Lemon grass

[saucisson]

I planted some seeds at the beginning of the year, I now have leggy grass... It looks like grass that hasn't been cut, a bit like my lawn really.
It looks identical to that thick coarse grass you can pluck and blow through to make interesting reedy noises. Until you break a blade off and smell it... a single blade of fresh lemon grass equates to a whole rooty thing you buy in the supermarket. I'm hooked, anyone want some spare seeds?
Dave

[aris]

Hey, yeah, i wouldn't mind some. I just built a raised bed which i'm growing tomatoes, chilles, and courgettes on. I've got sme space. How long do they take to grow?

[saucisson]

Well the packet said slow and erratic to germinate, up to 45 days, so I planted it in February indoors. They all came up in 3 days and are 2 foot long now

PM me your address and I'll send you a handful of seeds, otherwise pop over and I'll give you some plants.

Dave

[Wohoki]

You can root lemon grass as bought as an ingredient, if it has some of the woody root bit left. Just stand it in a glass of water until it starts to show some roots and pot it up. It needs a lot of sun and water to form 'bulbs' like the ones you buy but, as sauc says, the leaves are tasty enough to flavour foods.

[welsh wizard]

Hi Saucisson that sounds really interesting. I would have never of thought of growing that myself but sure will give it a go. I do tend to grow quite a lot of garlic in the garden and often use the green shoots as well as the green shoots off the shallotts in salads and sausages.

Does anyone else grow things slightly left of centre?

Cheers WW

[Rik vonTrense]

A couple of years ago planted some Rocket seeds and a couple of other italian herbs...they all seemed to go to seed and regenerate themselves and the Rocket is almost wild Rocket now and has a real hot peppery taste.....and the basil is like a minature fir tree forest.....the Oregano tends to grow to two foot high.

The Rocket in a sandwich as a salad is superb.


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[Wohoki]

This year I'm growing 5 varieties of chilli, 3 types of basil (two Asian and one sweet), corriander, ginger, galangal, shiitake mushrooms, daikon (giant white radish or mooli, depending on where you buy it) and I have some wasabi seeds that I was going to start this morning, as well as all the usual herbs.

I think that if you can add a bit of the garden to anything you cook it personalises your food like nothing else, but I really can't be bothered with veg. Just too lazy , and when I have loads of tomatos/spuds/beans they're at their cheapest and best in the green-grocers, so I grow the stuff that I do use, but is always at a premium cost (anyone ever priced up fresh wasabi root?)

I used to be under-gardener for a charity hospital, and we had a 40 foot greenhouse that we filled with tomato plants every year. The smell of a tomato plant is enough to put me off my grub for hours: it was my job to rub out the side-shoots and pick the fruit. I still love a nice, sun-warmed tom with a dab of salt and some olive-oil, but I couldn't grow them again if my life depended on it.

[pokerpete]

This year I'm growing 5 varieties of chilli, 3 types of basil (two Asian and one sweet), corriander, ginger, galangal, shiitake mushrooms, daikon (giant white radish or mooli, depending on where you buy it) and I have some wasabi seeds that I was going to start this morning, as well as all the usual herbs.

I think that if you can add a bit of the garden to anything you cook it personalises your food like nothing else, but I really can't be bothered with veg. Just too lazy , and when I have loads of tomatos/spuds/beans they're at their cheapest and best in the green-grocers, so I grow the stuff that I do use, but is always at a premium cost (anyone ever priced up fresh wasabi root?)

I used to be under-gardener for a charity hospital, and we had a 40 foot greenhouse that we filled with tomato plants every year. The smell of a tomato plant is enough to put me off my grub for hours: it was my job to rub out the side-shoots and pick the fruit. I still love a nice, sun-warmed tom with a dab of salt and some olive-oil, but I couldn't grow them again if my life depended on it.

Have you got a greenhouse then. I'm thinking of building a cold frame for next year. We have a nice south facing brick wall here in sunny Surrey, would that do for growing chillies, and some exotic herbs, if I start them off indoors.

[Wohoki]

Yes, a nice warm wall is the best thing going, probably better than a greenhouse, as pests are less of a problem outdoors. Chillis need an early start from seed (March, but you might be able to pick up some plants about now) but the annual herbs can be started now in pots, and just bung them outside.

Plants like corriander and basil I start new pots every few weeks from April through to first frost. Any surplus can be picked and chucked into a blender with the least amount of water that will let them blend, and then frozen in ice-cube trays for the winter: way better than dried or the crap in pots from the supermarket, just drop a cube or two into your food two minutes before service and everone thinks you're wonderful

As to cold-frames, if you can get to the local tip, just pick up disguarded patio doors and lean them against the wall. If it's cold/windy, just cover the sides with a bin-bag. Not attractive, but free, and you can put them in the shed when you don't need them any more.

If I remember I can send out a few chilli plants next Spring: I always plant to many, and I'd rather they went to good homes. Jog my elbow if I forget.

[welsh wizard]

HI Wohoki

Re Toms: I always think they are the best off the vine at home, although I understand your aversion to growing them after what you wrote! And re the expence of veg / fruit I can never understand why people buy raspberries when they are soooooooo easy to grow, especially when you see the price of them in the shops.

Chilles I grow outdide or in a pot near the window and they are yummy, but I have found to my cost that if small children can get to them they think they are very pretty to pick and taste

How do you grow ginger???????????

Cheers WW

[Wohoki]

Ginger is easy: buy a big piece of fresh root with a couple of green shoots starting to form, plant the whole thing about three inches below the surface of the compost in a big pot and water-in lightly, then leave it somewhere shady but reasonabley warm and keep the compost just damp. As the shoots start to come up give it more water: I had one flower last year. They do well in the bathroom.

As to the chilli/child thing: they only do it once

[saucisson]

I'm trying chillies (jalopenos) for the first time this year, I take onboard your point about kids!

[Patricia Thornton]

Wohoki,

I've tried to grow root ginger for years and years but never had any luck with it so far. From what you say, it may be that I've been rather mean since I've always just cut off the part or parts that have bud type growths appearing rather than the whole thing. However, are what I refer to as buds, the 'green shoots' or are they something else?

I love fresh ginger and use it for many things but it's something that's not know here in Bulgaria. Being able to grow it would be a great help between deliveries by friends.

[Wohoki]

I'd have said you need a good chunk of the brown root (100g or so) as well as one or two green buds. "Root" ginger is actually a rhyzome and the woody part provides fuel for the leaves to grow, and only then will it start to grow proper roots in a ring around where the bud joins the main part. (If that made any sence at all )

[Patricia Thornton]

Wohoki,

Yes, thank you, it does make sense.

Next time I'll try using the whole of the rhyzone rather than cutting out the bud and plant it deeper than I have done previously, as per your advice.