One of the joys of growing your own vegetables is being able to experiment with unusual varieties. Crystal apple cucumber is one such variety which we sell in our culinary quirks. They have germinated easily and have produced a bumper crop over the last 2 months of delicious crunchy ‘apples’. Particularly pleasing as my green ridge cucumbers were all lost to the slugs.]]>
When we left to go on holiday in mid August the grass was late-summer brown and the evenings were still fragrant and warm. In just over 2 weeks the grass has become lush green and there is a real chill air. Even the radicchio is feeling the cold and starting to turn red. It won’t be long before jute leaf sacks will be needed for making leaf mould.]]>
It has not been a good summer for butterflies in our garden. A few commas and tortoise shells but little else that I have spotted.
There has been an abundance of hoverflies though, particularly on our Echinaceas. Hoverflies are very welcome, as their maggots eat aphids and and they can be good pollinators. The RSPB offers good tips for helping pollinators in your garden and if you want a quick fix bumblebee nests and pollinating bee logs look attractive as well as serving a useful purpose.
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This year has been the worst I have ever known for climbing beans. Three attempts with the reliable climber Blauhilde have failed to produce a single plant. Is this due to the conditions in 2009 or in 2010? Or is it just me? I have filled the space with climbing borlotti beans, but they are very reluctant to climb. It seems my bean poles will not be needed this year.]]>
I don't know whether it is the dry weather, but everything this summer seems to flop if it isn't staked. These rusted flower stakes look stunning in a herbaceous border, and you can force them into the hardest ground. If you fancy flopping rather than hitting the high street this summer, you could try the online shopping town. We are in the Online Shopping Town on the Eco Friendly and Gardening Gifts streets.]]>
At this time of year our large office window can confuse young birds. A pigeon and bluetit have both flown into it in the last few days and this swallow did one better. It flew into the office in seach of flies and paused briefly by the window before flying out again. Another swallow did the same this time last year. I wonder if its the same one?]]>
I like marigolds in my vegetable garden very much. They self seed everywhere so can be a bit maddening, but they are easy to pull up and they are a great pest deterrent. Aphids and carrot fly steer clear of marigolds, and even ground elder and bind weed are reluctant to share a bed with them. For me, they are the best companion plant.]]>
Thank you to everyone who entered our scarecrow competition and congratulations to Bletchingdon Primary School for producing the winner. There were so many fantastic entries, which showed how much fun everyone had had with the kits. Please take a look at our scarecrow gallery to see what I mean.]]>
Research into pollinating insects is really, really important and its great news that £10m funding has been provided for the Insect Pollinators Initiative. We are continuing our support too for bumblebee research and have this month donated £500 of our hard earned profits to our friends at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. They do stirling work, to help bumblebees like this little fellow which this morning was feasting on our delphiniums.]]>
The RSPB's Nature Count is such a good idea, but somehow the week went by and I never managed to spend an hour counting the birds and mammals in our garden. Its a shame as I might have been able to include this young spotted woodpecker which is enjoying our trampoline.]]>
For those of you who are considering making a clay oven I have a little tip. Plastering sand. Not sharp sand, or mortar sand or concrete sand, but plastering sand from Jewsons. Mixed with pure clay, plastering sand makes the perfect cob mixture that sets like concrete.
I reckon this is the best week of the year for planting. The soil has warmed up, we have had some rain (although not enough) and the days are long. Everything is growing like mad, including the weeds, and seeds germinate in a matter of days (like this rocket, sown only last week). The only thing that is struggling is my grass seed. I may have to resort to turf.]]>
This looks like being the first barbeque weekend of the year. I’m going to try some of this beautiful red orach in a salad with other leaves that need thinning and I’m also going to try to get 10 minutes in a hammock. When the garden is looking so lovely, I need to keep reminding myself to sit back and enjoy it. Some chance.]]>
Last year we were well past the last frost by now but this year I’m not so sure. The forecast is good, but the nights have been cool. That being said, I have run out of space in my cold frame, so last night I put out beans and sweetcorn. Fingers crossed.
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The weather in May is such a tricky one to call. You have to be optimistic and plan for the alfresco barbeque, but you also have to have a plan B, which this weekend was to make a wildlife hotel. Luckily our friends were up for it.
Inspired by a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show last year, and by the RSPB and many others since, we made a tower of pallets and stuffed it with everything we could find which we thought would be beneficial to insects. Bamboo, masonry, straw, clay, rotting branches and pollinating bee logs. It may be a bit too shady for sun-loving solitary bees but hopefully it will provide an over wintering haven for ladybirds, lacewings, beetles and other shade loving insects.
I have just completed my 3G compost bins. My first attempt was 15 years ago when I used a combination of old bedsteads and cupboard doors. It looked wonderful, but didn’t last more than a couple of years. I then tried a wooden kit that had boards you could slide into grooves to make a door. The wood lasted well, but it soon became impossible to slide the boards out of the groves to empty the compost, so for years I leant over and shovelled it out until the bin finally fell apart. So this spring we planned and built three sturdy bins which I wish we had built years ago. We did a lot of research beforehand. We sell a beautiful beehive compost bin which is very well made but not large enough for our needs. There are lots of fairly large plastic compost bins on the market, but even if you are happy to have an ugly dalek at the end of your garden, none of them have a door that fully opens, so accessing the compost is difficult. So instead we drew up our own design, ordered the timber and got stuck in. The eureka moment was when we discovered drop pin bolts, which hold the frame together and make it easy to remove the door. Very satisfying.]]>
Earth day is a huge phenomenon now and I'm pleased. It is a bit US-centric but that's a good thing, because despite President Obama's best efforts the US still has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the western world in moving to prevent climate change.
My little picture for Earth Day shows the world upside down in a glass cloche, which is providing much needed protection for my tender cucumbers.
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The fab weather on Saturday made me grab my shorts and the garden hammocks, but come Sunday it was back to jumper and jeans. And last night I was contemplating protecting our new peach tree with fleece, but cloud cover was forecast so I decided to risk it. As it turned out the temperature stayed well above freezing, but there is still plenty of time for another frost so my fleece is at the ready.]]>
How good must hibernating be? The downside is you miss Christmas of course, but the upside is not to be sniffed at. If all goes to plan you miss the worst of the weather and wake up fully refreshed just as the daffs start poking through.
I nearly stepped on a hedgehog last week which had just emerged from its hedgehog house for a first forage. It looked healthy and contented (much as Beatrix Potter would have wished for Mrs Tiggywinkle). The ladybirds too seem to be more abundant than ever. Seems like they have enjoyed their rest.
As a child I have fond memories of a tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) that grew on the edge of my parents herbaceous border. I loved its fury stems and its fiery orange leaves in the autumn. So I was pleased to find one in our garden when we moved in 12 years ago.
But it has invaded the lawn somewhat, so this week I grabbed my saw and cut it down. And on the same day I read that it is becoming a pest too in the countryside as it can out-compete the native plant species around it. Sightings of this and other alien species should be reported to the non-native species secretariat (and no, this isn’t an early April fool!)
I'm not sure what variety our rhubarb is as it was a root taken from my parents garden 10 years ago, which was no doubt taken from someone elses. There are earlier varieties available and forced rhubarb is already on sale in the shops, but I don't mind waiting. Its on its way, with the first bright pink spear already straining for sunlight.
Which has made me start thinking about rhubarb recipes and the appropriately entitled rhubarbrecipes.com. It has some nice recipes, but what about rhubarb and elderflower? For me forced rhubard roasted with elderflower cordial is unbeatable.
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School gardening clubs have been springing up everywhere, giving thousands of children the opportunity to experience the pleasure of growing vegetables. But as we know, no vegetable garden is complete without a scarecrow.
So we have decided to give away 100 of our screcrow kits to primary schools in Oxfordshire and we are giving £250 of wildlife products to the best scarecrow. Schools from other counties are welcome to enter, of course, but we only have free scarecrow kits for schools in Oxfordshire. See our scarecrow gallery for details. Next year we hope to give away more kits to schools in more counties.
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It seems early in the year to be thinking about hammocks. The catkins are still very much in evidence and there is little warmth in the air.
