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Herb Spirals.

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Growing your own produce has become de rigueur for almost all gardeners, and while fruit and veg are the backbone of any kitchen garden herbs occupy a special place in our hearts. There’s no doubt about it – herbs are hip! They straddle the boundary between the utilitarian, productive garden and the ornamental garden, and of course help bring the kitchen into the garden and vice versa.

Herbs are also very easy to grow and fun to collect, experiment with and above all to savour. It can’t be any coincidence that the rise in the passion for cooking, and Mediterranean food in particular, has also brought a boom in the number and varieties of herbs that are readily available to the gardener. At the same time there’s been a resurgence of interest in some of our native plants and the nearly-lost kitchen uses to which they’ve traditionally been put .

Herbs can be tucked in amongst other kitchen plants and can readily be grown in containers of all shapes and sizes, but for those with a real passion for these aromatic and sensual plants, there’s nothing better than a dedicated herbal bed, and the big-daddy of all such beds is the herb spiral. Herb spirals pack an array of handy benefits into one simple idea.

Herb spiral made from a variety of materials showing the compass points.

Designed on permaculture principles, the spiral is intended to provide optimum growing conditions for the plants whilst at the same time saving on ground space. By figuring out the compass direction that each side of the spiral faces you can then readily provide a variety of different environmental conditions, and so grow together herbs that wouldn’t ordinarily thrive when simply planted side by side in open ground. Most of the Mediterranean species, for example, require as much sunlight, heat and sharp drainage as you can give them, and can best be grown on the top (where the drainage is very significantly enhanced) and on the south-facing side of the spiral, facing into the sun. Others, such as mints, lemon balm, chives and wild garlic all relish the shade of the north facing side of the spiral and the damper, less harshly drained foothills at the base.

The resulting community of herbs can accommodate even quite large plants and yet the whole structure can also be grown on a terrace or even a roof garden. The extra elevation that the plants gain helps greatly with drainage in general, but also allows the soil to heat up far more quickly and effectively than a comparable area of flat ground, as well as attracting bees and hoverflies. Once the herbs have established and filled the growing spaces nicely then the maintenance of the spiral is virtually nil, save for the odd bit of pest control when molluscs decide to explore the ramparts.

This new spiral is made from lengths of recycled fencing.

To create a spiral you first need to find a suitable site. It should ideally be around 2 metres in diameter, (although can, of course, be either larger or smaller to suit your needs) and should preferably be within a short dash of the kitchen for maximum usefulness, although the key requirement is to find a site which has the highest exposure to sun, to suit the thymes, sage & rosemary; if that means a longer trip from kitchen to spiral, then so be it.

Mark out the footprint of the spiral by placing a bamboo cane or similar in the centre of your chosen site, attaching a 1 metre long piece of string to it,  and scoring the ground or soil in a circular arc around the centrepoint. Next place a thick layer of old newspaper, cardboard or mulch around the outer part of the circle to prevent intrusion by weeds and then you’re ready to start construction. The structure of the spiral is most usually made from rocks, but wood, bricks or even old wine bottles can also be used. The open end of the spiral must face north, so make sure you know your bearings before you begin to build up!

A brick spiral, mid-construction.

Start by laying out the basic shape of the spiral on the ground as a foundation and firmly infill behind with compost and/or soil to help to strenthen and hold the structure as you go. Once the outer circle is complete then, starting at the northern edge once again, you simply build the spiral upwards and inwards, using the largest, heaviest stones at the base. The optimum height at the centre is around 1 metre, and as you build upwards, start to add coarse gravel into the soil/compost mixture to optimise the drainage. Leave some depth room for extra topsoil and planting compost, as well as for the plants themselves of course, this will also ensure that the compost doesn’t overflow and get washed overboard by heavy rain.

A flat stone spiral, ready for planting up.

