Down on the Allotment

New Beginnings

2012-01-28T21:56:00.003Z

Just a few hours of sunshine and my broad beans 'Aquadulce Claudia' are up an looking forward to the Summer.
But what on earth this big bumblebee is doing out in January beats me! I think he lives underneath the brickwork at the front of the house which is South facing. Whenever the sun comes out he warms up and goes for a test flight!
So in between sunshine and showers this week a complete rainbow appeared over the bottom of the garden! I wonder if there is a pot of gold there waiting for me? The rainbow just comes down over my rhubarb!

Magazine Review

2012-01-20T10:14:00.005Z

I came across a new magazine the other week. I can highly recommend The Edible Garden magazine (I think the garden is edible, not the magazine). I am pretty sure this is a fairly new magazine, this Autumn and Winter issue was only issue 2. The next issue, Spring is due out in March. This is quite a big, heavy, glossy magazine at a pricey £4.99 per issue, but I can easily see it being picked up and read over and over again throughout the season.
This issue has a review of several kitchen gardens like West Dean, Heligan and Knightshayes in Devon which are open to visitors, a lovely article about crop rotation, growing pumpkins, quince and beekeeping, as well as a wonderfully illustrated article about the magical world of forcing rhubarb at Janet Oldroyd's Yorkshire Rhubarb company.
Treat yourself to a copy of this magazine, see if you think it is worth £4.99. I do!

Chitting

2012-01-16T19:38:00.005Z

A trip to the garden centre yesterday. Lucky for Leo there was a large pet food section there as well.
If you've ever smelled bonemeal then you can imagine how irresistible it is for dogs!
Anyway, I bought a very early variety of potato. Rocket is described as ultra early in some catalogues. I have done well with these in the past, especially if you want to force some a bit earlier in a pot in the greenhouse. Just a handful of first early new potatoes is worth the effort.
I've set them out on a bench in the shed next to a window. These will be chitting for a few weeks prior to planting.
And my first Broad Beans 'Aquadulce' are up! Let the season begin!

What a Bargain!

2012-01-09T21:47:00.002Z

Before you fork out a fortune buying this years' seeds from the usual catalogues, go down to your local branch of Wilkinsons. Their garden and seed department is fantastic value. Today I bought Broad Bean Aquadulce and Pea Hurst Green Shaft for just 98p.

Things I Wouldn't Grow Again

2012-01-07T08:30:00.004Z

I love to experiment with new varieties of veggies every year. It is so important to try new things, but sometimes it doesn't turn out as well as you expected. These Bulgarian Giant Leeks were fun to grow, they really were giants, but they tasted of absolutely nothing! That's what counts in my book so I won't be growing them again.
I thought these early, cold tolerant tomatoes Sub Arctic Plenty would give me an early crop. They didn't grow well for me at all. Not even a decent crop later on. They might do well for you, but didn't live up to their promise for me.
I thought Asparagus Peas sounded interesting. Supposed to taste like asparagus. Well, you have to pick them when they are very small otherwise they get tough and stringy. There just weren't enough to bother with! They were not prolific and the winged pods had no real taste at all. The flowers were beautiful though! (but Matron doesn't do flowers!)
I thought that growing Yard Long Beans would be fun too. Sold in Asian grocers shops here in the UK these are a tropical climbing bean that are supposed to grow in the UK. Well they didn't for me. I tried several times in several ways with lots of heat and sunshine, but they didn't even get off the ground. Don't think the UK climate is appropriate for these.
It is fascinating and wonderful for me to try new things on the allotment, but it is a case of trial and error! What might not grow for me on my London clay, might do better somewhere else.

New Year Plans!

2012-01-01T08:14:00.003Z

Happy New Year bloggers!
The seed catalogues have started dropping on to the front door mat already! Matron has been thumbing through the pages and making plans for the New Year. My favourite company Thompson and Morgan have a really extensive vegetable seed range, and I just couldn't resist a very, very special opportunity. In 2010 the Paton twins from Hampshire grew an enormous pumpkin of 1504 pounds and broke the British record! Well, seeds are available (at some expense!) and Matron has decided to grow a giant pumpkin this year. I'm going to start piling up the horse manure in an attempt to beat my pathetic effort with this Dill's Atlantic Giant a few years ago. Here goes!

A Winter trip to Wisley

2011-12-31T08:39:00.009Z

I went to RHS Wisley yesterday. Needed an excuse to try out my new camera. A trip to the model vegetable garden is always on the itinerary, I always pick up new ideas and tips.
Some of these pumpkins and squashes are stored in the shed on site, very decorative!
The broad beans are looking amazing. This variety Aquadulce is one of my favourites and here they are in the greenhouse. Haven't planted mine yet, must get a move on.
One of the lesser known veggies here is Salsify. I have grown salsify a few years ago but with many root vegetables, my soil is too stoney and roots always fork. If you do get a chance to grow them, certainly give them a go. The taste is a wonderful cross between a parsnip and a Jerusalem artichoke.
In the greenhouse at Wisley there is a stunning display of Winter flowers. This orange tree caught my attention.
In the steamy tropical zone this cocoa pod was just amazing. Sadly my new super dooper, all singing and dancing new camera doesn't have an 'anti steaming up the lens function' now that would be really useful.
I was so excited to see Japanese horseradish 'Wasabi' growing in a pot in the model vegetable garden. I have never seen this growing before, I would just love to get my hands on some. Has anyone seen it growing? Does anyone know where I can get some?
December? snowdrops? is it Spring yet?

