From Soil to Sail:

Hello again, time's zipping by, we're nearly into Autumn and I'm still catching up with myself… There seems to be so much to pack into each day (not least of which is to get my potatoes dug up!).  As a result, I seem to have fallen out of the habit of popping in here to say hello which feels odd because, in my head, I've got lots to tell:  trips to the seaside, apple scrumping, a street fair, hedgerow-jam making, allotment-soup making, books to review (three!), autumn progress in the Veg Patch and new bedtime reading: seed catalogues for 2011…mmm, lovely!  So, whew. 

The thing that has taken a goodly chunk of time is the street fair which we had in our little corner of London.  I'd had a fancy to make fresh apple juice on the day (using a traditional press) and put my hand up to help in order to ensure that the event was actually going to happen. Doing the pressing was quite a learning curve so deserves a later post all to itself!   In among all of this frenzied activity, what with the end of the summer hols looming, I also decided to make a dash for the seaside to spend a few days on the south Hampshire coast with my parents. (Another reason for the silence here … I was beachcombing elsewhere!)

Lovely, isn't it?  I never tire of this view of the Solent (taken from the little cross-harbour ferry): Old Portsmouth on the left and, just out of view, sailing boats making their way in or out of harbour.  Look in the other direction and you see Portsmouth Harbour, ferries waiting to sail for the Isle of Wight and, in the historic dockyard, the masts of Nelson's HMS Victory and modern ships of the Royal Navy. All very busy and nautical.

For me, though, the highlights of a shore-side break-away are the long walks on the beach, picking up driftwood and shells (pebbly beaches are so interesting).

…and, at this time of year, collecting hedgerow blackberries (loads of them on the seafront common land). Turning the corner from my parents' house, a short walk leads to the common …

… with the Isle of  Wight clearly seen on a good day.  Wow, looks likes there's no sea at all between the mainland and island! (Although, I think there's probably a good couple of miles of Solent to swim before you get over to the Island, here reaching Ryde.)

Normally we walk along the shoreline towards the sailing club and the ice-cream café - yes, what bliss! New Forest ice-cream, yum yum, served with a sea breeze - or a cup of tea if the weather is chillier.  This time, we walked towards the scrubbier part of the common, for a change, where there were plentiful berries to be picked and, presumably from a discarded apple core, a heavily laden apple tree, ripe for the scrumping!  A big trugful of nature's harvest - and just in good time for my apple pressing venture!

Catching up…

Well, here we are again… I hadn't realised that I'd been away so long, the weeks have just slipped by.  (Did anyone notice?)  I wish I could say that I'd been enjoying myself on holiday somewhere warm - but, no. Truth is that the deluge of rain … day after soggy day … coupled with very strong winds was wreaking havoc in my little vegetable garden and I had to devise various Heath Robinson structures to stop everything keeling over.

My poor beans had been happily climbing up a ridge-tent-shaped frame of bamboo poles - but I'd forgotten to pinch out the growing tip. Gradually it became a tad top heavy and started to lean ever-so-slightly.  The problem was made worse as continuous rain softened the soil and the wind pushed it over as if the frame was being pulled from one end.  I had to duck underneath to get by!  All very well until someone gets hurt and one stick was, by now, at eye-poking level.

While figuring out a solution to the bean problem, the wind kept blowing and then I found my beautiful super-tall sunflowers had succumbed and collapsed across my fruit trees and crash landed on the potatoes.  The roots were ripped up but because I found them not long after, I was able to firm them back into the soil and start hoping for recovery… but that ol' wind kept blowing.

Time for some urgent action.  A hazel wigwam was dismantled and the branches used to pin the sunnies against the wall.  Hmm, gooood thinking. 

The beans, though, were slightly more problematic: I'd tried tensioning the frame with some ties, like pitching a tent.  That worked for a while but the wind got stronger and stretched the ties.  It was Leigh who found the solution: a small team of us dragged a very heavy builder's bag over to the veg patch as ballast and anchored the bean frame to that.  Looks ugly as hell but - hey - it works!  Should get a few more beans before the end of the summer.  And what have I learned from all this?  Next year, I'm going to grow my beans up a very sturdy wigwam!  (and pinch out the growing tip)

Elsewhere everything is a bit wind-bashed but surviving:  I'm getting some lovely carrots with excellent flavour…  (all that rain must have done them good)

The beetroot is getting awesomely large…

The bees are still visiting the last of the lavender…

And what I thought were wonderfully chic black chilli peppers are, in fact, turning a vile colour I can only describe as blorange.  Fingers crossed for improvements on that front…

How to store your garden produce…

I have a vivid memory at this time of year of my grandmother sitting, colander in lap, constantly trimming beans, shelling peas, bottling, pickling, preserving, wrapping and otherwise storing the tide of food from my grandfather's back garden-turned-allotment.  With the advent of freezers and supermarkets this has become something of a lost art.

