I've just seen a comment on a local site saying he'd pickled his lettuce - has anyone pickled their lettuce before? I haven't got a jar big enough for my lettuces.  BTW the cosberg lettuces I've grown this year are very nice.

I picked up a book last week titled " Living the Simple Life: A Guide to Scaling down and enjoying more" by Elaine St. James. 

Thought you might like to hear some of the suggestions!
1. Work less hours or work from home or stop working completely. The Author gave up her job and now churns out multiple books with very similar titles to earn a crust.
2. Downsize your home. Move to somewhere smaller so you have less to look after.
3. Sell most of your possessions because they won't fit into your smaller home. 
4. Get rid of all your books and use the library.
5. Get rid of your house plants as they take so much time watering etc. (She didn't say anything about having a garden. Maybe that's in another book.)
6. Eat the same meals every week so you have the same shopping list. 
7. Buy 7 identical pairs of socks and, once worn, put them in a wash bag. You'll never lose a sock again and you don't need to pair them up as they're identical.
8. Don't have friends over for meals - then you can reduce the amount of crockery and cutlery etc that you need.
9. Turn your phone onto answer machine and ignore it when it rings. You can then listen to the recorded message and ring back at a time when the caller will also have their answer machine on. That way you don't waste time on the phone.

I can't remember all the wonderful suggestions she had for "scaling down" but I'm not sure that "enjoying more" would be the end result.

I’m not sure what this plant is called - but fifty per cent of it is as it normally is - and fifty percent is fasciated. 
I really like the “deformed” one.

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After all these years I've realised why I choose to grow certain veg in preference to others and its not a question of taste! 

My favourite veg to grow are courgettes, tomatoes, peas and beans. As much as I like the taste of carrots and cauliflowers I rarely try to grow them, not just because I find them difficult to grow properly, its because of the Return on each seed.

With carrots, for example, you sow a seed and, if you're lucky you grow a carrot. Pick it and you're left with a hole in the ground. You have to re-sow something in its place.
Sow a bean, however, and you can keep picking beans for weeks without needing to re-sow. The same with courgettes, tomatoes and peas - and peppers, of course. They're good investments because you can take a crop from them for a long time. They're also time saving, sow once, pick for weeks - so appeal to my lazy streak.
I'm also partial to growing loose leaf salads, kale and rocket for the same reason. Just pick a few leaves at a time and leave the plant to grow on.
I should try harder to grow sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts as these would also suit my needs and stop trying to grow heading brassicas and root vegetables which are always a disappointment anyway.

Here's some pictures of my hydroponic basil, using the Kratky method. It's very simple, no pump or anything. There is a constant air gap between the top of the water and the lid of the container, so the plants put out lateral 'oxygen roots' which can absorb oxygen from the air.  

The containers are jam buckets from the same cafe we get all of the coffee grounds from. I cut two holes in the lid just wide enough to hold the yellow net cups. The net cups are filled with clay pebbles which help to support the plant. The buckets are wrapped with aluminium foil and the lids with cardboard to prevent algae building up in the water and using up all the nutrients.

The nutrient solution is just a basic hydroponic nutrient made from two powders (A & B) I got off eBay quite cheaply (£15 for 1kg of each). You make a separate stock solution of both A & B because if you try to mix the powders together in water the calcium will precipitate out. I then add 7.5 ml of each stock solution to 1 L of water. Each bucket takes 5 L of nutrient solution. The water level drops as the plant grows, so I top them up once or twice a week, depending on the weather. You have to make sure not to fill the buckets right to the top because you don't want to drown the 'oxygen roots'. 

We've had almost 300g of basil (leaf, no stem) since the start of June from 6 buckets (12 plants). The buckets are on the window sill I used to use for growing chillies, but indoor peppers don't pollinate very well and the flowers drop off. Basil in the greenhouse often gets mould or just doesn't do very well for me. The chillies are now in the greenhouse instead. It's worked out very well! This winter I'll be trying lettuce in the grow tent.

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So later on today (hopefully) we’re off to a bit of the coast somewhere around Mull (not sure which bit yet) to meet up with Bobs friend Dougal. This crazy young man is kayaking around the UK. 1 to see how fast he can do it. 2 because that’s the sort of thing he does. 3 to raise awareness & money for diabetes. 
You can follow his progress here. He has a live tracker. Some time the tracker is so tightly zoomed in you can only see a blue screen ( as I discovered) . Zoom out and you’ll find him . And see his previous adventures. 


https://dougalsepicadventure.com/

We’re meeting up with him to provide food and water.

So sorry - I have searched and searched but can’t find the post.
It was either Martin or JJB.
Apologies to one of you!
Anyway we both had some odd seedlings pop up in our sweet pea sowings that looked like vetch foliage.
Not even from same supplier - mine was cheapo from Lidl (incidentally, they have been fabulous!!)
Martin’s of JJB’s came from a “proper” seed merchant. 
I grew mine on in a three inch pot- didn’t bother to plant them out. Here they are …. Quite pretty and def not vetch!
How did yours do Martin or JJB????

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A “friend” kindly gave me some seed of so say “Frosted Explosion” grass (panicum elegans).
Even though I have it self sowing all around the place, I thought I’d sow it under cover and get a head start on the garden ones.
Hmmmmm! Frosted explosion my bum!!!
Anyone recognise it please???

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https://www.poundshop.com/pop-up-food-co...-45cm.html

Saw this advertised as a pop-up cover for picnic/BBQ food but I wondered whether they might be OK for covering seedlings or strawberries . I haven't seen it so no idea how robust it is or how easy it would be to peg down.

Not mine - but I’d like to know the name so thst I can find it and buy it!
Absolutely smashing shrub about 2 and a half feet tall.
Leaves are VERY similar to rosemary - so I expected the leaves to have a fragrance. They had no fragrance though.
Tight little clusters of white buds. I would imagine that it would be great to use for foliage in a bunch.
Any suggestions, please??

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