But March is not too early to think about planting trees. It is the end of the time to plant deciduous trees (Oct-Mar) but the start of the planting season for evergreen trees (Mar-May). So if you fancy a bit of mixed woodland, now is a good time. For hammocks, 3.5m spacing, aligned east west is ideal.
Big celebrations in Yorkshire today as the rhubarb forcers won EU name status. As reported by the BBC, rhubarb grown by candlelight in an area of Yorkshire known as the Rhubarb Triangle has been given European protected name status.
There are two tips for getting the most out of your rhubarb forcer. One is remembering to put the lid on now. The second is rembering to take the lid off before the stems push it off, otherwise like me you may have to resort to elastic bands to hold the cracked lid together.
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It has been a long winter and the ground is still far too cold to start sowing seed of any kind, but there are signs that the birds sense spring. The dead wood that we leave for insects has been particularly popular with birds this month and all garden birds are on the look out for nesting sites, so its a good time to clean out and hang bird boxes. Keep filling the bird feeders too as garden bird food is still in short supply.]]>
The snowdrops are well and truly up now and the Christmas roses are starting to strutt their stuff. Christmas roses never seem to make it in time for Christmas and I'm pleased that they don't. They would almost certainly get lost in the hustle and bustle of the festive period. At this time of year, when the days are getting longer and I'm starting to venture out more, I can really appreciate these delicate beauties. 'February roses' are fine by me.
Christmas roses appear to be one of the few plants bucking the trend to flower earlier. If only more plants were! Yesterday's Guardian highlighted how earlier springs could destroy the delicate balance of wildlife. Yet another undesirable consequence of climate change.
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There's something about the snow that seems to make our hens more willing to share their food. They seem less obsessed with the pecking order and no longer force the new comers to wait their turn. This change of mood may evapourate once the snow melts, but maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere. If we were to share more, we would undoubtedly consume less and given today's report on the global environmental threat in today's Guardian that says the average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, this can't come soon enough.]]>
When you're busy, busy, busy there's nothing like a hoar frost and clear blue skies to keep your spirits up. It is visually stunning, but it does mean the birds will be running low of options for food. If you need tips for feeding garden birds, check out the RSPB. They're advice sheets are excellent.
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For years I have gloated about my handsome winter salad which seems to thrive in the greenhouse despite very little attention from me. This year I have been plagued by more chickweed than usual though, which is tricky to distinguish from the salad leaves when I pop out there in the dark to grab a handful.
However, now that we are the proud owners of a budgie, this chickweed has become a valuable crop. My sister reminded me that as children we regularly raided the veg patch for chickweed to feed our father's budgies, so now I am able to do the same. The budgie is taking time to get used to this new delicacy, but hopefully it will grow to like it as there is plenty more. Let's hope he likes as much as the garden birds like the peanuts in our peanut feeder for garden birds, which this autumn have proved more popular than ever.
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Going green is all very well, but how does Santa get down the chimney now that a wood burning stove fills our fireplace? A few years ago when our children were young enough to believe in Father Christmas this would have been a dilemma, but now that they realise that visiting millions of children in a single night is beyond even the fastest of sleighs (although they secretly wish it were true), we no longer have to leave space for Santa’s landing. This is fortunate as we have recently undertaken an eco audit as part of our commitment to the 10:10 campaign, and installing a wood burning stove came high up the list.
A good eco audit is invaluable and need not dampen your spirits before Christmas, so don’t be scared off by the reporting of Adair Turner’s which bandies about £15,000. What every household needs is a simple list of things to do to be more eco friendly, ranked by cost/impact, which is specific to each situation. The eco expert who did our report charged £300, which we feel is good value. We’re on priority two at present, which for a draughty Victorian farmhouse means draught-proofing the sash windows and doors. When this is done, Christmas should be even cosier than normal.
The next dilemma is choosing an environmentally friendly Christmas tree. The ones to avoid are those which have been shipped over from the continent. They will have been cut weeks ago so won’t last long indoors and the fuel used for transportation cannot be insignificant. Locally grown trees are better, or an eco friendly Christmas tree made from recycled cardboard, which has the benefit of not dropping any needles. A scented Christmas candle with a cinnamon and clove fragrance will soon put paid to any longing you may have for the Christmassy aroma of pine needles.
The biggest dilemma has to be eco friendly Christmas gifts and undoubtedly the best rule is less is more. Buy only those gifts that you can’t make yourself, that are from sustainable sources and that will give long term pleasure. Wool is a good place to start for ethical Christmas gifts. A warm, soft alpaca scarf and fingerless gloves will put a smile on anyone’s face, especially if the items are handmade by a cooperative. Gardening gift ideas are a safe bet too, like Gardeners friends plant labels or an allotment kit for those new to the pleasures of growing vegetables.
But what about the kids? Surely they’ll want the latest electronic wizardry that has been mercilessly plugged on TV? Call me old fashioned, but I don’t believe that a traditional Christmas gift of a toboggan is ever going to be spurned. Owning a real wooden sledge that will outpace and outlive its plastic impersonators should be a source of pride to any child. And recycled Christmas gifts can work well too. A reindeer swing made from a recycled tyre will be popular with girls and boys alike, until they hit that awkward teenage stage when swings are as cool as Dads dancing at the disco.
At least there should be no dilemma about how to spend Christmas night. Santa may not be able to get down the chimney any more, but with a wood burning stove its still possible to use a chestnut roaster and toasting fork to rustle up that quintessential Christmas snack. Better get foraging for some local chestnuts.
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For many years I have afforded myself a little pat on the back when I‘ve served up Christmas dinner. Not because the turkey was moist (true most of the time) or because the sprouts weren’t soggy (true some of the time), but because the vegetables were mine. Mine I say, all mine! They were grown with my own fair hands and nurtured so that they came good in late December, which as every vegetable grower knows is not as easy as it sounds. A cold snap can leave the sprouts pea sized and a warm spell can have them explode. More often than not though our Christmas feast has been of home grown veg.
This year and in years to come I think we could do better and its figs that have made me think this. We have a sprawling fig tree on the front of our house and each autumn the crop of soft fragrant fruits has increased making we wonder if we could make our very own figgy pudding. And if so, what else could we make in future?. It may not be possible to attribute the fecundity of our fig tree to climate change, but it does seem likely that in years to come we will be able to grow many foodstuffs that previously wouldn’t have survived here. A locally grown Christmas dinner may not be so far off.
I am not of course seeking to promote the benefits of a warmer globe. The consequences will be catastrophic. We take our responsibility for minimising our impact on the environment very seriously and won’t consider selling a product before careful scrutiny of its provenance and eco credentials. And we will be in London in force on the 5th December to join the Campaign Against Climate Change march. But nevertheless one of the consequences of the UK getting wetter and warmer is that some crops will do better. Already it is a mystery to me why its not possible to buy locally grown figs in the supermarket, which taste far superior to those flown in from the Med. But just imagine what else will be possible in 10 years time? Will we be able to have our cake and eat it?
This depends of course on what you consider the essential ingredients are for a five star Christmas dinner. For me, the further I get into the meal the more difficulty I have sticking to local. A starter of smoked salmon and quails eggs is a doddle and we are awash with great local meat, root veg and brassicas, but where we start to come a bit unstuck is the cranberry sauce, although I am told there are varieties of cranberry which thrive here. The Christmas pudding though is made almost exclusively from imported ingredients. The dried fruit could be locally sourced at a push (surely it is only a matter of time before we see British raisins, sultanas and dried apricots in the shops) but the climate required for cinnamon and cloves is not, I’m pleased to say, forecast for the UK. If it were ever that warm, there would be no one left to eat the dinner!
On a cheerier note, we can already enjoy plenty of good local booze. We have stout for making the Christmas pud, excellent sparkling wine to kick things off and then decent still white wine to wash down the turkey. Natural fig candles too will help set the scene. But alas a warmer climate means the prospect of snow at Christmas is increasingly remote, so make the most of it while you can. Buy a toboggan and if there is any snow, reduce your carbon footprint by getting out there rather than sitting in front of the telly. Then give yourself another pat on the back.