Matron's New Camera

2011-12-28T19:39:00.007Z

I can see more clearly now!
Father Christmas gave Matron a new Sony HX7V 16.2 mp camera. It will take me a year to find out all the gadgets and gizmos therein. All I want really is to point and squirt.. it even has a GPS tracking device!! what on earth.....?
Anyway, the close up macro focus is excellent. What a marvel of nature is this Cavalo Nero leaf!
I like to leave flowers to go to seed during Winter. These are my garlic chives. Beautiful white flower heads that the bees adore. Perhaps the birds will enjoy these seeds too.
Crab apples are hanging on in there! I resisted the temptation to pick them, they brighten up the garden and the birds may need them more than I do!
Still a few Brussels Sprouts left over, I hasten to add that I didn't grow these! These are from a farm shop near Biggleswade in Bedfordshire - the heart of Brussels Sprout country! I just love them so much I just enjoy eating them with nothing on!!... oooh Matron!

More Christmas Veggies

2011-12-22T17:58:00.002Z

This Cavalo Nero or Tuscan Black Kale was donated as part of my Buddy Morris memorial vegetable garden this year. Though all the black tomatoes,black beans and black potatoes are now gone, this sturdy stalwart remains.
Leeks are my one faithful friend on the Allotment during a long, hard Winter. Always ready for action at any time! These are Musselburgh leeks, I've tried others but keep coming back. Simply the best!

Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

2011-12-18T18:33:00.018Z

Welcome to Matron's Christmas Veggie blog. It is quite a challenge to grow anything at this time of year, so thank you to everyone who sent a photo. Here's what's on the menu in your neck of the Christmas woods! Well this lovely plate of citrus fruits was sent in from the Estudio Campana in sunny Almeria, Spain.
Many thanks to Stacy at Plot number 58 for this lovely Cavalo Nero. This is a wonderful Winter crop, just perfect for the Christmas Dinner plate.
Jane sent in this beautiful Swiss Chard. This is one of my favourite Winter veg, it brightens up any plot right the way through to Spring.
And what a feast from Scarecrows Garden down in the Southern hemisphere. Christmas dinner in Australia must be a very colourful event.
And here is Matron's own offering, these Jerusalem artichokes are a bit smaller this year. They are such an invasive pest if you don't keep them under control. I have been picking stems and stalks all year to try to keep them under control. That said, I just adore the flavour - and now that I work from home I don't have to worry about the antisocial consequences from eating bowls full of these... fartichokes!
Rob from Birmingham sent in these lovely brassicas, Gloire de Portugal. Really fresh green leaves are a real delicacy on the Christmas table, freshly picked and steamed. Bon appetite.
Jeffrey from the Eagle Close allotments sent this lovely selection of squashes and pumpkins. I keep meaning to try growing spaghetti squash (left) I must put it on my list for next year.
Serious congratulations to Jennifer for her first ever attempt at growing potatoes!! Once tasted you are hooked on growing your own .. forever. This variety California White.
What a wonderful trugful of veggies. Thanks to Kay at Gardening Tools.
Beautiful photos of beautiful veg on the Christmas Table at Kelli Boyles Garden.
What Christmas dinner would be complete without fantastic home grown parsnips. Bon Appetite goes to Nome at the Nome Grown blog.
A fresh crop of Oca from the Oca testbed blog. Fresh and in season right now! Thank you Ian for adding wonderful variety to my Christmas Veggie blog.
Jeffrey at the Eagle Close allotments has inspired me to attempt more green salad in Winter. These pea shoots are decorating the best plates in the best restaurants at the moment!
What a beautiful still life painting this would make! Thanks to Peggy from her Organic Growing Pains blog in Cork, Ireland for this festive fare. I just adore brussels sprouts!
Beautiful red Cabbage from Orlaith. This is an essential ingredient in Matron's Christmas Dinner, just steamed with apple, onion, vinegar, cloves and seasoning. Brilliant!
And my lovely blog-mentor Stan for starting me off on this blog-quest all those years ago. Inspired! Wishing you all a Veggie Christmas!

Santa and Rudolph

2011-12-16T19:56:00.001Z

Santa Leo
Rudolph Leo (with teddy!)

Shetland Black Potatoes

2011-12-15T22:14:00.001Z

I went to dig up some potatoes today. Nearly all the Shetland Black potatoes had started to grow roots and shoots. I wonder if the spell of really warm weather in the past few weeks has tricked them into thinking it was Spring?

Matron's Camera has Died!

2011-12-15T08:01:00.002Z

RIP Matron's Camera. It went to camera heaven after photographing some macademia nuts in the Jardim Botanic on the sunny island of Madeira. I will have to make do with my mobile phone camera until Santa brings me a lovely new one! Many thanks for Matron's Veggie blog photos which have been coming in so far. Keep them coming. Will create the final post on Sunday!

Matron's Tropical Treats

2011-12-10T07:00:00.001Z

While you are all contemplating on which veggie photos to send for my Christmas Veggie Blog, Matron had a short trip away on the island of Madeira. Have you ever wondered how 'Dragon Fruit' grow? I had seen them in supermarkets but had no idea they grew on the side of a cactus!
I remember Prickly Pears from holidays in Portugal as a child. These lovely fruit are sweet and tasty once you have handled them with kid gloves!
Coffee Beans? I have a few small coffee plants on windowsills at home, I doubt they will produce fruit but I will give it a go.
The capital of Madeira is Funchal - which is named from the word 'Funcho' which is the Portugese name for Fennel. This grows everywhere on the island.
I was interested to see that these Tromba D'Albegna Squash are cut and eaten like courgettes, very small. Last year I grew these Trombone squash and left them till they were 2 or 3 feet long like butternut squash. Versatile.
Pomegranate bushes are nothing special to look like, but the red flowers and fruit are spectacular to look at.
Did you know that Avocados also come in pink? I didn't!
And while in the tropical gardens in Funchal, I came across a Macademia Nut Tree! An enormous evergreen tree like a laurel. I had no idea how they grew. Now I know!

