Gardening in Emsworth.

Swiss chard is a wonderful crop to grow - it's easy, undemanding and stands over winter, getting into growth as spring begins.  The plant in the photo was sown last August, and I've been eating it for weeks. I cook it like spinach, and particularly like it in an omelette or fritatta, Chard a member of the beet family and is biennial.  A large taproot maintains it through the winter, and it goes to seed in early summer.  I prefer types with white midribs, but recently I picked up a free packet of 'Bright Lights' with a mixture of red, yellow and white midribs.  It's harder to find the white varieties these days!  It can be sown from March to September. I've just sown some, a few in a small pot.  When they've germinated and produces few true leaves I'll plant the whole pots in the ground, weeding out weaker plants to leave the strongest one to grow on.  

 I've become keen on ferns since I bought a collection of  5 hardy ferns for shady places.  They are planted under a big old apple tree surrounded by fences and sheds on three sides.  Just at the moment they are unfurling their leaves, known as 'fiddleheads' in New Zealand.   Each leaflet unfurls as well, beautiful to see.

 I think the drought in 2025 also caused me to dry up on blog writing! I only watered crops, like tomatoes which I grew in hanging baskets.  However, I was impressed by how quite a few plants in my garden thrived.  Here are some of them. Salvia Clotted Cream'.  A wonderful shrubby salvia which flowered for months on end.  Behind it are aka Hylotelephium   'Autumn Joy'(red), Geranium 'Rozanne'(blue) and Nicotiana 'Whispers' (shades of pink). Symphyotrichum ' Andenken an Alma Potschke'.  Last autumn this 100cm tall aster flowered particularly well. One of the most amazing successes last year was this half hardy annual,  Nicotiana 'Whispers Mixed'.  I followed the instructions on the seed packet, and the resulting plants flowered from summer to autumn.  Some of the plants survived the winter so now I'm waiting to see if they'll flower again and become a perennial. This photo was taken at a wildlife patch that Southbourne Environment...