I tried seeding giant Pansies in my Garden at the end of last year to see if they would grow in the spring of this year. Low and behold it’s worked. I’ve got about twenty pansies come up so far and they are flowering. What’s more interesting is that for the first time I’m getting pansies that aren’t all blue or a variation of blue in colour. Blue’s my favourite colour but I like a variety of colours and never seem to get any other colour from pansies I grow from seed. I could just go to the garden centre and buy pansies, but I prefer to grow my own from seed.

Growing an entire garden of fruit, veg or flowers from seed each year can be a bit tiring, especially as I’m also trying to write my novel The Brittle Sea. But the end results usually justify the effort.

I get a few failures. In particular some herbs hate it here in Cyprus, particularly sage. But in other ways it’s very rewarding, not to mention tasty, especially since I make my own compost. Currently I have sown seeds for a whole variety of plants and they are all showing. I have green leaf salad all year long as well as tomatoes. This year, 2020, seems like it may be a bumper garden crop. Here’s what’s planted and coming up and it looks like a very tasty mix this year, especially since my own compost technique is developing quite nicely.

Chervil (French Parsley)
Coriander
Onion Red Long
Leaf Beat Spinach
Mizuna (Japanese Mustard)
Mini Rhomaine Lettuce
Lettuce Xanadu
Onion Walla Walla
Lettuce Farmers Market Mix
Leaf Salad Spicy Mix
Pak Choi
Rocket Dragons Tongue Mix
Tomato Tumbling Tom Red
Roma Tomato
Rhubarb
Pea Bean
Kohlrabi
Mushy Peas
Melon
Apple Melon
Apple Paprika
Rosemary
Basil
Psidium Guave

But it’s early days and I have two major problems ahead. Slugs and snails being the main problem and I have measures in mind to fix them. The other problem is space. Most of the garden in the rear is taken up with a swimming pool, so I have the area around the pool and at the sides and front of the house. The front of the house has a lemon tree, lime tree, grapefruit tree and orange tree, so it’s going to be a little crowded with tubs to hold everything else. That’s why I consider myself to be the Concrete Gardener.

Copyright © Tom Kane 2020

I’ve lived in Cyprus for 12 years this year and there have been good times, bad times, of=dd times and the occassinal downright bizzare times.

The post It’s Big, It’s White and It’s in My Concrete Garden appeared first on Tom Kane's Blog.