What to do with all the watercress...

I got a big bag of watercress in the box this week. As I'm really not (really not!) a fan of watercress I was a bit stuck. I find it all a bit too high on the water content, low on the taste content. So what to do.

Clearly I should grow some, so I set some up in a bowl in my kitchen to get roots and supply me (what was I thinking?) for six weeks or so. The other idea was Watercress Hummus from Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me which is quite yummy. I'm hoping it will make good Chelsea snacking too!

mini meals

I finally got around to thinning my lettuces. Which is about time really. I'm very lazy with thinning and I just won't learn when it comes to sowing sparsely either. Oh well.


I tried to put some of the orphans in other pots but most of them got washed for a micro lettuce layer in my brie sandwich. It's an accidental micro crop. But I have micro crops growing on purpose too. These are carrots sown for their mini leaves. I got the idea here and as carrot seed can't be stored one year to the next I thought I may as well go for it.

Everyday Stuff

Gardening, unlike blogging in some respects, isn't just about the exciting first steps, the big project and the grand finale. Especially at this time of year it's more to do with the little steps. The unglamorous jobs. So in that vein here is half an hour in the life of me and my plants.


The Preparation

It's the start of April so I pull my lists down off the wall, unearth all the seeds that I'll need for the coming month. I do my daily task of putting out the babies in their little cloches. I pick jobs for the day. I need to sow beetroot later this month in my salad trugs so the winter salad needs to go. My butterfly annuals also need to go in so I'll manage some nice, nectary colour later in the year.The Legacy of Winter
Butterfly annuals sown it's time to take up the winter rocket. Now is a good time to take stock of the winter crops. My insurance policy of kale failed. Most likey drowned out by the spinach beet and chard who have grown vigorously in November then steadily over the cold season. I've been eating the chard over winter. It's livened up my plate to no end this week. And the spinach made a special appearance at Christmas.

The salads where less successful. Mainly through neglect. I never did get that jumper for them. The lettuces survived until, as I mentioned, they where snowed on. The onions came to nothing. The rocket on the other hand could not be stopped. Until it bolted that is. I left the flowers untill I needed the pot for something else and pulled them up today.
The Appreciation

No trip onto the balcony is complete without an appreciation of all the wonderful things growing out there. For special mention I selected this Snake's Head Fritillary which was planted from Sainsbury's own bulbs. Looks good enough to be made into a handbag. Between this and the crocus I think I did well with my bargain basement bulbs.

Coming into The Warmth

The newly sown babies and indoor plants needed a good water. Can you tell what this one is? It's a peanut, just opening. There are two others in the pot and they make attractive plants. And good conversation pieces. You know, if we weren't antisocial and had people over.

Sweet potato, sweet plant

It was a picture in The Thrifty Gardener that convinced me that I wanted to grow sweet potatoes. Not for food, I doubt I could scrounge up both space and perfect conditions for that endeavour, but for the beautiful cascading foliage.

However I had only the beautiful picture to look at. Amongst the many 'grocery-store' plants discussed there was nothing on the sweet potato. Turn to The Window-box Allotment page 18. "sweet potatoes... can be started off indoors in water or suspended just above it, with its base touching but not submerged"

So I filled a giant jar with water and suspended the sweet potato above it. I didn't know quite what I was waiting for but eventually, and I mean eventually - it was a sweet potato I bought when I made these - I decided that the little sprout was enough and planted the bugger.


That was about three weeks ago and since then the little sprouts have got bigger, grown leaves got roots. I figured that was the end of it and I'd just leave it in that pot. The two little shoots growing together and playing together or whatever sweet potatoes do. But then I found a more comprehensive guide in this book and although the advice is for growing to eat I thought I'd take it.

After two weeks it recommends taking the babies from the mother tuber, keeping a little bit on the new plant, and popping them in six inch pots. So that is what I did. I now have two baby sweet potatoes.