Chicory

Continuing the 'blue skies' theme, the first chicory flowers opened yesterday.. I haven't grown this herb before (you may remember I bought one from Herbal Haven at the Capel Manor show) so it was with great delight that I found it in all its glory.

Dave from Osage and Orange posted a beautiful piece in defense of chicory a while ago, in which he mentioned that the flowers only open for a day. So I grabbed the camera immediately! The plant has thrown up a very tall spike which has many many buds, so although the two blooms from yesterday may not last, I am hoping for more to come.

Capel Manor

Today I went to Capel Manor Gardens for their Spring Show. It is a horticultural college and has 30 acres of beautiful themed gardens, including Sunflower Street - a series of spaces designed for the front and back gardens of normal houses. My favourite was called Rustic Garden and influenced by Tuscany..
















I loved this one, too, which had a formal area with a willow screen in front of a great space for growing veggies with a green house and shed...






And then this garden is just plain pretty..




There was a 'step towards Greener Living' marquee, which was great! I met a wonderful lady from the North London Organic Gardeners Society who pressed a packet of heritage peas collected from her own plants into my palm in return for my meagre 50p donation! How exciting.. she thought they would be OK on my roof and I could pinch them out once they were thigh-high without them minding.. watch this space.



I also picked up a moth and butterfly identification poster and some interesting information about making your garden friendly for wildlife. And I left the marquee with a letter to send to the Secretary of State for the Environment objecting to GM crops and a flyer for an open day at the national collection of hyssop and thyme garden in June.. not a bad morning's work!


















Here are my treasures from the Herbal Haven stall ... I thought I was very restrained, to be honest(!) I got another lovage plant, because its a favourite. I got a chicory, which I have never tried before but hope to use as a salad leaf. I got a bronze fennel, because its SO beautiful and I'm thinking of using the fronds as foliage in vases of cut flowers. And I got some Southernwood - the fragrance is amazing and I'm planning to use it to pack some punch in my herb sachets this year.





If anyone's in the UK and fancies going along, its on Saturday and Sunday this weekend and I'm putting the link here ... there's a real punch & judy show, sheep-shearing and a brass band at the weekend!