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A curious thing about panama hats is that they are not from Panama at all. They are from Ecuador. And equally curious is that when I visited Ecuador recently no one was wearing a panama hat. Lots of Ecuadorians wear hats, either to protect their heads from the powerful sun (Ecuador is on the Equator) or to keep their heads warm (much of Ecuador is above 3,000m so the nights are very cool). But for some reason the hat of choice for Ecuadorians is a felt trilby, and not a panama.
I have given a lot of thought to this and the best analogy I can think of is a gold mine. In the villages around a gold mine you don’t see anyone wearing gold jewellery. The occasional gold tooth maybe, but locals don’t adorn themselves with gold bracelets and rings. This is because all the gold is exported. It’s too valuable for local consumption. In the same way, if you visit a British fishing village and try to buy fish you’re unlikely to have any luck. All fish are whipped straight up to the fish markets in the big cities, with the locals hardly getting a look in.
And yet panama hats are a really important part of Ecuador’s identity and their manufacture provides 1000s of much needed jobs. They are immensely proud of their panama hats and their long tradition of weaving. But after many attempts to agree a quality classification system that ensures you get what you pay for, much the like the French AOC wine classification, there is still no consensus. No two weavers can agree on the same system for grading hats, so as a consequence buying a panama hat can be fraught.
Some weavers judge the quality by holding the hat up to the light and counting the rings in the crown. This does give an indication of quality, and shows the considerable skill involved in making a panama hat, but it doesn’t provide a definitive grade. Similarly, a high price is an indication of high quality, but it doesn’t guarantee it. If that hat is under £40, it is not going to be a genuine high quality panama hat, but if it is over £40 it may not be either.
Maybe the best solution is to get the United Nations involved. Not as a fighting force to keep the peace, but to provide an incentive to put aside differences. This is what happened recently with the tango, South America’s much loved dance. After decades of feuding, Argentina and Uruguay agreed to bury their differences about where the dance originated so that the tango could be added to the UNESCO world heritage list. Being on the list brings with it considerable kudos and financial assistance, that would benefit all genuine panama makers. Maybe if the weavers of Ecuador could agree to disagree, then UNESCO would recognise the cultural importance of the panama hat, but to Ecuador of course not to Panama.
For more information about Panama hats, please watch the following videos:
Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (1/3)
Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (2/3)
Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (3/3)
Further reading:
The Panama Hat Trail by Tom Miller
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Apparently King James I encouraged his subjects to plant mulberry trees in an attempt to cash in on the booming silk trade. However, it turned out that silk worms were fussier than he had realised. They eat only the leaves of the white mulberry tree, and not the black mulberry which is the only one which can survive in our climate.
Thankfully alpacas, which were also imported for their silky soft alpaca wool, have adapted better. They also have very cute faces.
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In my experience, whatever the weather there are always winners and losers in the vegetable garden. The rains in July brought the return of the dreaded potato blight, but the sunnier than average August has meant plump, ripe sweetcorn and squashes. All too much for a traditional Sussex trug!]]>
Like many people this autumn, we have had an abundance of apples. Cookers will store, but our Katy and Discovery dessert apples will not. So, we filled one of our vintage crates and left it by the gate with a Help Yourself sign. They soon vanished. The children then used a friend's apple press to make a dozen or so bottles of juice. But there were still more apples.
So this weekend, we had an archery tournament. Hitting the conventional target was easy enough, but hitting the apples proved more difficult. I guess William Tell must have been more practised!
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You know sometimes you get free seed packets with your magazine or newspaper. I don't usually get round to sowing them as I invariably have more than enough seeds of my own. This summer though I was seduced into trying these small reddish brown fellas.
They have been ok, but I realise now that our farmyard really needs the blaze of late summer yellow that traditional sunflowers bring. These would look grand in a luxurious border at Great Dixter, but next year I think I will return to the more familiar yellow flowers, which is what our favourite garden bird food is made from.
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Our light sussex chicks, seen here with their silkie foster mother, are now 6 weeks old. If they had been intensively farmed for their meat, they would have been on the supermarket shelves by now! As it is they have all the time in the world to sit and watch the world go by. With a bit of luck they'll start laying this side of Christmas.
The fertile eggs came by post from Pippin Eggs. Great service.
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Last night when I headed off to the veg patch with my trug I was a bit short on ideas. We had friends coming for supper, a bowl of scallops, but nothing else. As it turned out the trug quickly filled with small chard leaves, flat leaf parsley, rocket (the few leaves that the flea beetles had missed), red lettuce, beetroot, garlic and fennel bulbs. By the time I had mandolined by way through it all (and my finger tip), added some olive oil and the juice from a lime buried at the bottom of the fruit bowl, we had a very respectable salad. Who says there's nothing for supper!]]>
I have tried a new sort of courgette this year, black forest, which the catalogue says can be trained up a trellis. It was slow to get going, but now its thick stem is heading for the sky at an alarming rate. It must like the rain! Thankfully it is also producing a steady stream of fruits which so far I have managed to catch before they get to the marrow stage.]]>
This summer has been good for butterflies in our garden. There have been plenty of them and they have kept off the brassicas. Some have enjoyed the rare glimpses of sun by basking on the beans, like this comma butterfly earlier today.
The future doesn't look good though for many butterfly species. The decline in the plants upon which butterfly larvae depend, as pointed out in a recent Countryside Survey report in Wales, will have a knock on effect on the butterfly population. Enjoy them while you can.
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I have just taken a quick tour around the garden in search of honey bees. There were lots of bumblebees enjoying the lavender and verbena bonariensis, possibly helped by our bumblebee nesters, but I couldn't find a single honey bee. Maybe one reason is the neonicotinoid pesticides which are still permitted despite being known to kill honey bees. The Soil Assocition has started a petition calling on Hilary Benn to have neonicotinoid pesticides banned This is important so please sign and forward to your friends.]]>
Its difficult not to be alarmed by the rate at which our insect population is being depleted. Habitats are disappearing, desease is rife and now we read about the invasion of Asian harlequin ladybirds that seems akin to the introduction of grey squirrels 50 years ago. They are varacious predators, stronger and meaner than the natives.
So what can we do? Vigilante action might backfire unless your identification skills are 100%. Probably a better option is to make sure you have parts of your garden that are ladybird friendly. Different species have different preferences, but conifers, leaf litter and a ladybird nesting box is a good place to start.
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Much though I love fennel I have never thought of growing it before. I tend to grow vegetables that I think will taste noticeably better if home grown and I wasn't sure that fennel could taste any better. But this year the seed catalogues got the better of me and I have given it a try. I haven't tasted it yet but it looks lovely.]]>
The high tech machines that plastic wrap these post modern bales are pure genius. They spin the bales around and stretch over the blue plastic in a matter of seconds. Ands its all so that the cows can have rotting grass to feast on through the winter.]]>
As part of the Guardian's creativity in the classroom series, poet John Hegley asked a child to describe the difference between a dog and a deckchair. The response was,"Deckchairs don't fly", of course. I like that.
We have been receiving a steady stream of wonderful scarecrow photos, as you can see, and will be publishing a gallery shortly. We have also received a scarecrow poem, which we thought you might enjoy...
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We had a surprise visitor to our office this afternoon. During the morning a pair of swallows flew in for a quick recky and flew out again, and then this afternoon this little fellow flew in but struggled to find his way out. Its amazing to think that in a few months he will find his way to Africa and then next summer hopefully return here. I'll make a note in my diary to see if he flies into the office again on the 19th May 2010!]]>
I made a note in my diary that the early avola peas that I sowed 60 days ago should be ready now. Some chance! And I thought we had had a good start to the summer. They are up and winding their way through the pea sticks, but not a flower in sight. Maybe it has been just too dry.
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Some years ago I put in raised beds and I'm very pleased I did. Growing your own veg is so much more pleasurable when you feel on top of things and raised beds do that. They make weeding and crop rotation easier and generally make you feel like you're winning.
The only downside I can think of is that they are head height for the rabbits, and act rather like a buffet!
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This spring I have germinated all my seeds in a mixture of coir compost and peat free multi-purpose compost. The mixture is coarser than classic seed compost, but this doesn't seem to have held back the seeds.
In a few days I will pop the coir pots into ground and cover them if a frost seems likely. I will keep a few back in the cold frame though just in case I get caught out!
