Squashes

So you may have noticed that its been very quiet on the vegetable front this year. Hmmmm.

All I can say is, it wasn't for lack of early effort on my part. But our slimy friends, encouraged by the immense and prolonged wet, flourished and rampaged .. and ate everything. And I mean, everything. Except for things in the onion family - my chives, leeks and spring onions have never looked better!

Even young tomato plants were eaten, albeit not as enthusiastically, but when the munchers had munched everything else they nibbled the tops out of the baby tomato plants as they hardened off. Hmmmm.

My sister has an allotment in south London/Kent border and she got about 75% of everything eaten and she used organic slug pellets AND a nemotode. And I saw an article about the weather conditions creating the perfect breeding conditions for a voracious non-native giant slug on the rampage (can't remember where ... think on Soil Association website somewhere).

So at least its not just me!

Anyhow, I tell you all this because then you will understand the great pleasure and satisfaction I have derived from my one vegetable success this year!

Its a summer squash which can be picked young to eat as a ball courgette or left to grow into large summer squashes. What can I tell you.. its tasty, its good-looking and it withstood everything that it had to contend with!

My other courgette and squash plants were just annihilated as soon as they were exposed. With a couple, I waited until they were enormous.. really big leaves and well-formed plants.. I put one out to harden off under a bell cloche and everything. But as soon as I took its lid off its fate was sealed.

This summer squash was planted in a very tall chimney type pot to give it plenty of room to get its roots in.

When I planted out I put in two garden canes at diagonal corners and then covered with a giant polythene bag which I pegged in place to the canes and the lip of the container. And left as long as I could as protection against the elements while the plant hardened off. But it was by no means slug or snail-proof! If you look at the photos carefully you can see that the stems are covered in some fairly lethal prickles .. this possibly helped!

Well, there you go. This versatile new plant has made a life-long friend in me! So I've positioned it alongside the wooden wine crates of leeks to form a discreet curtain in front of my ENTIRELY EMPTY vegetable patch(!!) and give the illusion of lushness and plenty at this harvest time of the year.

And you know what ... I'm thinking of turning that veg bed over to herbs next year (I'm out of room in the herb garden) and just sticking to containers for veg.

Hmmmm.

Valerian

In the herb garden at the moment, the highlight (with the emphasis on 'high'!)is definitely the valerian which is in beautiful full bloom. The whole plant just took off this year and now towers high above the fence and after last weeks stormy weather I've had to tie it in a bit, but I find it rather glorious. The blossoms are white tinged beautifully with pink and give off a heady scent. The tiny little flowerlets shower all over the plants and paving below like stardust, a white sprinkling making everything around it slightly magical. The air is full of the sound of bees, which can't get enough of it. It wasn't so much an attempt to photograph a bee on a valerian head, as that you can't take a photo of a valerian head without a bee getting into the shot!

Now valerian was really a bit of a mistake for me. Back when I was starting out I read about it and its properties and got excited and wanted to have some to grow .. before I read further and realised that you would only want to use the root, and even that only dug at the right time of year in the right year of its growth. As I have always had such a small garden (only a collection of window boxes when I was beginning) it was important that each plant earn its place - beautiful, useful and preferably multi-purpose. So it doesn't really qualify.

But the thing about valerian is, it doesn't give up. I think it might be one of those plants that once you've got it, you've got it forever! One of the limitations and joys of my rooftop garden in Tottenham was that it just got left from October to March each year. During this time, I handed the baton over to mother nature who would handle the gardening for me till the next spring. She taught me all the most important lessons I have learned about plants and gardening and she always left me lots of little baby plantlets for the following year. Most of these would be valerian - it seeds itself all over the place. All these little valerians taught me something, because the colour of the leaves would be completely different in different parts of the garden - so it was showing me how conditions varied, the conditions it liked and how they affected its growth.

Think its probably safe to say its got the right conditions in the new herb garden! I saw earlier in the year that it was bullying other plants out of the bed, but I've let it flower. It has such thick tall strong stems that it supports other herbs around it - in particular a beautiful bronze fennel that grows up through it. And later in the year, once its heyday is done, its tall skeleton will be handy for tying in the evening primrose next to it which doesn't take off until much later.

