I've noticed that Planet GNOME gets a good dose of horticultural photographs, compared to none on Planet KDE. So, in the spirit of childish oneupmanship, I'm going to post some photos of my functional garden (none of this flower nonsense!). Since last September I've embarked on a series of experiments, to see if I can grow anything edible in the small garden at the back of our student house. Credit also goes to my housemates Ed, Ali and Jennie who have pitched in at times, though Ed took off with a batch of leeks in pots when he moved out last weekend ;).

I dug up a few potatoes today, though I managed to shear one in half with the fork. Bugger. One more thing to learn by practice!

The tomatoes are doing really well now. They're a nifty variety called 'Micro Tom' which grow out of small pots, so for most of their life they've been on a windowsill. Note also the logs in the photo - we got them from round the back of a local arts centre, which has the best sign ever: "Free Logs"!

I've got two out of the six strawberry plants we managed to grow in the ground, so hopefully they'll bear some fruit later this summer. They really sucked in the seed trays - every other vegetable we grew gave us loads of seedlings, but the strawberries, out of two largeish trays, gave us six. Hmph.

The leeks have grown well, though I'm a little worried about the size of the leaves versus the edible stalk. Still, I'm, packing soil up in the hope that they blanche and come out tasting nice.

Finally, the carrots that I only remembered to plant recently have begun to appear through the soil. The mint we found and transplanted can also be seen in the back, and is really taking off now.