Produce From The Garden

October 17, 2016October 17, 2016

A garden find

I’m gradually working around the garden, taming and modifying, trying to create a manageable plot, before I start carving it up into more borders. At present I’m tackling an out of control bamboo that’s attempting to colonise the whole garden. Once cut back I’ll take a mattock to the roots hopefully eradicating the menace. Whilst clearing this forest I found a large muddy brown bottle, half filled with rain water and the most disgusting contents that I will not go into! After a good deal of bleach, lots of scrubbing and the use of ‘magic balls’ (amazing metal balls which clean dirt and watermarks from the inside of bottles and vases), I have a fabulous new vase. I love the bottles large size and short neck. It’ll be perfect for a couple of long shrubby stems.

Long stemmed dahlias looking stunning on the piano

Most of my vases are up-cycled. Before I put any glass container in the re-cycling I consider its flower worthiness. Your supermarket shop can inadvertently provide you with beautifully shaped glass containers, spice and mustard jars often come in perfect vase shapes. I also love home scent reed bottles, which are great as single stem vases. You just need to keep your eyes and mind open, even if the potential flower vessel is in a rotten smelly state!

Save

October 10, 2016October 11, 2016

Grow an easy wild flower meadow for the price of a few packets of seeds

There are two ways to create a wild flower meadow, one which will take some time, effort and money, the other is quick, easy and cheap. Bet you can guess which option I took!

If you want perfect swaths of meadow flowers reminiscent of the amazing wildflower landscaping around the London Olympic park in 2012, I recommend the first option; stripping turf, rotavating, sowing special seed mixes and ta-da, you’ll be rewarded with a fabulous meadow; well in the first year, you might be a bit disappointed in the second, still a great meadow but it won’t self sow quite as prolifically as previously.

If you’re just after an area of garden that looks naturalistic with a few wild flowers and is a haven for wildlife, save yourself some time and money and go with my favoured second option.

For most wild meadow flowers to thrive the soil needs to be poor in nutrients, so a well tended, manure enriched part of the garden is not going to work that well, if this is what you’ve got, go for poppies and a cut flower annual mix which will give you a pretty garden meadow effect.

The perfect spots are often already grassed, in the past I created a lovely meadow in a mini orchard at our old house. Now I want to recreate the effect along the banks of our ditch and pond. This is an area we leave to its own devices, just regularly mowing a path and strimming the longer grass once a year in August. It’s already a haven for wildlife but we’d like to attract more and add some colour to enhance the walk around the pond.

I plan to have a wild flower strip along the side of the ditch, in the rough grass to right of the path

The wild flower strip will extend along the ditch, around the pond where you can see the rough grass

To give wild flowers the chance to thrive they need a bit of space, lush thick grass is going to smother any self respecting wild flower when it attempts to set seed. A clever solution to this problem is to grow Yellow Rattle, this pretty yellow flower is parasitic on grass roots extracting water and minerals. In the past it was hated by farmers as Yellow Rattle can reduce a hay crop by 50%. This is just what we’re after. If the Yellow Rattle does start to take over, deterring wild flowers you can just cut it back before it sets seed one year. The trick is to sow Yellow Rattle seed now in Autumn as it needs a long period of chill to enable germination in Spring. The easiest way to sow Yellow Rattle is by scrapping away a small patch of grass, digging the soil so it’s not too compact, watering and then sprinkling a few seeds. Repeat this every few feet in the area you want to establish a meadow.

A packet of 600 Yellow Rattle seeds for £1.80

One of the little patches ready for Yellow Rattle to be sown in

I then wait till spring to sow wild flower seed into pots with low nutrient seed compost. Once established in early May, I then pot out into the meadow area, allowing them to thrive and set seed starting the annual cycle of a wild flower meadow.

After the meadow is planted there is just one rule. Cut the meadow once a year in late July/ August, after flowering, leave the ‘hay’ to dry, allowing seed to disperse and set for next year. After a week or so remove the hay as you don’t want it to rot down into the soil adding nutrients.

I look forward to posting some blooming meadow pictures early next summer.