Join in with Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

2011-12-01T23:39:00.002Z

So now is your chance to show us what you've got! Send me a photo of something edible that you have grown on your plot that will be ready to eat on Christmas Day. Whether you have grown your full Christmas dinner, or whether you have some mushrooms in your airing cupboard or even some alfalfa sprouts in a jar on your windowsill - don't be shy! Share with us what you have grown and email me a picture, email address is on my profile page. I will be posting this special blog on Sunday 20th December so you have a couple of weeks to go take a picture.

Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

2011-11-25T07:37:00.002Z

Just another reminder of how to enter Matron's Christmas Veggie blog. I will be asking bloggers to send me a photo of any veggie from their own plot that will be ready to eat on Christmas Day. I will be asking you to send me a photo via email at the beginning of December, and I will be publishing the blog in the week before Christmas. Come on! let's see what you can do!

The Last Tomato

2011-11-22T06:45:00.002Z

I couldn't put it off any longer! the very last of my greenhouse tomatoes have been ripening slowly. We have had such a mild Autumn that I have been reluctant to pick these last few. But that time has come.
Any day now we will get our first frost, so the last tomatoes have now been picked and eaten. There is nothing at all in the world like your own home grown tomatoes. For the next 6 months it is horrid, bland, tasteless watery supermarket tomatoes. I'd rather not!

Super Markets

2011-11-18T18:20:00.010Z

Blog readers will know that wherever I travel in the world I just LOVE to visit local markets. So full of colour, taste and local traditions - well Leeds City Market is no exception. I went up to Yorkshire yesterday for a quick visit, Leeds market is unmissable.
There is a stall or a shop for absolutely everything under the sun!
And Leeds market was the venue for one very special stall. Back in 1884 Mr Marks and Mr Spencer set up their first 'Penny Bazaar' This green clock in the centre of the old part of the market was erected to celebrate their centenary.
And I wonder if it is a coincidence that in this old part of the market, this shop sells pants! Everyone needs them, they come in all sizes, what a brilliant shop!
The elderly among you may well remember the Leeds City Varieties theatre. This was the home of the long running BBC TV Series 'The Good Old Days'
Meanwhile back to the market. Still a great Northern tradition here in the UK, tripe used to be a delicacy years ago. Now it is rarely seen. I pride myself in being open minded about food, and I know that tastes change, but each time I try a piece... it squeaks between my teeth and I gag! No thanks.
One of the highlights of this market is the famous Butchers Hall. One long, indoor cobbled street inside the market houses rows of Butchers' shops. Family businesses that have been handed down through the generations. For me this is the difference between a supermarket and a Super Market. This is the latter. Properly hung and butchered meat in traditional cuts.
You just can't get better!

Vive La France!

2011-11-12T20:59:00.004Z

I travelled to Calais this week to do a little bit of supermarket shopping before the Christmas rush. Their selection of supermarket veggies is just stunning when you compare it to the tasteless rubbish we put up with in the UK. Just look at these lovely leeks, just as nature intended. All we can get in supermarkets are long white sticks sealed up in sweaty plastic bags!
And these globe artichokes just looked and felt so fresh and full of life that I bought a couple home to eat. Matron just steamed them and ate them with nothing on......
And which high street supermarket in the UK could boast such a display of properly ripe tomatoes? none!
And the most famous of of French 'institutions vegetale' the Pot au Feu. A big bag of seasonal veggies to make the basis of all soups, stocks and stews. C'est Fantastique!

Queensland Blue Pumpkin

2011-11-09T08:03:00.004Z

My favourite pumpkin by far is the Queensland Blue pumpkin. Dense, sweet flesh that doesn't go watery when you roast it.
Wonderful for just roasting, steaming or making into pumpkin pie.
If you can get your hands on some seeds they are well worth it. They do just about OK in a hot Summer over here but they really prefer lots and lots of heat and daylight.
Dilemmas. What to do with my lovely crab apples. Do I leave them for the birds to enjoy over Winter and to give the garden some colour on a grey day? Or do I make jelly? Do they stay or do they go? You decide.

Dried Chillis - Part 2

2011-11-06T06:55:00.002Z

Second batch of Bishop's Kiss chillis are fully dry now. I have threaded them on to a piece of strong thread. Now hanging up in the living room.
Completely home grown, environmentally friendly Christmas decorations!

Precious Pickings

2011-11-01T18:15:00.004Z

These last few tomatoes are so precious. I have been savouring them one at a time as they hang on in the greenhouse. In a few short days they will be gone and I will only have horrid supermarket tomatoes for the next 6 months. These Ildi tomatoes grew well in a small hanging basket.
Just a few Gardener's Delight in the greenhouse too. These are just a bit small but the taste is amazing. Tomatoes on the lower trusses have all gone now. Leo goes in the greenhouse and helps himself if I leave the door open!
And a few Black Cherry tomatoes hanging from the roof of the greenhouse. Leo can't reach these!
And a late sowing of Hurst Greenshaft peas in August has been well worth it. A few sweet, tasty pods to eat in the garden today. I have noticed that in this late crop there is not a single pea moth anywhere. I suppose the adults laid their eggs in the early Spring and Summer crops and had all gone when these were flowering. Note to self!

Sticky Stuff!

2011-10-25T23:00:00.003+01:00

I've tried many different ways of preventing maggots in apples and plums over the years. I don't like spraying so I thought I'd try a good old fashioned grease band.
Stickier and messier than black treacle, this band of grease goes all the way around the trunk of the fruit tree at this time of year because the little fruit moths climb up the trunk from October onwards and through the Winter, making a home for themselves and their eggs in your fruit buds. Next Spring they hatch and make their way into the flowers and the developing fruit.
So the idea is that they are prevented from crawling up the tree in the first place (they cannot fly!). I have yet to decide what to do when a certain yellow Labrador comes into the house covered in black grease? Any ideas?

