Last year I decided to expand my gardening prowess from my normal repertoire of things that never seemed to grow, and I never seemed to eat. For instance, I grew silver beet, lots of it, but don’t really have any recipes gagging for silver beet, and I still have some childhood horror stories of the liberal silver beet use by Mum and Dad. My therapist is working through this with me.

So, one day I had a grand idea. I decided to try growing some things that I truly love. It’s interesting to note that these things never seem to be available at Bunnings Warehouse or garden nurseries. And I figured, even if these alternate things all die, if I had a little success, I would be loving the outcome. It’s a win win all round I say!

So I ordered the following from Green Harvest Organic Gardening Supplies:

• Asparagus (most sprouted, but all died)
• Galangal (I am SO sad that this died, so so sad)
• Lemongrass (YEAH, it all survived, and is amazingly beautiful. Very slow growing, so I haven’t eaten any yet)
• Ginger – survived, just. I won’t even try and harvest it this year, but it’s growning
• Turmeric – as per above. I think I buried it too deep in the pot, or put too much mulch on top
• Comfrey – it grew wonderfully, but unfortunately I forgot where I planted it all, mistook half of it for a weed and removed it – OOPs
• Horseraddish – today I pulled my first horseraddish out. This stuff grew in the hottest parts of the garden, and survived all summer. Amazing. Also amazingly deep root system
• Waterchestnuts – I had a gorgeous bowl I grew them in. I just loved watching these grow. And excitingly, I harvested some. There is now about 6 or 7 in the place of the one I planted. A good return on investment I say!

So, the outcome is this – half of my experiment worked, half didn’t. Whatever! I have lemongrass, horseraddish, waterchestnuts, ginger. Cool! And, to be honest, when you love something, you take so much more interest in it.

Today I cut up the horseraddish root and comfrey, and stuck lots of it around the garden. They are both deep rooted plants, so they don’t need watering at all. I can’t wait to try the horseraddish – might be a good remedy for the cold that I am developing!