Rose

This rose is an old friend.. we go back a long way! I was only a child when I planted the seed. It was one of those little kits you can get, you know a cardboard box with a pretty picture on the outside and inside is a plant pot, a seed and a little plastic bag of compost. I remember doing it! I can picture it now, in the back garden of the house where I grew up. I guess I must have watered it and it must have germinated and started to grow - I don't remember more than that.

It was left to its own devices. It must have just steadily got on with it. Years passed. Its existence was entirely forgotten by me. I left home. I moved about. Unbeknown to me, it had a custodian - my Dad. He didn't water it, he didn't check to see if it needed anything. But he didn't throw it away. And when my parents moved house, leaving London for Norwich, he must have taken it with them. Because when I was in my 30s, he said to me one day something along the lines of 'I've still got that grotty old rose of yours' (or words to that effect!). 'What old rose - you can't possibly mean that little shrub rose I tried to grow as a child?'

And it turns out that Dad had just parked it down the side of his shed and it just kept quietly growing. He brought it for me when I moved into the flat in Tottenham with my partner (now my husband). And so it passed to a new custodian, for my partner made and cherished a beautiful garden-against-the-odds outside the flat down the side of an unpromising alley and carpark. And he asked if he could put it into the ground. I said, well I think it really deserves it - I can't believe that its survived all this time in a pot! So after several decades of hanging on, the rose finally got its feet into the earth. And it was loved and tended and watered .. and for the very first time ever, it flowered. It survived the Tottenham carpark and thrived.

When we moved to Essex two years back now, we brought it with us and now I have it in my garden. Its very happy here and it has such a special significance for me.

It links me with my childhood self, with my childhood home, with my Dad who kept it for my sake, with my husband who nurtured it and got it to flower for me.. and planting it in the garden here makes me feel loved and somehow 'rooted' in my new home. Like something has turned full circle .. we were both seedlings together and thanks to the support of important people along the way, we are now in full bloom (or something like that!).

Growing

I last posted just as April was arriving, but here we are just about to bid her farewell .. what's been happening in between? A lot of rain, and some very high winds (but then you knew that, right, if you're in the UK?!!) and a lot of growing!

All the wet has really exacerbated my problems with the little munchers who have been wreaking havoc in my growhouse .. this week I finally decided to bring in the peas, beans, sunflowers and courgette plants that had been seriously gnawed and were more hole than leaf :-( They are all perking up considerably back behind glass on the sunny recovery windowsill.

To make room on said sunny windowsills for the beleagured ones, I've put out my unexpectedly enormous quantity of baby tomato plants, as the slugs and snails don't seem as interested in tomatoes. This was a little experiment of mine, because I'd (inadvertantly) left out the last of my Ildi tomatoes on their plants in the growbags on the flat roof outside bedroom window last season - and there they hung all winter come wind, snow, storm or whatever. And there they were still in March, and several people told me to squish the dried out fruits onto kitchen roll and see if I could grow them. So I did! I put differing amounts of compost beneath and above (not really knowing what I was doing) inside eggbox lids not really expecting much .. and you've never seen anything like it. Germinated all over the place and what's more, every single one I transplanted (into its own little loo roll holder of compost) has taken. I have about 60 babies in trays of 5 or 6, all over the house!

Here are some in the coldframe, which seems to have fared better in terms of the illicit munchers. Also baby dill and marigold plants. And the start of a box of salad (against all the odds!)

They are a wonderful tomato, pretty little yellow plum-shaped cherry size fruits and really heavily laden plants. You can put them in hanging baskets or grow them up canes. I hope I will be able to find them all good homes to go to. Meanwhile, my 'proper' tomatoes, which I sowed in February, are busy flowering, would you believe .. a bit of regular nettle infusion has done wonders!

Also flowering at the moment are the strawberry plants outside, and we'll soon have the lovely chive blossoms too.

I've done better with the sweetpeas this year, soaking them helped and getting them enough light quickly enough and pinching them out at the right time (thanks to my wonderful neighbour who is expert at these things and doesn't mind a bumbling novice's barrage of questions!) Previous years they've been really leggy, so I'm quite pleased that I'm starting to get the hang of it. Won't risk these outside till the weather sorts itself out condsiderably.

