"Gardening for Adventure"

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I used to start off all my posts with some sheet music.

I haven't done recently so I shall try again.

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"A Blighted Gardener". A clever play on words here.

Not only did he lose his girl,

but

he also got blight on his cabbages & turnip tops!

Sad really.

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I bought this book "Gardening for Adventure" in 1968.

Bring a bit of excitement into gardening, I thought.

It's all about the unusual; things like the -

"Squirting Cucumber"

"Spaghetti Marrow"

and the "Walking Onion".

I grew many of these in those early days. It was all great fun.

But like most things, the novelty wore off.

(There is a video of the cucumber squirting,

here on YouTube.)

But here we are forty years on and I still have a few around.

My "Walking Onion" is still walking.

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This one is in a pot, just in case I lose the ones in the garden.

I call it my "Tree Onion" actually, and

use the little onions that grow on it for pickling.

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Here's a closer look.

When they grow larger and heavier, the stalk collapses and the

little onions take root, so the plant tends to keep 'moving on'.

Another plant still going strong from those days,

is the Alpine Strawberry.

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These have been self seeding in all of my gardens,

for over 40 years.

The berries are very small.

However this tends to concentrate the flavour.

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You don't need cream with these.

Though you do need to get out there early,

before the birds see them!

And finally for today - my 'Ice plants'.

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These are "Echeveria",

and I have lugged these from garden to garden,

every time I have moved house.

I used to have around fifty or sixty.

I used to use them as edging in the good old days,

usually with blue Lobelia, as here.

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They would have been killed off by frost,

so all had to be potted up and kept nice and warm

in the greenhouse.

I gave up on all this, as the cost of heating the house

is extortionate, never mind the greenhouse!

Shame really.

But I still keep a few of these reminders

in the porch & conservatory.

Oh well, back to conifer lopping!

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