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Thursday 20 June 2013

June Colour

The hay fever is doing its best to keep me out of the garden at the moment but I  have managed to get out long enough to take a few snaps.








In the mean time, the salad is coming on nicely, giving us a handful of fresh mixed leaves every day and the first of the strawberries have started to ripen.
 

Saturday 8 June 2013

Salad Days

As the weather continues to warm up, the salad bed is really starting to fill out. Time for a bit of thinning out then and a chance to try some of the fresh salad leaves.



The rather modest crop of two good sized radishes and a few young plants were delicious when combined with a sprinkling of fresh herbs.



Hopefully just a taste of things to come for this year.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

More Rhubarb Recipes

Eaton mess is one of our favourite quick and easy desserts but our strawberries aren't quite ready yet so, when I saw this little recipe, I just had to give it a try.

I substituted the port for a splash of the red wine we had open on the kitchen side. This really gave a rich, 'grown up' taste to the rhubarb.



We already had a couple of our squishy-centred home made meringues so the whole thing took hardly any time to put together and the result was absolutely delicious. Definitely one to try again!

The great thing was we had some rhubarb left over, so today, I used it to top some vanilla ice-cream. Accompanied with some crushed up ginger biscuit and a dash of double cream, this made another excellent quick dessert.



Sunday 2 June 2013

Up the Garden Path

This weekend saw the beginning of summer and the start of the summer season on the Isle of Wight with both the Old Gaffer's Festival and the Round the Island Race. Whilst all those people were messing about in boats however, we took advantage of the fine weather to lay a garden path.




It has taken us two weekends but we now have a ribbon of brick path joining the veg patch at the bottom of the garden to the decking at the top. We used a dry mix of approximately 1 part cement to 4 parts sand. The main advantage of doing this is that if you make a mistake you can quickly take up what you've done and re-lay it.


From humble beginnings at the edge of the deck, the path now weaves gently down the edge of the lawn to the veg patch. We intentionally avoided keeping it straight and the planting along the edge should soon soften it even more.


The final touch was to brush more dry mix into the gaps between the bricks and then water it in. Alternatively, we could wait for the great British weather to do it for us, although thankfully, the weather forecast is definitely predicting that summer has arrived.

Monday 20 May 2013

Foliage and Flowers

Had a busy weekend doing a few odd jobs around the garden whilst dodging the rain showers but still made time to take in some of the sites. Here are a few snaps:


 

 
 
 

 

Sunday 12 May 2013

Rhubarb Jam

Yesterday, I thought I'd have a go at making some rhubarb jam. I've never made jam before and, as I've become a bit of a rhubarb convert this year, I thought it would be a good place to start. So, armed with a recipe from the BBC food website, I headed down the garden to harvest some of the delicious pink stuff. The recipe requires 1kg of rhubarb which, given the rate that it has been growing this year, was soon in my basket.



Once washed, trimmed and cut down to thumb-length pieces, I mixed it in our biggest pan with an equal weight of jam sugar and a couple of vanilla pods. I'm not sure what the vanilla adds to the final taste of the jam so I might leave it out next time or replace it with some fresh root ginger. I am having a go at growing some ginger in the greenhouse this year so with any luck I'll even be able to try it with some fresh from the ground.

After gently heating, the sugar dissolves and creates a remarkable amount of liquid. Then it was time to add some lemon juice and turn up the heat, bringing it up to the boil. I used a food thermometer to check that it reached the desired temperature of 105C that it needs to make it set; then it was a case of boiling it for 10 minutes or so whilst I sterilised the waiting jam jars.



I used a funnel to make sure there was no spillage as I ladled the hot jam into the five 200ml jars and that was it. Now we will have to see how long we can resist before opening the first jar.



Fortunately, after filling the five jars, there was enough left in the bottom of the pan to try some on the freshly baked bread that had just come out of the oven. I have to say it was absolutely delicious and definitely a recipe that I will be trying again, with or without a couple of tweaks.

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Busy Bank Holiday Weekend

Who would believe it? A bank holiday weekend and the sun just kept on shining! We were torn between getting loads done in the garden and buying a new barbeque, so, to end up with, we did both.



Firstly, the down-side of all this sun is that all of the young plants are starting to steam in the greenhouse. So, despite the outside chance of a frost, I felt it was time to get as many of them planted out as possible.



Of course this meant that there was room to move the chillies out and give us our conservatory back.