A Taste of Autumn

2011-10-21T09:17:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I went to the RHS Garden at Wisley, Surrey. The annual Taste of Autumn festival is on there until Sunday. A celebration of food and drink. My eye was caught by this interesting bottle of beer made by The Hogs Back Brewery in Surrey. If you like traditional ale, I can recommend a bottle of T.E.A. (Traditional English Ale). Sometimes I like to go up to a bartender in a pub and order a pint of tea!
Autumn is a time of vibrant colours in the garden.
A lovely display of pumpkins and squashes, but it has not been a good Summer here so this display was smaller than usual.
Free apple tasting so that you could try before you buy.
And something for the boys.. this lovely, vintage David Brown tractor.
And what English agricultural show would be complete without the 'guess the weight of the marrow'? I wouldn't have a clue.

Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

2011-10-19T07:21:00.002+01:00

Just a reminder that I will be posting a special Christmas Veggie Blog in the week before Christmas. I will be asking bloggers to send me a photo in the first weeks of December of something edible that you are growing in your allotment or garden that will be ready to eat on Christmas Day. Think of something to send Matron. More to follow.

Entertainment!

2011-10-17T09:33:00.002+01:00

The chickens have come to stay for a couple of weeks.
Endless entertainment for Leo as he wags his tail and barks at the chickens. The black hen actually stands her ground and clucks back at him! Watch this space.

What I did with my chillis

2011-10-13T19:19:00.003+01:00

I snipped the end of these Bishop's Kiss Chillis so that air could circulate inside and out and I put them in my dehydrator for just a day or so.
Now completely dry they could be preserved somehow.
So this first batch ended up in the food processor to make chilli flakes. I think I might sew the next batch together to make a Christmas decoration!

Chilly Evenings

2011-10-07T21:35:00.003+01:00

I picked my first batch of these Bishop's Kiss Chillis today. I have been watching them change colour over the last few weeks, and a couple of plants have been brought indoors for some extra warmth and light on these chilly nights.
I had some difficulty drying them last year, the solution seems to be to snip the chillis open with a pair of scissors to allow warm air to circulate both inside and out. This batch of chillis has been put in my dehydrator to dry. Seeds from my largest and ripest chilli have been carefully saved.
Another unexpected success story has been these tomatillos. I did plant several tomatillo plants around my patch, but although they grew healthy and strong with lots of lovely flowers, very few of them pollinated. I came to the conclusion that tomatillo plants should be planted together in groups to pollinate each other. Does anyone know for sure? I'll give it a try next time.

Record Temperatures!

2011-10-02T06:47:00.007+01:00

In the last couple of days in Britain we have seen some unseasonably hot temperatures. My Bishops Kiss chillis are enjoying the heat and bright light and the colour is changing fast.
I took this photo late in the afternoon when it had cooled down a little but most places in England saw 80 degrees easily! As long as I keep up with the watering on the allotment this hot sunny weather is really good for a growth spurt.
One of the strange things happening this Autumn is that I have a second crop of strawberries! This has never happened before with this variety. My worry is that at this time of year the leaves should build up a good crown to feed next year's crop. I fear that if they crop this time of year they will not have enough strength to form a crop next year. I must give them a good feed to try to help.
Meanwhile in the greenhouse, some of my black cherry tomatoes were so tall that I tied the top of the plant to the roof of the greenhouse. Though the fruit at the bottom of the plant is long gone, the fruit at the top is going well, and this lovely bright weather is ripening the fruit.
This very late sowing of KohlRabi has germinated. I am just experimenting to see if I can get a quick crop for my Christmas Veggie Blog. I have taken a chance and ignored the instructions on the packet which say you can sow seed up till August. Let's see. Hopefully this hot, sunny spell will get them on their way.
I am still cropping these lovely F1 hybrid cucumbers called Delizia. These short, pale cucumbers are wonderful. They stopped cropping in about July, but have just started again.
My Garlic Chives are putting on a lovely show at the moment. Local honey bees are all over them.

Turmeric and Turnips!

2011-09-27T22:51:00.005+01:00

I am just so pleased at how this Turmeric has grown for me. Dim Sum Gardener kindly sent me a few pieces of fresh turmeric root this Spring after a seed swap. I kept it warm and damp in the greenhouse all Summer and it has exceeded my expectations. I will try to keep it warm and cool on a windowsill during Winter and see what happens. A close relative of ginger, the underground tubers are a vibrant yellow colour, used in Asian cooking and in Ayurvedic medicine.
I am giving this a go in the hope that I might have a few Golden Ball Turnips ready for my Christmas veggie blog. I am asking bloggers to send me a photo of something that will be ready to eat at Christmas. Get thinking or planting now and I will be asking for photos in mid December.
I'm giving these Kohl Rabi a try too. I've never grown them before but just a few little golf balls will be lovely.
Just like these Kohl Rabi I saw at RHS Wisley last week. Let's see what happens.
Finally, I lifted a few of these Bedfordshire Champion onions. I sowed the seed on Boxing Day last year, Just leaving them outside to dry in this lovely warm weather. It is set to swelter this week in England. About time!

Thou Shalt Not Scrump!

2011-09-23T19:34:00.011+01:00

Matron visited the RHS Garden at Wisley, Surrey today. One of my favourite places to be at this time of year and a place I love dearly is the fruit field. Thousands of well known and many forgotten apple varieties. Matron may or may not have partaken of some serious field research on behalf of my bloggers...
This reminded me of the tomb of the unknown warrior... for apples! But have a look at some of these gems nestling forgotten in a corner of the orchard.

Such a shame that supermarkets just stock tasteless, flawless rubbish when there is so much to choose from.