When I wrote recently of my beetroot bounty and of the saga of my onions (now properly dried), several people remarked on the usefulness of the book I turned to.  Camillap, who writes about her veg growing at Seeds and the City commented, "Funny how storage is something veg books seem to gloss over a lot of the time."   Strange, but true - as a quick browse through my gardening bookshelf revealed.  The shelf offers plenty of advice about when to sow, when to reap, what to do in between and recipes - but nothing (apart from the occasional chutney) on storing. And even one of my most experienced gardening friends recently said "I haven't quite got the hang of successional sowing… " as we stared wistfully at her mounds of lettuce, etc.

The lettuce conundrum sent me delving back into my copy of How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-sufficiency (no, you can't store lettuce) and I thought a post about the book (from a gardening viewpoint) might be of interest. (There are, of course, plenty of reader reviews to be found you-know-where…)

The first thing that I immediately appreciate is that the book is written and published in UK.  Not that I have anything against books published elsewhere in the world, it's just that, in this instance, I recognise the ingredients, the quantities and the terminology which is very reassuring because I am, after all, reading it as an idiot's guide to getting it right, with the added comfort that any recommended varieties are more likely to be successfully grown in the UK climate.

The author, Piers Warren, puts the argument for storing your produce very succinctly in his opening paragraph:  "… with less than an acre of garden, you can grow enough produce to feed a family of four for a year but, since much of the produce will become ready at the same time - in the summer and autumn - most of it will go to waste without proper storage, and you'll be off to the supermarket again."  Presumably having chucked a goodly portion of your (excess, bolted or woody) veg on the compost heap.

This is the revised and expanded edition of the book, the first being published in 2003 with much less practical information.  The book is very light on pictures - just a few in the middle of the book which are wholly unnecessary and (say it quietly) a bit boring.  (The same could be said of the design.)  But that's not what we're here for.

There are two sections: the first covers various methods of storing, some of which were already familiar (freezing, pickling, jam), some nice tips on drying, salting and bottling, the difference between fruit butter and cheese explained (new to me) and plenty of recipes for vegetable wine.  I'm not so fussed about that, but it shows the range of the book.  Part Two is an A to Z list of fruits and vegetables ranging over slightly more than 100 pages.  The list is not exhaustive but covers the basics and more.  I was impressed to find a section on Horseradish (my teeny, tiny horseradish plant is now over a metre tall) with 2 alternatives for storage and a recipe for H sauce - and I now know that I can put the young leaves into a salad. Bonus!

I love that the author is a gardener first and foremost, then a cook - or possibly then a winemaker?  Each vegetable section has a paragraph of advice and tips on when to harvest (e.g. cut lettuce in the morning for the crispest leaves), recommended varieties (onions, for example, best types for pickling, best for storage, even a Japanese onion for sowing now and harvesting early next summer), and then the most appropriate methods of storing.  Not everything can be stored and, when that's true, he says so and offers other appropriate advice.  (Short term storage and successional sowing for lettuce.)

Some people have criticised the book for not having enough recipes; I think they're missing the point.  It's a book targetted squarely at gardeners like me, jumping on the Grow Your Own bandwagon and not being experienced enough to plan ahead or quite know what to do with the glut when everything ripens at once.  With this book at my side, I'm able to work out what I should grow next year to see me through the winter and spring - and what I should grow more sparingly for eating in the summer.

It's not the ultimate reference book for storing produce (particularly if you're the leading light of your local Womens' Institute) but, for me, is an excellent starter book on the subject and definitely one of my gardening books that I have actually read!

And the recipes?  Haven't tried any yet but Mushroom Ketchup, Spinach Soup, Spitfire Sauce, Rhubarb Cheese (I'm guessing same texture as lemon curd - yum!), Pea Pod wine (didn't Alys Fowler do something alcoholic with her pea pods on TV?) and Baked Beans have all got my attention.

Now I just need to find a nice, dry, dark, cool but frost-free cubbyhole to put everything in…

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My copy of the book was kindly sent to me by the publishers, Green Books, in Devon. As they say "Green by name, Green by nature." Where possible, books are printed on recycled paper, covering topics which may appeal to the environmentally, ecologically or conservationist minded. ("Soil, Soul and Society".) You can find more information about the publishers, including their latest publications and where to buy, on their website.

