Just picked the last of the cucumbers from the greenhouse. Having a little experiment in the greenhouse at growing a ginger plant from store-bought root. I will have to bring it indoors for the winter, to keep the temperature about 20 C.

I've usually grown beans from seed packets, and they usually take at least a couple of weeks to sprout. This year, after picking the last of a batch of broad beans, I thought I would plant some now, and over-winter them in the greenhouse. I was amazed that they sprouted vigorously within two days. I guess that's something to do with the freshness of the seed beans.

Still have a veg bed full of beetroots, will leave them until the first frosts come.  I have one surprise earlier this year, from the previous year's beetroots, there was one beetroot I'd missed, and was now going to seed. I've patiently waited until the seeds start to turn brown before harvesting them, to save them for planting outside in April.

And be careful where you put your fingers afterward.

Advice from a man who knows. yeah have forgotten that before, that's a special feeling right there when you forget to wash before you go to the restroom.

I'll be wearing eyepro and gloves for the reapers, jalapenos are a little on the mild side this year but have great flavor, habaneros got a nice burn and I got some great salsa in the fridge now. That pepper in the pic was the first one that formed and it's big and healthy, so that will provide my seeds for next year, so I have to dry it nice and slow. For the rest i'm going to setup the de-hydrator out in the garage so I don't wipe the house out. I am going to try to make some special pepper sauce with one or two, still trying to figure out the best way to do that, need to really liquefy them so as not to get chunks in the final product.

Sure is good to have fresh produce and herbs again, going to whip up a creamy pesto and pepper sauce for some pasta tonight from the pesto my wife made last week, some fresh sliced tomatoes too, ought to be yummy!

Comfrey is also a powerful medicinal herb. I am fully aware of its toxicity - it can be used internally, but with caution - however it is much better to use it externally anyway, as a poultice. In this way, it does no harm and is very good for healing wounds and fractures as it promotes rapid tissue regeneration. I used comfrey and elecampane roots with DMSO to heal a relative's legs. She had terrible lesions that were very stubborn to cure. After only a few applications, they were completely gone. I never drank comfrey and I don't intend to, as I don't think this is even necessary to make use of it as an herbal medicine.
https://www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net/h … omfrey.php

Very fond of comfrey tea, it's super stinky but it works! Nature gives it to us in abundance, so why not make good use of it, right?

I hope that you're not drinking that comfrey tea, and if you are I hope that you are using it very sparingly. Comfrey contains toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and really should not be used internally.

See:

Comfrey
https://www.poisonsinfo.health.qld.gov.au/plants-and-mushrooms/comfrey-symphytum-officinale

Comfrey: assessing the low-dose health risk
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3059158/

The efficacy and safety of comfrey
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11276298/

Metabolism, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity of comfrey
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5894094/

Thanks for the bonemeal tip - comfrey is excellent for tomatoes and beets, but it does seem to have a lesser effect on peppers, so I'll definitely consider grinding someone's bones... ^_^

Oh it's oregano in the fourth picture, isn't it? We have lots of it, it's in full bloom here - time to harvest - thankfully the rains have finally stopped. Just need to make a polite agreement with the bees... they usually understand though.

No pesticides ever, which does cost me sometimes, baby grasshoppers took a liking to my potato's...arrrgh...no herbicides either, lots of weeding by hand but I find that carthatic at the end of a day. Getting some nice compost now from the pile we started last year.

Top tip for peppers: Bone meal, and plenty of it, it's like steroids for peppers, good for tomatoes too as the calcium prevents blossom-end-rot, and the phsophorus is super important when flowering and setting fruit. I mix it in the soli when I plant and side-dress once every 3 weeks or so after that.

I try to start and propagate plants from home seeds whenever I can. Had big success with decorative flowers such as lisianthus (eustoma), meadow sage, sweet pea and many others.

Hope these turn out nice & scorchy, greenjeans! We got some jalapenos but they sure seem to be taking their time, the weather has not been playing nice as of late.

Never using any nasty pesticides like DDT or those petrochemical fertilizers in my garden. There's enough poison in the soil from all the spraying going on. Very fond of comfrey tea, it's super stinky but it works! Nature gives it to us in abundance, so why not make good use of it, right?

Oh, and screw lawns!