Hillbilly Tomatoes

2011-09-19T19:48:00.005+01:00

Earlier in the season I just couldn't resist buying one more packet of tomatoes. These Hillbilly tomatoes caught my eye and I made a late planting in the greenhouse on 24th April this year. Simply stunning to look at, these multi coloured tomatoes are wonderful to look at.
Not only are they wonderful to look at, they taste fantastic too. I grew these both outside and inside and they have done well despite our awful Summer.
Meanwhile, I have been picking and drying my Salford Black runner beans. The pristine shine on these beans as the pod opens is just wonderful
They have a very dark purple colour when fresh and they dry to a stunning jet black when dry.
All of my Queensland Blue pumpkins have been picked now. They would have preferred a hot, dry Summer but all things considered this is a fair harvest. These are being 'cured' in a warm, dry place to ripen and harden the skin for keeping. These are my favourite pumpkin.

A Picking Day

2011-09-16T09:56:00.005+01:00

These Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes have been a real success. Orignially seed sent to me by Dan in his Urban Veggie Garden as part of my Buddy Morris veggie garden this year.
Really abundant and the plants are laden with tomatoes. So many ripened all at once that I just had to make a batch of tomato sauce yesterday, though there were plenty for eating as well.
Also just drying at the moment are my Croatian Black Beans. A lovely climbing bean which was also sent to me by Kath at Veg Heaven as part of my 'black' veggie garden this year. Really beautiful seeds and a good, vigorous climber too.
And it is that time of the year when I will soon be making my own pumpkin pie. My own pumpkin pie spice mix is easy to make if you have a coffee grinder. The main ingredents are cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg. I also add a bit of clove, cardamom and mace too. The nutmegs will have to be grated by hand, but all the rest of the spice ingredients can be ground to a powder and then sieved.

Christmas Veggies

2011-09-14T07:02:00.002+01:00

I managed to get some specially prepared potatoes into a bag in the greenhouse this week. These Christmas potatoes have been kept in special conditions to fool them into thinking it is Spring. I am growing these to eat on Christmas Day! These will form part of Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog. I am asking bloggers to plant something now, and send me a photo of something that is ready to eat at Christmas. I will be posting it together on a blog in the days coming up to Christmas. So get planting now! A few Winter lettuce perhaps? or a row of little turnips, or a pot of small carrots? Or even a row of radishes or spring onions? give it a go.

Piccalilli

2011-09-09T17:34:00.007+01:00

Piccalilli is one of my favourite preserves. The final taste is unique and is for me, the taste of Summer. You will need 6lbs of chopped veggies, you can see what I have here. I always save the overblown marrow/courgettes for this.
Chop veggies then soak in brine overnight. Pour 3 pints of white vinegar into the pan with 6 teaspoons of mustard powder and 4 teaspoons of ginger powder and 9oz sugar. Boil just to melt the sugar then add the drained and rinsed veggies. Simmer for 20 mins.
Over the years I have experimented with different ingredients, adding mustard seed, nasturtium seeds and this year I added some freshly grated horseradish.
After 20 minutes, lift out the veggies with a slotted spoon and pack into jars. Keep the vinegar syrup. In a separate bowl mix 2 tabs of flour and 3 tsps turmeric powder and mix with COLD water to form a loose paste. Add this paste to the boiling vinegar syrup and bring to the boil for 2 mins to thicken.
Pour the thick yellow liquid over the veggies. Be careful because it stains everything! Slide a knife down the side of the jars to make sure the yellow liquid goes right to the bottom and remove air bubbles.
Seal the jars and leave to cool. Then try to wait a few weeks before eating.

Eating Apples

2011-09-07T07:34:00.004+01:00

3 years ago I bought a couple of family fruit trees. These are trees that have several different apple varieties grafted on to one root stock. This year has been amazing for my eating apples. A lovely cold Winter put the tree into a proper dormancy and formed nice fruit buds. These are Lord Lambourne apples.
I picked and stored the perfect apples yesterday. These are a gorgeous mix of a crisp texture, and a great mix of sweet and acid. A really lovely eating apple.
Another apple on the same tree is this Egremont Russett apple. A distinctive apple with a nutty taste. Perfect for eating with cheese. I love these.
And I'm not the only one!

Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog

2011-09-05T22:31:00.002+01:00

I know it's only September, but I want you all to start preparing for Matron's Christmas Veggie Blog. I want blog readers to send me a photo taken a week or so before Christmas, of a fruit or veggie that will be growing on their plot - or being eaten - on Christmas Day. I will be posting the best of the pictures in the week before Christmas. Go on! give it a go! Why go hungry? Get planting now so that you can send me a photo just before Christmas - and all my Aussie bloggers down under have absolutely no excuse at all !

A Welcome Visitor!

2011-09-03T17:46:00.009+01:00

It has been my pleasure and privilege over the years to meet up with fellow veggie bloggers from time to time. Yesterday I was able to show Paula from Petunia's Garden around my plot in London. She was on a short business trip to London from her home in Seattle. We toured the allotment, ate a fish and chip supper and then sat down to go through my seed tins for swaps. Petunia is one of the founder members of SAGBUTT - Seattle Area Bloggers United To Talk. A group of garden bloggers who get together to have a natter every now and then.
Some of my lovely Salford Black Beans are beginning to dry nicely. I have a few ripe pods on a warm windowsill and there are a few more still on the plant.
These Salford Black beans were given to me by Celia at Purple Podded Peas as part of my Buddy Morris memorial vegetable garden this year. ... and speaking of the old fella..
Do you remember last year when I thought that a plague of slugs had been eating the leaves of my climbing beans? Only to find out that a certain furry black person was the culprit? Well, it has happened again...

I was wondering only a few days ago why my tomatoes were slow to ripen! Lots of green tomatoes on the vines which just were not ripening fast enough!
Well, as it happens they were being eaten!!! Leo was carefully selecting the ripe tomatoes and gently pulling them off the plant! Clever boy! so great to see he has settled down in my veggie garden and is following Buddy's example!

