Sallygarden Smallholding - The Forum For Sustainable Living

Anybody else growing anything exotic in the tunnel this year? We are trying a couple of melon 'century' plants this year, and a few physalis (cape gooseberry). I've also got two vines which were my xmas present ... a white grape and a red grape ... vintage Sallygardens wine next year!

I've also started off some chop suey greens which are a variety of edible chrysanthanem. They are harvest at 5 inches and boiled like spinach, or fried in oil. I plant to leave a couple of them to grow on as the flowers are said to be beautiful.

Grapes? I'm impressed - I could never spare the space for them!

Last year we grew physalis but they took the place over so BEWARE - nip the tips out every foot or two of growth and be prepared to prune or they'll get huge. The other problem they have is that they self-seed really easily - well worth putting some fabric of some sort underneath them to catch any falling fruit, or you'll never be rid of them!

Melons are a given - there are some cracking muskmelon types available through the Heritage Seed Library that have really gone out of fashion, and most years they'll do fine.

Chillis and tomatoes, natch.

Nectarines, definitely (not reliable outside). Lemons, quite possibly!

This year I'm making space for globe artichokes. Although they do fine outside, the tunnel environment seems to suit them very well - Digi harvested his first chokes in February, although that may not be typical!