Kitchen Garden Forum

Just an attempt at a bit of fun, you may dig it or you may not, hopefully so.


DIG is the vegetable gardener’s version of desert island discs.

You were on a cruise visiting exotic gardens when disaster happened and you were washed up alone on a uninhabited island

Your island has what appears to be a clay rich soil, it also has a small freshwater stream.
You have no idea what the Ph might be and the ground is quite hard once off the coral sand beach

You find a waterproof container washed up with you.
It contains only SIX packets of different vegetable seeds

Which 6 varieties would you wish them to be and why
You are allowed one book, what would you choose.

You will have to make your own hand tools, what would you attempt to make first

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Subject to your answers you may be set personal challenges and tasks

The tool would be similar to an adze or Spanish hoe I take it we would only have stones or rocks to use no metal, with an adze you could cultivate soil or shape timber , the seeds I would have to think about ,one would defiantly be leeks as they are so versatile then French beans you get a good return for your effort, chard or spinach same reason as for beans , the rest I will give a bit of thought to, the book I would think one on building a boat but I've built three already so no need for that type of book, I will return later after sleeping on it

Nice post pa snip we need something at this time of year to keep us amused

What latitude are we at?
Arctic, subarctic, temperate, sub tropical, tropical, equatorial?

peter wrote:What latitude are we at?
Arctic, subarctic, temperate, sub tropical, tropical, equatorial?

Do tatties count?

peter wrote:What latitude are we at?
Arctic, subarctic, temperate, sub tropical, tropical, equatorial?

Assume temperate.
You have no idea where you have landed so will only find out as seasons come and go.

By same token SAR have received no mayday so have no knowledge of where you are.

tigerburnie wrote:Do tatties count?

The waterproof box was not big enough to contain seed potatoes.
There were some loose ones floating on the ocean but the salt content ruined them and none, as yet, have floated ashore.

robo wrote:The tool would be similar to an adze or Spanish hoe I take it we would only have stones or rocks to use no metal, with an adze you could cultivate soil or shape timber , the seeds I would have to think about ,one would defiantly be leeks as they are so versatile then French beans you get a good return for your effort, chard or spinach same reason as for beans , the rest I will give a bit of thought to, the book I would think one on building a boat but I've built three already so no need for that type of book, I will return later after sleeping on it

Nice post pa snip we need something at this time of year to keep us amused

Your only options for tool making are stone, slate or wood.

There is lush vegetation on the island. None you have found to date is edible

If there is slate on the island it must be off north wales

Time to revert to early man mode then. Sticks it would be as tools, hopefully a bit pointed from ripping them off the trees & then could dig a bit. Got a beach, so some sand to mix among the clay & there is plants so maybe leaf mould?

Now assuming I am starving & sick of fish (another good use for pointy sticks), seed choice might be things that could be micro / mini greens & then grow on to full crops quick as well, so some beetroot, salad mix, peas, chives, some brassica - bit slower but can take leaves only as they grow and then some kind of fruit, maybe strawberries as they renew themselves as it is pretty obvious Pa Snip Enterprise is not going to get me off there!

robo wrote:If there is slate on the island it must be off north wales

In that case the rain will start soon.

Peter who said it stops

If I was visiting exotic gardens when the boat went down and there's a coral beach it should be somewhere nice and warm, so I would grow quinoa for a protein rich grain, kale for its vitamins and calcium, beans to eat green and dried, b vitamins and protein, tomatoes for vitamin c, anti oxidants etc, squash for variety in cooking and cantaloupe melon for its good range of nutrients.

You can also save seeds from them all too for future crops.

I'd use pointed sticks for digging or a large shell for scooping, or attach something with an edge to the stick.

There would have to be a fish catching device and seaweed would be another veg option. With a bit of luck there would be mango trees and coconut palms and I might have had a few grapes in my pocket (not seedless). Cheating now aren't I.

The book would have to be Life on the Edge The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology by Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden
which I keep starting but need quiet to concentrate.

PLUMPUDDING wrote:
There would have to be a fish catching device and seaweed would be another veg option. With a bit of luck there would be mango trees and coconut palms and I might have had a few grapes in my pocket (not seedless).

Cheating now aren't I.
.

Yes you are , lol

There is no evidence of coconuts or mango's on the island itself


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Some good replies so far both in and out of the box.