It was also time to get some more things planted out into the veg plot. We eat a lot of onions so it makes perfect sense to grow as many as possible. In previous years we have grown from seed. This year however, mainly due to lack of planning, we've left it a bit late to sow direct so we have gone for sets.

I also put in two types of French bean (one climbing, one dwarf) and some runners. I was so impressed with the French beans last year that seemed to just keep on giving. There's not much to show for all the hard work this early in the year, other than the patches of bare earth, so it is nice to see the wigwams in place.





The herbs on the other hand are already looking good. I'm particularly impressed with the French Sorrel. I just hope I can find some recipes to do it justice, assuming of course that we like the taste when it's grown. Looks like I'll have plenty of potting on to be getting on with next weekend.



Wednesday 1 May 2013

Thinking about Herbs

Alongside the vegetables this year, I am keen to try and grow a lot more herbs. These little beauties tend to take up relatively little space yet really pack a punch in the flavour department. There is absolutely nothing like fresh home grown herbs, picked minutes, or even seconds, before eating.

The windowsill propagator is full with a variety of little seedlings but the basil that I planted at the end of February is already maturing nicely and providing a plentiful supply of deliciously sweet leaves.


This basil is invaluable. It is one of those herbs that is immeasurably better fresh than dried and can be used to perk up salads as well as being added when cooking most tomato dishes. Of course you can buy it fresh from the supermarket but they don't seem to last long (or taste as good). An ideal herb to grow yourself then.

I simply sowed a handful of seeds into a 4 inch pot and sealed it in a plastic bag. As I had started them so early, I sat them on the propagator to give them a bit of bottom heat and they didn't take long to come up. Once the leaves appeared, I removed the bag and have just kept them on the conservatory windowsill, remembering to keep them well watered. I now simply pick off the whole stems as needed.

The only thing to remember is to plant some more in plenty of time before the first lot is all gone.

Sunday 28 April 2013

Fair Weather Gardener


I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a fair weather gardener. I'm more than happy to order seeds, plan the garden and update the blog when the rain is coming down outside but I need to at least see the sun to get me motivated enough to pull on the wellies and get stuck in. Fortunately, despite the intermittent hail storms, this weekend the sun came out and I was more than happy to get out and do a bit of digging.

The vegetable plot is organised into deep beds which, as we never walk on them, never need digging. A bit of hoeing and the occasional addition of some compost but that's about it. The flower beds on the other hand are a different matter.

Slightly neglected over the winter, the weeds had definitely taken over the flower border. However, we eventually managed to uncover a couple of last year's plants that had survived the winter and cleared enough room to plant out some of the new batch, maturing nicely in the greenhouse.



We are planning to put a new path in, running along the edge of the flower bed, so, in preparation, wanted to include some herbs. I therefore planted out the purple sage that we bought at our last garden centre visit and transplanted a lavender that has followed us on our last house move.
 
 
 
The final job was to tidy up some of the various pots we have about the garden, including the winter pansies which have been giving a splendid display all through the winter.


Now to sit back and wish for more fair weather...

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Warming Up

It seems like the weather has at last decided to start warming up. It is therefore time to start moving the plants that have been taking over the conservatory out into the greenhouse and, ultimately, out into the garden.




We could be accused of over-doing it with the plug plants this year but better to have too many than not enough. We may have to invest in a few hanging baskets though...

The sweet peas are doing well and have been in the greenhouse for a while now so with the chances of frost diminishing we have got some of them planted along the fence. With a bit of time to get established, they should be fine even if the temperature does drop again.

In other news, we have done a bit of investing in our local bird population. It's always good to attract these little pest controllers into the garden. A new feeding station nearer the house is already attracting a nice variety which we can now sit and look at from the conservatory.



We also put up four separate bird boxes at various locations throughout the garden. These are already attracting interest from the local bluetit population. I only wish they could be encouraged to visit my chillies and eat the pesky greenflies that have made them their home.


Monday 18 March 2013

Taking Over

It's that time of year again when the newly potted plants start to take over every spare windowsill of the house. Fortunately we have plenty of windowsill space in the conservatory . Even so, I was still struggling to find space for everything after a busy weekend of indoor gardening, including potting up all of the plug plants that the postman keeps delivering. I really should compare notes with my good lady wife to see what she has ordered before I start browsing the gardening websites. I think we might have to extend our flower beds a bit this year...

