On the salad menu...

Despite the grey skies over the veg patch, close inspection reveals that things are surely happening. A little pootle around the patch yesterday evening revealed a glimpse of the glories to come in the months ahead.

Having grown Tom Thumb (orange) and Milkmaid (creamy white) nasturtiums last year (some of which are already creeping back again), I was very taken with the variety in the photo above called Blue Pepe; the colour combo of blue/purple/green leaves is a favourite and will be jazzed up with bright red flowers in due course. When I can, I love to grow veg that are one step removed from what's expected and these will do nicely! Entirely edible, too - I'm planning some fabulously stylish salads this year!

I've growing purple carrots, rocket, red crisphead lettuce, red orach, pink broad beans and bull's blood beets to add to the salad list - not only will my food be colourful and tasty, I'm giddily excited at the prospect of it all, which is the fun of growing your own! It's a bit late now but I wish I was taking part in VP's salad challenge!

Feast, veggie style

Writing about the veg patch last year, I was using words like 'herbalicious' and 'lush' and reporting conversations with the children here as everyone crept out of their winter hibernations and started looking forward to the summer harvests. The weather this year has meant that it's been tricky to get started properly. Early spring gave us warm days and very cold nights - hopeless for sowing! - then... well, need I say it? Wet.

I'm behind with sowing because, before I can put anything more out, I need to fence off all the beds and borders against unwanted intruders of the four legged kind; there's been a lot of nocturnal digging and *shudders* toilet-ing going on in the garden. The cauliflowers seem to be a popular spot, thank goodness for long stems.

Newly planted herbs have been tossed around, carrots and potatoes have been disturbed in their pots and sacks. It's too frustrating. The onion bed has survived because I made a little plastic netting fence for it. Very fiddly to make but, so far, effective. The broad beans are also surviving but are covered in chicken wire which is a bit hazardous - both for small children and foxes' noses, I imagine.  The brassicas are being left alone, even by the pigeons, although I popped wire cages over the cabbages, just in case.

So, with all this mayhem going on in the garden, I'm pleased that I've been able to enjoy several very tasty veggie suppers.  The basket above shows kale, tenderstem cauliflower, sprout tops and sprout shoots. Chopped, sliced, steamed, seasoned and buttered, they've filled the hungry gap very nicely.

Rosemary Beetle

Edited to add: Be on the lookout for this garden pest if you grow herbs such as sage, lavender, rosemary, mint... and even thyme. One London reader, whose rosemary was host to a colony of these beetles, commented, "from noticing the first little bites on the plant, it only took about a week for it to be totally beyond rescue." Vigilance and daily checking are key.

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Do not be fooled by the attractive plumage of this beetle. This handsome fellow is a predator of the first order and should be destroyed on sight. I spotted him yesterday evening when, as the sun came out, it just glinted off the shiny back of the insect.  I was looking over the various herbs in my patch and was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

Although undoubtedly very beautiful to look at, I remembered seeing a warning poster during my day out at Jekka McVicar's herb farm and I was certain this could be the very culprit. It was the bold jewel coloured stripes that reminded me so I continued to squish and search by hand brushing through my herbs.  I found three in a short space of time.

~ My thumb gives an idea of the beetle's size ~

The adult rosemary beetle, also known as Chrysolina Americana, feeds on the new growth of lavender, mint, sage, rosemary and thyme. In short, you could have your entire essential kitchen herbs wiped out in a season. As the beetle seems to prefer to feed on Lamaceae plants, it's thought that others in the family may also act as hosts to this pest. Rosemary beetles originate from Southern Europe and were first seen in the UK in the early 1990's; they are now prevalent across the country. More info on the RHS site here. They are destructive enough to warrant the RHS carrying out research on this bug - there is an ongoing survey so, if you are unfortunate enough to find this beetle in your garden, please take a photo (if possible) and complete the online form. There is a link to the survey on the RHS page about the beetle.

I spoke to Jekka today who confirmed my suspicions.  She farms all her herbs organically and suggested the following method of control:  Get hold of a yellow sticky trap (a google search will offer plenty of outlets or ask your local garden centre), peel back one side to expose the sticky surface and lay it flat on the soil under the infested plant, sticky side up.  Gently tap the plant so that the beetles fall onto the trap. Destroy.

Jekka also reminded me that the RHS are the only people doing valuable and essential entomological research on this subject and, as gardeners, it's vital that we support the RHS, if we can, by becoming members - with the bonus that you can get entry into some spectacular gardens and get lots of advice, if needed.

