No, my subject heading is not a new expression of delight (although it has a little merit…) but an expression of what turned up in our old troughs!

When we moved from the farm, Beloved moved our stuff into storage at his workplace. Troughs that once held our edibles were abandoned “out back” and became overrun with weeds. Nettles, actually – which means that if I so wished I could get my own back and eat them. But one can only eat so many, and the gathering can be fraught with danger.

Due to lack of space, some troughs and containers were emptied and sold (sob!)

One day Beloved informed me that there were potatoes in several of the old buckets. We never planted them there, so I can only assume that soil from previous attempts at potatoes found a good home.

We watched the plants grow and wither – all ready for the crop. Amazingly, we got about 5 lbs of potatoes. This is more than we EVER got from those we deliberately planted. How annoying!

Not only that, but these spuds had the most amazingly creamy taste. And we don’t even know what kind they are (deep sob!)

So we are still reaping the benefits (or the potatoes) of growing our own, even though we didn’t do a thing this year!

It will be some while before we launch out into growing any more of our own food at the moment, the ‘garden’ being so small and covered in paving slabs. BUT – I have a tub of thyme and marjoram, a very small bay tree, and a quince tree (no quinces this year).

After winter is past, Beloved intends to rearrange the garden. Or, to be more precise, to change the position of the garden gate.

Then there will be space for a shed. Size is yet to be determined, although it can’t be too big or it will impede the rotary clothes dryer. Once that is done, though, we can start thinking of growing stuff again.

My thought was to have hanging baskets, at least for the strawberries. And if we can fit in one of the large troughs (which we still have) there will probably be space for a couple of cherry tomato plants and some spinach.

And I guess I’ll buy one of those large bag-like things (like a grow-bag but tall rather than wide) for growing potatoes in. When I’ve planted that, I’ll ignore it and see what happens.

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