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At long last the government has woken up to the dramatic fall in bee numbers and the devastating effect this could have on crops. Too little too late, but £10 million to research the decline in bees is better than nothing.
So while we're waiting for the results of this research, its important we do all we can to provide nesting, shelter and food for as many bees as possible. Bumblebee nests are a good option, but its just as important to leave well alone all the potential nesting sites like cracked wood and concrete that you might otherwise want to tidy up.
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I can see why the Japanese love their blossom. Just as the plum and peach are fading, in comes the pear. And the cherry and apple are just itching to get going too. Even though it happens every year, it never fails to bowl me over.
Its a reminder that summer is just around the corner. Time to dust off those deckchairs!
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I have to take my hat off to those guys at River Cottage. A couple of years ago I went on their Build and Bake course and it inspired me to build my own wood fired oven in the garden. Making it was great fun. All the kids got involved at different stages and they love cooking in it now. This Sunday was flat breads and roast chicken, cooked exactly as it shows with the door open. Simple and absolutely delicious.
Good luck to the Grofun guys who want to build one.
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It is so exciting to see the first shoots of asparagus. All of the family love asparagus, so I'm not the only one to be salavating.
I put in a 10 ariane crowns last year and watched longingly as they grew and then went to seed. This year we can start to pick the shoots and I'm sure it will have been worth the wait.
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With all the sunshine last week it was time to get the hammocks out, but it now feels like we were premature. It doesn't feel like hammock weather at all today.
Its been so windy that the peas and broad beans have decided to remain hidden underground and I don't blame them. The lettuce seems to be about the only crop that is keen to get going, but it has had the benefit of a cold frame.
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This warm spell has brought the ladybirds out in force. I haven't seen any aphids for them to feast on yet, but no doubt they'll be hatching soon. The wingless females hatch first.
Ladybirds are so good to have around, everyone should encourage them. Ivy is good nesting territory, but if you don't want ivy you could try a ladybird nest.
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The cold snap in February seems to have delayed the onset of spring for some plants. There were no daffs out by St Davids Day and the hellebores are only just getting going. But it was worth the wait. They are as delicate and exotic as ever.
And they can be brought into the house. If you cut the stems they will droop within a day, but if you pick just the flower heads and float them in a shallow dish they will look stunning for at least a week. A lovely start to spring.
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We had a visit from a sparrowhawk yesterday and witnessed at very close range how cunning and desperate they can be. It spotted a philadephus bush which is home to a good many sparrows and whipped round it time and time again like it was trying to hypnotise the sparrows inside. The sparrows held tight though and after 15 minutes the sparrowhawk left empty handed.
At this time of year when small garden birds are reckying their nesting places, its good to see that a simple bush can provide life saving protection. Although it did mean of course that the sparrowhawk had to go without any supper.
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Seeing the blackbirds hopping around on our frozen lawn its difficult to imagine that the nest building season is about to begin. But it is so its time to start thinking about cleaning out old nest boxes and hanging new ones. This is the time when birds start scouting out prospective nesting places so the sooner your get your new bird box up the more likely you are to have it used this year.
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Most vegetables die off at the first sight of cold weather. There are some though that seem to thrive in it, like cavelo nero. A light dusting of snow makes it look even more appetising than normal.
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It has been so cold recently, its amazing that the birds survive. If they don't die of cold they surely will die of starvation.
We can't do much about the cold, but we can help the food supply. Peanut feeders are popular with garden birds all year and they are defeat even the most cunning of squirrels.
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We have had such bitter cold mornings. Getting out of bed has been a difficult but the garden has looked spectacular.
All the deadheads and long grasses that we leave for the insects and birds look wonderful with a coating of frost. How lucky we never get round to tidying up the herbaceous border.
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Our hens work hard all year laying eggs for us so its quite right they should have some time off. Its just unfortuante that they all decide to take their winter break at the same time.
Hopefully we will have eggs again by Christmas.
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We don't have much to harvest from our vegetable garden at this time of year. Parsnips, cabbage and sprouts is about it. But there are also a few Barbietola di Chioggia beetroot left which seem not to have suffered from being left in the ground since the early summer. And they still look so pretty.]]>
We have an old beehive in our orchard which I am very fond of. It reminds me of my father leaping about in his beekeepers boilersuit and hair net trying to remove the one bee which had managed to find its way inside. And he never even liked honey!
I have never had the courage to keep honey bees myself, as I don't think I would be able to devote the time that's needed for the health checks. But we do have nesting places for solitary bees in our pollinating bee log and for bumblebees in our new bumblebee nest.
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This weekend we filled a barrow with bramleys to store for the winter. They are surpirsingly small given all the rain but they are beautifully red. The sunny October has made them look more like eaters than cookers.
As well as storing the last of the autumn harvest, its also a good time to plant radar onion sets, garlic and aquadulce broadbeans. And to cover rhubarb with a rhubarb forcer.
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The wind has been battering the trees all night and now the lawn is covered in leaves. The sweet chestnut, beech and field maple will cling onto theirs for sometime, but the walnut is now almost leafless.
Walnut leaves make great leaf mold, particularly if they are mixed with hazel and cherry (sounds like a fruit cake in the making). Pack them tighly into jute leaf sacks and this time next year there will be leaf mold almost good enough to eat.
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Just as I thought the summer veg had come to an end I notice the globe artichokes have produced a handsome second crop. I planted new plugs this year and they have done us proud.
We probably have more than we can eat now, so I have dipped into Piers Warren's How to Store Your Garden Produce. I might try freezing them.
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Our walnut tree is heavily laden with nuts this year, but the squirrels and crows are doing their damnest to remove every last nut before we can get our hands on them. Thankfully the windy weather over the last couple of days has brought down more than they can scrump, as long as we're quick.
We'll leave them to dry in these organic string bags and then look forward to a winter of cracking nuts.
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The glorious sunshine of the last few days has done a good job of ripening the winter squashes so they should store well through the winter. The onion squashes are a bit on the small side considering how much rain we have had, but the butternuts have been prolific. It looks like I will need a few more traditional garden trugs.]]>
This wet summer hasn't been kind to butterflies. Only the cabbage whites seem to have thrived.
But during these last few days there has been a flurry of small tortoiseshells, particularly on the over ripe apples. Maybe the fermented apple juice gives them courage to face the winter.
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Last year we waited until mid October to make apple juice, but this year we have started earlier. This weekend we made 15ltrs from 5 tyre trugs filled with Katy and Discovery apples. The juice is light, fragrant and a wonderful deep pink.
Compared with the later greener varieties, there seemed to be a lot more juice. Or maybe its just an upside of all this rain.
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Despite caging my brassicas, they have a fair smattering of caterpillars.
It is a mystery to me how the butterflies get in to the cage to lay their eggs as the holes are smaller than the butterflies. Maybe they drop their egss from outside, dambuster style?
If I remove the cage the birds will feast on the caterpillars. But they will also devour the cabbages!
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There are few things more depressing than returning home after 2 weeks holiday to find the early signs of potato blight. Most years I have sprayed with Bordeaux mixture, but this year I never got round to it and now I'm paying the price. I will have to burn the tops, bin most of the spuds and avoid planting potatoes there for at least 2 years.
At least the sunflowers look cheerful. And as they dry up the birds will be able to feast on the seeds. If you're looking for garden bird foods, sunflowers are difficult to beat.
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I am quite shocked at how few insects we seem to have in the garden this summer. Bees seem to be doing well, which may in part be due to our pollinating bee logs and bug boxes, but butterflies and ladybirds have all but vanished. We have plenty of ivy covered logs, which is meant to be a haven for ladybirds, but a quick inspection found none. At least there was one on the clmbing beans.]]>
Purple peas may not be the tastiest, but the pods are stunning. Its a shame there are not any delicious purple varieties.
Purple beans on the other hand are very good to eat, particularly the climbing variety Blauhilde. The poor weather in the early summer has held ours back somewhat, which should mean there will be some left when we get back from our summer holiday. There's nothing worse than returning from holiday just as the beans are going over.
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Flowers used to be covered in brightly coloured butterflies at this time of year. This year, even the spikey verbena bonarienses is butterflyless. Hopefully it is just the wind, and once it drops they will reappear.