April showers are magical .. every year it amazes me just how much everything GROWS in just a few weeks! Usually in March I look at the herb garden and think there's lots of gaps and I'll need a few more plants to pop in here and there. Then by the end of April everything is burgeoning. And although I love to see the flowers, there is something super special in April about all that lush bright green growth, unsullied and full of promise and newness and freshness. Every day this month I've stood by the back door looking out at the garden in the rain and its kind of visibly grown in front of my eyes. Fantastic!

Gardening

It was so lovely to be out in the fresh air and working in the garden last week, such fine warm days feel like a special gift that musn't be wasted this time of the year, its almost like its your duty to drop everything and get out there!

Had a quandry, the boys had waved goodbye off to see Nanny for the morning .. no-one about, all quiet! What to do, hmmmm ... really ought to cook something lovely and warm and healthy for us all to have for lunch when they get back. But the pull towards the garden is so strong and cannot be denied.

So I stuck the remains of the roast dinner in a big saucepan - heated some oil and tossed the remains of the tray of roasted veggies in it (butternut squash, potatoes, carrot, parsnip). When that smelt all appealing I popped in the leftover gravy, the remains of the chicken and the leftover green veg (greens and leeks and peas). Topped up with water, brought it slowly up to the boil (while putting jacket on and sorting out my seeds) .. bit of salt and pepper .. reduce to v. gentle simmer .. and GARDEN!!!!

Popped in to check from time to time and an hour later, beautiful soup. Gave it a quick squash with the potato masher so's to thicken it up (and so's the little'un doesn't pick the carrots out) and there it was .. hearty fare for all and happy mummy morning in the garden! Hurray!

Spring

Its official .. spring is in the air!

Venturing out today, we gave our lady elder a libation of nettle infusion to wish her well for the coming season. She is just starting to sprout buds into leaflets, so magical to see.

Pleased to see big fat healthy looking ladybirds all over the garden, particularly as the new growth on the elder was covered in aphids last year all spring/summer (I hosed them off each morning with a high power jet had a little chat and a stroke while I was at it .. nice to have that daily contact, but nicer to see hoardes of ladybirdies munching away instead!)

Which reminds me, I took a photo last autumn which I didn't get around to posting.. I had gone outside to have a little tidy up and was tying up all my tall-stemmed seed headed herbs into the fence, when I found this little ladybird party, all huddled inside an evening primrose leaf.

It made me really careful about not disturbing any of the big overgrown plants and aside from just securing things to the fence against the wind, I left everything be. So glad I did! Today I found my little ladybird friends still intact inside their (now dried out) leafy home. In fact, several little huddles on the evening primrose and one on a sage leaf. Think because the shape of these long leaves is such that they naturally curl, providing a little handy crevice for hibernating creatures. Hurray!

Indian Summer

Glorious sunshine, not a cloud in the sky! A good chance to have a look at what's happening in the garden.

Most of the vegetable patch is long over, but it is still home to a bumper patch of rainbow chard and a thriving row of chives. I planted calendula and nasturtium seeds in the little strip of soil between the veg bed and the path and have been pleased with the colourful display.

I have had masses and masses of calendula flowers for making oils, salves and tincture and drying for teas and the more you cut it the more it comes again (everything in my part of the garden has to be useful as well as beautiful and beautiful as well as useful, if you see what I mean!)

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.

Garden Update

Just an update on what's happening in the garden today... some purple-podded mystery peas



and a lovely bowl of heritage dwarf french beans for my tea tonight!

Produce

I am happily harvesting produce from my little vegetable garden in the sky. Granted, there is no danger of my vegetable-growing supplying anything like our total household requirements! But that was never the point of the exercise.. rather to be involved with the life-cycle and changing of the seasons. But at present, I'm finding that there's nearly always something fresh to add to each meal: a strawberry or two to slice on top of my morning cereal, a sprinkling of radish and spring onion to garnish my lunchtime salad and a handful of carrots to enjoy with my main meal in the evening. And this is just from a couple of window box containers.. which means anyone anywhere can grow their own fresh organic veg!

Mystery Peas

Stage 1 of the mystery is solved! One of my mystery peas has flowered and is now producing its very first pod.. beautiful lilac petals and then a lemony-yellow pod! Many thanks to Rebsie at Daugher of the Soil for identifying it as Golden Sweet.. its colourful and beautiful, as well as historical, and I am looking forward to tasting my very first homegrown peas.





Now for stage 2! A second pea plant has a stunning first flower.. a really beautiful two-tone purple bloom.