Once it’s fully built then water the whole structure thoroughly and allow it to settle. there will be lots of air pockets and the soil level may drop considerably in some cases, so be sure to top up before planting. Aside from full-blown trees such as Bay then pretty much any and all herbs that take your fancy can be fitted into the spiral, just remember to research their respective growing requirements and site them accordingly, from hot and dry at the top and south sides, to damp and cool on the north and base of the spiral.

A lovely stone-built spiral with it's herbs maturing nicely.

A well built spiral made of appealing materials makes for a very attractive addition to any garden, and the boost in growth rates for the plants will ensure a goodly crop of herbs for the kitchen too.


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Going up in the World – Making Raised Beds.

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Having dipped our toes into the world of the raised bed in my last blog, and considered all of the benefits that they can bring to the garden, I’m now going to look at how to actually put a raised bed together and some of the various options along the way.

At it’s very simplest a raised bed is just that – a bed of garden soil mounded up above the level of the surrounding area. Several fruit crops, in particular, are grown en mass in exactly this way, with soil being mounded and the plants perched atop the mound. That’s fine for the very short term but in practise the combined efforts of the weather and time will quickly work to bring the mound back down to earth, and the gardener back to square one by the end of the season. Which is where containerisation comes in.

A beautiful bed made from natural wood.

Enclosing your raised bed of soil in a walled container allows all the benefits of mounding, but with the greatly added advantage of permanence, which in turn allows long-term planting arrangements or regular batches of crops to be grown.

In theory you can make your raised bed from pretty much any material that takes your fancy, so long as it provides sound and prolonged containment for the soil within. It’s best to consider your garden as a whole, and how the new bed will fit in and enhance it, and this, above all else, may well end up dictating your choice of materials.

Wood is certainly the most popular option, being readily available, cheap, lightweight and easily cut to fit a given site. There are a number of raised bed kits available from garden suppliers, most of which are made from wood, and these provide an easy and quick solution, particularly if you only need a small bed.  Concrete, stone, or brick are also pretty versatile, but will cost more in terms of initial investment as well as the labour to heft them into place. These are not the only options however.

A deep bed made from concrete blocks.

Traditionally raised beds were formed instantly by using bales of hay or straw as the walls, and this idea still holds good today. Degradable walls won’t provide a long term solution, but they can be replaced annually easily enough, and certainly allow a quick fix whilst you contemplate or construct longer term solutions. Metal, used tyres and an array of plastics are further options that together can provide the materials for raised beds that will work in virtually any given situation.

A small straw bale raised bed.

Once you’ve figured out your materials it’s on to the construction.

Site Selection

Different parts of your garden will provide very different growing conditions, so it’s vitally important to figure out what it is you want to grow and the conditions that will best suit them. From there you can work out the ideal location in your garden for the bed. Of course, just like any other part of the garden,  the same principle can also work just as well the other way around – you have a given site in which you want to place the bed, the next step it to figure out the conditions at that site, which in turn will determine what will grow best in the bed. Very many raised beds are employed for the growing of fruit, veg and herbs, and in all such cases you need to find a sheltered site that receives as much light and warmth as possible – ideally a minimum of eight hours of sun per day. Wherever you choose to site the bed the ground needs to be reasonably level (or level-able)  and it needs to have access to water – generally at the end of a hose pipe.

Shapes and Sizes

It’s often said that the optimum width of any raised bed is 4 feet. One of the important principles of growing in raised beds is that the soil isn’t walked upon or compacted, so it’s important to make sure that you bed is accessible from all sides and is narrow enough to reach across without having to step into it. If you’re siting the bed against a wall or fence, then bring that maximum width down to three feet. You can then make the bed (or beds) as long as suits your site. Depth of the bed is pretty critical too, and the deeper the bed the more benefits it will confer, so don’t be tempted to skimp. Six inches of depth should be the absolute minimum, and for anything other than the smallest beds try to aim for at least 10 to 12 inches.

A series of raised beds sited on a solid patio surface.

