Found! Giant Mutant Radishes…

Oooh… look what we've got!  And I promise I haven't messed with this photo, nor is it one of those trick photos that alters perspective!  This really is the size of the radishes we're picking at the moment and I promise you they're very, very tasty indeed. 

Luckily quite a few neighbours have confessed to liking a quick munch of radishes - is that another collective noun, a munch of radishes, do you think? - because we still have rather a lot, having rushed to grow all our seeds at the end of the summer. 

I'll just withdraw a respectful distance while you quietly salivate, shall I?

Gone to seed…

Sweet pea pods - look how they twist round on themselves once split! I'm trying to be creative about how to use the empty pods; any thoughts?

After my recent thoughts on collecting seed from various plants, a quick walk around reveals how bountiful the harvest could be:  sweet pea pods, poppy heads, sunflower seeds, aliums, hollyhocks, wallflowers and runner beans - with courgettes, cucumber, tomatoes, pumpkin and peppers waiting in the wings.

I'm absolutely stunned because free seeds is something I'd never really thought about until now.  But the success of our little patch is inspiring very exciting thoughts of what's possible for next year - and not just in the veg patch but throughout all the gardens here.

Gardens and allotments are still (just) really beautiful and it's worthwhile going to take some photos while they're still flowering, fruiting, or otherwise good to eat.  Or why not, on a sunny afternoon (or a rainy one… it  happens), give the kids some paper and crayons and get them to draw the plant that they've collected seeds from.  And treat yourself to a big mug of tea, and five minutes peace.

Wallflower seed pods, splitting on the plant. Take a bag to collect these - the tiny seeds will get lost in your pockets!

Just a thought…

"Green fingers are the extension of a verdant heart."

~Russell Page, Landscape Architect and professional garden designer, 1906-1985

What do you think?  Do you enjoy gardening - or do you prefer just to eat the veg?

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Last of the Summer Vine…

 

These little greenhouse beauties are just coming to the end of their fruiting season and in the spirit of learning about running a proper Veg Patch, I've been reading up about gathering seeds.  Yes, I know I could just pop over to the garden centre next year and buy some more (in fact, lots more as the choice is so great) but then we'd miss a valuable opportunity to teach the children about that whole 'cycle-of-life' thing.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, purveyors of Gardener's World and the Chelsea Flower Show (bless 'em), have this to say about gathering seed:

• Choose a dry, windless day. Select a healthy, pest- and disease-free plant, whose seedpods look as if they're about to split. Cut off the entire seedhead.
• Invert entire seedhead upside-down into a paper bag. Close bag without crushing seedhead and label. Place bag in a dry place for the seeds to ripen. (ooh, I like this one -  nice and neat.)
  
• Check the seeds' progress regularly. When most of the seedpods have opened, tip out the contents onto a dry surface and separate seeds from any bits of seedhead still attached.
• Store the cleaned seed in a small dry envelope, seal and label carefully. Keep in a cool, dry, airy place until ready to be used.

I'm not sure how this method would work for, say, tomatoes.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm picturing bags of soggy tomatoes slowly rotting - not good.  The answer would appear to be found in this month's Garden Illustrated, in an article called Saving Seeds (pg 24).  (I hope they won't mind if I just let you in on their tips for tomatoes. Maybe you'll go and buy the magazine, like I did.)

They say that tomato seeds need to be fermented in their own juice because the seeds have a gelatinous coating.  What you have to do (apparently) is scoop out the seeds, pop them in a jar with a little water and leave to ferment. A mouldy layer appears on the top of the liquid; it will have fermented once it smells slightly (3 to 4 days later). (O-kaaay. Not tempting me so far.) At this point, clean the seeds in a fine sieve under running water and dry on a porcelain plate (it's a very posh gardening mag). And this they call fun.

On the other hand, the Edible Playground recommends laying tomato seeds out on a sheet of kitchen paper and leave to dry. Might not work, but at least there's no smell!

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If you have the time, why not find out more on these links:

BBC - collecting seeds
RHS - collecting and storing seed
The Edible Playground - Autumn in the Garden 
and, since I have your attention, please vote for us at The Little Blog Awards!

The Hanging Garden…

 

Periwinkle (aka Vinca Major); small but perfectly formed -  cheeky purple asterisks peeking through a curtain of green - and much desired by gardeners in search of good ground cover.  Especially our predecessors - or did it blow here on the wind?  Whatever the tale, we're now inundated with the stuff. 

Over the years it's swarmed over the raised borders, swamping the lilies, choking the honeysuckle and hydrangea and fighting with the ivy climbing up the back walls.  Tenacious, indeed.

The original plan was to try and preserve some of it - if only as individual plants to exchange for seeds and cuttings.  But a few weeks ago the ivy was toppled by heavy rainfall (the day it rained solely over York Rise, seemingly), leaving it dangling over the Vinca like a surfer's wave and exposing the brick wall for the first time in decades.  Which was lucky really, because a) the ivy is so heavy it could have brought the entire wall down and b) nobody was standing underneath it - which might have spoiled their day.  Naturally, this has doubled the work involved to prepare this bed, so I'm afraid it's hasta la vinca baby, because we need to clear this raised border for sowing spinach, potatoes, onion sets, garlic and broad beans (no, obviously not all in the same bed - that would be a stretch, even for novices like us).

So, take a good long look - soon all this wild, natural and abandoned greenery will become the South Section of the Urban Veg Patch. (But perhaps not quite by the end of this weekend.)

It will be missed, but I, for one, am so looking forward to lovely, yummy winter veg…

Inside The White House Garden…

(Screen grab taken from 'Inside the White House Garden' video.)

Yep. Inside the White House garden - and not manicured lawns but the little Presidential Veg Patch which has been supplying salad to state dinners these past months.  First Lady Michelle Obama talks about her beliefs in the benefits of home grown food, the tangible effects of this in her own family, and re-educating our children about food and diet so that the message is passed on for generations to come.  I love the fact that she's getting behind this message as the First Lady of Fast Food Nation - and not just talking, but doing. 

The video is also worth watching if only to see how they prepared their patch for planting (covering the essentials of soil testing and re-fertilizing), and a brief history on the Victory Garden which Eleanore Roosevelt had there during WWII and Thomas Jefferson's heritage seeds.
 
If you've got a few minutes (actually, 7.44 minutes) to spare, take a look.  I hope you'll be glad you did.  And I hope you'll be inspired to go out to your garden/balcony/windowbox/planter and sow a few seeds yourself. You'll be in good company.