Incredible Edibles

I’m more of an ornamental horticulture person, but during the summer months I really enjoy growing edibles.  Although I have an allotment, it’s lovingly maintained by my friends Rose and Ed. My contribution to its maintenance is to prune the 100-year-old blackberry hedge at its front, and the grape vine that sprawls all over the place, untamed. We also have a very productive plum tree at the back, that doesn’t seem to belong to any particular plot.

I get to pick damsons from next door’s tree, which overhangs our roof terrace at home. And once I learnt that jam making was not alchemy, I’ve been churning out conserves and jellies every summer.

Because I am lazy at heart, most of my veg cultivation takes place in our greenhouse in the back garden. I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and strawberries. I grow herbs as ornamentals, in the rill-that-isn’t-a-rill-anymore, more of a dry riverbed. The strawberries grow in a small half barrel. We’re lucky to consume one or two, but I’m happy to let the wildlife have the rest.

I grow half a dozen cordon tomatoes in a raised bed alongside two or three cucumbers.  I find it very therapeutic to pinch out the side shoots and train the cordons. For indoor tomatoes best practice advises you to stop the cordon once five trusses have formed, but I haven’t the heart, so the yield is invariably low and the cordons very high. Funny thing, I don’t much like tomatoes, but it’s such fun to grow them that I can’t resist.

Now mini munch cucumbers are another matter. David ran taut wires around the apex of the greenhouse roof, for me to train the vines horizontally, allowing the cucumbers maximum light and air flow. Once they get going, there’s no stopping them!

I grew my first aubergine plant last year and was delighted with its pretty little purple flowers, so typical of the Solanaceae family, belladonna or deadly nightshade being another. It yielded one small but perfectly formed aubergine, which I lovingly roasted and consumed. All growing is a learning curve, so now that I know aubergines are hungry plants, I feed and water them more often and have been rewarded with several small fruits.

So even if you only have a balcony, I recommend that you grow something you can eat. It’s a nurturing and rewarding experience.

Love, Caroline x