Ripening Colours

2011-08-30T08:22:00.006+01:00

Fruit and vegetables seem to be just hanging around waiting for some sunshine to ripen them at the moment. It seems to have been dull cloud, rain showers and brief flashes of sunshine for weeks now. These crabapples however, have decided to start ripening. I love this early flash of pale pink. These will ripen to dark red.
My Bishop's Kiss chillis are mostly green and still slow to ripen, this one is heading the field. Others will follow when the sun comes out.
These lovely yellow tomatoes are Ildi. Large bunches of grape sized fruit ripen to bright yellow. A lovely taste too. Heavy yields make this a regular in Matron's garden.
Apples have done well this year, particularly since I thinned out the small apples to single fruit. These Egremont Russet apples are huge and perfect.
My experiment growing sugar cane has been a great success! I sawed up a length of sugar cane into 7 inch sections and lay them on their side in a warm, sandy compost. They have done so well this year that I have just transferred them into a black dustbin for the rest of the Summer. Not completely hardy but I can probably find a way to protect them over Winter.

Pumpkins!

2011-08-24T20:03:00.004+01:00

I have a few nice pumpkins growing on my patch at the moment. The one shown above is Crown Prince. I just love these blue skinned pumpkins, they have the most wonderful dark orange flesh which is firm and sweet.
Queensland Blue pumpkin has to be one of my favourites. I remember growing this variety when I was a child on my Father's allotment. We had family links to Australia and New Zealand and these varieties thrive in the Southern hemisphere where the daylight is just a bit brighter than it is here. Not the easiest to grow here in a dull Summer, but well worth the effort.
And these little beauties are a recent discovery to me. It was Paula at Petunia's Garden that gave me one of these to bring home from a holiday in Washington State. These are a perfect size for 2 people, they have a wonderful firm, sweet texture. These are also known as a sweet potato squash because of the dark orange flesh inside. And these are a brilliant Winter keeper! Again, can be temperamental in the British climate and not as productive as I would like, but well worth the effort.

Variety is the Spice of Life

2011-08-21T18:41:00.003+01:00

All my apples are ripening at least a month early this year. I have two family fruit trees, each with 3 varieties grafted on to the root stock. Although some of the labels have gone astray now, these windfalls include, Discovery, Lord Lambourne, Sunset and Egremont Russett. A Great show this year!
Tomatoes are looking great too. Ildi, Black Cherry and Gardener's Delight.
I am still picking a few of these lovely new Delizia F1 cucumbers. Just the right size for one meal, no half cucumbers lurking in the fridge for days. This is fresh and juicy just when you want it. Variety is the Spice of Life!

Ups and Downs

2011-08-19T17:37:00.009+01:00

Tomatoes are in full swing at the moment. The dark plum tomatoes are the Japanese Black Trifele tomato, one of the stars of my plot this year, a wonderful new tomato for me. The others are the black cherry tomato - one of the best flavours ever, the yellow one Ildi - thousands of them! and the small reds are Gardeners Delight.
Now this picture above is what I expect Gardeners Delight tomato to look like. Double strands of smallish but not cherry sized tomatoes. This picture was from my 2010 crop.
And this year all of my Gardeners Delight tomatoes have sort of reverted back to bunches of smaller cherry tomatoes.Perhaps I used a different seed packet, perhaps it was older seed, or perhaps it was my own saved seed. Anyway, this is quite different from the tomato last year. Not unpleasant but I wouldn't have chosen to grow one like this.
Stop press news! There are now 4 lovely shoots on my turmeric pot in the greenhouse! I'm keeping it warm and moist. Looking good!
My garlic chives are just setting flower at the moment. The bees love them! These lovely white flowers always produce masses of seed heads. The plant itself is a very healthy, hardy perennial.
Another dilemma on Matron's patch this year. I have several very healthy and very large Mexican Tomatillo plants. I have grown them many times before, but this time, despite lots of apparent pollination from the bees, none of them have set any fruit. I would have thought that tomatillo would be like tomatoes in that they were self fertile. My tomatillo plants are quite a distance apart from each other, I wonder if they would have pollinated each other if they were closer together. Hmmmmm. Any ideas?
I planted my leek seedlings just a week or so ago. They are romping away, thanks to a generous downpour of rain and a thick layer of cut grass mulch!

All Things Pink!

2011-08-15T09:26:00.005+01:00

I dug up just one plant of my late maincrop Pink Fir Apple potatoes. An amazing yield! one plant filled this plastic seed tray! Fairly knobbly, and some of the tubers resemble the shape of Jerusalem Artichokes. This can make them a bit difficult to clean and prepare, but there is a cross breed potato called Anya which is less knobbly. It is a cross between pink fir apple and Desiree. You can see Anya for sale in the supermarkets.
The catalogues state that this variety as a late maincrop is ready in October! Well, like many crops this year it appears to be 2 months early! The plant growth above the ground has been approaching 4ft tall and I had to stake them in order to prevent them falling over and covering other crops. We've had some good sunshine and some good rain this season, it is a good year for potatoes for me.
The taste and texture are simply amazing! A really firm, waxy potato with an amazing flavour. These are headed for a potato salad today!
Whilst weeding, I also uncovered a monster beetroot! This was growing among my long, Cylindra beetroot. Perhaps it was a stray seed! I think I am going to try pickling beetroot, I think I will invent pickled beetroot in horseradish vinegar... how does that sound?