All the seeds I planted in the propagators at the end of last month have developed nicely. I'm particularly proud of the chili seeds that I retrieved from a shriveled fruit that was clinging on to a neglected chili plant in the corner of the greenhouse. It seems that every one of the seeds has germinated so now I have 27 nicely developing baby Cayenne chili plants.


Given the weather this weekend, the only thing to do outside was to remember to water the greenhouse which is currently home to a collection of sweet peas. At least I don't have to water the rest of the garden yet.

Sunday 10 March 2013

Succulent Spring Rhubarb Crumble

This year I decided to have a go at forcing some of the rhubarb so I shoved an upturned black bucket over the top of one of the plants just as the first shoots started coming through. It has worked wonders and already this year we have had two harvests of the sweetest young stalks, and it's only the 10th March!

I know I could have tried any number of recipes for these first tasty treats but thought I'd go with the old faithful, rhubarb crumble. So here's my recipe for Succulent Spring Rhubarb Crumble:

Rhubarb Crumble
Makes 4 generous helpings

ingredients
12 oz fresh forced rhubarb, picked less than an hour before you're ready to eat;
4 oz butter;
4 oz castor sugar;
8 oz plain flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger (optional)

method


Stick the oven on.

Wash and cut the freshly harvested, sweetest forced rhubarb roughly into chunks. Bung it in a pan with 1 tbsp of water and gently stew, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb is softened. No need to add any sugar; the rhubarb is sweet enough. The water is just there to stop it sticking but you do need to keep stirring it.




To make the crumble topping, mix the sugar, flour, butter and, if using, ground ginger, in a large bowl. Rub together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.


Place the stewed rhubarb in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and cover with the crumble mix. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top to give it a nice crispy topping and bake in a medium oven for approximately half an hour until the top is nicely browned.




Serve with cream, ice-cream or, in my case, custard.

Ideal to round off a Mothers' day meal.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Insect Hotel

We are always looking for new ways to attract beneficial insects into the garden so when we spotted an old firework waiting to be chucked in the bin, we jumped at the chance to recycle it into a luxury insect summer residence. The firework was a multiple roman candle type when it was new but now it is, in essence, a group of thick empty cardboard tubes bound together with a thin paper wrapping. All it needed was something to protect it from the worst of the British weather and some 'stuffing' to attract the guests.

Last year we grew spuds in black plastic sacks and, as I rarely throw anything away, we still had the sacks kicking around the veg patch. One of these was perfect for wrapping around the cardboard to offer it some protection.




I started to stuff dried grass and twigs into some of the openings to give the prospective guests something to nestle into. I'm sure I have some straw somewhere that, once I find it, I will use to furnish the remaining rooms. For now though, like all good hotels, it's open for business, despite the work in progress.


Monday 4 March 2013

Potting On

Did a lot of potting on and generally moving plants around on Sunday.
Firstly, I dug out one of the compost heaps. We have two so that we fill one whilst the other is left in peace to rot down. Time for a switch round before the season gets into full swing. The full heap should have most of the summer to slowly rot down ready for an autumn mulch.

We've had some broad beans coming on nicely in toilet roll tubes in the greenhouse. Time to plant these out into their own bed. They were such a surprisingly good crop last year, I made sure to put plenty in this time. I found they were great for adding to stews and even chilies last year, as well as being delicious on their own. To keep the mice off, I surrounded them with freshly cut holly leaves. I have no idea if this really works but I tried it last year and never had any problems with mice so no harm repeating it and it may even help to keep the cats off the fresh dirt. I even got creative and constructed a simple frame to give the beans something to cling on to as they grow.





Moving the beans out of the greenhouse left room to move the first of the rather leggy sweet peas in. I have really gone to town with these this year so it seemed to take most of the day to transplant them from their seed tray into individual pots. Only another couple of trays to go...








I also moved in the marigolds from the windowsill propagator out into the greenhouse. Of course this meant the propagator was empty so I couldn't resist putting a few more chili seeds in.
All in all a pretty busy day. I just hope I can keep up with things through March as everything seems to start to speed up this time of year.

Here's hoping to some warmer evenings and the chance to get something done throughout the week.

Monday 18 February 2013

February Colours

Today was a beautifully bright but cold day so I took the chance to take a wander around the garden and take in some of the sights. February is not a time when you would expect to find much in the way of colour in the garden but here are some of the highlights: