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...
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Interested in growing your own food? Then give it a go during National Gardening week, 29th April to 5th May, annual event run by RHS (Royal Horticultural Society). They have lots of ideas; plotting your patch or concocting your container, from creating wildlife habitats for hedgehogs to making a compost heap to improve your soil. Other organisations and gardens all over 'Edible Britain' are staging events and activities so look out for your local news for advice and inspiration. Grow micro greens on your windowsill, beans on your balcony or beetroot in the borders ( the leaves are colourful and you can eat them too in salads!)
Share your ideas or event on our facebook page, or tweet @JustSeedLtd we'd love to know how you are getting on.
With the promise of warmer days and rising temperatures, it is tempting to load up with trays and pots of seedlings. However hold back from planting them out in your garden. The night time temperatures can plunge after glorious sunny days and the little plants will shiver and shrivel throughout the night. The soil may still be cold so their roots won't have taken hold; seeds will lie dormant in the ground and may rot. We all gaze with envy at our neighbour's patch but unless you have the time to put your planting to bed with a covering of night-time fleece or cloche, or can make the effort to bring them indoors overnight - hold back. Your tomatoes, peppers, beans and the like will catch up with more consistent warmer weather.
The blog went quiet over February BUT we didn’t. The unseasonable February hot weather and promises of early spring had keen gardeners ordering their seeds early. We have been picking and packing frantically. The poor postie had to come and fill his van up twice a day instead of the more usual single pick up.
Early earlies – get a taste of new potatoes by planting one tuber (seed potato of your choice) in a large tub in a greenhouse or coldframe. Half fill the tub with compost, put in the tuber and cover with more compost. Add more compost to cover the shoots as they appear. Water from time to time. Harvest when the plants begin to flower, about 10 weeks after planting.
The shortest day is over; slowly, gradually the dark is retreating. A new season starts.
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