My plan this year was to cut down on the number of plants to be grown. I tried to ignore all the seed catalogues and fantastic sales the plant companies are offering, but once again my finger nervously hovers over the ‘buy’ button. If it would be content to hover, I would be happy but it seems to develop a nervous twitch and before I get the chance to change my mind, I’ve added it to the basket. Distance is no object either, I get seeds from Europe, America, Ukraine and some peculiar ones from China. I do shop worldwide.
Of course when I assemble all the ‘must haves’, I realise that once again, my mind has stretched the dimensions of my tiny garden to that of the size of a football pitch. In my mind, there is always room to squeeze another plant in somewhere but in reality the space has remained faithful to its original dimensions.
I have a number of plants I feel I need to offer winter protection to and perhaps encapsulating them in a fleece tent within the greenhouse might give them a fighting chance of seeing next spring. My trial overwintering this year are the fuschias, ivy-leaf geranium, ivy gourd, and pepino.
I managed to harvest some skirret this year. I’d never tasted it before and it is very parsnipy, just slightly different and sweeter. I have been growing it for two years now and this is the first harvest of one of the pots. I don’t think it produces enough in two containers even if it really doesn’t need any care, it just takes up space.
I never got to taste the fruit of the Solanium S. sisymbriifolium, or litchi tomato, the birds got to it first. That’s another plant I don’t think I will grow again. When space is at a premium, so the results also need to be.
I may even give up the Oca, although it can be a lovely plant on its own. It doesn’t get harvested until after the first frost so unless I relegate it to the front garden as an ornamental plant, it takes up too much valuable space.
I never like saying goodbye to old friends, and I have been growing Oca for a few years now. The litchi tomato is different, it was the first year I managed to get it to fruit although it would make a good defence to use it as a hedge. You may touch it once but never again, its lethal thorns give it very good protection – except from birds apparently.
themagnoliatreeblog 
Ah, yes. The lure of seeds. Most recently, in the past couple years, I have harvested our daylily seeds. Hoping to see flowers on the new plants next year.
Love hearing about all your experiments and varieties! Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you, I grew day lilies this year for the first time in a long time but never thought of taking seeds from them, thank you for reminding me! I also feel compelled to take seeds from plants I know I’m unlikely to be able to sow – usually because I don’t have space for them.
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