Site Preparation

The amount and exact nature of the site preparation – i.e. getting the existing soil ready for your new bed – will depend to a large degree on the depth of your bed and the plants that you wish to grow there. Unless your soil is truly diabolical, or the bed it being sited on a solid surface, then the first step should be to weed, fork over and loosen the existing soil surface, removing any turf if the bed is to be sited on grass. Unless your bed is very shallow there’s no need to dig the soil over to any great depth, and indeed doing so could alter the balance of beneficial microbes and risk bringing dodgy subsoil up into the bed.  Newspaper, landscape fabric, or cardboard can be used to line the bed where necessary and all will provide quick and effective weed suppression whilst still allowing for good drainage.

Using landscape fabric to line the new bed.

Construction

The possible methods of construction are as variable as, and are largely determined by, the materials that you are choosing to use. Firstly measure out your site – string and bamboo canes can give you a great idea of shapes and sizes and how they will work in the garden as a whole – and sketch the arrangement of  the bed and how it will fit together. Wooden beds can be constructed simply, using ethically sourced, outdoor grade (preservative treated) softwood built up to whatever height you decide to go for. Cut your pieces to the desired size, then attach them together to make a simple, four-sided frame. The corners can be secured with internal brackets, screwed together with galvanized screws or by fixing a small corner post into each of the four corners to which each walled side is attached.

Bed walls attached to one another by screwing into short corner posts.

Levelling

Move your frame into it’s location and use a spirit level to ensure that it really is flat. This is more important that might be imagined since a partly tilted or otherwise uneven raised bed will lead to uneven drainage, potentially leading to flooding on one side of the bed and drought on the other. If your site preparation was good then it should be a simple matter of forking the soil around the frame edges until all sides are level.

Fill and Plant

One of the primary benefits of planting in raised bed is that it allows you the chance to create an ideal growing medium for your intended plants. So there’s no point in going to the trouble of creating a new bed only to then fill it with substandard soil.  A good mixture of quality topsoil, leafmould, garden compost, and rotted manure makes for an ideal, humus-rich blend, but again, the exact composition should be determined by the type of plants that you will be growing – herbs and alpines will benefit from the addition of lots of grit, for example. Once the bed is filled, and levelled, then you’re all ready to plant and start reaping the benefits.

A pair of beds - filled, levelled and newly planted.

Maintenance

Raised beds are, in effect, very large planting containers, and like any other container they will rely on you to maintain moisture levels, rather more so that the surrounding garden, although much less so than would an individual pot. Aside from that maintainance is blissfully easy and revolves around an annual or bi-annual surface application of mulch/compost/well-rotted manure to maintain fertility and moisture levels. Generally speaking it is not necessary to dig over the entire depth of soil or, and lightly forking the surface will provide a suitable open and crumbly planting environment for the next seasons crops.


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Going up in the World – the Benefits of Raised Beds.

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Raised planting beds, in one form or another, have been in use  for almost as long as humans have been cultivating plants – just think of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon….Whatever plants you intend growing, be they ornamental or culinary, these useful and highly adaptable garden features offer a remarkable range of benefits over growing directly in the ground and, so long as you’re not intending to create a new 8th wonder of the world, they can also generally be created simply and cheaply.

Simple but effective - a series of small raised beds awaiting filling.

Amongst the most immediate advantages are that you can cultivate all sorts of things that wouldn’t ordinarily be growable in your garden. Your garden might have soil that is too acid for vegetables, or too alkaline for ericaceous plants, for example, or your ground might be too stony, wet, quick draining etc. Going one step further, raised beds will allow you create planting areas where none currently exist at all, such as in a courtyard or rooftop, or simply make the very most of a small, or awkwardly shaped garden.

The extension of planting choices doesn’t stop at the soil itself however, as the actual sighting of the bed itself can open up new planting possibilities – a hot sunny location is perfect for a herb bed, for instance, and the extra drainage of the raised bed creates the perfect planting conditions too. On the other hand a spot in dappled shade, perhaps beneath the canopies of overhead trees,  would be ideal for growing a collection of woodland gems that might otherwise get swamped in open ground.