Sadly the wind doesn't seem to have the same effect on the cabbage white butterfly. A hurricane wouldn't stop them laying their eggs on my brassicas.
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The downpours of the last few days have pummeled the peas and sweet peas. They look forlorn and bedraggled and are in danger of toppling over.
But most plants have loved it. It is as if they were waiting for a good soaking before really getting going. The sweetcorn, courgettes and squashes have doubled in size in a week. Unfortuantely so have the weeds!
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After a long wait of 120 days we are now eating our first peas. The pods are not as full as they could be due to the lack of rain, but they still taste divine. We are also starting to eat sugar snap peas which seem to have coped better with the dry weather.
And we are growing a few heritage peas from Ryton, which look stunning. This variety is called Victoria. I'm looking forward to see what Beltony's Blue and Lancashire Lad look like.
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Part of the pleasure in seeing potatoes flowering is that it means they are ready to be lifted. In reality this only applies to early potatoes. Maincrop varieties, like these Desiree ones, are best left for another month or two so that you get a mix of jacket potato sized ones and roast potato sized ones.
For the next month or so we can enjoy the mouthwatering first earlies, surely the most delicious of home grown veg.
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Our overwintered onions will be ready to harvest once we get a few days of decent sunshine. In the meantime I have discovered a brilliant use for the lush onion tops before they wither away. Fry them up and add them to a tortilla, according to the latest Moro East cook book. Now, can someone suggest a good use for all those broad bean pods (other than composting them)?
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At the Chelsea flower show this year the much maligned foxglove was back in vogue. Mostly in tasteful whites or pale pinks, but there was also the occasional magenta. They do have a habit of self seeding a bit too freely, but they are very welcome nonetheless. They add a natural flare to borders and paths. And where would the bees be without their trumpets to hide in?
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There are so many varieties of lettuce its difficult to know which to grow. The cos variety on the left, Paris Island, makes the best ceasar salad, but it is a bit too crisp for a mixed salad. Little Gem is a more versatile cos.
The loose leaf variety on the right is Bergamo, which has pretty bright green leaves and mixes well with rocket and herbs. Perfect with grilled goats cheese.
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Everything in the garden seems to have liked the warm wet weather of the last few days. The broad beans are a little battered from the wind and some of the lettuces have suffered from slug attacks, but most things have doubled in size. And the shades of green have changed from yellowy lime to rich verdant.
The elderflower is out in force so now is the time to pick flowers to make elderflower cordial before they go over, using pink or white flowers. Equally important is to grab some citric acid from your chemist before they sell out. By early June you're likely to be out of luck. If you need a simple, tastey elderflower cordial recipe, drop me an email.
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After years of battling against the weeds and losing, last year we re-did our fruit cage. We decided that trying to cram strawberries and raspberries into the same cage was a mistake and that the weedy soil needed an overhaul. So out went all the fruit and in came more barrows of rotted manure than I would care to count. All dolloped on top of a layer of cardboard, which in turn was covered with a foot of straw. Two dozen Garguette and Mae plants, both early strawberries, were then sunk into holes along with more manure and since then the cage has been left largely to its own devices. It is now a sea of healthy strawberry plants, all dotted with white flowers, and not a weed in sight. We just have to hope the mice don't get to the strawberries before we do.]]>
This is the time of year when female mason bees are hard at work laying their eggs and collecting nectar for the lavae which will hatch later in the year. Each egg is laid in its own compartment in a tube and when a tube is full of compartments it is sealed over with mud.
These bees are invaluable pollinators and I have never known anyone get stung by one. As they don't make hoeny they don't attack you if you go near their nests and as they all work alone their is no danger of being set upon by a swarm. If you don't have enough natural habitats for them, a pollinating bee log or bug box will do the trick very nicely.
]]>Everywhere I turn at the moment there seems to be a bumblebee hunting for a nesting space. This beauty, which I think is a buff-tailed queen (with the wonderful species name of Bumbus terrestris) paused for breath on our garden riddle, before continuing its search.
The demise of the bumblebee has prompted the HDRA to ask its members to record sightings throughout the summer. If you register, you will receive some nice colour pictures so all the family can enjoy charging round the garden trying to identify them. And they are very unlikely to ever sting you.
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In Oxfordshire we often see red kites. They were introduced to the Chilterns 20 years ago by Paul Getty and have been an astonishing success. Its not uncommon to see several in the sky at once and to hear their screeches.
Thankfully they only eat carrion so our hens are safe, but our underwear may not be as they are known to steal knickers from the washing line to line their nests. A small price to pay in my view.
One minute there's nothing and the next they're shooting out of the ground like nails in a James Bond torture sequence.
For the next few weeks we can enjoy one of the tastiest seasonal vegetables there are. It knocks the all year round imported stuff into a cocked hat.
To satisfy demand from an asparagus loving family I have planted a second bed, this time the early variety Ariane. Unfortunately we will have to wait a year before we can harvest it.
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Last year my paranoia of pigeons meant I kept our early broad beans so well protected that even the bumble bees couldn't get to them. Which meant that they were less well pollinated and so many of the flowers never made it to beans.
This year I have planted some rosemary at the end of the bed, which is one of the few plants to flower at the same time as overwintered broad beans so it should attract pollinators. This is good for the beans, but also good for the bees, which need every help they can get. As well as a shortage of food, bees are struggling to find nesting places in our tidy gardens. If you can't live with a messy garden, but would like to help bees, do please consider hanging a pollinating bee log or bug box. They are easy to make and are unusual garden accessories, even in a tidy garden.
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This horse chestnut is 12 years old. It was given to us by a friend who grew it from a conker. We planted it in a hedge so it's unlikely to reach the height of other chestnuts but it nevertheless seems very happy.
These sticky buds look good enough to eat. Which is what horses can do with ground conkers. Which is why they are called horse chestnuts. Now you know.
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Our birdboxes have seen a lot of action already this year. The blue tits have been checking out their options for a few weeks and every box now seems to have residents.
The birds seem to cope well with the snow (unlike British Airways) and keep singing, but they find it more difficult to find food when its cold so keeping the garden bird foods topped up is important. Bird seed sunfllowers are a good option at this time of year as the seeds are fine for adult birds and their fledglings.
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At last its the rhubarb season again! Usually by now we have gloriously bright pink stems poking up through the darkness of our rhubarb forcer. But this year the strong winds seem to have dislodged the lid, which has meant the yellows and pinks have given way to greens and reds. I'm sure it will taste just as good though, especially with a liberal dousing of elderflower cordial.
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Now is not the time to rest on your laurels when the first lettuces start to show, but to sow the next row. This year I have been trying wine boxes, which seem to have the advantage of providing a barrier to slugs. I'm not sure if it is the rough wood, or wether they just haven't spotted them yet, but so far so good.
Another invaluable option for bringing seedlings on are paper pots made by a paper potter. They too seem to provide a better barrier for slugs than seed trays.
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Its that time of year when males can be very territorial. We have had a cock pheasant living in our garden for a few months (the one on the left) and in the past few days he has had to see off several intruders. So far he has succeeded, despite being smaller than most.
There is no sign of a hen, but maybe she is sitting somewhere under a bush. Let's hope the foxes stay away.
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The cabbages we are about to start eating are a variety called January King. I'm not sure our crop is fine enough to merit the title King, and clearly the January bit has misfired, but they nevertheless have a texture and colour which is very appetising. We have had so little rain for the past few weeks that they have not filled out as much as they should, but at least the lack of rain seems to have kept the slugs at bay.
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Time to start spring cleaning the greenhouse. It has kept us in salad all winter but it won't be long before I will need the space for tender tomatoes and chillies. And yet it seems such a shame when the mustard is full of the colour of spring.
I'm not sure why the early spring is so dominated by yellow. Daffs, primroses, cowslips and mahonia are the only colour we have in the garden at the moment and they're all yellow. Maybe its a wake up call for the pollinating insects.
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Another week and another page on the the PR calandar. This time its Fairtrade Fortnight which is a cause close to our hearts. The primary focus of the Fairtrade Foundatoin has been on helping small farmers get a fair price for their crops like these fairtrade red bananas in Tanzania. Some economists argue that price guarantees do not help economies to grow, but on balance it must be a good thing.
