No nail brush required

Last week I travelled what felt like the length and breadth of the country, with family visits and work commitments all crammed into a short space of time.  As a result, I spent an entire seven days away from my garden and pining for the moment I could get back to tackle some weeds, cut the grass and sample my vegetables.

I arrived home late on Saturday night, eagerly awaiting the next morning when I could get up and tackle my list of jobs in the garden.  Sunday morning dawned bright and breezy and by breakfast time I was elbow deep in the veg patch.  Breakfast consisted of some fast food - peas straight from the pod, fresh picked raspberries and some just pulled chatenay carrots.  Certainly beats a MacDonald's.

What struck me most though as I was weeding out my rainbow chard, was how much I had missed the feel of the soil.  I usually spend at least a few hours every day in the garden and my hands are constantly covered in mud.  With a week off my hands were as clean as a surgeons, but that didn't feel quite right at all and it was with great pleasure that I thrust them into the soil the first opportunity I got yesterday.  I am pleased to report they are now back to their normal selves.

Raspberry & Orange Sorbet

The raspberry season is almost here!

After a long hot day at work, nothing gives me greater pleasure than coming home to change into my 'garden clothes' and potter about in the garden.  If its a particularly hot day I like to sit on my bench with a bowl of homemade sorbet and take in the evening sun.  You can make sorbet from lots of different fruits and although conventional sorbets are purely juice, don't be afraid to get some texture in  there.  My two personal favourites are pink grapefruit and raspberry and orange.  The recipe for the raspberry and orange is below:

Ingredients

150g Raspberries
5 Oranges
200ml Water
50g Caster sugar

Method

1. Blitz the raspberries in a blender until they make a smooth liquid.  If you don't have a blender then try using a fork or potato masher to break them up.

2. Juice the oranges into a bowl - don't worry about any bits that get in, these will all add to the sorbet

3. Put the orange juice, water and sugar into a pan and warm over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.  Leave to cool.

4. Add the liquidised raspberries to the orange juice mixture and put in a sealed plastic container in the freezer.

5. Leave for 3-4 hours for ice crystals to form then take out and stir well.  Return to the freezer and leave to harden.  Use within 3 months.



Nothing is more refreshing than a bowl of sorbet on a hot day

Monty's World

Monty Don

Well after six weeks of blissfully warm and dry weather, it began to rain on Monday and hasn't really stopped since.  I was quite grateful in a way, because despite my daily watering efforts in the veg patch particularly, nothing beats a good downpour to get the water right down to the roots where its needed.  It has also meant that for the first time since late spring, I haven't managed to get out into the garden every night to get things done.  In fact most evenings when the rain has been lashing down, I have had my nose pressed up against the window watching for any break in the cloud.

The only evening when this was an exception was Friday, when at 8:30pm I was settled comfortably on the sofa in front of Gardeners World.  You see, I haven't really been a fan of Gardeners World in the past and only really got into it this year. Now I organise my social life around it and its all because of one man.....Monty Don.

With his gentle manner and boundless knowledge, Monty Don has the ability to inspire confidence and to encourage you to try something new.  His garden at Longmeadow is inspirational in itself and testament to what sheer hard work and some imagination can achieve.  His approach is calm and methodical and allows all different skill levels of gardeners to relate to what he is doing, without appearing condescending or arrogant.

What makes it even more endearing is his relationship with his dog Nigel.  I could quite happily just watch the two of them gardening together for half an hour each episode.  At the end of each episode I am always disappointed it has gone so quickly but am left feeling very relaxed and ready to take on my own garden the next day.



Nigel

Easy Peasy Strawberry Jam

Use old fabric and garden twine to cover
jam jars

This years strawberries are ripe and ready for picking, so its time to dig out the jam pan.

Strawberry jam is one of the easiest to make and the most tasty. I like my jam to be chunky and full of bits and below is the recipe I use. It normally makes about 4-5 jars.

Ingredients

1kg Whole Strawberries
1kg Jam Sugar with added pectin

Method

1. Put the strawberries in a thick bottomed pan with the sugar and heat gently until the strawberries begin to soften and the sugar has dissolved.

2. Take a potato masher and lightly mash the strawberries to break them up a bit but try to keep some whole.

3. Turn up the heat and boil the jam rapidly for about 10 minutes, making sure that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

4. Put a teaspoonful of the jam mixture onto a tea plate and allow to cool for a minute. Run your finger through the jam and if it creases then the setting point has been reached and it is ready to bottle. If its not quite there then boil for a further couple of minutes, testing again.

5. Pour into sterilised jars and seal. Eat within 12 months.

Dont worry about the scum, just stir the jam gently before
putting into jars to let it disperse.

10 Thrifty Tips

Be creative with your containers

The phrase 'neccesity is the mother of invention' is one that I subscribe to on a daily basis, especially when it comes to my garden.  We are lucky enough these days to be able to buy whatever we want for our gardens, but this can become quite expensive. However, with a little creativity and some thrifty thinking we can save ourselves a lot of money.

Here are 10 Thrifty Tips you can use in your garden:

1. Get creative with containers
Plants and seeds will grow in just about any container. Save margarine tubs, egg boxes, loo rolls and plastic meat trays to fill with compost and sow your seeds into rather than buying plastic cell trays from the garden centre.  For something a little bit different, plant up old pans, metal buckets and wooden boxes to display bedding plants in the summer.

2. Eat more ice lollies
The wooden sticks you get with ice lollies are perfect to use as plant labels.  Once the lolly is finished, rinse off the stick and leave to dry before writing on the name of your plant and putting in position.

