Autumn 2023 September Autumn is my very favourite time of the year. Let's see what our Green Shoots children have been up to in their gardens... "It's lovely to hear from Lily's mum: "Green Shoots project going well. Our sunflower's taller than garage and we can see the cucamelons now and our sweet peas are growing up the canes alongside our runner beans." "Anna's sunflowers are slim but very tall" Grandma Lynne has been in touch to say: "Jacob’s tomatoes still producing. Green beans soon to be collected. Smallest cucamelon in the world (pic 3), but we wait. Everything else died off in the terrible July weather. But we will keep trying." We received this lovely picture and message from Amy's mum, Julie: "Home grown runner beans for dinner! Amy is very chuffed with herself! Served with chicken, red onion and garlic fried in lots of butter." "This is our yesterday's crop (below) . We usually plant veg and flowers in our garden every year and George loves it much more because he learned to water them and enjoys it." Sara Garland, CEO and founder of The Daisy Garland is about to tuck into her homegrown tomatoes for lunch today... Mum, Caroline, tells us: "Hope (below) had a great summer of growing fruit and veg and herbs in the garden. We’ve had strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, mint, parsley, cress, courgette (singular so far) carrots, lettuce and lots more to still come - still hopeful that both lots of cucumelons will actual produce this year." Well done Paige! You've certainly got green fingers 🍅 🥬 🍓 🌱 "We finally have the first hints of vegetables (below)! A very tiny courgette and even smaller runner beans but looking promising. And our green tomatoes are finally thinking about changing to red. One excited girl! (Well two actually as I'm pretty excited too!)" Julie and Amy "Summer pickings from our allotment and garden! Annabelle is a big fan of watching us water the courgette plants. She loves the bright colours and vibrant smells of the strawberries and tomatoes. And her sunflowers are so tall!" "Finally have some chillies to try. They are Italian heirloom variety and nicely hot. Definitely not an easy thing to grow.Courgettes are still keep on coming but really looking forward for Cinderella's pumpkin to ripen. It's an old French heirloom variety (Rouge vif d’Etampes) that became a model for the famous fairytale." Erika "My 1 surviving Cucamelon has a flower." Francesca A few weeks later... 👏👏👏 Well done Francesca, we're so happy for you! "This week I harvested another round of peppers, the have turned red and yellow so should hopefully be a bit sweeter than the green ones I picked earlier in the year. And the chillies have all reddened and look amazing!! Bonus picture of the dahlia that has just started to open up, really beautiful at this time of year when other things in the garden are starting to fade." Thomas "It's been the worst year on record for homegrown tomatoes in the Garland household. After a promising start the plants became very spindly with only a few tomatoes per plant. I guess you can't win them all. I'll try harder next year! But as you can see from the picture below, we've grown some stunning dahlias and sunflowers much to the delight of the bees and other small pollinators 🌻🐝🦋 " Sara x "Annabelle and I harvested our first celeriac, which we have been growing together since April. Feeling quite chuffed with ourselves!" Ladies, and so you should be - what a fabulous achievement! Leaving you on a high note on the Cucamelon front... Lily Queen of the Cucamelons! What a bumper crop! Well done! (In total, Lily has picked 6 small pots of Cucamelons). "These are the sunflowers and bee garden a couple of weeks ago. We've had a lot of butterflies and dragonflies too." Francesca Thank you to Anna's dad, Jan, for sharing his thoughts and gorgeous pictures. And no; we don't know a better classroom, dining room or mental health service. True words indeed. "Do you know better class room than woods? Do you know better dinning room than woods? And most importantly: Do you know better mental health service than woods?" "Amy's runner beans are still thriving! Definitely going to grow them again next year!" "Chloe (below) is delighted with her Green Shoots produce... 🌻" Lily, your sunflower seeds are going to be very popular with the birds who visit your garden! Well done!n 🌻 "Gethin (below) with his green shoots produce!" Super Sunflowers Gethin, well done! 