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.

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!

Soup Magic

January has not been great... everyone is sick and/or grumpy. But there was a moment of magic today! In my constant effort to not waste food, eat more veg and cook from scratch, etc I knocked up a soup for lunch. I had a slightly wrinkled and unappetising-looking celeriac languishing in the basket of roots, so I looked up a recipe for celeriac soup. I wasn't expecting much - the list of ingredients looked so innocuous, nothing exciting. You know, an onion, a stock cube, a bit of milk.

But it totally rocked!

And so I am reminded of the power of soup to be more than the sum of its ingredients. We had it in giant mugs with crunchy slices of bread toasted under the grill with a drizzle of oil and pinch of thyme. It was full of flavour and it cheered me up and made me feel better about the world and everything in it.

And the little'un dunked his crunchy toast in the soup and scooped it up and yummed it down with great enthusiasm (before falling off his chair while attempting to imitate the washing machine which just went into spin cycle - its OK, I caught him by the ankle - no harm done!)

So there we are .. whatever the problem is, I think the answer is probably soup.

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!)

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?

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.

Carrot and Geranium Salve

Yesterday I made a new batch of Carrot and Geranium Salve, which is cooling, soothing and nutritive for any dry and chapped skin. The ingredients are totally natural, healing and wholesome (as opposed to the synthetic components in commercial preparations which include byproducts of the petrochemical industry), you can make it easily at home and it keeps indefinitely. So I love it! I use mine as a lip balm, which I apply morning and night. I can also recommend it for when you have a cold, and the skin on your nose becomes red and sore and chapped through constantly using tissues: put some salve on at night before you go to sleep and be amazed how it heals!

The basic carrot salve recipe comes from a wonderful book 'Herbal Remedies: A practical beginner's guide to making effective remedies in the kitchen' by Christopher Hedley and Non Shaw which is full of very simple but effective remedies which you can make from vegetables, herbs and spices readily to hand with no fancy equipment or utensils needed. It really got me into having a go at home-made remedies.

The original recipe gives the proportion of 1 part beeswax to 5 parts oil, although I use much more beeswax than this to give a more solid ointment more appropriate to a lip balm. Beeswax is so nutritive and healing on its own, that the higher the content the better, I find. I am lucky enough to have been given an ample free supply by a bee-keeping friend, but you can buy beeswax granules fairly readily. You don't need to use any particular fine or expensive oil for this recipe. Regular sunflower oil is perfect, though I start a new bottle of organic oil for making the salve.

The quantity specified depends on the size of your carrots, but makes rather a lot so you might want to halve it. Yesterday's batch made about a pint which fills enough jars to give several away to friends and relatives while still supplying enough for general use for the next few years. You need to collect and clean/ sterilise lots of little glass jars. I like to save little jam and marmalade pots, but I also reuse containers, some plastic, which had other creams or beauty products in.

As well as thickening the recipe with extra beeswax, I have also changed it by adding a drop or two of essential oil at the end of the process. You really don't need any more than this to impart a pleasant fragrance to the salve (which on its own doesn't really smell of anything). Geranium seems to suit very nicely, and actually has its own skin soothing properties which makes it an ideal choice.

General hints and tips are:

1. If you're anything like me, you WILL get drops of oil everywhere so have a kitchen roll to hand, and run a sink full of hot soapy water before you start!

2. Its not dangerous or difficult to do, but you will be heating oil.. so don't allow yourself to be distracted (this is not a recipe to do with children running under your feet or a phone that needs answering nearby)

3. You always need more jars than you think you will!


Carrot and Geranium Salve

Take two plumptious fresh organic carrots



Wash and grate them, then put them in a large frying pan and just cover them with sunflower oil. Fry gently until the oil turns orange and the carrot is soft.



Remove from the heat and, when cooled slightly, strain into a pyrex jug.



This is your infused oil. To thicken this into an ointment, place the jug into a pan of gently boiling water. The water level should be lower than the level of the oil in the jug. Keep it simmering very gently on a low heat, while adding chunks of beeswax to the oil. Stir occasionally with a wooden spatula to encourage the beeswax to melt and disperse.



To test the consistency, pour a little of the mixture into one (the smallest) of your clean jars and allow to cool.



Return the jug to the pan and add more beeswax if you would like a thicker (more solid) ointment. Once the mixture is ready, remove from the heat and allow to stand and cool slightly. When it is only warm rather than hot, add one or two drops of geranium essential oil and mix in well before pouring into the remaining clean jars.



You will notice that as the ointment sets it forms a little dimple in the centre. This is supposed to happen and isn't a problem. If you want a more perfect finish, most books say you can keep a little mixture back to reheat and use to top up the jars (I have never felt the need!)

Strawberries and Sunflowers

Its a glorious morning! I have just been up on the roof with my morning cuppa to check on my garden and I'm pleased to report that the veg all made it through the night. The little windbreak round the beans seems to be working, the tomato plants I planted out are perky and the de-cloched carrots seem to have recovered themselves nicely. Its so warm, and the strawberries and sunflower heads are forming .. roll on summer!!

Radish

My first EVER radish ...

Chelsea Physic Garden

Many thanks to Dave for reminding me to look up the opening times for Chelsea Physic Garden, a fantastic secret walled garden tucked away in central London (a few stops on the bus from Victoria station). It was begun in the 17th century as an apothecary's garden in order to train apprentices in plant indentification and promote the study of botany in "physic" or the healing arts .

I can confidently assert that anyone who finds this blog interesting will love it!