Below are some suggested wild flowers for different sites:

Woodland / shaded area

Wood Sage

Hedge Garlic

Hedge Woundwort

Herb Bennet

Nettle Leaved Bell Flower

Ragged Robin

Red Campion

Self Heal

Square St Johns Wort

Sweet Cicely

Upright Hedge Parsley

Wild Angelica

Wild fox glove

Wood Sage

Clay soils in an open aspect

Autumn Hawkbit

Betony

Birdsfoot Trefoil

Corn Poppy

Cowslip

Goatsbeard

Lady’s Bedstraw

Lesser Knapweed

Meadow Buttercup

Meadow Vetchling

Musk Mallow

Ox Eye Daisy

Ragged Robin

Ribwort Plantain

Self Heal

Common Sorrel

White Campion

Wild Carrot

Yarrow

Yellow Rattle

Wild Clary

Sandy soils in an open aspect

Agrimony

Meadow Cranesbill

Birdsfoot Trefoil

Corn Poppy

Dark Mullein

Kidney Vetch

Lady’s Bedstraw

Meadow Buttercup

Musk Mallow

Ox Eye Daisy

Ribwort Plantain

Self Heal

Sorrel

White Campion

Wild Carrot

Yarrow

Yellow rattle

Chalk Soils in an open aspect

Birdsfoot Trefoil

Common Vetch

Corn Poppy

Cowslip

Dropwort

Kidney Vetch

Lady’s Bedstraw

Meadow Buttercup

Meadow Cranesbill

Musk Mallow

Ox Eye Daisy

Rough Hawkbit

Ribwort Plantain

Salad Burnet

Self Heal

Common Sorrel

Small Scabious

Wild Carrot

Wild Marjoram

Save

October 6, 2016

Autumn produce from the garden and a bit of magic

The low, warm, golden, autumn sun has lured me out into the garden, the morning rays highlighting blooms, transforming them into beautiful jewels.

I tried to capture the magical atmosphere with pictures, but sadly they don’t quite compare to the real thing.

A nasturtium radiating the golden light

Dahlia – Paul Emory

Dahlia – Halloween, looking as spooky as a dahlia can get!

Dahlia, Cafe au Lait, shouting ‘put me in vase’!

Dahlia, unknown. Looking very elegant.

Dahlia Selina, which was glowing in the sunlight

Dahlia Rip City, looking mighty fine!

Dried artichoke flowers that will give sone winter structure to the kitchen garden

We’re enjoying the autumn bounty from the garden. Squashes are not only a delicious kitchen delicacy that’ll store throughout the winter. They also make gorgeous table decorations. The usual bunch of garden flowers have made way for a platter of squashes, their colours are inspiring, with fabulous depth, more enticing than a Farrow and Ball colour chart!

My squash table centre

Crown Prince and Honey Bear, ready to be harvested

My Squash and courgette jungle!

This fella sucessfully took my chair out of action this summer!

Every year I grow a few Cape Gooseberry (Physalis) plants; there orange fruits encased in a paper lantern have a unique zing which I find very moreish. They can also be served as an indulgent treat by pealing the paper lantern back to reveal the berry which can be half submerged in melted chocolate then allowed to dry, delicious!

A few Cape Gooseberries, a yummy garden snack

The delicate Cape Goosebery lantern

My apple thinning quest earlier in the year has paid off. The boring tedious task of thinning bunches of apples down to a pair has meant we have a lovely crop of apples this year.

A few shots of this years apple crop

August 31, 2016

How to make easy peasy bunting

I love bunting; it’s the perfect summer garden accessory. It makes me think that every day’s a party, adding fun, colour and movement to the garden as it flaps in the wind. It also makes an atmospheric interior decoration. I made some bunting from deck chair material to hang in our newly renovated summer house, as mentioned in my last posting here’s an easy peasy guide to making bunting:

Bunting hanging over our patio

First of all choose your bunting fabric. Select a heavier weight curtain or upholstery fabric, this will hang well outside. Another tip is to select a reversible fabric. If your bunting is hanging outside it will need to look good from both sides. I chose deck chair material for its thick heavy weight, and it has no ‘wrong’ side.

