Have I sold 16 people a pig in a poke?

[PiggyPokkyFool]

Name changed as this is very outing.
The facts: Saw YouTube video about growing tomatoes from a slice of tomato, had some v tasty cherry ones from supermarket so planted 3 slices with low expectations. 3 weeks later, 54 seedlings, transferred to larger pots expecting to lose half, 52 survived - nearly all grew looking super healthy - had 49 tomato plants. Couldn't possibly use all so planted some, gave away some and had 28 tomato plants left. Got the bright idea of selling them on our local group for 50p each - sold all bar 3 which I offered some to my much older, much wiser chum and he said " Oh, no thanks as they are probably F1s so won't produce anything". Have I sold 16 people a pig in a poke? Never mind friends who think I am a great grower

Tree cabbage sounds interesting, and the lettuce mix sounds very pretty. I don't have much luck with lettuces for some reason.

Pignut - Conopodium major, fairly common around here as a wild flower
Scurvy grass, Cochlearia, is another UK wild flower.

I'm trying Aztec broccoli for the second year. Last year wasn't a success, a few weedy seedlings.

The other unusual things I'm trying are:

Oka - chinese artichokes, an oxalis species. Last year I took the instruction to keep out of the sun too literally and realised in the frozen north they probably need all the sun they can get. But if I don't get a substantial crop this year, that's it, they've had their chance.

Minuartina - Buckshorn Plantain, another UK wild plant - Very easy to sow too much. It really does need to be planted out as separate plants because you pull leaves on at a time, and it's the only way you're going to get leaves that are bigger than a blade of grass. Tastes like a faintly lemony lettuce, so I probably;y won't bother with it again once this packet is finished.

My 'Chinese artichoke' is stachys affinis - is that the same as Oka? This is my first year with them and I'm not sure how well they are doing as they seem to have something making their leaves into lace. I'm just leaving them be to see if they recover.

Ha, I had no idea that pignuts and scurvy grass are native wildflowers! Jolly good

My 'Chinese artichoke' is stachys affinis - is that the same as Oka? No, it's an oxalis, with shamrock type leaves. Looks like I was wrong, oca isn't chinese artichoke it's "New Zealand yam". (And I can't spell either).

Samphire is another native wildflower.

A lot of other things originated from natives, carrot, for example, but have been selected for size over the years and bare little resemblance to the original.

Gosh I am so embarrassed to have dropped off the radar again. I have found great solace in my garden these last few weeks but have felt so at sea watching both DDs put on brave faces waiting for results in these horrible times.
Thank God yesterday brought cheer for DD1 with confirmation of her med school place and now I just have DD2 to worry about - GCSEs on the 20th.
Anyway that is it - if anyone is still around HELLO!

A few photos

It is amazing - I have take so few photos too in the last months and now we have eaten lots so things don't look so impressive.

Hello, good to see you back!

Yes, I though of posting a pic of my veg tubs, and realised they didn't really look very impressive - gone to see chard which I'm keeping to harvest the small leaves for salad, peas going over, bean plants not yet fully bushed out ...It looks better in winter when the yellow-green leaves of the tree cabbages, the dark green of the chard, and the black of the kale make a lovely display against the winter misery elsewhere.

I'm now into the gap where the strawberries, raspberries and tayberries have finished, and the mulberries have not yet started. But at least we're now getting a few apples, so I have something to chop into my breakfast oats.

Yay @MereDintofPandiculation - great to hear from you. Our raspberries are in their quite phase since last weekend - 3 weeks on we will have tons again. Blackberries are still good but not as plentiful. Alpine strawberries are still going strong.
Lettuce in a hanging basket was a giant success - no slug/snails and tons of space to grow upwards and outwards - definitely doing that again.
Sugar snap peas in a repurposed halloween cauldron also a great success and cucamelons in another going from strength to strength.
I have NO cucumbers - snails ate all the seedlings that germinated ( sed were 3 years out of date so.....)
I have never grown kale or chard - more fun to be had in the future!

Chard and kale are useful for the winter when there's not much else about. And you can make Eggs Florentine with chard.

They sound delicious - I'm always a bit at sea after the last of the tomatoes and hanging basket stuff stop suddenly mid-oct.
Maybe this is the year to try some autumnal