Hiya Everyone

[shambayango]

Shambayango means "My garden" in Swahili because I was born in Kenya. I've been living in England (both my parents are English) since June 2003 and last year managed to get a 5 pole allotment.

We were very successful last year in that everything we planted grew, but this year things have been a different cup of tea. Our runner beans and broccoli failed, so we cheated and bougtht some broccoli and planted another lot of beans. They are only just coming up, so we don't know if we'll ever see any beans. Last year we were throwing them away we had so much and didn't have a deep freeze, but now we have.

I read another post asking if you had blight on your tomatoes and potatos. We haven't tried growing potatos yet, but I planted 4 kinds of tomatoes and, touch wood, they are doing fine and are outside.

When I lived in Kenya, Mum always had a veg plot goiing (more like 10 pole) and I just took it for granted. I wish I had paid more attention to how things are grown, but we seem to be managing OK.

Shambayango

[vicky]

Hi and Welcome to the vine!

I'd love to know a bit about different plants that are grown in Kenya, have you any favourites that are not for sale in shops here?
Good luck against blight, I usually don't see signs of it till mid august (as you say, touch wood!)

[doc]

Habari shambayango

[cheery tree]

hi welcome to the vine

[NOG]

Hi welcome to the vine.

[Redpepper]

Hi Shambayango & welcome...
God-willing, your tomatoes will be fine

[shambayango]

Habari shambayango

Sorry I posted here ages ago and then never came back to check any response.

Doc, presumably you come from Kenya, being able to speak Swahili? Meme mazuri tu - habari yaku?

Vicky,

At the moment I am trying to grow cape gooseberries (known as physalis in England). I dried out some seeds last year, then washed them in a seive to get the sticky stuff off and dried them again. I planted some seed in June/July this year and my plants are now about a foot high and very healthy. They are still in our shed near a window, as we don't have a greenhouse. Did you know that you have to wait until the shell is brown, sometimes even skeleton like, to get a really sweet fruit inside. They make a delicious crumble.

The other thing I love is purple granadilla (passion fruit) as I love passion fruit juice. I have 4 which have germinated but they are growing very slowly. The more wrinkled the fruit, the sweeter they are. The ones sold in the shops are too green.

Regarding what grows in Kenya - I think a lot were introduced to Kenya and thrived there. In our garden we had tree tomatoes (tamarillo), which originates from South America. The birds would sow these small trees all over the garden. The fruit is very bitter (it's a fruit fruit, unlike a tomato, which is still a fruit but treated as a vegetable), so it is better to blanch off the skin, slice it, make a sugar syrup, pour this over and leave for 24 hours. They are an acquired taste.

We had huge avocado trees, which we kids would climb to the very top about 30 foot tall. They produced green avocados about 9 inches round. The flesh was much tastier than the black ones we get in the shops. Our two trees would produce so much fruit that Mum would give baskets away! Our two German Shepherd dogs loved them and treated the pips as bones and used to bury them, so we had small avocado fruit trees germinating all over the garden.

We had loquat trees which get large brown pips inside, which the Kenya Cookery Book says do not swallow as they are poisonous, but I've swallowed plenty! They are sweet if you pick them slightly orange, rather than yellow, but are very nice stewed with a bit of sugar. You can also blanche off the skins, boil them for a while, put them in a muslin bag and let the juice drip through. This makes a very nice jelly, which you can use instead of red currant jelly for mutton roasts. We couldn't get red current jelly in Kenya.

Then there are guavas and cherry guavas, guavas which you can buy in England. They are better stewed with a bit of sugar and eaten with cream. I have tried to see whether I could grow a guava tree on my allotment, but all the websites on this fruit say they are very difficult to grow, some even saying you have to boil the seed for several hours.

Anyway these are a few things that grew in Kenya. As for the vegetables, apart from different strains, we grew exactly the same as we do here. I bought some Nairobi carrots and planted them this year and we are just starting to reap the crop.

Shamba

[shambayango]

Since posting the above, I remembered another tree my mother loved. It was a custard apple tree. I tried the fruit and didn't like it, but Mum loved them.

custard apple tree picture - Google Search

Shamba

[RedThorn]

Hi there from a Southern African (Zimbabwe) Welcome to the vine! PM me if you'd like some cape gooseberry seeds, I have a few...hundred lol grew some this year, but didn't get any fruit to set, but then I did not give it a proper chance....

[Two_Sheds]

RustyLady stayed in Kenya for 3 months, laying water pipes and teasing African Greys.

[RedThorn]

Loquats hmmm haven't had a decent one in ages! Fell out one of those trees as a kid Marula's and bury the pip for a few months then poke out the three dots and eat the nut inside double bonus hmmm

Paw paw trees! Mulberries, and sugar cane!

[lizzylemon]

I love them too - yummy creamy yumminess in a fruit. Lots pips but worth it.

[bobleponge]

Jambo

Welcome to the vine.
Good luck with a completely different style of growing.