Eating - and growing - seasonally

~ downpour imminent … look at that sky! ~

Yesterday's on-off downpours over North London (yes!! hooray!) had the added bonus of me being able to sit, guilt-free, in front of the computer for a while.  I was distracted by the Garden Organic newsletter - they now have a Facebook page in which the One Pot Pledge is mentioned so I had to check that out.  From there, I found a page in support of a UK company called Freshly Forked (take a look, it's quite a good page to bookmark) who highlighted a website called Eat Seasonably, which brings me to the purpose of today's keyboard tappings.  Am I the only person not to know about this?  Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that I have found it before one or two other veg growers - in which case let me introduce you to a jolly good website if, like me, a little advice or timely reminder is always welcome.  Have a look under the 'what to grow now' tab: there's pages of advice, offers, events, etc.  I sent myself an e-postcard to spread the word, which I was hoping to show you, but it hasn't arrived yet… 

For buyers, rather than growers, of fruit and veg there's a fun interactive calendar (find it here) which shows what's in season in which month (see below, plus you can download it as a poster).  You choose by month or by veg;  I'm thinking this could be fun in teaching kids what's in season (they could try guessing before pressing the button) and also perhaps tempt them to try new seasonal veg? (Okay, so I'm an optimist…)

Personally, I found it quite intriguing to see what I should have ready in the Veg Patch, or the possibilities for next year. 

Although, that said, I've been hauling in a good harvest of beans (runner and french), lettuces, radish, potatoes, garlic and beetroot all this past week.  Although I probably could save quite a lot of it (freezer, drying, soup making, etc), I really enjoy giving it away to the people who have been so encouraging over the past months.  It's such a simple gesture and yet it seems to build bridges.

Saga and Onions

A couple of weeks ago the onions started to keel over and I received several complimentary comments to the effect that they looked lovely and ready, followed by: "Could I have one…? Only I can't be bothered to walk to the shop".  Harrumph.  In fairness, at that stage they weren't quite ready so I pinned up 'Do not pick' notices, feeling that the vultures were circling, and cast my gaze across the internet and a few books to see what I should do next.  Apparently once the leaves start to yellow and they're properly fall down drunk, they can be lifted - on a dry day (preferably) - which has been a bit hit and miss of late in North London.

With the threat (or promise?) of heavy rain at the start of the week (… and I'm still waiting), I decided to go for it and have them all up (I did the reds, Karen did the whites) - and the winter planted hard-neck garlic.  I slightly cheated last year by growing from sets, a bag each of 40 red and 40 white onions.  Bizarrely, we dug up 43 red onions and 36 whites!  When planting, I just managed 40 sets to each bed by following the spacing advice and there seemed to be ample space still between them when fully grown. The learning curve here is that, in future,  I'm going to flout the rules and try planting at least 60 in each bed in true cram 'em in style!  After all, the white onion bed had room for rows of carrots as well, which seems (so far) to have worked (at least until the onion tops flopped).

A York Rise tenant (and keen veg grower from Zimbabwe) suggested that I should plait them together straight away while the leaves were still green and hang them from the wigwam, come rain or shine. This is what works for him in his home country.  This would look great covered in strings of onions wouldn't it? (Not sure it would survive the rain though.)

Anyway, I took a basket of first liftings off to be plaited - after following clear instructions from Matron at Hillingdon, I was thrilled to have several of these:

I then bumped into a local woman whom I slightly know; she's an artist, experienced gardener, author of many craft books and leading light of the Highgate allotments.  When she said, "Lay your onions out to dry for at least a week", I listened and learned.  The plaits were undone, more baskets found, a space cleared in L's greenhouse and the wait begins…

This is a sight that finally makes me feel like a proper 'good-life' gardener - stocking the larder for the months ahead.

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Several people were kind enough to comment after my last post on the extreme useful-ness of the book 'How to Store Your Garden Produce'.  Yet again, this book has provided very good advice on onions: "When dry, your best onions can be hung in nets or strung together.  They will store well in a cool, dry place until the end of spring.  Before you string onions, make sure that they have dried adequately." (my italics).  The author, Piers Warren, continues with a 'How To' on stringing and reminds us that onions can also be frozen by skinning, slicing and blanching for 2 minutes.

Beetroot Bonanza: Store it!

A while back I was sent a book called "How to Store your Garden Produce" by Piers Warren.  I gave it only a quick skim through back in May as I had nothing edible to store at the time but I knew that the book would come into it's own later in the year.  That moment is now.

Last year, you may recall, despite loathing the taste of beetroot, I was determined to give it a try.  I'm now converted and happy to eat beetroot in a variety of guises.  (If you find yourself in a similar situation, you might like to be aware of this extensive list of beetroot recipes on the Abel & Cole website.)

