No time to stand and stare

Starting to activate now sunshine has appeared I am in the throes of a manic tidying session.
My kind neighbour, Steve, has allowed me to fill his garden bin as well as my own, saving me another visit to the tip for the time being.

Yellow crocus

Seeds are mostly planted in the cold greenhouse and so far sweet peas and lupins have made an appearance and indoors the tomato seeds are also sprouting - albeit slowly. It is such a joy to see some of last year's newly-planted perennials begin to wake up - proof positive that nature, not love, conquers all. It is almost time to air the summer house cushions and prepare for balmy nights in the garden. The new cats have another two weeks before their next round of injections and only then they can be let loose on  Pablo's garden.

More spring flowers

In the allotment mountains of manure have been spread. Many more raised beds have been prepared and my International Kidney potatoes have been planted at last. The ground is beginning to warm up and soon vegetable planting can begin in earnest. Preparation for the annual Pollards Allotments plant sale on 18th May is under way and seed trays crammed with tiny bedding plants have made their appearance in the communal greenhouses.

Harrogate Spring Flower Show started today - voted the best garden show according to Which readers.
Well worth a visit, it continues until Sunday - enjoy!

The cure for all ill ...

 is not to sit still

Or frowst with a book by the fire;

But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,

And dig until you gently perspire.

                                                                   Rudyard Kipling

Every woman should have one

The sunshine of the last few days, coupled with a promised skip to take  rubbish away, has prompted lots of digging and a tidying frenzy on the part of the allotmenteers – myself included.

October is a hectic month for the vegetable gardener, removing perennial weeds and digging over vacant plots to allow the cold weather to help break up the soil in anticipation of spring planting next year. It is hard work but very satisfying.

I guess gardeners must be optimists as, despite the extremely poor harvests this year, here we all are, planning ahead to next year’s crops – ordering seeds, planting Japanese onions and Durham Early spring cabbages to over-winter and get a head start on the 2013 growing season. 

Globe artichokes grown for glory not food!

There will be leeks and Jerusalem artichokes yet to harvest during the worst of the winter and there ought to have been Swedes but mine just haven’t grown – lots of green tops but no swelling bottoms to add to soups and warming vegetable cobblers. How do supermarkets always manage to have them in abundance?

'Jemmer' coourgettes

I have had some courgettes, although again not the crop I’d hoped, but sufficient to make friend Vivien’s delicious Courgette and Cumin soup:-

25g butter                                       

 1 onion –chopped

 1 garlic clove –crushed                  

2 tsp ground cumin

150g potatoes – cubed                 

 350g courgettes – thickly sliced

450ml vegetable stock                   

300ml milk

freshly ground pepper

Melt butter and fry onion and garlic until soft.

Add cumin, stir in potatoes and courgettes

Cook gently in stock and milk until vegetables are soft

Purée the soup and serve hot or cold, garnished with sliced courgettes.

Delicious!

And my personal favourite courgette recipe -

Courgette Provençale:-

Slice courgettes, onions, and tomatoes (they can all be lightly fried beforehand but healthier not to). Layer in a soufflé dish or similar, adding a grating of cheese every now and then together with black pepper (a smattering of your favourite herb can also be a welcome addition). Finish with a layer of courgette slices and cover with grated cheese – I prefer a strong cheddar. Bake in a moderate over for approximately one hour. Delicious served warm with a salad and crusty bread or as a side vegetable. (It also reheats nicely in the microwave for a few minutes if you want to use leftovers later).

Enjoy

Just scratching the surface

'The deeper a man digs for knowledge in his garden the more he realises that he has only scratched the surface'

Easter chicks

Not only is April a busy month in the flower garden but, traditionally, it heralds the start – in the North certainly – of serious work on the allotment front; most of which has already been dug over and perennial weeds removed, ready for the serious ask of potato planting which is traditionally done here on Good Friday.

Seed potatoes had already been purchased and placed in egg boxes with the ends with the most ‘eyes’ uppermost. They were then kept in my Two Hoots shed at the allotment until new shoots had begun to sprout – this is known as chitting.  I’m growing first earlies – International Kidney (the Jersey Royal potato) together with Sharpe’s Express  and the Saxon variety of second earlies. I’ve decided not to plant any maincrop potatoes this year and to use the space saved for more purple sprouting broccoli and extra rows of leeks, both of which will withstand the winter months and be used to make welcoming soup early next year.

Flicking through Niall Edworthy’s The Curious Gardener’s Almanac I read that the baked potato man was a common sight in London streets selling hot potatoes to passersby. It was estimated that in the nineteenth century there were more than 250 itinerant hot potato sellers plying their trade. Edworthy states that ‘Most English gentlemen wouldn’t be seen dead eating a vulgar potato in the street, but they often bought them as hand-warmers during the harsh winters of the time’.

This took me back to my teens when, on Bonfire Night, the family, including my young cousins – my little Aunt’s grandchildren – would all go to watch the firework display in Spennymoor’s Jubilee Park. My Aunt would have sausages and onions baking in the oven ready for us to eat on our return.

She had already baked jacket potatoes in the coal oven which, when wrapped in foil, were given to the little ones to carry in their pockets to keep their mittened hands warm. The temptation was usually too much for them, however, and the potatoes were usually eaten long before the bonfire was lit! (One of those little tots celebrates his 50^th birthday this weekend. Unbelievable).

As last year, I have taken garden guru Monty Don’s advice and planted salad crops – Little Gem and Salad Bowl lettuce together with rows of radishes – on top of the rows of potatoes. These will be ready to harvest well before the potatoes are ready to be earthed up and this is an excellent way to cram as many plants as possible in the space available. 

Assorted seed pa

In the home garden the greenhouse is full of seed trays, planted up with both annuals – jewel mixed nasturtiums, sunflowers, helichrysum, larkspur (inspired by beds of them seen at Highgrove last year), bells of Ireland,  cosmos (Sensation and Purity) sweet peas (the original Cupani together with Matuca; greenhouse plants – cayenne chilli peppers, Spanish mixed peppers, cucumbers, and 9 different types of tomato; in addition to vegetables to be planted out later at the allotment – sweetcorn Swift, courgettes (the yellow Jemmer and the traditional green zucchini, calabrese, Musselburgh leeks, butternut squash and celery.

I still have some sowing to do – herbs, especially different forms of basil and the wonderfully fragrant coriander, and mixed Tuscan and Provençal salads which I grow in window boxes placed near the kitchen door for ease of harvest. There is nothing nicer than popping outside and snipping young, tender salad crops to add to a lunchtime sandwich. The effort is minor and the cost is minimal.

There can be no comparison with the extortionate, pre-washed, pre-packed, tasteless ‘salads’ available in supermarkets. Why not try growing it for yourself?

My mouth is watering already!