I've mentioned Dr Michael Greger before, when I was doing Veganuary in January. He's a nutritionist and has written several books that  intrigue me - although I'm too mean to buy them. There's "How Not to Die", "How Not to Diet" and "How Not to Age". Basically he recommends  "A Daily Dozen" of foods to be eaten to be healthy. https://veganuary.com/wp-content/uploads...t-2021.pdf Portion sizes at https://veganuary.com/dr-gregers-daily-dozen-checklist/
I've been dabbling with this list since January but I rarely manage to incorporate everything in my daily eating - because I forget something! 
My plan is to build a new habit every week, concentrating on just one item on the Daily Dozen List. Some are harder than others so I'm going to start with the simple ones, starting tomorrow. 

First challenge - to eat Berries every day. 

Berries are versatile foods you can enjoy fresh, frozen, blended, dried or straight from the pack.
They’re also the healthiest fruits. Colourful foods are often healthier because they contain antioxidant pigments. The colours are the antioxidants, which means red onions have more than white, red grapes have more than green, red apples have more than green, etc.
Include plenty of acai berries, barberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, goji berries, raspberries and strawberries in your diet.
Serving sizes:

• 60g fresh or frozen – (3 tbsp)
  
  
• 40g dried – (1 generous handful)
  

My living room window faces Northeast. I need a couple of smallish plants for the windowsill. They could be either foliage or flowwring plants. I had a mother-in-laws-tongue whisch is supposd to be 'bombproof'..........and it died. Same with another foliage plant.

Any ideas folks?

I haven't done hanging baskets for years.... but my Step Dad has requested some, he doesnt ask for much so I want to do a good job. 
BUT he isnt good at dead heading  and he wants them to look as good as those down the road -
What would you put in? I dont really want to spend a fortune...

Just in case any of you are members of the GW Forum, I've just seen that its closing down tomorrow! https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussions.
As they say "Another one bites the dust!".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68664644

I have to admit that when I saw the censored photo I thought AT's trouser's must be unzipped. 

I’m going to bore you all silly with the growing of cockscomb plants again this year.

It’s starting very well with incredibly quick germination. Only 4 days for my self saved Bombay bronze and 5 days for crystal beauty.

I’ve sown a lot more this year. I may have got carried away!

   

 I’ll do a little experimenting with the Bombay bronze as I have so many. I’m going to pinch a couple out again even though I know that’s not what you’re supposed to do. Because one the plants I did that to last year. Produced some stunning stem for my jam jar bunches. But the other really did nothing. So I’ll have another go this year with a couple of them. I’m also going to plant a few of them close together. And a couple in their own pots.

Share your delight at picking your first ******* of the year. 
Earlier years for comparison at https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1858

Since there's a lot of seed sowing going on, its time for an Announcement.

Any commercial seeds (part or full packets) with a sow by date  of 2023 or later, accepted. Also, saved seeds that weren't in the recent swap.
Seeds to be sent to me before 14th April and sent back during April so that there's still time to sow them.
As before, if you send in 20 packets (all different) you'll receive 20 random packets back.  Just an example, you can send in however many you like and I'll try to send the same number back - no guarantees though if you send lots!
Put your names on the packets so that they're not sent back to you. 
Seal opened packets well - I hate it when an envelope contains loose, unidentifiable seeds (they go to a random patch somewhere in the garden).

Who's IN 

What are your experiments or new seed varieties planned for 2024. I'm going to have a think and come back with my list. I've a load of new varieties of beans and courgettes and a fair few tomatoes.

No I’m not joking! I really want to know what would you grow in a phone box?
Because we don’t have much to do at the moment ( if you can’t hear the sarcasm, there’s something wrong with you    ). Bob has had the idea of turning our village phone box into a greenhouse attraction for locals & visitors. He’s already been onto BT phone box department. As we thought the phone is no longer in service. What we didn’t know was charities or parish councils can buy the phone boxes. Bob has also had a mothers meeting with the village hierarchy     , they love the idea. Next step is asking the local charity organisations if they’d be interested in purchasing the phone box, for the pricy sum of £1.  Fairly high chance as they’ve just announced a grant for up £1000 for gardening projects to improve local villages/ towns. 
Bobs idea, guess who’s going to end up doing most of it   . It is actually a really good idea. But his timing sucks. 

Anyway plant for a phone box. They will have to be in pots as it’s got a concrete floor. All the glass is still in it. Not got a door at moment. But we know where it is. We were thinking a locked door so nothing gets damaged and it’s stop the door getting damaged in bad weather again. Most phone boxes on mull all look vandalised because doors are missing or hanging off. But it’s the wind, that does it. Obviously whoever (probably me) is looking after the plants will go in daily to water and do whatever needs doing. 


Suggestions please. Thank you