A Tale of Two Beetroots

I forgot to shake the dirt off.

I come with my own watermark.

I grew a thing! I’m kind of giddy. I harvested the first beetroot and later realised that the second was ready too. I kept them small as I’ve heard that the larger they get the tougher they are. You can eat the leaves when fresh, but I opted to compost them. The compost is great, there’s never a loss that can’t be salvaged slightly. I roasted the first and used it in a smoothie. The second I may use in bread or muffins, something baked, just because. I’m not a huge fan of beetroot, but I grew it and can eat it so I have to try it out.

Always add a banana.

It gets a lovely colour from the roasted beetroot.

I used about a half cup of roasted beetroot, eight strawberries, one medium banana with a splash of maple syrup. I grew the strawberries too. I freeze them after picking to keep them as tasty as possible. It tasted fine. Like I say, not a big fan of beetroot. They were really easy to grow, even when they were transplanted twice it didn’t do them much harm. They also don’t take up much space so you could grow quite a few. I was just screwing around and only planted five. Maybe I’ll do more next year, I do have a few in a pot just starting, but with the change in weather they may not do too well. Lots of strawberries left so keep an eye out for new recipes.

My fragoo set fruit! They’re viable. Yay! I was ready to kill them.

This one was on the lower part of the barrel. They’re small and tart, but with the right weather they may be plentiful. Probably better for jam.

Nasturtiums in bloom.

Mizuna in bloom. Heh. I let it go wild.

The Lobelia did really well. It’s everywhere.

So as you can see the garden survived that heavy deluge of rain and wasn’t beaten too badly by the gale-force winds. Everything is doing well, I’ve had a lot of losses, but you just let them go and instead celebrate the successes, which are fairly numerous. Not that Jack is tooting his own horn, but still: Toot toot.

Still alive. Come on sunflowers!

Californian Poppies (The tall thingies) and Viola. These seem to have hit their stride and really started to grow.

The head are forming. I can’t wait to see the flowers.

Even though I made so many mistakes, the baskets are really growing well.

Perennial too so no need to restart.

Lavender needs re-potting when the flowers fall off. It’s crooked as it’s been growing on a crooked stump. Two years old, just about.

Look! I grew it from seed. I’m special! Shush.

My leftover flowers found the front garden to be really rich in nutrients, maybe I could grow squash here next year.

Look at them! They’re huge! Wow…yeah, they’re mine but I’m still shocked.

Okay, gather round dear readers, Jack has a story to tell, an anecdote to deliver, a spiel to….what? I’m bulking it out as it’s rather short. You can’t exactly see it but from the rightmost squash, that’d depend on your orientation, right? Ummm, you see that squash by the greenhouse? Yeah. Third up from that.The big ‘un. So I walk out in the rain, I’m not that bright, just determined dearest reader, and the poor squash is on its side, not broken, just crooked. It’s been weak all along, so instead of staking it as I’ve done before, I left it to grow crooked. No harm, right? Growth is growth. So I walk out today and it’s upright and solid. One night! That’s all it took. That’s pretty interesting, at least I think so.

Vine squashes are a pain in the backside!

I think we have a golden nugget set.

What may still be a courgette. Note the coffee cup lid. It keeps it dry and out of the dirt.

Harlequins, the biggest one looks really good. Here’s hoping. Sorry about the photo, it was hard to take without damaging the plant.

I have ten, more over there, yellow strawberry seedlings. No idea what I’ll do with them. These were separated from the plant I posted before.

Carrots, Bok choi and turnips (Snowball) that need thinning out…later.

So that’s it from Jack’s garden. The tomatoes are going wild. When I get the greenhouse sorted then I’ll sort them out. You can bury them sideways and deeper than before as the stem will put out new roots. If I go missing chances I’m lost in between tomato plants. Or hidden behind squash. No, don’t look for me, just think of me fondly and keep my plants watered. Until later.