GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

07-07-2003, 02:47 AM

In article ,
says...
The message m
from AndWhyNot contains these words:

Thanks for all the advice Guys ........... I guess that is why Bay is
so bliddy expensive ...........

Not always. Our local nursery/garden centre (which is called Baytree, so
perhaps they're making a point of some kind) regularly has small ones
for £1.99 and I think sometimes £1. It might be worth shopping around.

When we were down in Byfleet I bought a bay spriglet for £1.00 and
Johanna laughed and asked how long I expected to wait to be using fresh
bay leaves in my cooking. It took about 2 years before I could take them
by the handful should I desire and when we moved away I decided to leave
it in the garden since it looked *right* there and it was over 2 foot
high after 2 years.

As I was growing it for the culinary attributes I didn't train it inot
any form of standard and just took the scissors to it to make it look
even.

Last year, when we moved in here I bought a bay for the garden, this one
was a couple of quid and had half a dozen leaves and Jo said nothing
about the size. After mildew, leaf miners, vine weevils and blackspot
hit in over the winter and spring it has recently started to recover and
is now triple the size and may well be harvested from next year.

Warwick