To make the bunting you will need:

Sewing machine
Measuring tape
5 meters of cotton bias binding tape – I bought mine very cheaply off Amazon
Cotton – In a colour to complement the bias binding tape
Pins
Sharp Scissors
Sharp Pinking Shears – I learnt the hard way, blunt pinking shears that have been used to cut up Christmas cards don’t work!
Ruler
Pen

All you need to make bunting.

Measure a 28cm width of Fabric, mark with a pen, this will become the length of each bunting flag:

Along the 28cm pen line you’ve just drawn, mark out 22cm, this will become the top width of the flag. Repeat the 22cm marks all along the width of the fabric:

At the bottom of the fabric width measure 11cm and mark, and then measure 22cm, mark and continue repeating the mark every 22cm:

With a ruler and pen, mark out the flags using the guide marks you’ve just made:

You then have a width of fabric marked out into triangles (the flags) 28cm long and 22cm wide at the top:

Next, cut the top and bottom edge of the bunting with scissors, creating a 28cm band with drawn triangles inside:

Then cut the angled sides of the bunting flags with pinking shears. This gives a zig zag edge to the fabric which prevents the material fraying, and saves us a lots of time sewing!

One of the bunting flags ready for sewing to the binding bias. You will need 11 flags in total, always have an odd number of flags to ensure there is a central one.

Leave a 44cm length of binding bias tape at each end, then insert your flags into the binding bias tape and pin, leave a 17cm gap between each flag:

Pop in a pin to hold the binding bias tape together between each flag:

Finally machine sew the bias binding tape to your bunting flags, carefully removing the pins before you get to them:

And that’s all there is to it, easy peasy bunting!

The bunting in pride of place in the summer house

August 22, 2016August 23, 2016

A Summer House renovation

My summer project was to renovate an old summer house inherited from our homes previous owners. This tatty eyesore has been used as a dumping ground for my boy’s garden toys. With money earned from our garden produce honesty stall, I set about renovating and painting to create a summer haven. The result has been a complete revelation, a luxurious garden retreat that I use to relax, unwind and work in. I’m now convinced that everyone could benefit from such a sanctuary in their garden.

The finished Summer House

The shocking ‘before’ shot!

The Summer House with the doors wide open

The ‘before’ shot with the doors open

The renovation

First of all I cleared out all the toys, invading creepers, spider’s webs and general natural mess that seems to accumulate when a shed like structure is abandoned and left to its own devices. I found some rotten and woodworm infested wood, I treated the woodworm holes with woodworm killer and luckily the rot was not too bad, I cleared the crumbly fragments away and soaked the area with wood hardener, this magic liquid soaks into the affected area and hardens the wood as it dries. I then painted the Summer House inside and out with an undercoat that was recommended by the paint shop. It was very important to use the right undercoat as the Summer House had not been painted previously, if we’d put our paint on straight away it would have been a waste soaking into the hungry dry wood, also the original wood preservative and resins would have seeped through the paint discolouring it.

Looking into the Summer House

When planning my summer house renovation I tried a few tester pots of dedicated shed paint but quickly decided against this option, I didn’t like the colours available and didn’t feel it provided a good quality painted wood finish, it looked like a stain or wash. I ended up selecting ‘Grey Moss’ by Little Greene Paint Co. in an oil based eggshell. It’s the same colour as our conservatory which gives continuity throughout the garden. I selected a light ‘Dove Grey’ in a water based eggshell for the interior.

Designing the interior on no budget!

The interior of the summer house required some thought as I only really had enough money for paint. A few years ago we were given two bamboo armchairs from my husband’s Grandfather’s conservatory; sadly we never really had space for them in our conservatory as its prime role as potting shed and greenhouse seems to take up all available space! They were the perfect start, to the interior design of the summer house. We found a matching bamboo and rattan table at the local auction house for £7.

Inside the Summer House

The view from my armchair

I had to accept that the children still need to store their tennis rackets, cricket stumps and various balls somewhere. A compromise was required, I decided to paint a discarded wooded chest the same colour as the walls, and issued a new rule; garden toys have to fit into the box or find a new home!

