Yacon harvest

I dug up one patch of yacon today.  The tubers vary in sizes.  The tiny ones are left to be planted but I am not sure if they will grow any bigger as the leaves have died.

These tubers will be good cooked or eaten raw, perhaps in a salad.  There is a huge tuber which has been too long in the ground and is half rotten.

The pink offshoots will grow into new yacon plants.  Put them immediately into the ground after collecting the tubers and nature will look after the plants.  I will stagger the harvesting of the yacon as they are better preserved underground.

Another picture of the yacon stem, tubers and shoots.

Jack Frost

This morning Jack Frost did a bit of damage in the garden.  The burnt leaves in the picture are from a thriving borage plant.  The borage blue flowers attract bees so I have them growing all over the place.  I watered the ice away and it looks as if the plant may survive.

These lettuces could not be saved so they will be dug into the soil.  Fortunately I have a few other lettuces in more protected areas so all is not lost.  I have to start thinking about coverings for frost tender plants to avoid this kind of loss.

What's blooming?

It is cold and wet in the garden but I can still walk through to pick a few flowers for a posy.  Some flowers though are best left to be admired, such as this early flowering hyacinth.

Pelargoniums flower all year round and here my pink and red ones are looking cheerful.

A red lily brightens up a gloomy day.

Lavenders bring the bees.

Still a few roses braving the weather.

Rhus in autumn

The rhus is a highly toxic and allergy-causing tree.  When I first moved into this property I was careful with the rhus but so far I have not been affected even after pruning the soft branches and sawing the thicker harder wood.  It is a beautiful specimen in autumn and I hope the leaves will remain for another week or so.  I cut off the seeds and binned them but I have been finding so many baby rhus in the garden bed I have to make sure they are pulled out.

pomegranate

I picked two pomegranates from my outside garden.  I have two trees, one in the outside garden, a bit too sheltered by the crab apple tree and the other where I can see it from the kitchen window.  I was surprised to see the two fruits mature and the seeds are so sweet and juicy.

There is quite a history to the trees.  I brought them from my old garden in pots.  They have been in the pots for at least five years.  One grew from a cutting and the other from marcotting, which is taking a cutting while the branch is still attached to the parent tree.

The tree in my old garden was given to me by a friend who needed the garden space.  It could have been twenty years ago when my friend and I dug out the well established, tree, taller than both of us.  We managed to get enough roots and trimmed off the branches so the tree could fit into the boot of my Humber Super Snipe.  The tree was planted next to the compost area and it thrived.  Sad to say the new owner of my old house has chopped down the tree.  It gave me bountiful harvest but pomegranate is not to everyone's taste.

exotic harvest

This sugar cane has about a foot of cane that can be harvested but I shall leave it alone.  More suckers are coming up and I hope they will survive the winter.  The pot is north facing and quite protected so I hope they will live to see spring and more growth.

This pot of peanut plants was planted last October.  There are three plants squashed in this pot so the harvest is small.

These peanuts are exposed with the topsoil scraped away.  Now that I know it is possible to grow them I shall sow the nuts in bigger pots next spring.

The peanut harvest is small but promising.  It is possible to grow peanuts and the pest to look out for are baby snails that are eating the leaves.

camelia

This pink camelia is flowering at the moment and I hope the potted plant will keep flowering till the end of winter.  I suppose a topping of compost and fertilizer will lengthen its flowering period.  I have left the plant in a pot since purchasing it three years ago.  I have yet to find a spot for it in the garden.

As seen in the picture there are buds on this small bush.  I hope deadheading will encourage more buds.  In another pot is a vermilion camelia, which unfortunately, is still in the bud stage.