Well. My trench celery experiment wasn’t a complete disaster, but nor was ‘Peppermint Stick‘ the pastel, candy-cane, boudoir-beauty I’d hoped for.

I blanched the stalks by tying sheets from the gardening section of the Telegraph and the London Review of Books. Both seemed to work okay, but I’d use more sheets round each plant another time.

The resulting celery was usable for soups/stews etc but I wouldn’t have it on the salad plate (I know a lot of people won’t put celery on a salad plate anyway. I used to be one of those people; I like it now.Strange how tastes change…) It was just too tough.

I suspect it may have had something to do with my frankly erratic watering programme – I’m not going to beat myself up about it but watering isn’t my strong point. I have a life. Although I will make an effort to water, I like to do other things too. So shoot me.

I may try again next year; I still have plenty of seed, but I’m not sure I want to go to the serious effort of watering every single bloomin’ day, which celery, being a bog-loving plant, really needs if you want great results.

Score: 4/10