Taexalia

wild.life

Sunflowers Potatoes Tomatoes

Sunflower and Bees

Whilst I never really doubted it, there is something to be said for companion planting lore. When I read that peas don't like onions, I decided against planting them together - and both are thriving. Of course that doesn't really prove they don't like each other, it just proves they like where I planted them.

As I said in the same post, I had also read that sunflowers and potatoes are not comfy bedfellows, but it was too late for me because I already had half the sunflowers growing along the bottom of the potato rows. I left them together to see what would happen and here's the proof of the pudding - the sunflowers that have bloomed (despite lack of sun!) are the ones who don't have potatoes at their feet. It will be interesting to see if the adjacent potato plants show a smaller crop than the plants further up the row.

Sunflowers don't like potatoes

In the greenhouse I am about to enjoy sweet tasting success. I have two tomatoes that are nearly ripe, with a potentially huge crop to follow. This is my first serious attempt at growing tomatoes - last year I was gifted one of those wee kits and ended up with a scrawny single plant that cropped four marbles. A couple of years ago I had a similar result on a north facing windowsill in a flat.

This year I read a lot about tomatoes in books and online and I planted two types - a cordon variety and a bush variety. So many seeds germinated that I gave some plants away and was left with a surplus that allowed me to experiment... some in the greenhouse with growbags and growpots, some in the ground and some in planters in two different locations. Final results naturally aren't in, although an early conclusion is that we will likely be turning into tomatoes if they all ripen...

Blushing tomatoes

Creativity can flourish with the help of received wisdom but in allowing space for experimentation, and accepting failure is a part of the process, we can end up with more than we expected.

Like the sunflowers, creativity flourishes when it is given space away from things that detract from its growth. Creativity and competition are not good bedfellows - and a great post appeared yesterday on Journey To Authenticity that touched on my thoughts about this. A great reminder that creativity is about doing and being yourself, rather than trying to fit into everyone else's box/shoes/views.