The dramatically improved drainage afforded by a raised bed makes the ideal planting environment for alpines.

If your soil is thin, stony, infertile or full of subsoil clay – all of which are common problems for the gardens of many new build houses, amongst others – then the addition of garden compost, well-rotted manure or leaf-mould will allow you to immediately create rich, balanced and ideal planting conditions. Improvements of the garden soil itself could take many years or even decades to come close to providing the same quality of growing environment and annual additions and improvements will be maintained within the beds much more readily than they would in the open ground too.

Another key benefit is that the soil in raised beds is not walked on and so remains uncompacted. In order to create an optimum growing medium  soil needs plenty of water and air moving freely throughout. Compaction progressively destroys the soil structure, prevents the movement and retention of both of these key elements and so seriously limits root growth. Crop yields from vegetables, fruit or flowers are all significantly better where compaction is avoided, and individual plants can also be spaced more closely together, further maximising the use of space.

Lots of veg packed in closely, making the most of the available space.

Even without any additional protection the improved drainage within raised beds means that the soil warms more quickly at the start of the growing season and the start of each day too. The leads to improved growth in general, but also allows Spring vegetables to be planted out earlier, and so the whole crop year is extended, which, once again leads to a more efficient use of space and time.

The benefits aren’t limited to simply extending planting choices, however. When properly sited and built to an appropriate level raised beds can dramatically increase the discomfort and/or pain of bending and kneeling to tend your plants as well as bringing smaller plants closer to eye level where they can be appreciated, tended or cropped, as appropriate. They can also allow access to planting areas that would be almost impossible to gardeners in wheelchairs or with limited mobility.

Raised beds can allow far greater access to soil and plants at a convenient height.

Once established raised beds will rarely, if ever need to be entirely dug over. The presiding principle is to add more nutrition at the surface and let the worms and other friendly soil beasties do the hard work for you, so, as a sub-section of no-dig gardening, working with raised beds requires much less physical work. General maintenance - watering, pest removal and particularly weeding – are also made easier since the soil level is closer to hands and eyes and the lack of compaction allows even the most stubborn weeds to readily be teased out.

Working with a fixed, raised frame bed also allows for the easy attachment of protective covers, when needed. Frost protection can be vital for getting seedlings and veg crops established in spring, and the solid boundaries of the bed can be purpose made to hold season-extending horticultural fleece, for instance. At the other end of the season fruit crops, in particular, can easily be protected from bird damage, by again using the frame of the raised bed as an attachment point for netting.

Highly beneficial though they are, raised beds needn’t simply be all about utility are crop-yields. From a design perspective, using raised beds in the garden is a bit like being given an extra spacial dimension with which to work, and can open up a whole new range of possible shapes, heights and effects that would otherwise be unavailable. It’s not simply a question of  having plants higher than ground level either, as the sides of beds can be turned into cascading walls of foliage or the beds themselves used to divide up an otherwise open space, in turn helping to provide shelter, shade or just simply surprises-around-the-corner in any garden.

Raised beds can make for beautiful, as well as functional garden features.

Despite their great simplicity raised beds certainly are extremely valuable additions to any garden, and it’s no wonder that they’ve been a staple of worldwide horticulture for millennia. In my next blog I’ll be looking at how to create a raised bed and the different materials that can be used.


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All Chitted!

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

My early variety of potatoes have been chitting in my conservatory now for about 8 weeks.  I was caught out by a hungry mouse in the shed last year, so this time I chose to do my chitting nearer the house!  The shoots were plentiful and just about the right size, so because the weather and the soil has become so warm this week, I have taken the plunge and planted my chitted seed potatoes.  We added compost to the vegetable patch a couple of months ago, and the worms have kindly processed it for me.  I dug three trenches and then sprinked in some Organic Wormcast Fertilizer into the bottom of the trenches before popping in the seed potatoes  This should give them a bit of nourishment to help them start off.   Next job is to plant some spring onion seeds ….