Unfortunately for me, London is flagged up as one of the main areas where these beetles have established colonies. I didn't know until recently to look out for these beetles but will now be extra vigilant - and I've joined the RHS.  And now for the close up:

~ Beautiful but deadly for herbs ~

Sunshine, Rain and Perennial Cauliflowers

~ Perennial Cauliflower, looking good (and tasty) ~

I've heard so many people bemoaning the "dreadful weather" this last week: wind, rain, sunshine, as well as thunderstorms today. Welcome to April in the UK.  (I think it's great.)  There's a hosepipe ban in the south so all this rain is sending deep reserves of water into the ground and the veg and fruit will be fully refreshed.  Luckily I was able to find time to go down to the veg garden on Monday where I got quite a lot done.  I stayed really focused as I thought it might rain at any moment!

I earthed up my bag grown potatoes for the first time as they'd put on a good 4 inches of growth.  I sowed Italian parsley, coriander and 3 types of carrot seeds: purple cosmic (for fun), Amsterdam 3 (my usual) and a new one (to me) called Little Fingers as it's supposed to be harvestable (is that a word?) in only 8 weeks!  I'm growing these in deep tubs to see if it makes a difference; previously I've interplanted carrots between the onions and garlic which seems to have thwarted any carrot fly.  Let's see how the tubs do. (The theory is to grow a few at a time and re-sow at monthly-ish intervals so that I don't end up overwhelmed with carrots.  Or anything else for that matter.)

The pink broad beans are all doing really well - I sowed them in a raised bed that had been manured last autumn and I've left a space to plant beans or peas (not sure which yet) at the north-east end of the bed where they'll get plenty of sun without shading the broad beans. The sacrificial nasturtiums planted at the same time have yet to make a showing; I want them there to tempt any aphids or blackfly away from the broad beans... )

Meanwhile, back upstairs in my flat-turned-greenhouse, the artichokes, dill, borage and melon seeds have all germinated and been potted on successfully. They'll stay upstairs for a few weeks until they're strong enough to fend for themselves in the veg garden. I sowed a tray of 12 Jiffy 7s with bell peppers (purple and orange), capsicums and chillis and the seed saved from my Yellow Banana chilli grown last year (the one still fruiting at Christmas). I reckon the son of that plant deserves a space on the windowsill this year if I can successfully nurture it to maturity. I suspect it's not really called Yellow Banana but the plant came from Homebase when the fungus gnats munched my own chillis into oblivion and that was the name conferred on it there. The seeds went into the modules at the beginning of April and are over an inch high already.  I hope this bodes well for raising mature plants as I may have left sowing them a bit late.

The best part of the week is that I've enjoyed the first of my perennial cauliflowers! The main cauli head was quite large so I cut just a few chunky stalks.  It was cooked with the sprouting stalks from the bolted Brussel Sprouts plants and both were utterly delicious. (Served up with just butter, salt and pepper. Yum.) I wondered in my previous post whether the sprout stalks would be edible and now I know that they are. They were not unlike PSB so it's good know that the sprout tops and stalks can still be eaten even after the plant has bolted.  Lesson learned: don't be hasty in chucking your bolted winter veg onto the compost heap.  I can honestly say I enjoyed every mouthful of that particular lunch.

Tomorrow I'm off early for a long drive to Bristol.  Jekka McVicar's herb farm hosts occasional Open Days with talks by Jekka and farm tours around the herbs.  I'm booked onto the workshop "How to Design a Herb Garden" which I treated myself to for my birthday last month.  I'm really excited to be going, even though the weather forecast is not good, and I'll hopefully be able to post all about it when I get back.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Review: Green Crafts for Children

~ Gratuitous photo of cowslip on balcony; just to brighten up the day! ~

Today started by looking at clear blue skies with a good stiff breeze. Rubbish for taking photos (the above was taken yesterday) but perfect for pottering around the patch and sowing peas and beans as long as I'm quick!  The veg patch only gets sun until midday and there was quite a chill in the wind yesterday so this is a day to be getting on with things.

First though, I have a(nother) book to review. Following on from my review of Garden Crafts for Children, Green Crafts for Childrenis another good start for beginner crafters and I mention it here only because a few of the skills can be taken outside.  I'm thinking about the Gardening with Children group on UK Veg Gardeners - there's a running theme of how to keep the children occupied for a short while so that adults can complete some of the more mundane, but essential, tasks in the allotment or garden. Most children won't need much prompting to rush off den building or exploring but there will, inevitably, come a time when they've had enough but the adult hasn't (if you're anything like me... ).

By taking a small bag of non-fussy crafts with you, everyone's happy for a bit longer and this craft book may offer a few suggestions. Interested? Then pop over to my other blog Veg Patch Kids for the full lowdown. (That blog has been rather neglected for a long while but, as I'm helping out at a local primary school gardening club from this Friday, it may well be seeing a bit more action.)

I rather like this project from the book ... !

P.S.  I was right about the wind - it's been very nippy today as well and the early sunshine was quickly covered by clouds.  Hope it warms up soon!