I LOVE TIM LUND

[leenewham]

's strawberrys. Thanks for them Tim, possibly the best ones I've ever tasted. It's amazing how different they tasted to the ones in a supermarket.

We haven't sorted our garden out yet, but I wondered:

How many people on this forum actually use their gardens and how many don't.

The same goes for front gardens. Do you use it, is it a car park or do you maintain it or grow veggies in there?

Thank goodness you didn't bring plums Tim!

[Eagle]

Lee
Home grown strawberries are usually lovely especially with the soil of Sydenham.

Please do not start me on people who concrete their front garden and turn it into an UGLY car park.
Cars should be in garages .

Unfortunately I now have not got a garden but lovely to see people growing fruit and vegetables.

[paultreacy]

Front garden is communal but we have strawberries coming through in our wee back garden and the level of anticipation is extremely high. Loads and loads of herbs too. Bees appear to be doing very well in this part of Sydenham - lower end of Lawrie Park Road.

[Annie.]

We have coriander,rocket,parsley,basil,rosemary,growing in our garden,lovely fresh flavours.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Rachael]

Nothing edible growing in my garden this year apart from herbs, but lots and lots of bee-friendly flowers. I counted at least half a dozen different types of bees in my garden yesterday. The soil in my garden is really good - I do a lot to improve it but wonder if we are generally blessed with good soil here abouts.

[JulietP]

I just picked my first five strawberries of the years too. Noms.

Also have potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, one cucumber plant (this year's experiment!) and loads of different herbs growing. Only started gardening a few years ago, but it has soon become an obsession.

I agree that the soil here does seem unusually good.

[Eagle]

Rachel
As all the area of SE26 and around was one giant forest likely the soil not great quality. However I am not an expert on soil.

Maybe Tim has put peat on his soil !

[Rachael]

Rachel
As all the area of SE26 and around was one giant forest likely the soil not great quality. However I am not an expert on soil.

Well, I'm no expert either but that seems like a bizarre statement to me. On that basis the whole of the UK should have poor soil, bar the alluvial plains.

Did you just pluck that out of thin air or do you have some reason for saying it?

[Eagle]

perhaps not one of my best moments Rachel.

However whilst most of the UK covered in Forest , some fertile areas like Lincolnshire were perhaps less forested.

Also we have to look at why the area remained forested and not arable land up to 1850's ish. If it had been fertile I would imagine land so close to London would have been cleared and crops planted.


I must repeat again I am in no way qualified in this matter and could be completely wrong. There is always a first time.

[mikej]

Growing blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, apples, pears, potatoes, runner beans, tomatoes, courgettes, beetroot, chives, rosemary, mint and sage this year.
Front garden is mostly gravel, but have plenty of shrubs and stuff there too.

[owlwise]

I have a vine from which I make lovely stuffed vine leaves (with the leaves) and I have mint, sage, rosemary, garlic and oregano growing in my garden. I also have a crabapple tree and a pear tree. I live off Lawrie Park Gardens.

[dickp]

I have embraced my impending old age (40) by getting into gardening big-style in the past two years:

Lots of herbs in the window box.
Strawberrys in troughs on the patio, rescued from the undergrowth.
Courgettes in a pot, also on the patio.
Potatoes in a sack.
Bay tree in a tub on the patio.
Cherry tomatoes in a hanging basket.
Peppers, chilies, olives, oranges and lettuce on my sunny window sills.
Patio pears, apples, figs, peaches, plums in various pots on back patio, outside my bedroom window.
Tea bush (yes, really) in my front garden, rhubarb in shady border.
Various berries in a tiny, inaccessible part of our communal garden that only I have access to (so shoot me!)
Kiwi, grapes x 2 and passion fruit growing up my outside wall.

Last summer may have been rubbish for harvesting. However, it was great for establishing my plants. I reckon next year's crop will be bumper.

[Tim Lund]

Just to give an idea of what Lee's talking about ...




Just off to my allotments to help show round some kids from Alexandra Juniors this morning. Health and safety mean I can't offer the kids any strawberries to eat themselves, but there's more fun anyway in finding one with a nice slug in it and getting them to offer it to their teacher ...

[Eagle]

Tim

They look great . Well done.

You are jesting when you said you could not offer the children any of your wonderful crop?

Not even our stupid H and E would go that far.

[michael]

You could buy some punnets from sainsburys to give to the children so that you didn't disappoint them. Of course you would need to explain that they taste nothing like real strawberries.

[marymck]

I'm quite sure Tim is sensible enough to turn his back at the appropriate moment. The look delish and no child worth their salt could resist.

I have strawberries in a hanging basket. Well - I've picked all of two strawberries so far, to be precise. They weren't terribly flavoursome though. Probably the wrong variety, but all the garden centre had. I tried the alpine type a few years ago, which I grew with great success in the country, but for some reason here in Sydenham the birds kept getting to them before they could ripen.

What variety are your strawberries Tim?

[Eagle]

Are you actually saying that the children would not be allowed to eat Tim's strawberries??

I still; cannot believe it. What is more natural than food from ones allotment or garden.

[JRobinson]

strawberries, tomatos, garlic, onions, spring onions, brocolli, rhubarb, red currents, black currents, gooseberries, something that might be a logan berry, one potato that came through from last year, a jerusalem artichoke that survived from two years ago. In the front garden we have a blackcurrent, and some lavender.

[Tim Lund]

Are you actually saying that the children would not be allowed to eat Tim's strawberries??

I still; cannot believe it. What is more natural than food from ones allotment or garden.

Strange, but true, and I didn't turn any blind eye.

Rhubarb leaves and foxgloves, which were among the various plants we saw, are as natural as my strawberries, but that doesn't make them good to eat

[michael]

I hear that when it comes to rhubarb Tim eats, stalks, but never leaves.

Apologies for my appalling punctuation and any erroneous impressions they may give. In case you didn't get the literary reference can I refer you to wikipedia.