Mint always fascinates me....

My great grandfather lived in Cornwall back in the early 50's and was an avid veg grower, but in addition he had a bed of spearmint. As his health deteriorated he was forced to move to North London to be cared for, and my grandmother decided to bring a couple of clumps of the mint back with her. After my great grandfather eventually passed away, my grandmother moved from North London to Hertfordshire, then to the Essex coast and eventually because my grandfather had died and she was ageing, back to North London. Each time she moved she brought a couple clumps of the same spearmint with her. She also had a bed of mint that faithfully returned to lush vegetation each year.

Since then my grandmother has also passed on and after deciding to downsize my parents moved into my grandmother's property. I took a couple of clumps to my house around 20 years ago, but rather than let it run wild as it does, planted them in pots. Each of my 3 children have their own gardens and have plants taken from our pots, and my mother's bed continues to flourish.

Over 60 years and still going strong.....that wonderful smell of spearmint freshly crushed between the fingers, always makes me feel hungry.

All of this, for me, is a bit like a family tree       

I actually managed to kill a mint plant a few years ago, somehow!

We then took some pieces of mint from my in-laws garden (no idea how old that plant is) and planted it in a pot sunk in the veg bed. When I replaced the veg beds I then also managed to kill that one, but fortunately enough of the mint had escaped that it now keeps popping up in unexpected places. Whenever I find a new shoot I have replanted it in the pot and it is thriving once more. Had some in a mojito last night while enjoying the last warm evening for a while :)

Mint's ability to regenerate from tiny fragments of root seems to be rivalled only by bindweed. I am forever pulling up bindweed shoots. If you can manage to get them up without breaking them, you sometimes find that the shoots have travelled up through about 2ft of soil from a half-inch piece of buried broken root!

Edited by user 03 June 2020 11:47:27(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Originally Posted by: Bertwhistle

 

 

Great news Rob.

No flowers on my cuces yet but a big female flower on a courgette. Hope there's a male open nearby somewhere as there are plenty of bumblebees around. Otherwise, that's a lost fruit.

I’ve got about three or four courgettes set now, after the first three weeks or so when I only had male flowers.

The veg beds are being rather overrun with self-seeded squash plants (and tomatoes). I’m trying to leave some of these free plants where they are in a reasonable location, and have moved some of the self-sown tomato seedlings to an empty flowerbed. 

Had our first mangetout today too (or the kids did anyway, I didn’t get a look in!)

Everything is rather overcrowded but we don’t have a lot of space!

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Edited by user 14 June 2020 17:27:52(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

This is probably one of the worst years I can remember in our garden and  allotment here in South Essex. With virtually only two significant rainfalls in the last three months it is perpetual watering. The 20mm at the start of the month was welcome but back to desert a couple of days later and now rain free for 5 days. Watering never seems to promote the same strong growth as decent rainfall. The strawberries and raspberries are doing ok though.

Originally Posted by: fairweather

This is probably one of the worst years I can remember in our garden and  allotment here in South Essex. With virtually only two significant rainfalls in the last three months it is perpetual watering. The 20mm at the start of the month was welcome but back to desert a couple of days later and now rain free for 5 days. Watering never seems to promote the same strong growth as decent rainfall. The strawberries and raspberries are doing ok though.

I've noticed too that watering is not the same as a decent fall of rain with the higher humidity that comes with it maybe a factor. Good growing weather of course which has been almost absent this year.

That said my strawberries in troughs are the best ever maybe due to all the the sunshine? The rain seems to miss this part of the south coast but I can see some showers inland if I look north. Supposed to rain tomorrow but I see that the overnight rain forecast just yesterday has been watered down again. Very hit and miss this kind of weather.

One small courgette and another on its way.  Runner beans are setting and we’re a few days from first harvest. Lots of green tomatoes, chilli’s are setting and beetroot is big enough for roasting but I want them a bit bigger to grate raw onto salad and I’m picking the leaves for salads too. I’m harvesting black currants and freezing them to make jam later but it’s a race with the birds and they’re winning. 

The solitary peach has dropped off the tree!  Better luck with that next year maybe!  

Originally Posted by: Caz

Parsley mystery!  Has anyone experienced both curly leaf and flat leaf parsley growing on the same plant?

Some Years ago I planted a pot of parsley that I’d bought as a growing herb from a supermarket.  Every year it self seeds in the border and grows all year round, both flat and curly leaf plants, yet I only planted one kind but I put it down to some seeds not coming true.  However, while tying up the seed heads today I noticed both flat and curly growing on the same plants! 

Funny you mention that but a plant from last year in a pot I trimmed back a month ago has a flowering stalk and some flat leaves with it but most is still curly. It gets quite snobby with parsley as keen cooks sometimes swear by the flat Italian/French plant saying it has better flavour than the 'English' common or garden stuff. English cuisine being the poor relation of continental stuff? In cooking I'm not too bothered but make a point in using chopped stalks as well in stews etc. A part so often wasted. I think it depends more on soil and growing conditions?

Tomatoes in baskets setting well with masses of little fruits appearing, strawberries in troughs very productive this year and now cut back and put out of sight, beans looking good though the gales are of course unwelcome this time of year.  Agapanthus looking spectacular front and back with the deep blue flowers adding a hint of the Med to garden. And the 'Bishop of Llandaff is about to begin its long lasting and hopefully stunning summer performance as long as I deadhead on a regular basis. But these incessant gales - why can't they wait until October?