Matron's Pickled Onions

2011-08-13T18:28:00.009+01:00

I came by a large sack of pickling onions in a farmers shop recently. I have always adored pickled onions, as a child I remember a big 2 gallon stone jar with a cork stopper in the corner of the kitchen. There was no limit to the amount of pickled onions I could eat, there still isn't!
Anyway, here's how I do it; Pour boiling water over the onions and leave to soften the skins for about 2 minutes, then rinse with cold water a couple of times and drain. The skins will come off easily then! Put in a bowl and salt them for 24hours.
Rinse off the salt quickly under a running tap then drain and dry with a cloth. I pack them into jars and then I can measure how much vinegar it will take to fill the jars. Then tip the measured vinegar into a saucepan 2 parts vinegar 1 part water, pickling spice and a couple of ounces of sugar. You won't taste the sugar but it takes the nasty acid taste from the liquid.
Gently pour the boiling vinegar over the onions, small bits at a time so you don't crack the glass. I do it through a sieve to take out most of the pickling spice but I leave a spoonful in the jar anyway. I decorate and flavour with a bay leaf and a couple of dried chillis. Should be ready in a few months.
Next subject. Brilliant success with courgettes grown under a black plastic mulch, but the ground is a little drier than usual. I try to keep up with the watering, but the inevitable powdery mildew has taken a hold a bit earlier than usual this year. There is not much you can do about it. Some people say you can hold it back a bit spraying with a water/milk mix. It is unsightly and a nuisance. I expect you all have it!
Salford Black Beans are swelling up nicely. As I am saving seed this year, the plant stops producing young beans when you leave some to go to seed. If I had kept picking the young beans then they would keep producing (plant hormones) I hope to have some seeds to continue next year.
More pictures of Leo enjoying himself at hydrotherapy last week!
My exceptionally clever Niece took these pictures with her new super dooper Canon EOS 18million pixel camera. I was never that clever! (but she can't make pickled onions like I can!)

Planning Ahead

2011-08-07T21:10:00.010+01:00

I pulled a few of these cylindra beetroot today. I seem to do much better with this shape than the traditional round beetroot for some reason. Very pleased with these!
I decided to do a bit of successional planting today. Most of the Summer crops at the moment will be finished in a month or so, and there is plenty of daylight and warmth right into October and even November some years. I planted a few more cucumber seeds, just to see if I could get a late crop. An experiment really, but there will be plenty of room in the greenhouse.
A successional planting of peas usually works right the way through the season. Here I have some I planted a month ago, and another row of seeds planted today. Let's see what happens.
It will be nice to have some Winter Density lettuce in the greenhouse right the way through till Spring. Lettuce like it fairly cool to germinate so this pot will be staying out of the greenhouse in the shade for a while. Hopefully one or two of these will survive in a growbag.
These leeks have been growing in a pot for a while now. I planted them out and gave the tops a haircut, just before a big shower of rain came down this afternoon. Excellent.
You might remember that the Dim Sum Gardener very kindly sent me some fresh turmeric to grow in my greenhouse a while back.
Very pleased to say that two healthy shoots have now popped up, and some nice root growth in the pot too. I love to experiment.
And my sugar cane is about 3ft tall now and quite sturdy. All in all, quite a successful experiment. The task ahead is to get them through the Winter!

Buddy Morris Memorial Veggie Garden!

2011-08-04T19:58:00.009+01:00

This picture was taken just a year ago! My lovely Buddy did enjoy eating his veggies around my patch, so this year I decided to grow a variety of 'Black' veggies in his name. A fitting memorial.
Courgette Black Beauty. Buddy adored eating cooked courgettes, he was a very calm and placid fellow, but he got a wild look in his eye if you were eating courgettes!
Shetland Black maincrop potatoes. Interesting to look at, fun to grow, but they fell apart on cooking and the taste was bland.
Japanese Black Trifele Tomato. A wonderful taste and extremely prolific. A wonderful discovery.
Croatian Black Bean. A climbing bean, beautiful mauve flowers. I think these are going to mature a month or so later than my other beans. Very useful to have a succession. Tender and tasty.
Salford Black Runner Bean. A bit of an iffy start, poor germination, but I am harvesting oodles of runner beans now from just 4 plants. Lovely and tender, great taste. I will be sure to keep seeds from these.
Blackberries, originally a wild pest at the end of the garden, now harnessed as a prolific fruit crop. Pruned quite heavily last year and has paid dividends. Huge, sweet blackberries this year.
Well, you can't win them all! Learning from failures is just as important. This was Cavalo Nero or Tuscan Black Kale. Looking pretty awful at the moment, hopefully will recover over the Winter and might give me some lovely tasty leaves next year. Damn those butterflies.

Too many Courgettes?

2011-08-01T20:32:00.007+01:00

A very common complaint this time of year is that courgettes (or Zucchinni as Americans call them!) just grow too darn fast! I know that 3 days ago I picked a whole trugfull, and today I picked another whole trugfull! Anyway, these pictured above are Black Beauty courgettes. Another part of my Buddy Morris veggie garden!
And these slightly lighter colour are my old favourite Defender courgettes. I like them because they are incredibly prolific and resistant to mosaic virus. So what am I going to do with all these lovely veggies?
I am pickling them! just sliced and salted for a few hours to take away some of the excess moisture, then rinse and dry them. The removal of some of the moisture enables the spiced vinegar to penetrate and keep them nice and crisp when they are pickled.
Pack them into sterilized jars. I found a great Kosher Dill Pickle mix in the USA, basically it is sugar, salt and spices. You know that lovely taste you get with dill pickles? These are heavenly!
I think here in the UK it is hard to find, but I will go exploring in some Jewish areas of North London, like Golders Green. They are sure to sell it there.
But while I was sitting outside preparing my courgettes... a thief sneaked up beside me...
He ate the whole thing!!

Fairy Eggs!