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Light at the End of the Tunnel!

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

I can see and feel the first signs of Spring!  My husband always comments after the shortest day in December that we are over the worst, Summer is on the way and the days will be getting longer, and yesterday I saw this with my own eyes.  My beautiful snow drops are in bloom, bulbs are starting to send out green shoots which probably means weeds will start growing again too!

Sadly, during the extreme cold snap we lost one of our chickens, Siennna (Miller), due to a very nasty illness which luckily didn’t spread to the other four chooks.  Egg production has been greatly reduced for the last 6 weeks, and I have had to buy eggs from time to time from the local farm-shop.  When chickens moult and also when it is so very cold, the chooks have to preserve themselves to keep warm, and grow new feathers, so their body very cleverly stops manufacturing eggs …  nature never fails to amaze me.  Anyway, on Friday I phoned up my chicken man, to check if he had any chooks available, and fortunately he did.  So I popped over to his farm with an empty Ocado crate and collected two new birds …  Versace and Mildred!  Mildred is very similar in colouring to Matilda, so seems to have been accepted by the others readily, however they have taken a dislike to poor Versace and are pecking her and bullying her, but I have been assured that this is quite normal, and this is where the term ‘Pecking Order’ comes from.

My vegetable patch is looking a bit sad at the moment, with just a few leeks and parsnips left to harvest.  My red chard suffered from it’s covering of snow for about 3 weeks, so it is nearly time to plough up the soil and add some manure in preparation for this years crops.

We continue to feed the birds with high energy bird nuts daily.  However, I am struggling to feed my own family at the moment thanks to a shortage of LPG Gas in Southern England, and the backlog of deliveries due to snow.  I have turned off my Aga and will probably have to turn off the heating by the end of the week if my delivery is not made …  oh how I wish I lived with mains gas!  So today I am not inspired to cook and hopefully will add a recipe next time.


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Winter warmer

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Like many people at the moment, I am suffering from my first cold (flu if I was a man!) of the Winter.  I was ordering some provisions from my milkman’s website last night and noticed that New Covent Garden Leek and Potato Soup is half price at the moment, and thought that’s just what I needed to warm me up .. however, when he delivered this morning, due to popular demand the soup was out of stock.  So I thought to  myself .. I have plenty of stock!  Lovely Leeks growing in my vegetable patch, homegrown potatoes and onions in hessian sacks in my store cupboard, bay leaves drying above the Aga and a recipe in my head!  So whilst writing this, my soup is simmering away nicely, ready to be processed when I have finished this.  The recipe I used is based on a couple I have used before and goes like this:

INGREDIENTS:

4 Leeks sliced and washed

2 Medium Potatoes peeled and cubed

1 Large Onion chopped

1 Bay leaf

1 litre of Chicken Stock

1/4 litre of Milk

Glug of Olive Oil and large knob of butter

Seasoning

METHOD:

Prepare the vegetables, and then melt the butter and oil in a large saucepan.  Add the chopped vegetables to the pan, coat with the buttery mixture, season, add a bay leaf, and then pop the lid on the pan, and let the vegetables sweat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Then add the stock and milk, add some more seasoning, and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes.  When vegetables are tender, blitz until smooth, taste and re-season if necessary. Serve when needed!

I have to confess that I haven’t even cleared a fallen leaf this week on account of feeling under the weather, but that hasn’t stopped me from delegating this endless task to the man of the house!


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Multi-tasking in the Garden and Kitchen!

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

On seeing the weather forecast for this week, I decided to make the most of the sunny day yesterday and did some jobs in the garden. It may be a little early but I pruned my Autumn fruiting raspberries  ..  they had all but finished fruiting and it is a job that I like doing, because of the job satisfaction provided with the end results.  Note to self .. get some well rotted manure from our neighbours to mulch and provide nutrients to the soil! 