And the focus of fairtrade is now broadening to other small producers which have traditoinally been exploited, like the production of panama hats in Ecuador. Our fairtrade panama hats come from a women's cooperative which guarantees good working conditions and fair wages to all its weavers. Let's hope it won't be long before all hats are made this way.
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Every cause tries to lay claim to a week in the PR calendar these days. This week is national nest box week. Hats off to the BTO which succeeded in getting a good piece onto the Today programme this morning, using two architect designed birdboxes as the story.
Both houses are wonderfully creative visions of the sort of homes they would like birds to live in. But if you would rather have something which is easy to make and clean, which naturally blends into your garden there are simpler birdbox designs. If you want to make it a bit more exotic, you could always try a sedum nest box, which is good for the birds and for the environment.
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Cleaning flower pots and seed trays is not something that I imagine anyone relishes, but it is worth the effort. I find a combination of a pot brush and an old vegetable brush will brush up most plastic and terracota pots pretty well.
The reason is to avoid residual pests and soil borne infections which can destroy new seedlings. A small amount of soil left on the side of a pot can be enough to harbour desease. If you're feeling particularly energetic a scrub with a natural disinfectant such as white vinegar should see off any last bugs.
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1st Feb is the start of the snowdrop season. Many will have been flowering for sometime, but the next couple of weeks is the best time to take a stroll to admire these wonders of mid-winter.
I reckon in our garden we have no more than 3 varieties of snowdrop, but in some you will find over 200. To find the best snowdrop walks near you, go to www.ngs.org.uk or www.rhs.org.uk.
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With the wind howling and the rain pouring, counting birds may not be a pastime that springs to mind, but the weather should improve by the weekend which is when the RSPB wants us to tell them how many birds we have in our gardens. All you have to do is sit by a window for an hour (our kids sit in the kitchen sink) and count how many of which type of bird you see at any one time. If you see 2 blue tits and then 3, your total becomes 3 not 5. Then fill in the results online and they will let you know the results in due course. Its fun.
If you want to attract more birds into your garden, I can recommend a peanut feeder or a bird seed sunflower. Both help brighten up your garden at this time of year.
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Its only the middle of January but the dawn chorus is getting louder and it won't be long before the birds start checking out possible nesting places for the spring. This means if you have a new birdbox its time to put it up and if you have birdboxes already up its time to give them a clean. No chemicals, just remove any old nesting material so that any new residents can build their own new nest.
And repair any damage too. The hole in this box has been pecked and gnawed so much that I need to patch it up to give the blue tits the privacy they demand. If you don't have one and want to build a bird box or buy a birdbox, now is a good time.
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We have a short path lined with miscanthus floridus, which is a strong, tall grass. Last summer's wet weather pushed it to new heights (2.5m) and it now forms an arch of sorts.
By late autum it loses its green and becomes a papery brown. Some years I have cut it down at this point, but this year I have left it alone and I think I will do in future. It has not only provided interest at this bleak time of year, but has also provided a valuable barrier to the gusty winds we have had recently. The birds as well as the early vegetables have been grateful for it.
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There are few more rewarding sights at this time of year than seeing new crops bursting through. I sowed my Acquadulce broad beans in November and nothing had appeared by Christmas. And then suddenly, as if they had been waiting for the new year, a healthy looking row of shoots. It will be May before they are ready for picking, and probably only a couple of weeks ahead of the Witkeim I will sow in a few weeks time, but at least in the meantime there is something admire!
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We have had a couple of weeks of clear blue skies and stunning frosts, which make even the most mudane parts of the garden look stunning. I never like cutting things back until I really have to, and this is why. Dead heads dusted with frost are one of the joys of the winter. The birds also appeciate it as well.
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Just as I start getting excited about the vegetables we will be eating over the Christmas period I realise that the wretched pigeons have got amongst the brassicas and caused havoc. The calabrese may well recover in the spring, but the cabages and sprouts are looking very sorry for themselves. Does anyone know of a good way to keep pigeons away other than netting?
And if you fancy roast pigeon for Christmas dinner, you only need to ask!
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At this time of year frosted seed heads look wonderful and they provide an important food source for garden birds. So resist the temptation to tidy herbaceous borders, and instead spend the time more productively making Christmas pudding and mince pies!
If your garden is short of seed heads and other natural bird food, you can supplement with bird seed sunflowers, which are very nutritious for the birds as well as being an eye catching addition to your garden.
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I read recently that rosehips are at their best after the first frost, much like parsnips. That’s not to eat, but to make rosehip wine.
Apparently wine is easy to make, but I’ve never really fancied it. Too many memories of student homebrew. If I was going to make hedgerow wine, I think I would go for elderberry or blackberry. Maybe next year.
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Do parsnips really taste better after the first frost? I doubt it. But I do like the idea of having to hold off eating them until the winter sets in. It forces you to eat them in season, ideally par boiled, then sprinkled with parmesan and flour, before being roasted. One of Delia's better tips.
The problem is that after a hard frost like we had last week the tops will soon die off making them more difficult to find!
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Our hens have finally finished moulting and are now showing off their winter feathers. The Welsummers look particularly healthy, even though they are now too old to lay.
If you like the idea of keeping hens but haven't got enough space, you can always try recycled plastic hens. These are made in South Africa and make a fun Christmas present. They are easy to look after, but you won't get any eggs I'm afraid.
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Until this year my brassicas have been terrible. Year after year I have dutifully planted sprouts and cabbage plants in the hope of enjoying a winter of healthy green veg but they have invariably been poor at best. Until now that is.
I have discovered there are two secrets to successful brassicas. Impenetrable netting and firm ground. I placed a cage over the plants this summer and as a consequence the pigeons have had to look on in dismay as the cabbages have flourished. And when the plants went in I pressed hard down on the surrounding soil, which is meant to stop the spouts disintegrating just as they get to an edible size. Luckily we all like sprouts!
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Green salad is something most of us associate with the summer months. Cos lettuce to make a crunchy ceasar salad or butterhead for salad nicoise. But it is possible to grow salad in the winter and in some ways it is more staisfying than in the summer when there is such an abundance of veg.
Chicory and endive are traditional salads to grow in the winter, but I have never had much success with either. What has worked well for us is a leafy salad mix called Oriental Saladini (Thanks for the tip, Phil). Last year a couple of rows sown over a soakerhose in the greenhouse kept us in salad all winter and this year looks like being the same.
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A windy weekend and suddenly the trees look bare and the lawn is carpeted with leaves. The smaller leaved willow and birch are still hanging onto theirs, but the walnut and chestnut seem to have found the wind too strong.
An hour sweeping up and bagging now will pay dividends later in the year. After a shower of rain ram the leaves tighly into leaf sacks and leave them in a quiet corner to compost. In the spring your grass will thank you for not having left soggy leaves all over it and in the autumn you will have some wonderful leaf mulch to spread on your flower beds.
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It's important to keep bird feeders filled all year, but there's no doubt that the birds seem to be more hungry in the winter. We have a range of bird feeders and this new peanut bird feeder seems to be particularly popular now that the first frost has hit hard. The birds love it but the squirrels don't as they can't hang on!
As well as there being less food around for the birds at this time of year, there is also less daylight for them to go foraging in. To mark the clocks going back this Sunday the RSPB is promoting a national feed the birds day. They have arranged lots of events around the country and are providing valuable tips about providing food and shelter. Well worth a browse.
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Hiding behind these bulging mottled skins are my all time favourite kidney bean. Borlotti beans not only look special, they taste special too. They have a sweetish flavour and creamy texture that makes them a perfect partner for just about any meat or fish (sounds like something on the back of a wine bottle). I have also successfully dried borlotti beans. The flecked skins look pretty and they will last for a couple of years, but they are at their best eaten fresh. And now is the time!
At this time of year when our lettuces are looking decidedly depleted, its good to see the rocket is still going strong. We grow two varieties, the yellow flowering wild rocket and the white flowering cultivated rocket. The wild rocket is a perennial with fine puckered leaves and a strong peppery taste. The cutlivated rocket is more susbstantial with broader leaves and a subtler flavour (better for kids who don't like spicey food). Both varieties work a treat with griddled squid and chilli oil, a favourite recipe from the blue River Cafe cook book.
