Enjoying the Garden Year Round 

The garden in January is still wonderful. There is lots to do outdoors and in the greenhouse but its just been too cold and too wet! It does not mean the gardening world stops. For Christmas I received a replacement watering can of my favourite brand Haws. ( I stood on the last one ) Not cheap but beautifully crafted and balanced, it's a reminder to check my other garden tools to make sure they are clean and sharpened. Rather than looking at the January garden jobs I need to do I thought I would look at a few of the unusual plants I have growing around the house and garden and some of the seed selections I am making for the coming year. (The featured image is Sundrew -Drosera binata )

Giant Onions

I will include a picture here of the giant onions that have now moved out into the greenhouse. Take a look at my separate blog if you want to follow the progress of the different giant onions and other giant veg that I am growing. Learning to Grow Giant Vegetables – JustSeed

 

Unusual House Plants

While we don't have seed of any of these for sale, here are a couple of strange house plants I have. 

The first is the impressive Elephants foot ( Dioscorea elephantipes ) This plant starts growing when you water it in August, then keeps growing and stops at a random time in the summer. The swollen tuberous root gets huge if you keep potting it up. It is easy to grow in stony well drained soil. This plant is 3 years old and is expanding rapidly. I allow the rambling leaf growth to wrap around small stakes.

 

The second plant is Cassula marnieriana. This is an ideal plant to grow if you are someone who forgets to water your plants as it is very forgiving but doesn't like being overwatered. They can be propagated very easily from cuttings so if you see one you like ask for a cutting, that's how I got this one.

 

 

Yes it's that time of year. I like nothing better than deciding what I am going to grow this year. Tomatoes always get my attention as I love growing a range of plants starting with some dwarf bush tomato plants, which I plant in late January to grow on the windowsill Tomato Veranda Red. Later in the season I will plant larger types, I have not decided which ones yet but last year Tomato Sungold F1 gave me a superb harvest over a long period.

Nick is one of the directors of JustSeed Ltd, he enjoys growing vegetables, flowers and a range of unusual plants.