25Jun
It's probably a little late now as the recent downpours combined with hailstorms have smashed the blossom heads but here's an easy recipe for elderflower champagne. Pick your flower heads on a sunny day so they are dry...
News
21May
Ideas for Childrens' Gardening Week - sprouting soon! (sorry for delay in getting these posted - busy, busy!) Easy to grow seeds with fairly quick results include cress, radishes, dwarf green beans and courgette; nasturtiums, pot...
30Apr
I’ve taken to taking my lunch outdoors - good for some sunshine, the vitamin D and a break from working at the computer but I don’t know if it’s a rest! The view of the manure...
23Apr
In out in out shake it all about - do the Hokey Cokey and turn around…. A rhyme for our times - whether in lockdown or as a gardener. Now is the time of burgeoning...
16Apr
Sorry we haven't been posting as we have been extraordinarily busy, events rather overtook us. We will be back with more tips and news on what to sow now and how to grow your lovely...
20Feb
Initially thought to be aphrodisiac, the French call them 'pommes d'amour' (love apples), Italian 'pomodoro' (golden apple). Tomatoes are our most popular fruit but used as a vegetable, mandatory in Mediterranean cooking. Assorted sizes, shapes, colours...
06Feb
Native to South America, chili peppers are now widespread throughout the culinary world. Used as a vegetable or fruit, smoked or dried and ground as a spice these versatile chillies are botanically a berry. Good for you too, a Jalapeno pepper has more vitamin C than an orange.
02Jan
Shetland Black, Mayan Gold, Rocket, Mary’s Rose, Charlotte and Anya, Pink Fir Apple, Sharpe’s Express, Pentland Javelin or King Edward. Just the names can evoke memories of warm summer salads or jacket potatoes raked from the bonfire embers. Choose your own varieties to grow, to match the dishes you enjoy cooking and eating.
We like Red Duke of York, baked in their skins to balls of fluff with a dollop of sour cream&chives.Or Carlingford, firm and waxy; boiled and doused in mint or parsley butter. Charlotte is the most popular salad potato in the UK; slightly waxy, they hold their shape well and are delicious hot or cold. Casablanca, a new white fleshed first early, very versatile it can be boiled, baked or chipped. Sarpo Potatoes are a unique family of varieties developed for their superb taste; all able to resist potato blight and be easy to grow for any gardener or allotment holder
24Oct
Having rescued a petrified hedgehog from the idiotic dog from next door trying to bite it, prickles and all, I decided how to best treat my little hero (or heroine I couldn’t tell). Fortunately R&R in a quiet nest of leaves with a dish of cat treats alongside soon had the hedgehog on its feet again, instead of curled in a trembling ball.
I was delighted to actually see one as their numbers have declined dramatically. They now seek refuge in our gardens, eating slugs, beetles and caterpillars.
19Sep
Organic September is an annual month-long campaign run by the Soil Association which aims to raise awareness of organic products. Whilst our focus is on seeds and organic growing (obviously) they also promote items like organic cotton bags to replace thoe plastic ones to carry home your lovely produce.
26Jul
Our gardens are in full flower, the soft fruit needs picking before the birds strip the bushes and you just can't eat enough lettuce; then a trip around the many horticultural shows and plant fairs is a welcome respite.
One coming up not too far from us is at the British Ironworks Centre, Oswestry on Sunday 28th July. Free parking - entry by donation in aid of Hope House Children's Hospice. A good source of plants, from nurseries in your locality so you know they should thrive in your own gardens, suitable for your soil conditions.
Don't forget you will have to get them all home and planted out.
20May
Start your day with Britain's Breakfast; Green Sausage and Egg Yolk Steak Sandwich. Finish with a Bite Size Orange Slice Wapsipinicon Peach Yellow Cocktail. If you look after your Green Zebra, Artisan Purple Bumble Bee and Red Robin, they will reward you with Hundreds and Thousands of Delicious, Bountiful TOMATOES.