Veggie Gardener Matt

12/04/2026

Sometimes I'm a lazy gardener and just want minimal effort for maximum return... so here's a loganberry. It's assumed that all gardeners need to be hard workers for amazing harvests and that's only partially correct.

It can be grown entirely in shade or full sun, it requires minimal watering, and the MOST effort you put in is harvesting the masses of berries and training the new shoots for next year (after cutting the old ones that produce fruit this year).

It tastes like a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry, and it works beautifully added to yogurts, pies, fruit smoothies, and anything else you would genuinely use berries for. You decide!

Would you grow this?

28/08/2025

28/05/2024

15/04/2024

If you've got leggy tomato seedlings, then here's my tips for how to save them. Leggy seedlings are caused by plants looking for a light source that is a bit too far away. Also, it can be caused by too much under-heat. Thankfully, tomatoes are one of the easiest to save when this happens 👍

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17/02/2024

Did you know that caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world? ☕

I’m interested in plants and mental health, so it’s no surprise that I read ‘This Is Your Mind on Plants’ by .pollan . He highlights three of nature’s naturally occurring drugs (o***m, caffeine, and mescaline) and explores our relationship with the plants that produce them.

Two things I found the most interesting:

🌱 1. Out of all drugs in the world (especially those naturally occurring in nature), it’s fascinating how humans have unanimously agreed to allow this particular drug into society but not others. Similar to other drugs, it has both positive and negative effects. Why do you think that is?

🌱 2. phrased it perfectly, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share his thoughts: “Some plants, Pollan wrote, have evolved to attract pollinators by "offering them a small shot of caffeine" in their nectar, to "sharpen the memories of bees, making them more faithful, efficient, and hard-working." In a series of studies, he wrote, entomologists found that "bees will remember and return more reliably to flowers that offer them caffeinated nectar". The flowers, in other words, were shrewdly exploiting the unknowing insects.

So, like it or not, coffee plants have conditioned us to perpetuate their population in exchange for concentration, memory enhancement, and physical performance. I can live with this symbiotic relationship ❤️

07/01/2024

Reflecting on gardening in the winter and its unassuming transformative powers in our lives.

06/01/2024

I captured my thoughts and emotions right as I was tearing up to a movie where a fictional character lost his partner and was going through the grieving process. Hopefully my own experience helps someone else ❤️

31/12/2023

My harvests for 2023 have been tallied and this has officially been the highest year of savings I’ve ever achieved!

This year, my goal was to focus on growing fruits and veg which I specifically liked vs. trying to grow lots of different items.
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⭐Overall Savings: £669.37 (2022: £352.01, 2021: £452.20)⁠
⭐Total Weight: 74.80kgs (2022: 61.87kgs, 2021: 77.71kgs)⁠
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👍Top 5 Highest Savings Crops👍⁠
• Tomatoes (£250.50)⁠
• Courgettes (£173.89)⁠
• Apples (£48.24)⁠
• Pears (£35.35)⁠
• Plums (£26.88)⁠

If you’re interested in me sharing my spreadsheet, calculations, and/or my process for doing this every year, let me know as I’d be more than happy to share the knowledge. I believe that the more tools and knowledge we have of the crops we grow, then the more we can become more self-aware of what our garden means to us (i.e., savings, productivity, flavour, mental health, etc.).

05/09/2023

Transformed some freshly harvested plums from the backyard into a delicious plum cake 😍🙌

10/07/2022

It's berry season! 🍓⁠
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With a little bit of netting to protect them from the birds, I was able to harvest my first (and best) batch of loganberries - nearly 1 kg to be specific. If you're not sure what a loganberry tastes like, it's basically a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. We used half of this in a breakfast yogurt bowl and turned the other half into a coulis. What's crazy is that I should be getting about 3-4 more harvests just like this!⁠
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My loganberry plants grow in 100% shade in a north facing garden which clearly hasn't had any diminishing effects on the harvest. This plant can tolerate full sun and shade which makes it an excellent and versatile plant for anyone to grow.⁠
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Other berries that I'm currently harvesting include blueberries, strawberries, cherries, pinkberries, and alpine strawberries. Can't wait to share some pictures with you in future posts 🥰