🌻 "I have semi successfully grown a whole 7 tomatoes [below] this year apparently..." Kay "Today Paige did an update of her garden, she's recently planted winter greens....and raddish, winter cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli... The winter greens are made into mash with cream, garlic olive oil and cheddar cheese, we batch cook it and freeze, we even use the leaves that are normally thrown away....she eats it instead of mashed tatties....full o fibre!" Paige, what amazing produce and we have fallen in love with your scarecrow! He's absolutely adorable 💚 "After a very wet summer, our green shoots is almost done for this year. Excellent tomatoes and green beans. Lovely sunflowers. Everything else just didn't blossom. Except!!! We have one baby cucamelon (below) that is still trying very hard to grow. Jacob is keeping his eye on it Thank you Daisy Gardland. for better success next year." Grandma Lynne "It's a bit one of those cases of 'Be careful what you wish for'..And it's after chutney being made, close and further neighbourhood and friends supplied.." Erika "Finally. Anna harvested her first tomatoes." "I'm really not sure if those are actual peppers [below] or if I have accidentally grown something like a scotch bonnet, they are a weird shape and colour for a bell pepper but at least I have grown it " Kay "Collecting lettuce seeds [below]. Was really impressed that their seeds have little down parachutes just like dandelion do. Natures wonderful decisions to adapt so it could live 🌿" Erika Erika, we love your message and pics so much! Thank you for sharing. This is just so wonderful! Our lettuces bolted earlier in the season and we pulled them up without realising they would flower. Next year I will be joining you in collecting seeds. SARA As you can see from the pictures below, Oran is a very talented Green Shoots 🌱gardener. Mum, Justine, told us: "So that's radish beetroot potatoes courgette pumpkin tomatoes and nasturtiums. We have strings of onions in the garage and beetroot pickled and jarred for Christmas. The nasturtiums are what you sent us last year the bees love them." What fabulous news to receive from Paige's mum who tells us: "Inspired by the green shoots project Paige has been studying with BBC Gardeners world...taken 4 months but did most of the work by herself...so proud of you Paige..." Team Daisy: Huge congratulations Paige on receiving this hugely impressive award. So well deserved 👏👏👏 You are a Daisy Garland Green Shoots 🌱 SuperStar! ⭐️ Another champion gardener, Anna (below), has been working very hard on her Green Shoots plot. Anna's dad telling us: "Autumn is here with cold weather, final harvest and garden cleaning." #greenshoots "I've just been out and dug up potato pot no.1 (below) - possibly the most successful thing I've grown this year! Wasn't sure exactly what I had planted variety wise so these were a surprise even to me. Although I will admit to being ridiculously proud of them " Kay Fab pics below of Esme and Mary's autumn bounty: I've just returned from a week in France, staying with my sister and her husband who live there. Below are some fabulous pics to share from her pottager (veg patch) where we sat each morning drinking tea whilst chatting about our fabulous Green Shoots 🌱 project. Yes, the best things in life are free... Sara xx Tomato plants grown from seeds collected from last year's tomato crop... Juicy red peppers grown from out of date seeds (over 3 years out of date) with fabulous results!... ... lots more peppers still to come from these beautiful little buds and flowers. So excited to capture this little hummingbird month extracting nectar from a clump of Pineapple sage... "Two buddies that wrapped up our growing season just to start the season of Hallows More to come soon.." Erika "As a family we've loved being part of green shoots. The big pumpkin (below) was grown by bean with a bit of help from dayday. The smaller pumpkins are a joint effort . Green shoots has helped us to see what outdoors bean enjoys planning now for next year xx" Well done Esme and Toby - fab pumkin carving skills 🎃🎃 Daisy Garland supporter, Shelley Glasspool, sent us this wonderful picture of her pumpkin carving skills (below) and we thought it deserved a place on our Green Shoots 🌱 page. Do you recognise The Daisy Garland logo? How clever is this - thank you Shelley! More updates coming soon 🌱 Please watch this space! Manage Cookie Preferences