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It’s the time of year to give your hedgehog house a quick once over. First of all check that it doesn’t have any residents in by wedging a piece of straw across the entrance and then checking back a couple of days later. If the straws is still there you can be confident it is not being used, so give it a good scrap out and check it for leaks. Hedgehogs are very adept at making their own nests, so resist the temptation to refill it with leaves or grass.
If you don’t yet have one and are feeling creative you can build you own hedgehog house. It’s easier than it looks. But if you would rather have one ready made delivered to your door you can buy a hedgehog house which is made of FSC oak and larch. This is a thing of real beauty that the fussiest of hedgehogs will find it hard to resist.
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Now that the weather has turned decidedly autumnal we have harvested most of our squashes. We have plenty of gem squashes, but the uchi kuri have suffered from the dry spell towards the end of the summer and not swelled like they usually do. That will teach me for not brandishing my Haws watering can more often! Hopefully they will still make a wonderful nutty risotto.
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We've had a poor crop of apples this year. We have collected a few trugs of our favourite dessert apple, Katy, but all the others, with the exception of the Bramleys, have yielded virtually nothing.
The kids are disappointed as it means its not worth pressing our own juice this year. That is until I pointed out that there is still plenty of juice in the freezer from last year!
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I love the marigolds in our vegetable garden. They are meant to be good for attracting aphid-eating hoverflys and their roots supposedly emit a substance which repels underground pests, but even if this wasn't true I still think they earn their place.
And they go on year after year. They produce so many seeds they never seem to need replemishing. Truly sustainable!
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Our climbing blauhilde beans may have been slow to get going, but they are reaching for the sky now. We have been eating them since early August and they look set to continue for a few weeks yet. But they are so tall that I am going to need a ladder to reach them. They must be a good 3m high.
It seems that all the composting we do has paid off. And its so easy. You can make a compost bin in a couple of hours and then all you need to do is fill it and wait!
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As well as super size sunflowers, the wet summer has also benefited our squashes. We have plenty of gem squashes for eating now and lurking under the rampant jungle of squash plants there appear to be plenty of good size winter squashes.
For the first time I have grown uchiki kuri squashes up a wigwam of hazel stakes. They seem to have enjoyed the climb and have rewarded us with plenty of dangling fruit which should ripen well as the leaves start to fall later in the month.
]]>This summer's torrential rains seem to have benefited our sunflowers which are a couple of feet taller and even more radiant than normal. In a months time once they start to dry off the seeds will provide a rich source of oil and protein for the birds. Just what they need as other food sources start to dry up.
If you didn't get a chance to sow any sunflowers in the spring you can try our birdseed sunflowers, which have the added bonus of being packed with a specially selected blend of mixed seed on the back. When all the seeds have been taken the empty head can be filled with fat or peanut butter.
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Courgettes are one of my favourite vegetables and I long for them to come into season. But once they start they come so thick and fast its a challenge to keep up with them.
This year we have tried four varieties. Nero di Milano is our long time favourite and a steady cropper. Goldie is fun and Partenon is steady but slightly dull. The best find this year has been Costa Romanesque, which looks dramatic with its hairy ribs and tastes wonderful, cooked or raw.
If you are looking for a simple recipe that uses up lots of courgettes, try the Union Square Cafe recipe for Pappardelle of Zucchini. Thinly sliced courgettes are flash fried with tinned tomatoes, garlic, basil, pamesan and cream. A large bowl of this with some crusty bread is one of the highlights of summer. Let me know if you can't get hold of the full recipe.
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We have had a terrible crop of peas this year. Even though the warm wet June and July should have given us a freezer full by now, for some reason we have had to wait until August for our first crop.
This year we have grown a variety called bastion, which are as good as any I have ever tasted, but that might be because we have had to wait so long before tasting them!
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All this rain has meant that the leaves we packed into jute leaf sacks in the autumn have composted faster than normal. In a couple of months they will be ready to spread on the bare ground to stop it being battered too much throughout the winter. Then it will be time to sweep up more leaves!
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The National Bumblebee Nest Survey has confirmed that bumblebees like a bit of mess in a garden. They also like compost heaps, so if you haven't got one yet now is the time to build one. Once you have the right timber you can easily make on in an afternoon.
For those of you with an eye for the bees, you may thinik this looks like the rare ruderal bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus). It is infact a male of a rare colour form of the field cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus campestris). This species attacks the nests of the common carder bumblebee, killing the queen and enslaving the workers. Thanks to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for putting me right on this (www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk).
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We have had terrible problems with germination this year. Despite above average temperatures and buckets of rain, very few seeds have germinated well. The potatoes have loved it and we are now eating our best ever crop of charlottes, but the peas and beans have been poor.
Which is why it is such relief to see the blauhilde beans finally clambering up their poles and the dwarf beans in full flower. They should be at their best just as we go on holiday!
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Last summer I sowed a packet of love-in-the-mist so that the goldfinches would have plenty of nigella seeds to eat in the autumn. They did and I'm sure there were more goldfinches in the garden as a result.
They didn't eat all the seeds though as we have had a similar display this year from self-seeded plants. There may come a time when I will regret sowing something that self-seeds so readily, but for now its wonderful to have such a vivid display (for free) that is so popular with one of my favourite garden birds.
If you don't have space for love-in-the-mist, you could try dangling a bird seed sunflower. This is a natural sunflower with a mixed seed back which is an excellent year round source of protein for garden birds. The seed mix includes nigella.
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A few months ago we laid a sedum roof on our warehouse. After a shaky start when the grass appeared to be winning, it is now a blaze of yellows, whites and pinks.
If you have a flat or pitched felt roof, adding a blanket of sedum is a great way to add a bit of colour and to help the environment. If you don't have a suitable roof, but you fancy a bit of sedum, you could try a sedum birdbox. This is a classic birdbox made from pine offcuts, with a roof tray filled with the same sedum plants we have on our roof. And its just as beautiful.
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If all this rain wasn't bad enough, the weeds are now growing at such a rate its like that game we play with the kids, 'Whats the time Mr Woolf?'. The idea is to creep up on the woolf while he has his back turned. If when he turns round he sees you move you're out. I swear that when I turn my back the weeds are on the move and that its only when I'm staring at them that they stop growing.
At least they are easy to pull up from the soft ground. With the weeds growing so fast I have been leaving a recycled tyre trug permanently out in the vegetable garden so that whenever I'm passing I can sling a few in. It feels like a losing battle though.
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I don't always grow onions as I don't think you can taste the difference between home grown ones and supermarket ones. But this year I put some Demeter sets in in the autumn and they have been a big success. They probably won't taste any different, but they have provided interest all through the winter and with very little effort have survived everything the heavens have thrown at them.
I'm looking forward to trying a few thin slices on top of a tomato salad, but with so little sun around it could be green tomoto chutney where they'll end up!
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We have Green Woodpeckers and Spotted Woodpeckers in our garden at present. Before they are seen they can often be heard tapping away at a tree trunk trying to entice out the bugs. They are also quite happy to dine on the lawn or on rotting logs we have left in the hedgerows.
If you want the bugs in your garden, but don't like the idea of rotting logs, then you can try a bug box. These are easy to hang and look good on a wall or fence. They might also be popular with woodpeckers!
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We have been plagued by rabbbits for the past few years, but at least in the past I would catch a few each summer (in humane traps). But this year I have caught only one and yet there are more rabbits than ever. How do they learn to ignore the juicy carrot inside the trap? Do I need to change the bait or change tack completely? Beans seem to be about the only thing they will leave alone.
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This is the time of year when it is easy to sit back and admire the lettuces filling out and to forget to sow more. A good rule of thumb is to sow every two weeks, ideally when rain is forecast.
These are two lettuces with a good heart. Little Gen on the left and Marvel of Four Seasons on the right. All they need now is a splash of red wine vinegar and some extra virgin olive oil! And maybe some croutons....
