Monday 24 August 2020

From scratch

People nowadays talk about cooking from scratch, it used to be called just cooking, as opposed to peeling back the film on a ready meal.  It means cooking without assistance or any prepared ingredients, although  someone once told me she was cooking me a meal from scratch whilst heating up what I could see was a prepared dish from Marks and Spencer.  

Anyway I like gardening from scratch by which I mean I like raising my own plants from seed or cuttings.  I’m not one for buying ready planted tubs or big mature specimens, I don’t need instant results.  I’m also quite partial to a failing plant from the bargain bucket confident I can give it new life and buy it cheap.  All my spider plants, and I have about 18 in pots and in the borders, are from one baby a friend gave me and I have lots of purple tradescantia from a cutting I stole from a hotel garden.


The seeds section in our agricultural store is a delight, I spend happy hours browsing while Mr FF is sourcing irrigation parts.  One of my biggest successes last year was dahlias from seed.  I didn’t expect them to flower the first year but most did, this year they are amazing and will be ready for division next year.  The bees love them which makes dead heading tricky as they particularly relish the faded flowers which must be higher in pollen.



I was also lucky to find 10 days ago two yucca tops that had been pruned and thrown out.  I checked on line and they root easily, mine seem to be doing ok, time will tell.  

Generally we don’t grow our veggies from seed as we can buy a tray of 6 plug plants for just over a euro and this year since we were late arriving we wanted the plants as advanced as possible.  They are  cropping nicely and I think Mr FF is already sick of me cooking pasta and vegetables from scratch.


6 comments:

  1. Wow! You certainly have been successful! I have plastic succulents which shows my growing talents! Love the photo with the butterfly! Well done!

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  2. I stole a Ceanothus cutting one morning as I walked my dog. It is now a flourishing climber and flowered well this year. It has given me such pleasure!

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  3. Yes, I know where you are coming from. Seeds for vegetables every year and Spring and Summer cuttings with root division in Autumn for the flower borders.

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  4. I have a bee in my bonnet about the way we no longer cook from scratch and that people think microwaving something counts as cooking. People have become easy targets for the food industry giants.
    That tradescantia is a fab colour. Lovely pictures.

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  5. I sowed wildflower balls (yes, actual balls) and grass seed this year and have managed to grow a pot of unrecognisable foliage and a patch of tufty (in places very tufty) grass. I've also harvested two tomatoes. I'm calling all of that a success. And yes, I also cook from scratch (though firmly believe life's too short to make your own tofu) although I ordered takeaway pizzas last weekend. And the weekend before that and the one before that, come to think of it.

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  6. You can't beat the taste of homegrown veggies. May your harvest continue to be bountiful.

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