Kim Stoddart bats away any January blues by taking a look at some of the more unusual and exciting growing possibilities for the year ahead
There’s no getting away from it, this is probably the gloomiest month of the year. Perhaps especially so for us gardeners, as at this point the growing season ahead seems a tad far away still.
No wonder then it’s considered a good month for planning and plotting what to grow instead. A good excuse if ever I heard one to also widen the reach of your existing planting and get enthused about some tasty and useful exotics that are easier than you might think to reliably weave into your patch.
ALOE VERA
This lovely plant grows wild throughout the tropics. As the debate on whether its stems are safely edible or not continues, it is worth growing anyway because there is no doubting the hugely beneficial properties of the soothing gel within. It can be used on burns and sores as well as to help ease the discomfort of sunburnt skin. It really is an amazing plant for healing and its attractive nature makes it good houseplant material. Easy to grow, its relatively low maintenance requirements also make it a welcome house guest.
Young plants are widely available to buy from most garden centres and online retailers.
LEMON GRASS
This delightful fragrant ingredient for much Asian cuisine can either be propagated from seed in the spring, or if you want to get a head start on proceedings, then why not have a go at growing it on from supermarket or shop-bought stems now instead.
It’s incredibly easy to do, just place your lemongrass in a glass of water, on a warm, sunny windowsill and change the water every few days until your stems have started to root. When that happens, put them carefully into some potting compost and keep them inside as a houseplant till the thermostat rises in spring. They can overwinter successfully in a nice, sheltered spot but it’s safer to keep them pot-bound so they can be moved inside during the colder months of the year.
As a somewhat expensive ingredient to buy, having your own supply by way of an attractive edible houseplant is incredibly rewarding indeed. The stem and leaves can also be used to make a most refreshing tea.
TOMATILLO
This close relative to the tomato, which is native to Mexico, can be very productive when it gets going. Producing a unique lime-flavoured fruit, Garden Organic (who conducted a membership experiment on growing this produce) found the fruit could be useful as