As a result of my conversion, I have sowed plenty of beetroot seeds and I find myself in the same boat as other gardeners in that they all seem to be ready at the same time - in spite of successional sowing.

So, back to "How to Store …", look under the handy A-Z listing of veg, turn to B, yep, there it is … beetroot.  A little bit of background, some recommended varieties (take note for next year), some advice ('pull beetroots for storage before they get too large and woody', yep, got that one), ('twist the foliage off, cutting causes bleeding of the beets', hmm, knew about the cutting, good tip on the twisting), then the How To.  Seems to be two ways:  Freezing and Dry Storage.  So…

Freezing:  Pretty straightforward this.  Small beetroots should be washed and boiled whole - the book says for 1 or 2 hours in salted water.  (Last year, I cooked mine for about 45 minutes, depending on the size, and that seemed to do the trick.)  When cooked, rub the skins off, cool, slice and pack into containers ready for the freezer.

Dry Storage:  This one I want to try, sounds interesting.  Gently remove soil from undamaged beets and pack in sand in boxes, barrels, crates (see below).  (My tip, go to your supermarket fishmonger for boxes.  They're usually pleased to hand over their empty polystyrene boxes which are perfect for this and have a lid.)  Store in a cool, frost-free building where they should keep until Spring.

He also mentions Pickled Beetroot (keeps for 3 months), Beetroot Wine (not my thing, but if you're a winemaker …) and Borscht (Russian/Polish beetroot soup) which, of course, can be frozen.  Strangely,  chutney isn't listed - perhaps because other vegetables are needed or it comes under pickling?

In an earlier section called 'The Methods', storing in sand (or sawdust) is described thus:

1. Use sand that is only just moist (but what sort? play sand, builder's sand, garden sand? and does it even matter? Does anyone know?)
2. Make layers of sand and roots (unwashed but with excess soil gently brushed off) in containers - making sure the roots don't touch each other.
3. Store the containers in a dry, frost-free place. Cellar = good; shed/garage = perfectly adequate except in truly freezing weather.  Consider filling them in situ - sand is heavy!

In the next couple of days, I'll post a proper review of the book.  Until then, trust me, if you're new to this, like me, this book is a mine of useful information and ideas - although, of course, to the more experienced among you, this post probably falls firmly in the category of 'Teaching your Grandmother to suck eggs'.

Funding opportunity

Just thought I'd flag this one up as I know that many people passing by this way are involved in gardening with kids via schools or other community groups and/or are keen wildlife conservationists.  Unfortunately, this one's only for UK residents (apologies to any overseas readers).

Anyhoo…  The Big Lottery Fund are giving grants between £300 to £10,000 (!) for  "projects that bring local people together to discover, enjoy or protect the wildlife in their local area".  Projects must (and I quote) improve rural or urban environments for people to enjoy and/or get people more active and healthier. Two examples of this might be by encouraging people to take up gardening or go on nature walks, or providing opportunities for children to learn about nature through play.

Anyone who has put such an idea on hold through lack of cash to get started should have a look at the Big Lottery page, here, where there's more information.  There are three rounds, by the way: 21 July, 22 September, 24 November.  You could just get in for July, if you're quick!

~ Couldn't resist adding this last photo - taken on the Isle of Wight ~

P.S.  Many thanks to Harvest, the Brighton and Hove food partnership, for highlighting this valuable opportunity.

Keep Calm and Carry on…

Last weekend someone crept onto the veg Patch just before dawn and helped themselves to the chicken wire which protected the crops from foxes and cats. We know when this happened because a friend recalls seeing it at 3 a.m., yet it had gone by 7 a.m.  Not to worry, I thought…  I'll just pop out and buy more.  Then I found out it's actually quite expensive: it will cost about £70 to replace all the wire that's been stolen.  (It's been disappearing over the past few weeks but somehow I didn't notice until the last but one piece had gone.)

~ "when we had wire" - the last 2 pieces ~

Without any security on the VP, I'd say the chances that the new lot would be stolen pretty swiftly are quite high - even if we had any cash left in the kitty for the purchase, which we don't.  So, nice one Mr. Burglar-person…  stealing from a community project,  must make you feel real good about yourself.  The Thief must have known he was doing wrong as he would have had to unravel the wire from around the onion bed - so it was hardly Not In Use at the time.  Unscrupulous villains like this rarely have a moment's guilt;  I can only hope that what goes around, comes around … and move on.