I have made an attractive Halloween display in my house, putting all my homegrown pumpkins in a rustic basket, saving the largest to be carved before the weekend.  This proved cheaper than a bunch of flowers, and is far more current!  I also used one of my butternut squashes that was being stored in a hessian sack   and made some delicious Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup  …  recipe below:

Butternut squash and sweet potato soup recipe

Ingredients

  • 25g butter
  • 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
  • 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed
  • 800g sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 1.5 litres vegetable stock
  • 150ml whole milk
  • Handful of chopped Parsley or Coriander (optional)

1. Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat for 5-6 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the garlic, squash and sweet potatoes. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, removing the lid and stirring occasionally.

3. Pour the stock into the pan and bring to the boil. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the milk. Blitz with a stick blender or cool for around an hour then transfer to a liquidiser and blend until smooth.

4.Return to the pan and reheat just before serving. Adjust the seasoning to taste and ladle into warmed bowls.

I noticed that my Bird Bistro needed refilling so, I quickly popped a refill on, before moving on to the next job. Just before darkness fell, I collected some eggs from the nesting box, and encouraged the chikens to go to bed (with a handful of corn) because there is evidence of a visiting fox in the paddock where the hens roam.  One last visit to the vegetable patch to grab a handful of red chard, and a couple of leeks for the stir-fry, and I would say jobs well done today!


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Autumn Harvest

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

I love this time of year watching the autumn colours develop in the garden, and also on the occasional day feeling the last rays of heat from the fading sun.  My garden is looking quite healthy at the moment thanks to the regular supply of rain, and the grass is probably looking better than it has all Summer, possibly due to its recent helping of Organic Lawn Feed which has  added beneficial micro-organisms to the lawn that invigorate grass.

My Rhubarb is coming to an end, and I had heard that you shouldn’t harvest rhubarb after August because it is poisonous, although after doing some online research I am beginning to suspect that this could be an old wives tale?  Anyway, fortunate for me, I had some early rhubarb stashed in the freezer, and on the basis my family prefer apple and blackberry crumble at the moment, I decided to make rhubarb and date chutney and this is the recipe I used …. 

  • 50g fresh root ginger , grated
  • 300ml red wine vinegar
  • 500g eating apples , peeled and finely chopped
  • 200g pitted dates, chopped
  • 200g dried cranberries or raisins
  • 1 tbsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 400g light muscovado sugar
  • 700g rhubarb , sliced into 2cm chunks
  • 500g red onions

  

  1. Put the onions in a large pan with the ginger and vinegar. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 mins. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the rhubarb, plus 2 tsp salt to the pan and bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 mins until the apples are tender.
  2. Stir in the rhubarb and cook, uncovered, until the chutney is thick and jammy, about 15-20 mins. Leave the chutney to sit for about 10-15 mins, then spoon into warm, clean jars, and seal. Label the jars when cool. Keep for at least a month before eating.

 

I had a taste before it got sealed away in the jars, and it is delicious  …  have given some away, but I must save some for us!

Earlier this week I harvested my pumpkins, and have put them in a hessian sack and hung them up in my potting shed to ensure the mice can’t get them before Halloween!  I also picked all the pears, which will not ripen on the trees, and I am now searching for recipes to use them when they have started to ripen.

On Sunday we had the first batch of leeks from the vegetable patch with our roast pork, accompanied by my own grown roast potatoes and apple sauce .. my kids get fed up of me pointing out the organic nature of our meal but at least my husband acts suitably impressed!

I enjoyed watching Alan Titchmarsh interviewing Prince Charles at Highrove house last week.  The Highgrove estate has become synonymous with all things organic, and Alan finds out from Head Gardener Debs Goodenough and her team what inspired the beliefs of the most hands-on royal gardener in history.  Catch it on BBC iPlayer if you missed it but it was truly inspirational, but it will only be viewable for the next 5 days.

