Plant-related resources

One day I would love to have a permaculture garden. But at the moment I have to make do with lots of pots, and my window-boxes. Here are some of the sites I'm using as reference/inspiration.

I love this site! It's my reference for:
- my little mango seed, although it wasn't the sort they suggest, with the several seeds inside the husk,
- passionfruit, which I fully intend to try again as soon as I buy more fruits,
- pineapple, as I have a top ready to plant as well as the previously mentioned surprise seeds in a germinating bag
- sweet potato, which I am having a go with even though we don't really have space for a big vine, or indeed a vine at all. It's going to be an indoor sweet potato trial, I have to convince my lovely husband to get a large pot.

I'd love to grow cashews, but it's not very realistic in a house with kids- check out the pictures though to see what they look like!

Here are some links about growing avocados...

and peppers...

and citrus.

Ideas for other things to grow including ginger root!

And of course the BBC and Wikipedia, which are wonderful resources for, well, everything really!

Gardening-related blogs I follow:
Down To Earth: Living the simple life in Australia. Posts about all kinds of things - check it out.
Blagger: These great people are trying to live self-sufficiently in a suburban town in the UK.
Weekend gardener: written by gardening industry professionals.
Godspace: Christine Sine's blog is about God, gardening and community, and how the three go together. I especially love her posts about how God speaks to her through her garden.
The Green Parent: This one is not so much about gardening, just the occasional item.

Indoors in the garden

I have pruned the Easter cactus and potted the cuttings. Although I can't tell if they are taking, the original cactus has rewarded me with several new bright green baby leaves. The avocado is growing quite slowly, while three of my kumquat seeds and one of the pears have turned into little seedlings just as I was about to give up on them. I also have an unknown seedling in my tray. Perhaps a tomato? I did put some seeds in but didn't expect them to grow as I didn't let the pulp go mouldy first. It can't be a weed because we're indoors!
(The above paragraph is the result of my tendency to start writing a post and then save it for posting later in the week! We now know that the mystery plant is a tomato, as I said in my previous-but-more-recently-written post, and that there is a new, very tiny, mystery plant).

The mango has produced a shoot... or possibly a root... hard to tell as it's mostly red. I took the thick husk of the pit off, and wrapped the pit in a wet paper towel before putting it in an open plastic bag to keep it warm and moist. In no time it had developed this shoot, which is curly because I put it back the wrong way up and so it curled around to face the right way. I stupidly forgot to take a picture of it before planting. Hopefully it will emerge from the soil soon, I hear they're very pretty.