.

 

[Oriole]

 

[newme]

Most is doing well, I planted a lot of French breakfast radishes without thinking what they were going to be for. Have like 50 almost done? Any ideas lol.

 

[Epona]

Most is doing well, I planted a lot of French breakfast radishes without thinking what they were going to be for. Have like 50 almost done? Any ideas lol.

Stir fried radish (thinly slice the roots and shred the greens) is a lovely side dish to have with something, or they can be a component of a larger stir fry/noodle/fried rice type dish.
It changes the flavour when they're cooked, and the greens are slightly peppery.

Other ideas - roast the roots (I suspect like other roast root veg, if you do them til they're not quite ready they'll freeze well, then you can pop them in the oven from frozen to finish off the cooking). Make pesto or soup with the greens, or add to dhal or other curry dish similar to how you'd use spinach.

 

[Epona]

Oh - another thing you can do is pickle them or ferment them, if you're into making your own preserves.
This is an easy method for pickling, I don't tend to have enough to do a jar, but this is one you can also make a small portion quickly as the radishes are sliced, to have as an accompaniment or garnish for that night's tea:

Quick Pickled Radish Recipe - How to Pickle Radishes Recipe - Rachel Cooks®

This quick pickled radish recipe makes the best pickled radishes in only about 10 minutes. Try them on tacos, avocado toast, and more!

www.rachelcooks.com

 

[Mation]

Hullo all,

Thread newbie, here.

Probably the wrong time of year for starting, and not optimal conditions, but I'd quite like to grow something on my northwest facing, sheltered window ledges, that get some afternoon and evening sun, but are mostly in the shade.

Is the location a non-starter? Are there any herbs that might work?

I am a complete ignoramus, so would much appreciated any advice that lessens my chances of losing my way, searching along fruitless, um... wormholes (?)

 

[Oriole]

Most is doing well, I planted a lot of French breakfast radishes without thinking what they were going to be for. Have like 50 almost done? Any ideas lol.

I could easily eat them in one sitting dipped in a bit of salt with bread and butter.
Otherwise if you slice them or cut them in 4 like wedges thy will add crunch to any salad that is a bit sad.
Chopped up fine and mixed with cottage cheese or fromage frais or labneh with spring onions or chives and lot's of pepper with some nice crunchy bread or some toast is quite nice too.
I'm not crazy about them cooked (they seem a little pointless to me when they lose their crunch) but I have used them to bulk up a stir fry when they were past their crispest (any recipe that calls for mooli or kohlrabi or even turnip or salsify should work too if you adjust the cooking time to take the size and high water content into account).

 

[newme]

Yeh looking at probably stir fry or on toast so far but way too many. Found I can freeze them if I blanch them first. Then I can bung more into whatever with less of a time limit.

Like the idea of a radish hash brown type thing so determined to make that work somehow. Want to try them with salt and butter cos it seems to be a things so that's seasoning tips for the hash. Addition to stir fries from all the frozen bits seems very obvious that I didn't think of.

Need to move so many plants. I may need a new poly tunnel that's way taller for the climbers and probably a frame too. Have wood and tools but no space to work unless it's sunny. Also need to fill another bed, turns out on temu it's like £5 for a 6x3 4x2 fabric bed so may have way too much soon.

Front garden needs a lot if weeding but it's half wild flowers so avoiding those. Red clover has gone bonkers. Now up to about 1/3rd clover of various types. Random flowrs everywhere to avoid. More seeds to sow etc. Also found a small standing greenhouse to get propagating in.

 

[RubyToogood]

My gooseberry bushes are crap. I've got 2, planted 2 or 3 years ago, and they have like 3 gooseberries on them. I had fuck all last year too. Yet the blackcurrants continue to rampage. Do they just take a while to get going or do they need more sun than I can give them in my east-facing garden?

 

[Epona]

Hullo all,

Thread newbie, here.

Probably the wrong time of year for starting, and not optimal conditions, but I'd quite like to grow something on my northwest facing, sheltered window ledges, that get some afternoon and evening sun, but are mostly in the shade.

Is the location a non-starter? Are there any herbs that might work?

