For those of you following me on Twitter, you may be familiar with the occasional excitement I’ve been tweeting through my discoveries in growing our own vegetables this year. The idea to “grown our own” was first met with severe cynicism from my other half @spurssimon (twitter name, I don’t generally call him that) as he thought it would be another casualty of the infamous Debbie “enthusiasm curve” (go out, buy everything, spend a day going mad gardening then lose interest and leave him to keep everything alive). This “fad” however is a tad different for a number of reasons:

• I’ve discovered container gardening which means I don’t have to do any weeding
• Rather than just pretty flowers these growing things have an end purpose, I’m already thinking about recipes where I can use them
• This year is the first year when I have been working locally so I can really take the time to appreciate the garden, the morning daily inspection of the garden is a great way to start the day
• I can even calculate an actual “return on investment” with herbs, vegetable and fruits rather than an intangible it makes the garden look pretty
• I have discovered an intense appreciation of old episodes of “The Good Life” and scarily could actually empathise with the “talking to seeds to see which grows first” episode (we are currently having a ‘which sunflower is the tallest competition’ going on), and our future aspirations are now frequently alluded to as “when I’ve got chickens, and you’ve got bees”

The biggest thing however I really really didn’t reckon on happening was how possessive and proud I would be of the produce, I can honestly now see why competitions can become so fierce at local country shows, I’ve even scared myself by discovering maternal instincts for baby cucumbers and the excitement as the first baby beet pushed it’s way through the earth from seed – really, I need to know, I am certifiable is it just I’ve finally succumbed to the (late) 30ish something way of life???

Anyways, as is my mantra of a picture can speak a thousand words, I thought I’d share some of the latest additions to the imaging essence container garden, and I warn you, the baby cucumbers are seriously cute!!

Enjoy!