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I don't ever remember more delicious potatoes than this year's Earlies, a variety called Colleen. They are firm, sweet and smooth and melt in your mouth. We have been eating them for a week or so now but already they are getting that little bit too large so that they can break up when boilled. Guess we better hurry up and eat the rest then!
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No wonder our early broad beans struggled with pollination. Apparently the bumblebee population is falling fast. Like hedgehogs and hedge sparrows, nobody is quite sure why. Which is why the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk) is undertaking a major survey and is keen to hear which bees you have in your garden. If you're not sure about identification, you can always email them a photo.
Thankfully our flowering chives seem to have brought the bumblebees back, at least for the time being.
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Our witkeim broadbeans are flowering nicely now, but the dreaded blackfly is on the move. I have today pinched out the tops, but I never find this makes a huge difference. We have a ladybird house and plenty of ladybird friendly habitats, especially ivy, so we should be ok. A ladybird eats around 5,000 aphids in its year long life, so they should be in for a feast here!
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At last I've managed to photograph one of the inhabitants of our sedum birdbox, a blue tit. There are branches near the entrance which means they are able to dive in with the briefest of pauses and their exit is far too fast for my tardy reactions. But on this occasion, one of them kindly decided to pose for me.
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So it is badgers who are responsible for the decline in the hedgehog population. That's according to the NFU who has had badgers in its sights for a long time. Apparently a recent study has shown that where there are large numbers of badgers there are low numbers of hedgehogs. Is it just possible that badgers adpat better to intensively farmed land?
Whatever the reason, we can all do something to help. Either buy a hedgehog house or make a hedgehog house out of a milk crate and some timber. Leave it in a quiet part of the garden and then at least the hedgehogs stand a fighting chance. And don't forget that hedgehogs like cat food, chopped peanuts and bacon rind, but not cows milk!
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Our Colleen early potatoes which were planted 6 weeks ago are now well on their way. They should be ready for lifting in another 6 weeks. How come potatoes never come up in a straight line?]]>
What would I do without my galvanized watering can? The ground is so dry that there is no chance of anything germinating at present without a daily water. And even then it is a struggle. This is our first row of organic palco spinach, which despite regular watering is very patchy. I will soak some more seeds now and sow seed them into the gaps this evening. At least this drought means less weeding!]]>
My over-wintered broadbeans (Aquadulce) are covered in flowers, but there is a worrying absence of little pods. A recent article by Val Bourne in this month's RHS magazine might explain why.
Apparently bumblebees are the sole pollinators of early broad beans! We have a couple of pollinating bee logs in the garden, but these are designed for mason bees rather than bumblebees. We have plenty of wild garden and grow all the plants recommended by English Nature (buddleia, cornflower, lavender, honeysuckle, rosemary and foxgloves), but only the rosemary is currently in flower. For next year I am going to try underplanting with some Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty', which Val recommends for early nectar.
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It's traditional on St George's Day to make dandelion wine. Its a good way to stop the dandelions from going to seed and its tasty. Here is the BBC's H2G2 recicpe:
Gather eight cups of flowers (not stems), and place into a bowl with an equal amount of cold water. Leave for three days, stirring occasionally.
Strain, and boil for 30 minutes. Add two and a half cups of sugar, and the rind and juice of an orange and lemon, and then let it cool.
Add a teaspoon of yeast to some warm water, and add to the wine. Cover, and leave for two days, to begin fermentation.
Pour into a fermenting jar, and leave for two months before bottling. The wine improves as it matures.
"It doesn't look like the hedgehog house has been used this winter", Debbie said. That very same evening I spotted this little chap! The recent warm weather must have brought him out of his winter sleep. We don't yet know if there is a whole family, but we will be leaving some cat food out just in case.
Hedgehog numbers in the UK are plummeting. There were 2 million in the mid 90s, now there are less than 1 million. Building a hedehog house is an easy way to help.
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We sow most of our lettuce directly into the ground, but we also like to keep a few germinating in pots so that we can transplant them easily. The roots are very fragile though, which is why a paper pot maker is are such a good idea . They are easy to make from old newspaper and can then be planted directly into the soil.
This is the first of our little gems. A good rule for ensuring a continuous supply of lettuce is to sow a new row when the previous row is ready for thinning.
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Traditionally Good Friday is the time for putting in seed potatoes. With the forecast as it is though, it might be better to lie back and enjoy the wonderful weather. Which is what this kite appeared to be doing above our vegetables earlier today.
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A couple of years ago I went to an inspiring talk by the head gardener of Eythrop House who raved about the flavour of the globe artichoke Vert de Laon. The Rothschild family, who still live at Eythrop, had conducted an elaborate tasting and concluded that Vert de Laon beat the ubiquitous Green Globe into a cocked hat. After a good deal of searching I located some Vert de Laon plugs, which have taken very well. Now in their second year I have just cut off and replanted a few suckers. We haven't conducted a taste comparison, but if last year is anything to go by they are one of the highlights of the late summer harvest.]]>
Two rows of ealy potatoes, colleen, have gone in. The potatoes are 30cm apart and the rows slightly closer than I would have liked at 50cm as this is our narrowest bed. Since we harvested the squashes in the autumn this bed has been digesting a thick layer of manure. It's now a wonderful rich loam, perfect for spuds.
It does look like the grave digger has paid us a visit though! Anyone seen those difficult neighbours.......
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Here it is! The pale slender shoots of the rhubard searching for the light. There's not a lot of it I know, but there will be more. Then we can have one of our favourite puds, roasted rhubard with ginger ice cream.
Its really very simple. Wash the rhubard and chop it into inch sized chunks. Peel and finely chop an inch of so of root ginger. Tip both into a rosting tin and sprinkle liberally with sugar or elderflower cordial if you have some. Roast in a medium oven for 20 minutes or so until the rhubarb is tender and starting to get wonderfully unctuous. Serve with a dollop of ginger and choclate ice cream (Waitrose own label is divine).
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Not everyone agrees about the best way to chit potatoes, but in my experience egg boxes are the best. Even the largest ones can be wedged in with the rose end pointing upwards. And the egg box gives you something to write on. If you're like me and you like growing several varieties, then remembering which is which is often the biggest challenge.
The earlies really benefit from chitting as it gives them a head start when they are planted later this month. The mid and main crop varieties chit a bit more slowly, but getting a good start is less important for these as they have all summer to grow.
The earlies we are growing this year are Colleen. They are reported as having a good resistance to blight and scab as well as being good to boil or fry. All too often new potatoes can disintegrate into a gloupy soup when boiled, so we are hoping these will be a little more rubust.
Our salad potatoes are Charlotte, the queen of salad potatoes. Waxy, golden and unbeatable in salads, as long as the worms don't get to them first.
Our main crop are Desiree, which after years of trialing different varieties have become my firm favourite. They grow to a good size relatively unscathed, store well after lifting in late Sep and are invaluable throughout the winter for jackets, roasts and mash. Sunday lunch wouldn't be the same without them!
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Gazing out at the vegetable garden at this time of year fills me with a mix of dread and excitement. I know I need to finish spreading the compost and clearing the sprouts which never quite made it, but it is still so grey and wet. It’s hard to imagine sowing anything for months. But spring is edging closer. And there is no more exciting time than the spring! I just need to get stuck in.
Our soil is a mix of heavy and very heavy clay. 50m to the north is greensand, but you’d never know if from our stodgy ground. Of course the clay benefits some crops and it makes hose pipe bans less disruptive, but there are times when I curse our concrete clods. Trying to prepare a fine tilth requires a pneumatic drill!
We have been growing vegetables here for 10 years and last year took the bold decision to put in raised beds. We have 24, each around 1.2m by 2.4m. Our first year with raised beds was good and we’re hoping this year will be even better.
Our main battle is always with rabbits. We are surrounded on two sides by a large field which has enough rabbits to keep the village in rabbit pie for years. If only someone would shoot them! We have a so-called rabbit proof fence (seen the film? Wasn’t it extraordinary), but like in all the best Walt Disney cartoons the rabbits simply sneer and go under it, over it or round it. Suggestions please!
Last year was good for peas, beans, cucumbers, sweetcorn, tomatoes (many of which are still rolling round the bottom of the freezer) and potatoes. This year should be even better, especially if we can confound the rabbits.