Because of this, I have felt disinclined over the past week to sow/plant any more stuff as the last lot got dug up overnight.  But, this morning, I was out on the VP at dawn (trying to beat the heat), weeding and digging and thinking that I should see what else I can grow this summer for the autumn.  Digging out my box of seed packets, this is what I came up with:

 ~ Carry On Sowing ~

Apparently there's still time to sow more broad beans, peas, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, runner beans, carrots, beetroot, spinach, squashes, salad stuff and herbs.  Gosh, I think I may just have talked myself into a little bit of busy-time. 

Summer in a song:

Having lived in the tropics when I was very young, I'm a big fan of music that sounds like taking the lid off a bottle of sunshine.  As the sun is not shining today in London (despite the BBC weather watch predicting deliciously sunny skies all week), I make no apologies for offering this little slice of happy music: (This is what is sending me out to the VP in a good mood today, ready to inspect any overnight vandalism from the foxes and to consider what to plant after I've lifted my onions and beetroot.)



Wishing you all a happy day - and if we have to have cloudy skies, could we have a bit of rain to go with them? Please?

Troublesome Teabags…

 Travelling to the day job by Underground last Friday, I picked up a copy of Metro, the free newspaper.  Tucked away inside, this tiny heading caught my eye:

'Plastic (tea)bags in your compost'

Apparently anyone chucking their spent teabags onto the compost in the belief that they're doing some good has been misled! No, no, let's not panic.  Tea is still good for the compost but the makers of the bags have been leading us up the garden path.  Gardening Which? has been investigating and reports that most teabags are only up to 80% biodegradable with the remainder being polypropylene (the stuff used to seal the bags).  The only bag which escapes this environmentally-unfriendly tag is Jackson's of Piccadilly which was found to be free of plastic.  

I happened to have a box of Twinings in the cupboard and, on further reading, they definitely claim that the box is recyclable and sustainably sourced, the 'foil' wrap around the bags is, in fact, wood pulp and that "the teabags themselves are  biodegradable".  (Harrumph. Liar liar, pants… etc)

Garden Organic have responded to the Gardening Which? report by saying that it's okay to carry on composting tea bags but they should be torn first (which I do anyway);  alternatively, we could always get out the teapots and use loose tea. Anyone for having their tea leaves read?

You can join the debate (and read the report) on tea bags here at the Guardian's environmental pages.

Oh … and one more thing:  I love the cheerful mini Gerberas and daisy-grass (Armeria Maritima) on my kitchen windowsill, background of photo above.  At a bargain £1.29 and £1 respectively from Morrisons last week, I bought several and they're about to be planted up into an Ikea wooden video rack found last week at the recycling centre.  And monkey? brought out of retirement on top of the wardrobe to star in another PG tips production shoot!

Blooms, beans, bees, bugs… and fox cubs!

The annual event which truly heralds the arrival of summer for me is the glorious sight of a mass of unfurled mesembryanthemums.  I  have two of the Schiaparelli Shocking Pink variety in my balcony 'earth box', planted 7 years ago as tiny succulents and which now tumble in a riot of colour over the edge despite being cut back each year.   Sadly this magnificent display lasts for just a few short weeks before the flowers die back and the 'leaves' take on the appearance of samphire.   As the roots have taken over the balcony space to the detriment of any other plants which I try to grow alongside them, this year I vowed to remove them once flowering was over.  (Although I may just take lots of cuttings and then try to transplant them.)

I'm having a modicum of success in keeping the pigeons at bay - 45p wisely spent on bamboo skewers at the supermarket, fashioned into mini wigwams (pointy end up) seem to have done the trick. (Although I recently discovered that my balcony neighbour is encouraging them by letting them breed on his side of the balcony, 3 pigeon-ettes so far.  Eeuch.)

But with one pest semi-sorted, another has appeared: (and don't get me started on the human variety - the ones who didn't help us, but nevertheless help themselves. You know who you are. ) Anyway, back to foxes:

Just a cub (one of three), but part mole given the way he's been digging up the veg overnight!  Just a couple of days ago,  I sowed more salad leaves, spinach and coriander  as the last lot had bolted; I tied a string fence around the seeds, thinking this might form some kind of protective barrier but, no, all dug up again in the morning.  At this rate, the VP will quickly resemble a giant earthworks.

And the broad beans which survived last time?  In the ground with bees a-plenty buzzing around, pollinating those flowers.  They're dwarf beans (a fact only recently discovered when I read the packet) and should only reach a height of 18" but, even so, they're still more than slightly vertically challenged at the time of writing.  I'm doing regular checks for blackfly and wiping it off as soon as I can although this is a vile task which I'd cheerfully pay someone else to do for me - even the children won't do it which shows how high it is on the yuckyness scale.