As I sat musing in one of the armchairs, relaxing, whilst the boys cycled passed on their bikes and swung from the oak trees rope swing, my mind drifted, imagining myself writing and working in this peaceful environment. I needed a desk that would fit into a tight space, yet not encroach on my new tranquil haven. Eureka (it happens rarely in our household)! A folding table from IKEA, purchased for the galley kitchen table in our then London flat, never used, in its original wrapping and stored for 15 years in our various garages. It was the perfect summer house desk, with just the need of an oak stained wax, to give a little character and dull the stark untreated pine. In seconds I can move an arm chair and have my desk up in place, a dual purpose space in just over 6M².

My desk

The Summer House as an office

The final decorations include a beautiful hanging lamp given to us by my Aunt and Uncle, homemade easy peasy bunting which I will detail how to make in my next posting and colourful cut flowers from the garden, that take my wonderful new summer house to another dimension.

Flowers on the table

Fuchsias in the Summer House

Flowers in the nooks and crannies

More flowers and t. lights

Not only is the renovated Summer House a great place for a cuppa, it’s the perfect spot for a sundowner, cheers!

Save

August 19, 2016

Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas are the quintessential English cottage garden flower; there will always be a place for them in my garden just for the idealised romantic image they conjure up, let alone their scent and great properties as a cut flower. There aren’t many flowers that can better the summer fragrance that drifts around your home from a freshly picked bunch of sweet peas.

Over the years I’ve had mixed Sweet Pea success, with issues ranging from too short a stems for a cut flower, low flower yields and the plants giving up by high summer. This year it seems to of all come together and with one wigwam of clambering sweet peas I’ve been picking a couple posy’s every few days, the flowers just keep coming. I think there are a couple of factors that have aided sweet pea triumph this year. Their wig wam is situated in full sun; I’ve popped one of the watering system sprinklers at the base in the centre of the structure and enriched the soil with plenty of well rotted garden compost. This has resulted in strong healthy plants.

A mornings Sweet Pea harvest

Sweet Peas flowering up my home made willow wig wam

August 7, 2016

Picking Plums

I have just started picking our first plums. They’re a lovely high summer treat, but do sadly attract wasps who love to bury themselves into the intoxicating fruit. My great fear is that one of my bare footed boys will tread on a fallen plum containing dizzy wasps and be stung. I diligently try to pick all the ripe plums before they fall, preventing a painful incident. I find this an easier task than trying to get my boys to wear shoes in summer! You can tell when a plum is ripe it’s a slightly darker purple than the other fruit on the tree and when you gently pull, the plum comes away from the stalk with ease.

We have far more plums than we can eat so they’re being snapped up on my ‘Produce from the garden’ honesty stall.

Plums This afternoons plum harvest

August 1, 2016August 1, 2016

The most effective cabbage white caterpillar trap!

Last year I spent much of the summer picking cabbage white caterpillars off my brassicas. They were particularly fond of my Cavolo Nero. Try as hard as I might, I’d always miss a group of tiny caterpillar babies or eggs, in no time they would turn into great big brassica stripping pests. I even managed impressive rants to my boys about the origins of Eric Carle’s ‘Hungry Caterpillar’ book, which not only teaches young children their numbers and days of the week but also the valuable parable that a caterpillar can eat an extraordinary amount of your precious vegetables before it happily takes off as beautiful butterfly!

On top of all that my tummy turns at the smell and texture of the caterpillars, particularly the aroma of slightly squashed caterpillars! I couldn’t face another year of collecting them from my Kale.

Apart from the slug pellets I used earlier in the year (which I still feel guilty about, but it really was that or no dahlias and vegetables this year!) I garden with the organic theory in mind (enrich your soil; you’ll have strong plants that will be able to fight off attacks of pests and disease without the need for chemicals). But I am a realist even the richest soil is not going to give brassicas the strength to fight off a cabbage white caterpillar attack. Lateral thinking was required, what is the greatest delicacy to a cabbage white? Answer Nasturtiums. I decided to plant Nasturtiums in amongst my vegetables with the hope that the cabbage white caterpillars would gorge on them and not my brassicas. It is important to select a compact bush forming variety (I chose ‘Tom Thumb Mixed’) and not a trailing variety which puts on vigorous growth and would dominate a vegetable bed very quickly.

