Have you seen the size of my courgette?

Hello! I'm back! A bit later than I anticipated but here we go. It's been a very busy summer with not a lot of time to sit and think about putting together a semi-decent post for you all. I do, however, have a list of subjects I want to write about so expect more posts coming your way!

I've been wanting to write a post about a subject that is quite dear to my heart. My courgettes. Not just my courgettes but about the wonderful things I've been growing on my boat (excluding the mould that's been growing in a 2 week old coffee cup) So let's start with my indoor plants...

Indoor Plants

Before living on a boat, I was a keen collector of house plants, I think at one stage I had roughly 20 in my living room. They were and still are my babies but here's a few things I have learnt from the transition from flat to boat:

• Space: As you're probably already aware, space is rather lacking on a boat. What did this mean? It meant that I had to either get rid of some of my houseplants or try to cram them in. I chose the latter..... I've lost a few along the way which has given me some more room (Although my partner still thinks I have too many)

• Temperature: The temperature of the boat plays a massive effect on whether my plant babies are happy. In the winter I try to keep all plants off of the floor and away from doors and windows as they simply won't survive. In the Summer I try to keep the plants out of direct sunlight as they tend to wilt under the rising temperatures.

• Some hate liveaboard life: I learnt the hard way that no matter where I placed some plants, how much/how little I watered them, they simply did not like the drastic change of temperature on the boat.

Outdoor Plants

My lovely neighbour (although he's not my neighbour any more which makes me incredibly sad), Baggy, on Black Owl kindly gave me a bunch of vegetable seeds along with two grow bags. Now I must say that Baggy is a keen gardener and a bloody good one if the images he posts on Facebook are anything to go by so the pressure was on to grow something that was at least edible!

The vegetable seeds consisted of courgettes, leeks, salad and beans. Now, I'm no gardener and if I'm honest I didn't think I'd be able to grow anything at all. So, imagine my excitement when I started seeing the tips of a few green leafy things rise from the compost, all I had to do now was to keep them growing and keep them alive.

We decided that the best place for the grow bags would be on the roof of the boat, they would be fairly sheltered from the wind and wouldn't get in the way. My dad kindly made me some wooden crates for them to sit in, these crates allow me to move them easily and gives them a bit of protection from the wind.

So what have the results been?

Beans: - Started off strong and then fell to the wayside after a few months. My Beans had plenty of growth but no actual product which was a bit disappointing, I think I managed to get two beans and they were tiny. Not very successful at all but I might give them another go next year

Salad: - It's having an absolute blast up on the roof, I've got salad growing out of my ears. The salad has done us incredibly well and we even have enough to feed my partners guinea pigs

Leeks: - A little bit small but size does not matter! We recently picked the leeks and sautéed them in butter and some seasoning. They were delicious.

Courgettes: - Bloody huge things! I only managed to get two courgettes off of the plant but they were the best courgettes I've ever had. We roasted ours and chopped some up in a pasta dish.

In all honesty, I was really proud of my plant babies for thriving in the insufferable heat we faced this summer. Am I going to plant stuff again next year? You betcha! There's something really nice about growing your own food and finding ways to incorporate it in to your meals. I'm not sure what I would like to grow next year but if you have any suggestions please let me know.

My music recommendation for this week I hear you plead? It's a catchy little number by a band called Wet Leg & the song is called Wet Dream.