Unusual Eden

“Swedish death cleaning” may sound morbid, but the concept is less doom and gloom and more existential and sweet. Think of the decluttering style this way: if the KonMari Method and hygge had a baby, it’d be Swedish death cleaning.  The idea is simple, yet astounding. Swedish death cleaning is a Scandinavian method of organizing that focuses on decluttering your home before you pass on in an effort to lessen the burden on your grieving loved ones. Author Margareta Magnusson coined the phrase in her 2017 book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, and the concept has been gaining traction ever since. 

Potatoes are one of the most popular vegetables, likely because of their versatility. Not only can you prepare potatoes in a myriad of ways, but there are so many unusual potato varieties to try. From russet to fingerling in hues of red, yellow, white and even purple, there’s a unique potato variety out there you will enjoy. Some unusual potatoes might be considered gourmet potato varieties, while still others are de rigueur, but all of them are delicious. Keep reading to learn about unusual potato varieties and which ones you should grow.

Chlorophytum comosum ‘Vittatum’ — available from Hortology

Earth Day seems to be an auspicious day on which to being a new blog series. ‘The Hive’ is going to be a collection of positive news stories about the environment, with a solarpunk vibe – demonstrating that those of us who care about the environment are not alone, and that in fact there are legions of people around the world who are actively making a difference, and who share a positive vision of how the future could look, rather than the gloom and doom of a dystopia forced on us by a broken climate.

I love growing unusual edible plants – not only are they potentially useful and easy to grow (because the pests and diseases they suffer from are not widespread), but they can be beautiful too.

Welcome interplanetary gardeners! This week’s Gardeners off World starts with a little video Boeing has put together of the inside of the crew cabin on the recent Starliner test flight (the one that took tree seeds into space). You can see Rosie the instrumented mannequin, but the highlight is watching astronaut Snoopy float about as the spacecraft reaches orbit, and then plop back down into his seat during the descent!

I’ve mentioned the TomTato and the Egg & Chips plants before – they’re exclusive to T&M, grafted vegetables that grow two crops – potatoes combined either with tomatoes or aubergines. Now opinion is divided as to whether they’re genius space savers or a novelty that won’t give you your money’s worth on either crop. But if you’d like the opportunity to decide for yourself then they’re on offer today – you can buy a pair of plants (one of each variety) for just £4.99.

Over the last few years there has been increasing interest in unusual edible plants. One of the big advantages in having an allotment or a large garden is that it gives you the space to experiment with new tastes without having to sacrifice any old favourites, but some of the exotic specimens can be very tricky to grow.

As an ethnobotanist focusing on edible plants, I was powerless to resist when Tree Aid issued their tree food challenge to design a healthy, nutritious* winter dish using one or more of several tree foods. I chose:

It seems to be Cucurbitaceae week on the blog. Fresh from talking about Gynostemma pentaphyllum, today’s post is about some unusual, and ornamental, cucumber varieties.

The news for the past few weeks has been a little worrying (when is it not?), in the sense that although Brexit is only 7 months away, no one seems to have the foggiest what will happen when we leave the EU. All kinds of industries are predicting chaos. People in the government have said that the government is making plans to stockpile food, and the public don’t need to worry. However, with ‘just in time’ food supply lines that leave us nine meals away from anarchy, perhaps a little concern is in order. We’ve recently lived through a hummus shortage (due to production issues), a crumpet/fizzy drinks shortage (ditto) and salad shortages (weather issues), and that’s just the ones I (a) noticed and (b) can remember.

Last weekend, as the temperatures soared, I found a certain amount of solace in learning more about how plants are being grown in Antarctica – the coldest place on Earth.