One of my Nasturtium traps!

Nasturtiums in amongst my Kale

I am very pleased to say that so far it’s worked, my brassicas are pest free and my nasturtiums are being munched, they also seem to be attracting the black fly, saving my vegetable crops from that scourge.

Cabbage white catterpillars gorging themselves on the Nasturtiums

Black fly enjoying the sacrificial Nasturtiums too!

To be honest I’ve never really been a fan of Nasturtiums, their flowers are a little gaudy and their umbrellas like leaves dull. I do think the addition of nasturtium flowers takes the look of a salad to another level, but I’m afraid the taste turns my tummy as much as the smell and texture of the horrid caterpillars that love them so much. To use the Nasturtiums as a caterpillar distraction and feed has an appealing sense of justice to me!

Save

July 28, 2016July 28, 2016

Treat Chilli’s as perennials for an amazing harvest

I’ve successfully grown Chilli’s for many years. They’re a useful and easy crop to grow, not minding a bit of rough treatment; in fact they seem to thrive on neglectful watering! Once ripe I pop the Chilli’s in the freezer and use them as needed throughout the year. To be honest we always grow far too many for our own consumption, so many get passed on to a friend who’s a complete chilli fiend.

Chilli’s are the first packet of seeds I reach for come the start of the seed sowing season in February, they seem to need a longer growing season. I keep them in the greenhouse or conservatory and by July their first fruit begins to appear and start to ripen.

I have always treated Chilli’s as annual plants, but last year I read that Chilli plants thrive in their second year if treated as a perennial. So I thought I’d give it a go; overwintering them in my frost free conservatory. Their leaves all dropped off and the plants took on a convincingly dead appearance. The sparse watering and frost free position during winter seemed to work, come spring leaves started to shoot and flowers quickly set, resulting in a fabulous chilli crop so far this year. It will be interesting to see how they perform in their third year.

Chilli ‘Ring of Fire’ in its second year

In comparison the Chilli’s I sowed this year are fruiting, but yet to turn red. The quantity of fruit is also significantly less. It should be noted that they did have a tough start in life as I forgot to pot them on and it was only when I popped them in a larger pot a month ago that the plants developed and tripled in size! I suspect this would make my little experiment scientifically invalid, however most decisions in my life are dictated by my faithful ‘gut instinct’ so I would highly recommend changing your chilli growing technique from annual to perennial!

Chilli ‘Ring of Fire’ in its first year

Todays Chilli harvest

Save

July 19, 2016July 20, 2016

What is ‘Produce from the garden’?

Someone has made my day! They left a little card in the flower pot that collects the money on my honesty stall. It says:

‘Your flowers are beautiful. So glad I’ve found you… Thank you for your lovely arrangements that bring my home alive!’

The lovely card I recieved today

What a kind and lovely thing to do. It’s put a huge smile on my face. It also comes at an apt time. During the last week I’ve been thinking about ‘Produce from the garden’, trying to pin down exactly what it is so I can develop and help it evolve. The lovely gesture of this card ties in perfectly and reflects my thoughts.

‘Produce from the garden’ is a simple, natural and beautiful way of life, taking pleasure and produce from the garden to share with your friends and family.

‘Produce from the garden’ is a philosophy of seeing beauty in your garden, taking it inside; bringing your home to life. Whether it be home grown vegetables determining your meals, flowers brightening up your kitchen table, a cup of tea enjoyed with a friend sat amongst your flowers or a graceful butterfly that catches your eye, an autumn mobile constructed from fallen leaves or whips of willow weaved into a heart and hung from a door handle. ‘Produce from the garden’ rewards you with simple pleasures that require minimum effort and budget but give maximum satisfaction that you can share with friends and family. Every day you’re rewarded with ‘Produce from the garden’.

‘Produce from the garden’ is not about horticultural perfection, it’s more about the acceptance of a few weeds and a tatty lawn, eliminating garden worries , freeing and enabling us to see the beauty, taking abundant pleasure and produce from our plot.

Save