Anyway,  just off to make some scones to go with my homemade raspberry jam for my youngest daughter to eat when she returns from school  … I shall no doubt remind her about the organic nature of the jam!


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Gardening Tips June

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

Is this everybody’s favourite month? I suspect it is.  The evenings are at last warm enough to sit outside and appreciate the heavy scents of high summer.  Lovely wafts come from the flowers of a superb silver-leafed shrub Eleagnus ‘Quicksilver’, from the perennial white stock (Matthiola perennis) that I grow in large pots all around my terrace, and the white sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis ‘Alba’) dotted around in the semi-shade of my borders together with the almost sickly-sweet  smell of a small pot of Zalulanskya – an annual night-scented stock relation – that sits in the middle of my garden table.  And as if that was not enough, any moment now the tiny white star-shaped flowers of the so-called evergreen jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) will join the headily-perfumed throng.  There is a reason so many night-scented flowers are white: they attract pollinating moths in the gloaming.

My pond, however, is having a prolonged green water moment.  To control the algae I floated small bags of barley straw in the water some weeks ago (each with a small empty sealed plastic drinks bottle inserted deep into the middle for buoyancy, to keep them in the sun).  As the straw rots it releases hydrogen peroxide into the water which inhibits the growth of blanket weed and other algae.  It takes a long time to work, and while it does you have to keep hauling out the green, hair-like stuff (and rescuing tadpoles caught up in it) but gradually, miraculously, the water does clear.


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From one extreme to the other!

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Last time I was complaining about the frost scorching my pumpkin seedlings, and this time I am going to mention that the extremely hot sun this week has made my vegetable patch almost dessert like!  What I would really like now, and I am sure many other gardeners would agree, is some rain to hydrate my seedlings automatically!  Anyway,  earlier this week I served up a salad made from my homegrown lettuce and rocket with some spring onions that I planted from seed in the Autumn.  I thought I would  astonish my teenage daughters and their friends with my organic offerings, but sadly this generation are not easily impressed!  I still get enormous pleasure from growing my own fruit and vegetables and providing this nourishment for my family  …  I hope that when they are grown up they may be inspired too!

The weeds are sprouting at a great rate with these perfect growing conditions …  I have been hoeing regularly and although I have been taking great care around the seedlings, I have  reapplied some Slug and Snail Deterrent   around my lettuce plants to ensure there are no gaps allowing access to the slugs.  I have also applied the Slug and Snail Deterrent around the bases of my hostas that have, as if by magic, reappeared  in my tubs.

Now that the weather seems set to stay warm, I have been busy planting up some hanging baskets and tubs ….  my father-in-law very kindly shared with me some beautiful plants including Geraniums,  Bizzy Lizzie’s and Petunias that he has been nurturing in his greenhouses.  I am also experimenting with a hanging basket with tomatoes this year too, and have just given it the first feed of EcoCharlie Tomato Feed

 

And as for my hens ….  well they love this sunny weather, and have been laying consistently well …  in fact now is the time of year I make meringues and lemon curd with the left over egg yolks  ….   I have made one batch already, and will be making more this weekend.  This is the recipe I use for the Lemon Curd

 

LEMON CURD

Makes 2 small jam jars
zest and juice of 4 unwaxed lemons
200g sugar
100g butter
3 eggs and 1 egg yolk

Put the lemon zest and juice, the sugar and the butter, cut into cubes, into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the basin doesn’t touch the water. Stir with a whisk from time to time until the butter has melted.

Mix the eggs and egg yolk lightly with a fork, then stir into the lemon mixture. Let the curd cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until it is thick and custard-like. It should feel heavy on the whisk.

Remove from the heat and stir occasionally as it cools. Pour into spotlessly clean jars and seal. It will keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

I have been using the automatic plant watering system for my indoor conservatory houseplants, and my final job for today is to go and top up the bottles with water on the Aquadrip spikes ….


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