I Do Avocado

Some years ago I discovered the fun to be had with an avocado. No I don't mean eating them - this is a gardening blog not a cookery one - although I must admit eating avocados is a favourite past time.

I mean that I found out how easy it is to get a new plant from an avocado stone. All you need to do is to clean any residue flesh off and stick it in some compost in a plant pot. That's it. Keep the soil moist and the pot in a warm bright place and it will soon send a shoot out of a crack in the stone. Not so long after this you will get a lovely house plant with glossy green leaves. Unfortunately they can take years to fruit and they will soon outgrow their pots so you're never going to be able to just pop into the kitchen and pluck an avo from the plant. 

A couple of years ago, I had a plant that had outgrown its pot and I decided that it was time to get rid of it and start off a new stone. However, being a total softie who grows attached to her houseplants, I could not bring myself to just dump a healthy plant into the compost bin. This to me would be akin to killing a pet. I decided that the best thing I could do would be to plant it in the garden. I knew that the frost would kill it off, but at least that would be a natural death. I could cope if it wasn't me actually doing the killing by breaking it into pieces. 

So, I lovingly placed Avvy into a bit of empty soil next to one of those holly bushes that have appeared from nowhere. A bit of shelter, I thought, and a nice little gathering of glossy green leaves. Well, imagine my surprise when Avvy proved to have a hardy streak. Either this is the James Bond of houseplants or that holly offers more protection that I realised. This is its second winter outside and it is still alive. And this is on top of a hill in Derbyshire with a prevailing east wind straight off the Urals. Maybe I'll even have a fruit one day at this rate. 

Long live avocados. 



 How about my novella for some feelgood reading. Read what happened when a gardening competition is held at the prefabs in Bishops Wallop


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