I'm thinking this one might be purple-podded.. I will be checking regularly to see!

Companion Planting

I've been tagged by two wonderful bloggers, Greenwoman and Yarrow, to reveal six unspectacular quirks of mine.. but I've been having trouble thinking of them! Its not that I haven't got any, of course, its just that I probably don't notice them? So here, instead, are 6 little 'ways I like to do things' in the garden (some of which might be considered 'quirky' by some!)... I hope no-one minds my subverting the meme! Instead of tagging more bloggers, I'd like to throw it open to anyone and everyone who wants to join in and declare the ways THEY like to do things in the garden?

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I do look things up in books, but I like to mostly learn by doing and finding out what happens .. I have learned a lot this way!

I like companion planting and want to do more of this in future.. I currently plant my carrots with equal quantity of dill in their trough and I include calendula with my tomatoes.

I'm not looking to grow the biggest or most perfect vegetables ever known to man(!) .. I know my limitations, and am happy if my plants are healthy and treasure any little offerings they produce.

I think that plants know better than me what they want, so I try to learn from them (as well as about them)

I like to use a homemade kneeler for gardening on the roof (which is covered in gravel, so not comfortable on the knees!) .. I got this tip from my archaeological days: a couple of folded newspapers inside a carrier bag

I like being on my own gardening.. its not that I'm anti-social, and I enjoy showing others around my patch, but I like the peace and quiet of it and being lost in my own thoughts

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Speaking of companion planting, this is my trough of carrots and dill, looking all lush and feathery! And a shot of my brandywine tomato plants building up to a first flower (the calendula in this pot is tucked away out of site but has some nice fat buds nearly ready to burst).

-----> GET INVOLVED: have you got any tried and tested plant-companions to share?

Valerian

I'm away for a couple of days now, so I just wanted to thank everyone for stopping by and leaving such kind and interesting comments .. I will be back on Sunday to reply to everyone and visit you all again. Until then, I leave you with a little photo of the Valerian which is just coming into flower, as we were talking about it this week.

Sunflowers and Strawberries

I know I've posted twice already this month about the Sunflowers and Strawberries.. but you're going to want to see them again, just look!








I was so relieved to see my sunflowers after the buffeting they must have taken.. they are sheltered on two sides by brick wall and chimney stack and I think they were lucky that the direction the strong winds came in was shielded. My tomatoes and sunflowers get to share this best sunny sheltered spot. The first bloom is still going strong but now the others are opening to join it .. I was so thrilled!

The first strawberry is turning a lovely red (as well as doubling in size!) - I have carefully placed the clump containing the large red strawberry inside a glass jar, so that our resident blackbird doesn't get to dine on it before I do.

Bean Update

The weather here was atrocious over the Bank Holiday weekend .. gale-force winds and torrential rain .. so I was extremely concerned about my poor veggies struggling manfully up on the roof, exposed to the elements. But everything seems to be not just surviving, but thriving and I am so delighted (and relieved!)

Most of you know that I am growing heritage dwarf french beans (you can see previous posts about them here). Well, I figured it must be time for another Bean Update, as we now have actual BEANS!! The beautiful deep dark purple variety haven't come out too well in the photo as I didn't want to disturb them, but are looking good.

Mystery Peas

Remember my mystery peas, which I was given by a lovely lady at the North London Organic Gardener's Society?

Well one or two of them have distinct red markings now, which Rebsie at Daughter of the Soil kindly suggested I look out for. This means when they grow up they will be purple-podded peas! I can't wait .. having never grown peas before, its all magical to me.



Its just a little red ring where the leaves join the stem? By the way, the big marbled leaves you can see which the peas are scrambling over belong to the round courgette I am growing this year.. the magnificent foliage was a lovely surprise and I'm looking forward to the fruits!

These veggies are comfortable bedfellows in the cold frame where they are hardening off and gearing themselves up for planting out anyday now.

Strawberries and Sunflowers

Forgot to show you these, which I took while my internet was down last week - the first sunflower of the year, and the strawberries' first blush..

The Yoga of Herbs

I've been tagged in a meme by Elspeth Thompson, a writer and broadcaster on gardening and greener living who has a wonderful new blog following her progress converting Victorian railway carriages into an eco-home.. fantastic! I am looking forward to following the progress of this exciting project. Although a little shy of memes in general, I have really enjoyed the links on Elspeth's post and have found some delightful new blogs to visit this way.

