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.

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.

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.