It’s getting toward the end of the year, my tomatoes are done and the grapes on the vine are almost finished. What’s left of the grapes are being allowed to shrivel up in the sun to form currants and raisins which I’ll use in the Fruit loaf I bake that my wife loves to eat.

Let’s face it, it’s the time of year and so the garlic is also finished and the herbs are all dead or dying back. It’s a bit of a sad and depressing time because the winter’s on its way.

One bright point is the oranges & lemons are ripening nicely though and will be ready in the New Year. I’m also waiting for the winter flowering pansies and viola to pop out and get a bit more colour in the garden over winter. So, I’ve a little more time on my hands and I’ve decided it’s experiment time… okay, desperation time really. Salad this year has been bad. Slugs ate the early shoots despite my best efforts and the heat this year has been a killer for what was left. But, if nothing else, I’m a ‘never give up’ sort of person and I’m trying again with the salad.

I’ve set some salad seeds which should be okay growing probably into October, maybe even longer over here in Cyprus, assuming the weather cools a little, which it seems to be doing a little. I’ve used some leftover Suttons spicy salad mix and Seedball salad mix. On the growing front it’s a dead heat, so watch this space for the taste race.

Next year I’m planning on more tomatoes and more vines but also a different set of fruits. Strawberries, Inca Berries

and Chenopodium.

If you have no idea what Chenopodium are then join the club. I hadn’t heard of them either. Chenopodium are better known as Strawberry Sticks. It’s a strawberry like fruit on a stick. As the plant grows the young arrow shaped leaves can be eaten raw in salads or they can be cooked like spinach. But by the end of September the small but bright red fruit can be eaten fresh and can also be used as a red food colouring. So that should be interesting. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be ever present and always growing like Purslane which just grows everywhere now!

My recent addition of a fig tree is doing well so I expect a few figs to eat next Christmas. I’m now on the look-out for a mango tree. Now I know I can grow a mango tree in a pot, but it can take up to three years before the tree bears fruit and that’s from buying an established plant. Growing from seed is out because that can take eight years before you see a fruit, which means at my age I may not be around to see it fruit. So, established tree it is… but there aren’t that many nurseries that sell them. I know they are out there, somewhere, because I’ve seen them. So this spring, the Great Mango Plant Hunt is on!

Copyright Tom Kane © 2018

If you like what you read here, take a look at my FREE BOOKS by clicking here. You will see my FREE BOOKS and indeed other books I’ve written that will cost you a very small fortune, usually from $0.99 to $2.99 – If nothing else, I’m an inexpensive author. Check out my website by clicking here.

The post The Concrete Gardener: Lettuce Pray appeared first on Tom Kane's Blog.