We're finding lots of new ladybirds in the VP. I deliberately left the over-wintered-now-bolted spinach and kale as a Bug Stop for them until late May. Lots of tiny wiggly caterpillars on the kale meant they weren't munching elsewhere and regular sightings of blue/yellow larvae bugs shows the plan worked for the ladybirds as well.  Very satisfying as I seem to be swamped with black- and white-fly this year. So munch on my little heroes!

Elsewhere, one of us is a year older (heh, heh, not me this time around, thankfully) so a cake was baked, strawberries were picked and chocolate butterflies and flowers made:

Ah yes, looking back that was a very tasty (and simple) cake: vanilla sponge, whipped vanilla buttercream and organic strawberry jam filling, glacé icing on top to hold the fresh strawberries in place, piped buttercream to hold the chocolate decoration.  Yep, yum, yummy, yum.  (BTW, chocolate decorations like these are very easy to make.  If you don't know how, let me know and I'll post a quick tutorial. ☺)

Now back to digging - and fox-proofing - and re-sowing/planting ….

Cool Soup for Hot Summer Days

Everyone enjoying the heat?  Yes?  … I 'm quite enjoying it -  but not necessarily when, as last week, I'm trying to sort out the architectural structure of the VP: digging holes, moving raised beds and laying brick paths. (I'd be a pathetic labourer, far too wussy.)  My forays into the Veg Patch are a little less impromptu than usual, planned so that I'm not toiling away in the heat (as I was last weekend when I felt distinctly peculiar by the afternoon) - the veg patch is between two blocks of flats so it gets very early morning shade and again in the evening.  My plans don't always work and I've managed to get both heat rash and sunburn on my feet this week by gardening in sandals (oops, forgot the suncream).  And it looks like it may continue, at least for another week in London, according to the BBC …

If this is true, I thought I'd have a go at this cooling summer soup, found in a vegetarian cookbook* from the library.  I'll have to let you know how it turns out as this will be my first attempt at it, but it looks good to me - probably tastes like a big bowl of runny Tzatziki.  (Of course, you could always put the cucumber, mint and ice into a jug of Pimm's and enjoy the Greek yogurt with a dish of strawberries and summer fruits … or do all three!)

Chilled Cucumber, Yogurt and Mint Soup

-- image © 'Meat Free Meals' 

For 6 bowls, you will need:

• 1 cucumber
• 500g (1lb 2oz) Greek Yogurt
• a generous handful of mint leaves, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed
• 125ml (4 fl oz) cold water or light veg stock
• salt and ground black pepper
• 6 ice cubes and mint sprigs to serve

1.   Leave a chunk of cucumber to grate later for decoration. Coarsely grate the remainder and put in a large bowl with all the other ingredients for the soup and mix together.  Chill for up to 12 hours. (I imagine that means you can eat it sooner if your happy with the degree of chilled-out-ness.)

2.   Before serving, stir the soup, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Spoon the soup into six bowls.  Into each bowl add an ice cube, 1 Tbsp of the reserved cucumber and a few mint sprigs.

3.    Try eating as finger food, mopped up with rolled up tortilla.  Best enjoyed while sitting in the path of a cooling breeze!

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(*Adapted from Good Housekeeping ‘Meat Free Meals’, pub. June 2009)

BBC-Bees…

Having had a day or two of proper sunshine this past week, a few of us Veg Patchers did a very English thing and had tea and scones in the garden which was utterly blissful.  A little table and some chairs were brought out from the greenhouse and we sat next to the herb patch where many bees were happily collecting nectar or pollen from the flowers. 

For future moments like this, I'd love to win this Sophie Allport bumblebee teapot and jug, with the tea towel and apron for the washing up afterwards.  This is the prize currently being offered in one of the BBC Gardener's World competitions - go here if the thought of owning this kitchenware appeals to you as well.  There's also a 15% discount for gardenersworld.com users buying online.

If you're more interested in real bees than ceramic ones, Gardener's World has a useful page highlighting the best plants for attracting bees to your garden.  It can be found: here.

West End (gardening) Girl

Teenagers and tourists alike love the West End of London.  I don't.  I find it crushed, rushed and expensive.  In my garden and home, I'm in my comfort zone.  But, combine a free gardening event with a classic bookstore and I'm chucking aside my prejudices;  yesterday evening, I sallied forth from the Veg Patch towards Foyles (biggest bookstore in Britain) for the chance to pick up some good gardening tips.  (Despite everything you read here, I really am a novice at this.  Oh?  You knew that already.  Damn.)