3. Create a mini greenhouse
The threat of frost in late spring is always a concern, especially for those with young plants already outside, so some temporary protection is always advisable.  Take a 2 litre plastic bottle and cut it in half, putting each end over your plants and creating a mini greenhouse.  Just remember to remove them during the day if the weather is warm.

4. Look out for free plants
Many magazines and websites will have offers for 'free' plants.  Most of the time you will just have to pay for postage and it could save you a lot of money in the long run.  A website called Plant Offers does all the searching for you and compiles an A-Z list of what is currently available.  The link to the website is http://www.plantoffers.com/az.html

5. Save your old jumpers
Old woollen jumpers make the best liners for hanging baskets.  Find a jumper big enough to fit your hanging basket then cut out the size required - fill with compost and plants and hang.  Remember the thicker the jumper, the more water it will retain to keep your plants looking better for longer.

6. Make holes in your hose
During a hot spell watering can take up a good few hours every day, especially if you are doing it by hand.  To save time and effort, take an old hose and a screwdriver and make holes in the hose every 6 inches along its length.  Then lay it out along borders, veg beds or wherever you need to water, connect to the tap and let the irrigation commence.

7. Get a haircut
If you have problems with rabbits in your garden, there are two good ways to keep them off your plants.  Firstly take a box of matches and chop off the flammable end, then scatter the plain sticks around your plants.  The smell of sulphur from the sticks will keep the rabbits away without harming the soil.  Secondly, each time you have a haircut, gather up all the hair and sprinkle that around around your plants - rabbits hate the smell and should leave your plants alone.

8. Make your own fertiliser
Two of the best organic fertilisers are from nettles and comfrey and are very simple to make.  Take a bucket and pack it as tight as you can with either plant until you cant fit anymore in.  Then fill the bucket with water and leave for around 1 month.  The plants will deteriorate over that time and produce a very rich liquid fertiliser.  Drain off the liquid and dilute 1 part fertiliser with 10 parts water before use.

9. Dig out your old cassette tapes
Take the tape out of your old cassettes and videos and use it to help tie plants to supports.  Its strong and durable and will last longer that traditional garden twine whilst being soft enough not to damage the plant.

10. Get slugs drunk
Slugs are a menace in any garden and whilst traditional slug pellets are effective, they can also be eaten by birds.  One of the best ways to get rid of slugs is to set up a beer trap.  Slugs love dark, wet places and the smell of beer.  Take a margarine tub and dig it into the garden so that the top of the tub is flush with the ground.  Fill it half full with beer and cover with a stone, allowing a small gap so slugs can get it. The slugs wont be able to resist.

Joys of July

Well what a summer this is turning into, lots of sunshine, warm temperatures and very little rain.    It was heartbreaking to watch many of my plants struggle to survive last year after a brutally cold winter and one of the wettest and coldest summers I can remember, but this year they are thriving.  So much so that I thought I would share some of my favourite plants that are currently in bloom in my garden.



Anenome Coronaria



Phlox Paniculata Europa



Digitalis (Foxglove)

Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn)



Literary inspiration

During the winter months, when my trowel and trug are safely packed away in the shed and there is enough snow on the ground to build an igloo, I like to imagine all the things I will do with my garden and vegetable patch the following year. 

Over the years I have built up a good collection of gardening books and every winter I spend many a happy hour in front of the fire reading each one from cover to cover in search of new ideas and new techniques.  These books are also invaluable as a literary first aid kit when something inevitably goes wrong.  Recently my prized gooseberry bush which I had rescued a few years ago and nurtured ever since, was devoured by what appeared to be hungry little caterpillars.  A quick consultation with the books and the diagnosis was a bad case of gooseberry sawfly.  The remedy was a good spray of pesticide and I am pleased to report the prognosis now appears to be positive.

One book that I have found to be very useful is called '1001 ways to be a better gardener' by Pippa Greenwood.  I was extremely lucky to be given a signed copy for my birthday this year and I must confess it has taken pride of place in my collection.  The book itself is packed full of practical tips and ideas that aim to save time and money and to help you get the most from your garden.  It is split into different sections and looks at flowerbeds, lawns, kitchen gardens, structures, plant care and lighting to name but a few.  All of the advice is easy to follow and I have used a lot of Pippa's ideas and suggestions in my garden especially the tips on growing vegetables.

Personally I think that this would be a valuable contribution to any gardeners book collection and would offer something to amateurs and experts alike.  Well worth a read.

Seeing how it goes....

Having been an avid fan of gardening blogs for a number of years now, I decided to start my own.  As a relatively new gardener (less than 10 years experience!) I thought it would be nice, and often cathartic, to share the success and failures in my garden over time.  I suspect it will also become a personal online scrap book for the useful advice I have been given and the fabulous recipes I have tried.  Ultimately its creation is for purely selfish reasons.

As a child I was brought up in a family of green fingered goddesses who aptly tended to their extensive and varied gardens.  From childhood I developed a strong love of nature and it seemed only fitting that in my early twenties I began a love affair with gardening.  It is a relationship I hope will continue for a long time to come.

A lot of my friends think I am a bit of a geek.  Given the choice of going out drinking and dancing the night away, or spending time weeding I would chose the latter.  I have frequently been caught by my neighbours talking to the plants (although I always claim I'm talking to the dogs!) and can be found out late at night in my pyjamas with a torch in hand picking slugs off my vegetables.  Nothing gives me greater pleasure than nurturing something and watching it grow and develop, especially if you get to eat it at the end.

There are lots of things that go right in my garden and lots of things that go wrong, but like this blog, we will just see how it goes....