Do you GROW? Page 13

Just planted a plethora of herbs in containers on my patio. Should smell terrific in a few weeks.

I'm growing a Cornucopia of herbs myself.

I always plant rosemary, sage, lavender (makes amazing purple cookies!), basil, and cilantro.

Basil, Rocket, Chives, Oregano.
Not sure what to do with any of them.

Put them in spaghetti sauce or stuff them in a roast chicken.

That's your answer to everything.
:D Errr

And my dinner parties are always a success!

The mandarin tree has an abundance of tasty fruit this year. The avocados and oranges are almost ready too. The goji berry plant is looking a bit ordinary though; the birds must be getting the berries.

Quote: Kenneth @ June 12 2010, 1:26 AM BST

The mandarin tree has an abundance of tasty fruit this year. The avocados and oranges are almost ready too. The goji berry plant is looking a bit ordinary though; the birds must be getting the berries.

You get all this fruit in the middle of winter?

Quote: Nogget @ June 12 2010, 5:52 AM BST

You get all this fruit in the middle of winter?

Indeed. Except the goji berry bush, it's not being at all fruitful. Mandarins (left) have been going for a month now, oranges just about ready, still not quite sweet enough.

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Bacon avocados (right) now ripe if picked and left indoors for a week, while haas avocados (left) maybe another month to wait. Over 100 avocados on the two trees this year. How much does a decent avocado cost in the UK now? Are they imported from Israel or Portugal or Spain or where?

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A good avocado would be cheapest at 2 for £1, and more typically would cost around 90p each. So yes, your trees represent a lot of quid. We get them from South Africa, Peru, Chile, Kenya and Spain.

There are a few things which grow well in our climate; we have fine apples, and a range of fungi. And of course, Britain is great for growing miserable.

Quote: Nogget @ June 12 2010, 9:23 AM BST

A good avocado would be cheapest at 2 for £1, and more typically would cost around 90p each.

90p is reasonably cheap, as a good avocado costs nearly A$3 (about £1.75) during the Australian summer and early autumn. Now of course they are getting down to about A$1 (60p) as it's avocado season. I don't suppose you know how much a kilogram of goji berries costs in UK supermarkets?

We get dried Goji berries, in tiny packets. 50p per 70g cheapest. I've never seen a fresh one, they're a bit novel to us.

Never heard of them!

Quote: Aaron @ June 12 2010, 12:16 PM BST

Never heard of them!

Like all newly popular exotic Asian berries, they are supposed to prevent heart disease, cancer and blindness. Unfortunately the ones in the supermarket come from China, which probably washes them in pesticides/insecticides to stop the bugs from eating them. So I'm growing my own. My first plant started growing tall, then a visiting rabbit or hare one night lopped it off to just a few inches. It's now regrowing rapidly inside a mesh guard, which keeps the bunnies out but not the birds. I think I'm dreaming if I believe that eating the little red berries will counteract the effects of 15 years of chain-smoking.

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