Foyles have recently received the London's Green Corners award from the Conservation Foundation for their Urban Gardening window, and asked Neil from Seed Pantry to put together a little 'round robin' of info for keen beginners to start them off growing veg, salads and herbs.  The result was a brilliant evening of top tips served up by Neil,  Issy (Fennel & Fern) and Deb (Carrots and Kids).  It was well attended and, for me at least, it was a treat to meet Issy and Deb whose blogs I read.  (They said they knew of this blog but I think perhaps they made that up, y'know, just to console me.)  Meeting them made me think how lovely it would be to get together with other bloggers and have a chat over a decent cup of coffee … but, hey ho, we all have busy lives.

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Now, I know you'll be interested to hear some of the Good Ideas which were shared yesterday - I forgot to take a pen as I left the house in a mad, scatterbrained dash, so this is a bit of what lodged in my head.

Coffee grounds: gritty texture disliked by slugs - use as a mulch around beans, cabbages, etc; it will not harm the plants and is good for the soil.  Also, add to your compost heap to speed things up.

Eggshells:  crushed eggshells are also a slug deterrent. (Wash them first though or you might attract vermin.)

Tomatoes:  Soak tomato seeds overnight before sowing as this helps germination. Pot on when roots can be seen coming through drainage holes.  When about 12 inches high, pinch out the side shoots to keep the growing energy in the central stem and repot shoots straight into compost.  Water twice a day for a week (tomatoes grow new roots from their stems, who knew?) and give new tomato plants to less green-fingered friends.

Tomato Blight:  Ah, yes.  The Big One.  Issy recommends spacing them well apart, leaving a corridor of air between plants.  Blight is an airborne fungus that loves a bit of humidity so keep things fresh and dry.   Don't get your tomato leaves wet when watering (rainfall is okay as it can't be helped). Cut off the lower leaves when the plant has set fruit - this also helps deter blight.

Pea Shoots:  Had a few of these to nibble.  V. Good.  Don't buy seeds, look in supermarket aisle for boxed dried peas.  (I think they're with the pot noodles, not with the dried beans, etc, which is where you'd expect them to be.  Apparently Asda sell the same variety -- Leo -- as Alys Fowler uses.)

Basil:  is an annual herb, need to resow every year. Will happily grow from seed.  Sow seed into pots every few weeks to have a continuous supply on your windowsill.  Likes an open window for fresh air. (I never knew this before but, I guess, you know it makes sense.)  Water when top soil is dry.

Chives:  Those big pom-pom flowers not only visually pretty up a salad but can be eaten, which sounds … um… interesting.  Chives sown from seed this year will be big enough to eat next year.  May keep going year on year if you shear off the top in the Autumn.  Can keep using even after flowering.

Rosemary (and other woody herbs):  Benefit from a cut back in Autumn or Spring to keep them going.  Cut back leaving a small amount of that season's growth to spring back to life next season.  (Can be grown tall rather than bushy, so I'm going to give this a go on my balcony, using lots of drainage crocks under the compost.)

Storing herbs:    1) Freeze into ice-cubes; surprisingly, this includes basil.  2) Pick leaves and dry in microwave.  Experiment with timing - a minute or two should be enough.  Not Sage though, it may catch fire!  3) Pick a bunch, tie with string, hang upside down to dry.

:: This is Sage in flower; rather beautiful and a magnet for bees ::

Not enough space?  Grow herbs in a hanging basket:  line basket with moss, then a plastic liner (poked through with holes) then compost.  Plant in rosemary, oregano, thyme, lemon balm, etc.  Mint should have it's own basket because of invasive roots.  Deb recommends Roman Chamomile for it's heavenly scent, also good for tea.  Hang it by the front or back door for a welcoming smell on coming home.  Keep baskets well watered.  (Learn more about Chamomile here from Jekka McVicar.)

Newspaper plant pots:  Make with a rectangle of newspaper wrapped firmly around a drinking yogurt bottle:  fold long side over by 1 inch, wrap round container, fold base in firmly, remove pot.  Fill with compost and seeds and firm down. Done. Put into a base container until ready to plant out and, as with toilet rolls, plant out whole thing.  (Sweet shops are usually glad to get rid of the plastic boxes that 'penny' sweets come in.  Cut lid off and wash before use.)

Recycled Propagators:  Use supermarket plastic fruit trays -- the sort you get, say, as a punnet of strawberries or cherries -- fill with compost, sow seeds, water and put the lid back on.  Keeps all moist and warm until germination.  (And fits on kitchen windowsill.)

So there we have it. I'll add more if anything else bubbles up through the fog of my thinking.

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I'll leave you with a Fabulous Friday pic of a herb that didn't get mentioned yesterday but of which I'm inordinately proud because it seems to be doing so well: my horseradish (dig up in autumn, leaving bit of root in ground and will grow again next year).  I'd love to know if you have a plant that makes you smile when you see it!

