The Lazy Winter Garden

This is my garden currently. 

It doesn't look like much and truth be told it isn't. 

I could tell you about how I didn't get my beloved purple sprouting broccoli in this year or how my basil won't even survive inside because it is really cold this year, but who wants to read my moaning about vegetables.?
 Instead I want to introduce you to a really Dull Roar Philosophical approach to gardening.

I know it looks like a mass of weeds and that is exactly what it is! I let the wild rocket go to seed self sow, the desiccated plants and those of the scraggly Sweet Alice (Alyssum)  wwent into my mulcher which threw seeds everywhere.I am growing rocket, Sweet Alice(good for attracting beneficial insects and chickweed in abundance. Without planting. I have planted a handful of broad beans I found in the pantry. This is my version of crop rotation as the box they are growing in had broccoli in it last. I have not supported them. My broad beans are au naturale.

Somewhere amongst the rocket and the chickweed is a random mizuna plant and some parsley and spinach I planted to get rid of old past it seeds, and a struggling French sorrel.

I really like leafy greens, they were my number one pregnancy craving and I cannot get enough of them even now so this is working well.

Even in the cracks between pavers. I rather like the look so I am leaving the useful plants put and occasionally pulling out non-useful plants like milky vetch and other latex sappy weeds, fleas bane and the like.

I am enjoying the little patch of wild in the tiny courtyard that serves as a garden. If I want more I am lucky enough to have a new park around the corner which has been planted with lots of leafy vegetables, herbs and brassicas, is tended by the council and supplies the healthier locals with free greens. 

My boys love to snack on the greens when they are scooting around the pocket sized park. Mr 4-nearly-5 is making quite a habit of getting his veggies from municipal gardens- ah well it's very thrifty and healthy I suppose if decidedly odd. I am sure I have mentioned he is a free-spirited individual! 

Why Can I Grow New People but not Radishes?

So it is time for me to confess something that has come into sharp relief for me and I feel I need to get off my chest. I can't grow radishes. I keep trying, year after year, different soils, different varieties different times of year but they either never fill out or bolt immediately. given that radishes are supposed to be the ultimate starter absolute beginner vegetable it is really undermining my confidence as an urban homesteader. Worse still the damn jolly little rubicund orbs are my number one pregnancy craving and I must have them so I can be seen at the local farmer's market rain, hail or shine buying bunches of cherry belles and french breakfasts (I only like red roundish ones by the way) and stuffing them into my face on the drive home. Really.

 Last night I was watching River Cottage with the boys (who take it very seriously and hang on HFWs every word) and watching him positively gloat about how he had timed his poly tunnel radishes perfectly so they were finishing cropping just as the outdoor ones were ready for harvest with great armfuls of French breakfasts he crows about the crunchiness and how he thinks they will taste with fresh goats cheese. Smug bastard. WELL I AM VERY JOLLY HAPPY FOR YOU HUGH!!! NOT ALL OF US CAN GROW THE DAMN THINGS.
So there we have it. I am nearly constantly tormented by my lack of growing prowess at the moment and the lack of radishes plays sorely on my mind (mushrooms are another craving and "easy" vegetable I can never smegging get going). By the way, pregnancy progresses well, just a few more weeks and we will have a new member of the family, I am good at babies...it's radishes I have the problem with!