Here is the deal: you pick up the nearest book set in a foreign country and then..

1) Open page 123
2) Find the fifth sentence.
3) Post the next three sentences.
4) Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

When I stood in front of my groaning bookshelves, I wasn't entirely sure that I had a book set in a foreign country.. but a small book which I had been meaning to look into again caught my eye and I knew it was the one!

My book is 'The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine' by Dr David Frawley and Dr Vasant Lad and it is another of my highly treasured charity shop finds. Indeed, I would never have come across the wisdom contained in this wonderful book if it had not been for an anonymous kindly soul donating it, as it is marked 'for sale in South Asia only' in imposing capital letters! It was purchased at the Aarushi book shop, opp. Domino's Pizza, Connaught Circus, New Delhi for 180 rupees, according to a beautifully printed flourescent pink sticker inside the front cover.



I was drawn to this book by my interest in finding out more about the ayurvedic system of healing since taking up yoga. As in Chinese medicine, but unlike Western approaches, Ayurveda is centred around constitution 'types' (the 'dosha's) and aims to identify and correct underlying imbalances (the cause) rather than merely carry out symptomatic treatment of disease (the effect). The book offers a basic understanding of the ayurvedic use of herbs and is invaluable for its reference appendices which list the characteristics of many common Western herbs in ayurvedic terms as well as some of the more traditional Indian plants that are now available more widely.

Anyway, turning to page 123 I laughed out loud .. despite the fact that this little book had travelled all the way from Delhi, what herb should I find on this page but Hawthorn Berries?! However, sticking specifically to the rules of the meme, the sentences selected from this page form the closing section for the herb on the previous page, Golden Seal (Hydrastis candensis). I like this little passage, because it reminds us how powerful plants are and that they have effects on many different parts of the body, which must be borne in mind, other than the part we are hoping to treat:

'However, it is not a panacea for all diseases. It has a negative impact on good intestinal flora and has many of the contraindications of antibiotic drugs (it is good to use in place of them). It is contraindicated in most deficiency conditions, most conditions were a nurturing therapy is appropriate.'

This is what the book, and healing system, is all about .. considering and balancing effects on the whole body. Maybe not the most edifying or enlightening 3 sentences ever written, but what I love about my books (and I do LOVE books, can you tell?) is that they are little treasure chests of knowledge and wisdom, in highly concentrated form, painstakingly brought together and passed from one human being to another. A thought or poem or philosophical idea can be life-changing .. but my 3 sentences could be life-SAVING!!

Many thanks to Elspeth for nominating me and providing the impetus for fishing out this book and reading it cover to cover this week. Now I get the chance to point you in the direction of another five fantastic blogs which I enjoy and would like to share .. I am not asking them to join the meme necessarily (unless keen to do so), but rather taking the opportunity to highlight their work. Enjoy!


Naturewitch .. I love the monthly Moon Gardening post which details the optimum timings for each gardening task according to the phases of the moon. Naturewitch blogs passionately about the need to grow our own food .. lots of good, practical posts and information.

The Ayurveda Way .. How could I not include Q's fantastic blog?! The quality rather than the quantity of posting shines through and I have found myself going back to re-read the most recent, on 'Breathing', many times. A calming, thoughtful space reminding us to take the time to breathe, sleep, heal and give ourselves what our bodies need and are crying out for.

The Herb Gardener .. Anyone who enjoys herbs will love Sara Elliot's friendly welcoming blog full of growing tips and recipes, along with a whole separate blog devoted to Lavender! Its soft brown tones and resident snail give this blog a lovely feel and the short informative posting style is perfect.

My Wildlife Sanctuary .. No day would be complete without a visit to Cheryl's wildlife garden in Kent. This lady is an inspiration and kindred spirit. If you have yet to discover her blog you must go now, this very instant, and see for yourself! Copious beautiful photographs and writing from the heart: a true daily journal following the lives (and loves!) of the wildlife she carefully nurtures.

Daughter of the Soil .. Rebsie is a folk singer and anti-GM campaigner whose passion is growing heritage vegetables. She generously shares her immense knowledge and experience on her blog which follows her experiments in the garden and is the most wonderful resource. A lovely person, freely giving expert advice and encouragement to others, who writes in a down-to-earth, friendly and informal style.