Have a lovely weekend -- wishing everyone good gardening weather!

Tribulations of urban balcony gardening…

I'm not normally pessimistic but I confess I have been a bit disheartened of late.  I've been invaded.  Yes, just a few days away from home over  half term and a family of pigeons have moved in, taking over my balcony, behaving like rock stars and trashing the place (seedlings completely squashed or broken). All very distressing.  

My kitchen now looks like a horticultural hospital as I've started again, this time indoors, and am also hoping that the poor oppressed cauliflowers, courgettes, squashes and nasturtiums will recover.

Outdoors, my growing year is revealing that  I'm Seriously Muddling Along.  I'm already reading about the successes and soon-to-be harvests of more organised and/or experienced veg growers which is making me feel slightly panicked as I'm still sowing stuff.  It seems that every time I venture out to the Veg Patch the list of Things To Do stretches ever-longer, leaving me feeling just a tad overwhelmed.  I seem to have leapt straight from March (waiting for the frosty nights to pass) into June (scorching sun, drying winds, torrential rain) and my planting and sowing schedule is still languishing at the beginning of May!  On the plus side, at least the kids' broad beans and sunflowers are still alive. (The Veg Patch is faring better than the balcony, pigeon-wise.)

I've had one raised bed ready for planting for a couple of weeks but have been diverted off from this task by putting in another brick path and digging over a bed for my french beans (Blue Lake from Dig In, doing nicely), putting up a little support frame for them and inter-planting them with strawberries.  The little reclaimed brick paths between the beds hit the to-do-list last year when the kids and I tramped home with a couple of inches of veg patch clay-mud attached to the bottom of our shoes.  I'm planning (eventually) to put them in around all the beds, just loose laid so that I can lift and plant in the space if needed.

Suddenly though, everything  is a priority: seeds lately sown (literally), sweet peas to transplant (the coppiced hazel branches for the wigwam have already been delivered by a friend), weeding to be done (that one crept up rather fast!) and lettuces/beetroot/carrots/spinach to be thinned out. Oh, and a blog to write.  … And pigeons to be dealt with (a losing battle so far).

-- Take four children, a bag of lettuce seeds and a lot of enthusiasm.  Thin out seedlings in due course. -- 

I've recently applied for funding to extend the Patch with some railway-sleeper beds which I hope to fill with sensory plants and edible herbs and flowers as a Children's Garden.  I've had to draw a rough sketch to show where the planters will be and it's made me realise how small the Veg Patch is.  I take my hat off to those of you who have huge allotments to fill and control, although (perversely) maybe it's easier if you have lots of space to fill?  I've had to take out the Kale (really only any good now for my neighbour's rabbits) to make room for … what? radishes? sweetcorn? leeks?  Where will the pumpkins, courgettes and squashes go?  What about the tomato bushes, cauliflowers, nasturtiums, calendula and herbs?  Oh, never fear, I will fit it all in - but I may have to stop and dig out another bed beforehand!

I'm a recent fan of My Tiny Plot, a blog written by Gillian Carson.  She's written today about seed packet design, having received some beauties (if you like Liberty print fabric) in the post.  I've got to agree with her.  Most seed packets have become D-U-double L.  I recently wrote about the vintage designs mysteriously bequeathed to the Veg Patch and the changes wrought on seed packets in the Sixties, my gosh - fifty years ago!  I confess that I personally need a visual to make sure that what I'm about to grow is what I think it is but, really, beyond that there's very little to get excited about and I'm beginning to spot a Gap In The Market.

Seeds intended for children are made obvious by their 'Ronald McDonald' fast food colours and cartoon characters. Just a tad patronising, in my view.  How about some vintage Ladybird book-type illustrations instead?

There's also plenty of inspiration to be found in children's books; how about this one from illustrator Vivien French - as seen here in 'Oliver's Vegetables':

No prizes for guessing what would be found in that packet!

I've also been known to buy magazines for the free beautiful seed packet… oh, alright then, the mag was fab as well: Gardens Illustrated. They use the work of illustrator Hannah McVicar, daughter of Jekka-the-Herb-Lady, within the mag and also to adorn their free seeds:

Gorgeous or what?  Even Boden have got in on the act, in cahoots with Sarah Raven a couple of years ago:

Perhaps looking a bit dated now.

And, may I (ahem) modestly offer my own illustration of Agapanthus made for my seed gathering envelopes from one of my photos:

Yes? No? Maybe? On the other hand, maybe that one should be saved for fabric prints.  Might make a nice cushion cover?

Have you discovered any lovely seed packet designs or got any favourites lurking? I'd love to know!