This here thread is for all things gardening-related (and farm-related). If you're growing your own vegetables, have a flock of chickens on your balcony, or raising kunekunes in the flowerbeds, post your updates and pictures here!
Please don't start new threads for these things.
To kick things off, here's one of my vanilla plants being trained up a leucaena leucocephala tree. Completely unrelated to LCHF, but that's what the thread is for 
I've never seen vanilla growing: it looks magnificent!
I have a couple of tomatoes, some dwarf green beans and lots of herbs, all in pots: I'm trying some beetroot but not convinced it'll come to anything. My foodstuffs are safer in pots to avoid the inevitable cat manure 😸
One of my old neighbours (in both senses of the word) grew beetroot in larger containers. They were on the smallish side as there wasn’t room for them to grow into footballs but they tasted lovely with the added bonus of not taking so long to cook and plenty of smaller leaves for salads or steaming.
I've planted seeds of three varieties in trays, indoors, but they're looking very feeble. I won't ditch them yet but they're on a warning 😊
Love the picture. Do you get a lot of pods from the plant?
I used to grow the “usual (UK) suspects” in small beds in the back garden but then we got new neighbours who had allotments and who, very kindly, kept giving me vegetables. Unfortunately they were the same type I was growing. I couldn’t use everything even with a freezer to utilise. If I grew something different I was presented with their “new” samples. In the end I gave up growing. But now the bug has bitten again and I’ve gone for flowers with a few vegetables - easy ones to get me started and all to be container grown, for the same reason as BridgeGirl 😀.
That's a shame. I'm sure they'd never have intended to drown out your growing efforts
I have no desire to get involved in this conflict.
However when I read this:
"I took my dog for a walk to buy a tinned keto cheese, look how it carries it in its mouth"
I laughed till I nearly spat out my coffee. 🤣 Not quite sure why I find this image so funny but I can barely type for laughing so much.....
If anyone reading does have a photo of a dog carrying a tin of keto cheese in it's mouth please please please please please post it!
😍 I'd love to be able to grow vanilla... it's such a nostalgic flavour.
Has it's value in LCHF cooking too I think. A very small amount of seeds can really transform a cheesecake, or as I discovered yesterday a panna cotta, without the need for adding sugar or sweeteners.
So expensive in the UK though. I imagine you'll save a lot of money growing your own AwfulToad.
I forgot. I've recently planted a crab apple, Malus Yellow Siberian
I'll leave the fruits for the birds.
I used to make crab apple jelly. Delicious with ham or a roast, and especially prized as at the time, it did not seem to be available in shops.
Wouldn't make it now; too much sugar.
A friend made it last year and it was delicious. If any of the fruit escapes the birds, I'll give them to her
Do birds eat crab apples? I grew up in the southern hemisphere, and our crab apples fell to the ground unmolested, despite there being plenty of English birds in the neighbourhood. When I made the jelly, we let the fruit hang on the tree as long as we could to be decorative. We never had to compete with birds (nor fruit bats! ) for it.
I shall find out later in the year
The crab apples are good for setting jelly as they have lots of pectin. You could try chilli ‘jam’ it’s great with fatty cuts eg pork, salmon, mackerel.You could experiment by substituting some of the sugar with sweetener, although I’m not to sure how that would effect its preserving qualities.
I really enjoyed the crab apple jelly I was given - with cheese and with meats. I wasn't too bothered about the sugar content as I only used a small amount at a time. Never thought of it with mackerel but that would be good
I wouldn't mess around with the sugar, unless you know food science. If pathogens bred, it could become deadly.
I guess you could freeze it to preserve it, but that sounds more effort than it's worth. If you aren't sugar-free, then BridgeGirl has the right solution, and I can live without it.
I don’t know what size the crab apples are . I have one that has apples that are twice the size of a pea and kept whole they are lovely pickled. Pickled they go great with pork. I’m sure there is more you can do with them.
Pickled! I didn't think of that. I shall think about it when they appear.
I planted out Dalia corms that I had over wintered from last year, only for the unseasonal weather to kill them.I bought sweet pea plants only for the same to happen.
I have sown 3 types of cabbage, kale, mixed lettuce, leeks and mixed poppies in my 3 veg beds.
My herb section is looking good.
The mint escaped its container and I have been vigorously digging up its roots.
I have to tread carefully on my wood chip paths as I noticed, while weeding, bumble bees excavating nests.
I have many different types of bumble bees each year but there is not enough nectar plants for a hive.
I notice a decrease in their population after the rape has been sprayed.