I am a complete ignoramus, so would much appreciated any advice that lessens my chances of losing my way, searching along fruitless, um... wormholes (?)

I am crap with plants as should be obvious from my previous posts on this thread, but I was concerned you hadn't had a response yet!

You could try some chives I think (but as with all alliums, be careful to keep out of the reach of any cats or dogs). Maybe some parsley, that quite likes shade, perhaps coriander? I think avoid the herbs with woody stems or "oily" herbs (idk if that term makes sense), they tend to prefer full sun. Mint tends to do well pretty much anywhere.
In terms of non-edible houseplants in case you can't find any edible ones that work, ferns tend to do well in shady spots - maidenhair fern is a very pretty decorative one to grow on a windowsill that doesn't get much light.

 

[Mation]

I am crap with plants as should be obvious from my previous posts on this thread, but I was concerned you hadn't had a response yet!

You could try some chives I think (but as with all alliums, be careful to keep out of the reach of any cats or dogs). Maybe some parsley, that quite likes shade, perhaps coriander? I think avoid the herbs with woody stems or "oily" herbs (idk if that term makes sense), they tend to prefer full sun. Mint tends to do well pretty much anywhere.
In terms of non-edible houseplants in case you can't find any edible ones that work, ferns tend to do well in shady spots - maidenhair fern is a very pretty decorative one to grow on a windowsill that doesn't get much light.

Thank you!

Chives and coriander sound like they'd work, with the added bonus that I like them. And no cats or dogs can reach my window sills. Well. Maybe a super determined, reckless cat. But it's highly unlikely. Dogs only if they parachute in.

I used to love parsley and hate coriander, but that switched pretty much simultaneously some time ago. Odd.

A fern could be good, too

 

[campanula]

Thank you!

Chives and coriander sound like they'd work, with the added bonus that I like them. And no cats or dogs can reach my window sills. Well. Maybe a super determined, reckless cat. But it's highly unlikely. Dogs only if they parachute in.

I used to love parsley and hate coriander, but that switched pretty much simultaneously some time ago. Odd.

A fern could be good, too

That's a bit awkward because parsley would be a much better choice than the gangly sunloving coriander. If edibles were a priority, cut and come again saladings can actually be planted quite densely in a window box, don't need too much sun, are very easily sown from seed, has lovely varied colour and texture and can be carefully harvested all summer until late September, when you can whip them out in time to pop some bulbs and winter flowers such as cyclamens or violas in. Real Seeds were selling a lovely selection - Morton's Mixed lettuce. Plenty of time to sow curly leaf parsley - better than flat leaf for the space...and maybe a mint or two - a small leaved moroccan mint can be enjoyed for a long season.

 

[Epona]

Curly leaf parsley also has a milder flavour than flat leaf - as much as I love flat leaf, I buy bunches of that and freeze it, and grow curly leaf

 

[Epona]

My chilli is flowering!
Do I need to be pollinating it as it's indoors and no access to the usual insects to do the job?

Nothing on the tomato yet, I think it's been such a dreary May that it's not getting enough light, even on our best south-facing windowsill. Or is it still a bit early? It's got to about 3' tall and I've had to stake it, I might have picked the wrong size variety for indoor growing. If it reaches the ceiling I'll put it in one of the borders out on the estate, hopefully someone might get some actual tomatoes from it at least.

 

[iona]

Do I need to be pollinating it as it's indoors and no access to the usual insects to do the job?

Give the stem a good hard tap every day, that'll do it.

What variety is the tomato?

 

[Epona]

Give the stem a good hard tap every day, that'll do it.

What variety is the tomato?

It is allegedly a "Lilliput" which I kind of just assumed meant it was likely to be a smaller size of plant

 

[Epona]

Apparently that one is supposed to be a bush type plant though, this one is just going up and up and up - given where I got it (take a plant, give a donation type deal at the charity I volunteer for), I think a labelling error is possible.

