It doesn’t mean of course that I’m abandoning the growing stuff in the city theme, I’ll just be spreading out to suburbia too.

That’s not why I wanted to drop everyone a line today though, I wanted to highlight a cool story I read over at Sunset Over Slawit.  Rol’s sister recently rescued some chickens who were facing an untimely demise after serving their time as battery hens.  Told that the chickens will now be pretty useless and unable to function as normal chickens they have proven anything but!

It a nice story so go over to Sunset Over Slawit and check out Rescue Chickens!

There was a time, especially here in Australia where a leafy green salad comprised mostly of lettuce, and boring old ice berg lettuce at that. Fortunately this is no longer the case as we now mix in various types of lettuce leaves, baby spinach and of course rocket.

It’s high in iron and vitamin C and has a strong flavour that borders on peppery. Apparently it was cultivated back in Roman times where it was considered an aphrodisiac which I imagine made nervous tigers quite happy to have an alternative to their… well I’m sure they were happy anyway.

You generally use it in salads but it can be added to pizzas, cooked with pasta and in pesto. There is an area in Slovenia where it is added to the cheese burek!

It is such an easy plant to grow and use too which makes it ideal for those of us with little or no room. Considering up until the 1990s it was almost completely harvested from the wild it is really easy to get (here in Australia at least).

To prove that it is indeed easy to grow I can let you know that the plants that you see in the photo were grown from seed in an old pot whose plants had died and I threw in a couple of other pots of empty soil and mixed it all up.

Essentially I threw in a handful of seeds, turned the soil lightly, chucked some fertiliser granules over the top and watered. A couple of weeks later the whole pot is covered in rocket. No fuss at all. It would be great for maybe a planter box on a window sill or maybe a larger pot on the deck or balcony where it can get some sun.

I think I might make a pesto out of it and my basil plant.

Extraordinarily Urban Cultivation pride moment came when asked do we need to pick up some capsicums?

No I’ve got that covered!!!

In fact I managed to add some fresh basil to the pizzas also. Of course the capsicums were ridiculously small but they added huge flavour to the pizzas, so their contribution was highly appreciated.

The best bit is that I have about ten currently growing on the plant which are about the same size or a little smaller so over the next couple of weeks they should come up really nice and I think more mini pizzas may be on the cards!!!

I’m happy to say that Anke from Herb-blog-ogy has ridden in on her white herbal horse and given me some suggestions in her article The many uses of lemon grass.

The site is great too because not only does it talk about lemon grass which appears to be my obsession currently (it will pass I’m sure - do you remember the lettuce saga) but it also looks at other herbs and herbal stuff.

Well worth the visit and I’m not saying this just because my name is mentioned over there (it doesn’t hurt of course).

So the plant is safely out the back and now it is thriving, so much so that I’ve had to start thinking about what to do with it.

Oh sure it goes well with chicken! But what if you don’t eat chicken? What if you don’t eat meat of any kind?

Is this a useless herb to have for a vegetarian?

I hope not! Because the plants looking really healthy and I have to prune it back soon and would love to be able to use it for something, anything!

Suggestions are welcomed.

If you do happen to be a meat eater this stuff is great from seasoning and the plant as long as it isn’t constantly grazed upon by your local idiot dogs is a very easy to grow plant, quite containable. It grows upwards rather than out and can sit in the corner in a tall pot with very little trouble at all.

Oh and it smells fantastic!

I think the point that I’m trying to get over to people, especially those who live in the city and only have small balconies and claim not to have green thumbs can really consider tomatoes because they are very strong plants that don’t need a huge amount of attention.

Consider the cherry tomato varieties and if you’ve got a big enough pot why not drop a little basil in there as well (kind of an all for one dish type of pot!).

If anyone does get inspired by this or is already growing plants in pots or small plots in the city send me some photos to brag and encourage others and I’ll either link to them or put them up here!

The plant is honestly a little battler and so I’ve put it with the other plants (despite my promise to continue neglecting it after such good results before) away from general danger and I hope that it gets a fair chance to thrive this time into a small shrub or bush.

Well we black ops some cuttings off the vine in the early evening a day or so ago. I’ve got four in total and have my doubts for two of them. Although they have been getting plenty of rain water here over the last couple of days.

I’ve already promised a cutting to Shadowknight when the plant grows and is in its dorment phase (this time of the year is not the best time). I think it’s nice to continue the plants lineage.

I’ve regrouped them and put all of the plants except for some peas and two tomato plants that are still in the fenced off area on to the back deck away from hungry dogs.

It’s kind of a dirty dozen what’s left all in varying degrees of health:

• Grapes
• Capsicum
• Peas
• Tomatoes
• Chillies
• Basil
• Lavender
• Lemon grass
• Rocket (freshly planted seeds)

I’m not sure at this stage if I’ll be adding to the group as I need to be realistic on what I can easily support.  It’s a little like project management in that respect.  Never take on more projects than you’re capable no matter how much you want to!

In the Clive Owen film Shoot em Up the main character Mr Smith seems to enjoy the odd carrot (having one with his coffee even!). He also uses a carrot to dispatch two evil doers in particularly gory fashion.

What did get my attention though is his home set up so he can have freshly grown carrots on hand, I’m very jealous:

And thanks to the wonder of movie magic Clive can reach for a fresh carrot without having to wash it. Maybe he’ll eat it, maybe he’ll kill someone.