As its open more often this year, I'm hoping to go once a month as there is so much to see and of course it all changes! If anyone is planning a trip to London, it would be well worth fitting it in.



2008 Season: 19 March - 31 October
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 12-5pm
Sundays 12-6pm
Bank Holidays and Good Friday, 12-6pm
Last admission 30 minutes before closing

Extended Opening Information for 2008
The Garden is open from Monday to Friday 12-5pm during Chelsea Flower Show week 20-24 May inclusive (Please note that on Thursday 22 May the Garden will not open until 2pm.)
In July and August the Garden is open until 10pm on Wednesdays, last admission at 8:30pm. The cafe will be open until the Garden shuts.

Mystery Peas

Ok, here are my mystery peas ... if you think you know what they might be, I would be very grateful for some help in identifying them?

They are the ones I picked up from the North London Organic Gardeners' Society stall last week .. all I know is that they're heritage varieties.



Not a great picture, I'm afraid (best I could do on my phone camera today!).. I will take more photos as they grow .. will be fun to see what they turn into!

Garden Update

I was excited today, to discover that my mini-growhouse is working!!!

You remember my 3 heritage dwarf beans ? Well here they are in the growhouse, reaching for the sky...

Its had something of an initiation ordeal, as the weekend I assembled it, it got snowed on and then on Friday it had a fairly decent storm to contend with. Spurred on by its success, I've put my Brandywine tomato seedlings in there as well today. And I don't think I've shown you my sunflowers...










I sorted out my coldframe too, today, by removing all the paraphenalia I'd been storing in it and actually clearing some space for plants. Here are the first batch of herb seedlings awaiting transport from the kitchen to the coldframe on the roof..


















... there are dill, borage, clary sage, marigold .. and some sweetpeas, which I adore, and will be a surprise as a friend collected the seed so I've no idea what colour they'll be.

Forgive my over-enthusiasm .. I'm still new to raising plants from seed and so whenever something grows, I'm afraid I'm just an overgrown child jumping about with glee!

Stop Global Warming

I just visited this website and found a list of tips for reducing carbon emissions. The list is long, but I have picked out things that are do-able for me and my lifestyle (or are, in fact, things I'm already doing).

I have always felt fairly powerless to make significant changes, as I live in rented accomodation so cannot do the major things our house needs like double-glazing or draught-proofing etc. But I was amazed by how many of the things on the list didn't apply to me in a POSITIVE way.. for example, the fact that I don't use a car or a dishwasher. And we don't have central heating. So it turns out I'm doing better than I thought, after all, which is heartening!

One day I'll hopefully live in an eco-house with solar panels, but until then, here are my little contributions..

Use Recycled Paper
Make sure your printer paper is 100% post consumer recycled paper. Save 5 lbs. of carbon dioxide per ream of paper.

This is something I've been working on recently .. I have found an affordable supplier and from now on all Hedgewitch information sheets and newsletters will be printed on 100% recycled paper.

Buy Products Locally
Buy locally and reduce the amount of energy required to drive your products to your store.

This is a tough one in the city, but I am planning a visit to that local farmers' market I found so that hopefully I can buy less food from Tescos. I already get my fruit and veg in a box, which is delivered by van, but I know they source things as locally as they can within the UK.

Buy Minimally Packaged Goods
Less packaging could reduce your garbage by about 10%. Save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide and $1,000 per year.

My fruit and veg box comes in a cardboard box which you return for re-use the following week. I re-use the corrugated card dividers to pack the ceramic pieces in Hedgewitch parcels and I re-use the string for tying up plants in the garden.

Am generally horrified how much packaging everything comes in! I recycle all the card sleeves and re-use the plastic trays for plant saucers and incubators. But finding places to buy less packaged products is something I really want to work on.

Reduce Garbage
Buy products with less packaging and recycle paper, plastic and glass. Save 1,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year.

You know, since I've stepped up my recycling/re-using/composting, we've been amazed how little garbage we are putting out now. One black sack a week, rather than one every other day.

Plant a Tree
Trees suck up carbon dioxide and make clean air for us to breathe. Save 2,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year.

Hmmmm.. maybe I could think of giving the gift of planting a tree via The Woodland Trust for special occasions?

Unplug Un-Used Electronics
Even when electronic devices are turned off, they use energy. Save over 1,000 lbs of carbon dioxide and $256 per year.

I could (and must) do this!

Buy Organic Food
The chemicals used in modern agriculture pollute the water supply, and require energy to produce.

I do as much as I can, for health reasons, but this is an added incentive.

Bring Cloth Bags to the Market
Using your own cloth bag instead of plastic or paper bags reduces waste and requires no additional energy.

I was given the most fabulous cloth bag by friends of mine for Christmas.. it is tongue-in-cheek and features 'typical London wildlife' (a one-legged pigeon, a large rat etc!) Its great because it folds up small and weighs nothing, so I just keep it stashed in my handbag for any shopping I pick up while I'm out.

Ditch the Plastic
2.5 million individual plastic water bottles are thrown away every hour in the US. Start using a reusable water bottle and just say no to plastic!

I could DEFINITELY do this, as I do sometimes buy small bottles of water when I'm out. I need to drink more water .. I'm really bad at this. I think I will fill a bottle with tap water each morning (whether I'm home or out) for use during the day. When its hot in the summer, I sometimes fill a water bottle with tap water and add a couple of ice-cubes with lemon balm or pineapple sage leaves in them, which is really refreshing.

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!