 

[Epona]

My mint cuttings from a bunch of cut mint grew good roots, so I've potted them up today. Thoughts and prayers.
Still need to replace my basil, tried some seeds that I had leftover (thank you to Urbanites who have sent me seeds over the years!) but they were old and didn't germinate, I knew it wasn't a big chance of success.
Also still want a hotter chilli variety at some point, but this week's looking to be a bust on managing to go anywhere to get one! They were selling some in a grocers shop up the road but they were a tenner, small plants, and already in full fruit - that's a lot of money for 20 chillies so mostly decorative interest IMO - obviously I passed on that.
The mild chilli I have is currently very pretty and full of flowers, hoping for some chillies soon - Hot Banana variety, which are apparently excellent for stuffing with cheese and roasting, so looking forward to that.

 

[Epona]

Also what the fuck is going on with the weather?
How is any sun loving plant supposed to do well on even my best sunny windowsill when it's bloody grey outside all day every day?

 

[Oriole]

This morning's strawberry harvest.

 

[newme]

French breakfast radishes look odd
Free tumble composter, 120l based on googling. Just got it off a local group and walked it home, exercise and free composting stuff

 

[Epona]

My supposedly bush tomato groweth ever upwards - I pruned some suckers off it today, and near the top directly off the stem it has what looks like 2 teeny little growths that I am hoping are the start of trusses - if anything actually happens with that I'm going to have to rig up some string across the kitchen for support - note for future, make sure you've got the right sort of tomato, this is rapidly turning into day of the triffids

The chilli plant has 3 tiny chillies growing now, a couple of flowers dropped off and a couple of others that were open look like they haven't been pollinated (I've been tapping the plant but can only see pollen falling when it's sunny), loads more flower buds on it but due to the greyest fucking June on record by my estimation, they aren't opening yet. It needs a bigger pot which I didn't get around to putting it in a while back due to being preoccupied with the cat being ill - now it's flowering and starting to produce fruit, I'm a bit nervous about repotting.

The mint cuttings that I potted up seem to have survived my TLC and are growing nicely

Got a small oregano plant which needs a bigger pot and some fucking sun, not sure how it will do on my windowsill if we don't get any sunny days soon! I deliberately choose plants that like a sunny spot because usually at least from May-September it's streaming in that south facing window and likely to shrivel anything that can't cope - this year though, ugh...

 

[Epona]

My tomato plant has grown a bit more (over 4 foot now) but it opened its first flower today!
Fuck knows how I am going to provide support for the trusses when it starts to fruit, this is definitely a vine style tomato and not the cherry tomato bush I expected.
I gave one of the mint plants to my parents.
Chilli is doing so so, it has a couple of big chillies on it but none of the other flowers seem to be developing pods. I should have repotted it when I first got it instead of leaving it.
Oregano plant is going bonkers, seems to be doing really well.

 

[Oriole]

Strawberries continue to be this year's successful crop
First raspberries are ripening
I'm in a funk so left the parsley to do its bolting stuff. I'm hoping it will just self seed and we'll have an abundance of it again next spring.
We may harvest 1 carrot at some point in the future
The courgette and squashes aren't doing great

 

[andysays]

Strawberries continue to be this year's successful crop
First raspberries are ripening
I'm in a funk so left the parsley to do its bolting stuff. I'm hoping it will just self seed and we'll have an abundance of it again next spring.
We may harvest 1 carrot at some point in the future
The courgette and squashes aren't doing great
View attachment 429881

I had problems getting carrot seed to germinate and am expecting a similar harvest to yours

 

[The39thStep]

My tomato plant has grown a bit more (over 4 foot now) but it opened its first flower today!
Fuck knows how I am going to provide support for the trusses when it starts to fruit, this is definitely a vine style tomato and not the cherry tomato bush I expected.
I gave one of the mint plants to my parents.
Chilli is doing so so, it has a couple of big chillies on it but none of the other flowers seem to be developing pods. I should have repotted it when I first got it instead of leaving it.
Oregano plant is going bonkers, seems to be doing really well.

I'd nip the growing tip off so it puts its energy into the fruits?

 

[Epona]

I'd nip the growing tip off so it puts its energy into the fruits?

I'll ask N if he can reach the top, I think it's probably too heavy for me to lift down from the kitchen counter at this point