The lazy gardener

Sometimes in this family we're lazy in the garden because we really are lazy. Don't you agree that a little laziness is a healthy thing?


But sometimes we do things that seem lazy but we think are clever. One of those is leaving a few plants to go to seed.

As a result we get many little plants for free - free of money, time and labour! And of course there is no root disturbance because they don't have to be moved (unless we want them in a different place, that is). So they are always very healthy babies.

Can you spot the little purple seedlings?

Many of the plants in our current winter vege garden are self-seeded. Even though we have had a huge number of frosts, these salad greens survive and we can have fresh green salads all winter! The salad plants that do well in frost - in our case rocket, cress and purple and green mizuna - tend to be quite peppery though. If only I could get the children to eat them...

Our winter vegetable garden

We manage to get harvests that are plentiful enough to require me to take my little basket outside. This is thanks not only to salad plants but our citrus trees, chickens and my husband's autumnal waving of a gone-to-seed carrot plant above a conmpost-filled mound in the lawn. Good stuff. Now for all that weeding....