I have a giant rhubarb patch and strangely I planted 3 new rhubarb varieties, unfortunately their name tags disappeared. I suspect the cat, I have seen him pull up my row markers.
I haven’t had time to prune and tie up my blackberries, they are a very vigorous, spiny Scottish variety so I am cutting it down to ground level to tidy it up and forgo this years crop. I got almost no berries last year as the birds got there first, not too bothered as it was a hard year for the birds last year.
We have a pair of hen pheasants that have teamed up with the chickens, sometimes roosting with them. At least 2 cock pheasants that woe the hens.
A pair of pigeons have nested in one of the conifers again.
I have thinned the comfrey and planted the thinning in the spiny and along my hedgerow.
I have a resident mole in the veg patch and often see the soil move as he/she burrows all over the veg plot.
Will try to take a few pics.
I am having a cup of tea and will be going to do some more weeding... if the weather holds, ground is a bit wet.
I'm a huge rhubarb fan, but sadly it's one of those things that just refuses to grow in my climate (I've tried). I still have some land over in the UK and I'm planning to start a rhubarb farm when I'm allowed to go back My mum is looking after about 100 seed starts at the moment (Victoria and Glaskin's Perpetual).
I guess with your photo of a vanilla plant you must live somewhere warm & sunny. We’ve been cold and now wet in the UK which has been difficult for growing anything from seed this year. Most of what I grow is eminently suitable to eat on a LCHF diet and hopefully I’ll get a good harvest of: lettuces, rocket, regular/cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, runner beans, carrots, red/white onions, garlic, sweet peppers, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, discovery apples & conference pears. I have 3 different types of mint, chives, rosemary, sage and thyme. I love fresh new salad potatoes in the Summer and I am trying out international kidney ones which are very like Jersey Royals (not keto but 100gms are quite low carb, full of flavour & vitamins, so a treat). I also grow some flowers from seed but things are definitely behind this year. Gardening has been a lifesaver for so many during the pandemic and its popularity has grown immensely. I love pottering about.
I have raised bed envy. Those are lovely.
Me too!
My sister built some raised beds like that and planted all sorts of stuff.
The chickens escaped and ate everything 
Is that a compost bin inside the cabinet at the back?
No just regular rubbish bins. I have 2 compost bins behind the shed in the shade (along with the hedgehog house & feeding station) that I alternate every year and spread on the beds & borders
Hedgehog house! Awesome. Do they keep the slugs at bay?
Saw a hedgehog in my garden for the first time in years the other night. Wish he’d bring friends over. The resident toad could also do with having a party. I am over catering for both species if the state of my tulips is anything to go by...
I think so. My hostas seem to survive without too many holes
Last year when we had the first lockdown I went to sort through my seeds (some packet were over 10 years out of date) instead of throwing them out I put them all in to see what would grow. Most of them germinated and I grew them on in mushroom containers with holes made in the bottoms. My husband helped with the hardening off, that was a huge undertaking. Pulling them out of the shed every morning and putting them in every night. But then the end of May was in sight, I made a sign and put it out the front with all the plants.....
“free to a good home”
Please help yourself
As the plants were taken I put more out and they were taken. I am in the final throes of hardening of this years plants now. It’s hard to believe that was a year ago, this has been a very tough year for us all. I lost my mum and my job..... my husband lost staff and residents, covid has taken so much from us all, but for me as long as I can get my hands in some dirt I know I will be ok
Don’t sweat the small stuff....
Keep safe
That's a lovely message, Pixielula, and great to hear of you sharing your plants.
I have a sorbaria sem which I love for its foliage but it's a b****r for suckering so I have to keep on top of it. I've passed on several offshoots - and then saw one about the size of my current one for sale for £50!!!
Here's the specimen
And detail
Oh very pretty
This is an unfair thread with bias against cold wet windy places. Those of us in chilly Northern Europe can’t compete with pics of vanilla vines 😜. Shivering & limp lettuce seedling anyone?
😂
😂 I agree! I've only got some struggling herbs and lettuce. Boo hoo! Love hearing about/seeing pictures here though!
Quite. I can pretty much just grow cress 🌱
Mint. I can grow that for 3 months of the year. They haven’t started yet.
Count yourself lucky. I can't grow lettuce - it's too hot. I'm working on a root-chill system that should enable me to grow such things.
Never expect anyone in Britain to sympathise when you say things like ‘too hot’...
First baby birds spotted in the garden this morning, three baby starlings being fed by mum from the ground feeder. Such a joyful thing to see....
Can you get close enough to take a picture? 📸 🐣🐣🐣
Will try
Eat your food, don't count it!