2011-07-30T21:11:00.006+01:00

On the subject of these tiny little eggs that Chicken Patty has been laying. A little internet research on the subject has shed some light. Sometimes known as Witch eggs, or Fairy eggs, or even Cock eggs (Matron likes that one!) these tiny eggs are sometimes laid by hens when some sort of stress has interrupted their reproductive cycle. The egg starts to develop and the shell is made before the yolk has a chance to develop. Patty's eggs are now returning to a more normal size now. She is an adult hen and has been laying well for more than a year now. Perhaps the stress of a temporary home and close observation by a yellow Labrador hasn't helped!
I dug up a few blubs of Elephant Garlic today. These were planted out of curiosity from a supermarket bulb. I didn't expect them to grow at all really. Supposed to be quite mild.
My blackberries are about a month early and ENORMOUS this year. When tying back the new leader shoots last year, I shortened each one down to about half its length which was about 6ft long. Fewer trusses of fruit, but many more and much larger than usual.
Tomatoes in the greenhouse are beginning to ripen now. These are Gardeners Delight.
I am delighted with these Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes. Grown for the first time this year, as part of my Buddy Morris memorial vegetable garden. All of these plants are fully laden with huge, pear shaped tomatoes. One plant was so heavy that the bamboo cane supporting it snapped. They still need to ripen a bit more, but the productivity of this variety is amazing.
These Discovery apples are also about a month early. This is from a family fruit tree I bought from Ken Muir a few years ago. 3 varieties grafted on to one root stock. These look spectacular, though they are a bit soft and not acid enough for my taste. The thinning out of the early fruit has really paid dividends. There are some large ones to come. Matron does like a large one!

Pink Berkeley Tie Dye Tomato

2011-07-28T07:54:00.007+01:00

This year I have grown a spectacular looking tomato called Pink Berkeley Tie Dye tomato. Seed kindly sent to me by Dan at this Urban Veggie Garden in Canada. These lovely pink purple tomato have green stripes which turn to silver.
A lovely beefsteak tomato with a superb texture. I am growing these in the greenhouse this year and their growth habit is to grow as a bush.
Such a beautiful slicing tomato! Thanks Dan!
Meanwhile back in the garden, the chickens continue to lay an egg each day, but it looks as if Chicken 'Patty' the white Sussex hen is laying tiny little eggs. Chicken 'Jollof' the black hen continues to lay slightly darker brown eggs.
I have heard that these little eggs are known as 'witch eggs' can any hen keepers out there shed light on this phenomenon? Does it have anything to do with being harrassed by a yellow Labrador?

The New Forest Show

2011-07-27T18:25:00.008+01:00

I spent the day yesterday at the New Forest Show in Hampshire. About 2 hours' drive South of London you are well and truly in the countryside.
Who has the handsomest sheep? or the prettiest pig?
And then there was a display of terrier racing! Boy did I love that almost as much as these feisty little terriers did. They are loaded up into little starting crates and a fake furry animal on a long string is waved in front of them.
Then when the gates open someone moves the lure as fast as they can, you can just about see it in a blur here! Completely wonderful seeing dogs happy doing what they were bred to do. Sheer enjoyment!
Then after all that walking around Matron decided to try a fish pedicure!! Strangely wonderful!

Royalty!

2011-07-23T19:29:00.005+01:00

I picked my first cucumber Delizia today. This is a new F1 hybrid available for the first time this year. A handy size for a lunch table. Pale green, thin skin.

Fantastic taste and texture. And like all freshly picked fruit and vegetables.. I could smell it from the moment it was picked! Highly recommended.

I picked my first crop of Royalty dwarf beans today. These are amazingly prolific, there are hundreds more to come! These were from seed saved (borrowed...) from the productive gardens at the Lost Gardens of Heligan a number of years ago. An old Victorian variety, tender, prolific and quick to mature.

And Leo has had a busy day too! We have my Sisters chickens staying with us for a couple of weeks over the holidays. Leo was amazed! barking and running around!

Intrigued, fascinated, excited. Wagging tail all afternoon!

Delicious!

2011-07-20T19:53:00.006+01:00

The bees just LOVE vegetable flowers! I always try to leave a couple of whatever I am growing to go to seed and flower. The most spectacular success a couple of years ago was leaving a parsnip in the ground to grow and flower the next year. 6 ft tall and masses of yellow flowers covered in bees! These chive flowers are no exception! Pretty in a pot on the patio!

The 3 Sisters planting is looking rather good at the moment. I had to put in some bamboo canes for the beans to climb up, but the runner beans, sweetcorn and pumpkins are attracting yet more bees on to the patch.

This is one of my Queensland Blue pumpkins which has started to grow. Blink once or twice and it will have doubled in size! This is the time that, should you wish to do so, you get a needle out of your sewing kit, and you carefully scratch a smiley face in your pumpkin!

Courgettes are in full flood at the moment too! We've had quite a bit of rain in the last few weeks, and I've been picking a new batch of these Defender courgettes every few days. Again, blink twice and you have a monster pumpkin on your hands!

One veggie I am particularly looking forward to is this new Delizia cucumber. New this year from Medwyns of Anglesey, this F1 hybrid cucumber is a very pale green, small straight cucumber. Very thin skinned and with a flesh almost like a melon. Incredibly prolific, a cucumber at every leaf joint as well as side shoots establishing. Looking good!

These long beetroot Cylindra have enjoyed the wet weather (so have the weeds!) I love these long beetroot, they are just brilliant for slicing!

A Week in the Life of a Tomato

2011-07-16T22:12:00.010+01:00

This is a California Pink Berkeley Tie Dye tomato!

All gone!

Growing Turmeric - update

2011-07-15T12:39:00.003+01:00

A wonderful surprise greeted me in the greenhouse this week! I had almost given up hope on this turmeric growing! The cultural instructions were to keep it warm and wet and I didn't think it was going to make it. The Dim Sum Gardener very kindly sent me a piece of fresh turmeric root. This is a member of the ginger family. I look forward to watching this grow.

These Salford Black Beans are really prolific. After bad germination problems I have 4 plants which are really making up for it now. Kindly sent to me by Purple Podded Peas, these black beans are part of my Buddy Morris memorial vegetable garden. Any veggies with a 'black' theme.

The Big Butterfly Count

2011-07-13T19:06:00.004+01:00

I've certainly noticed fewer butterflies in the garden this year, have you? This time of year the butterflies should be all over the place. If you live in the UK why don't you help scientists discover just how many butterflies are around by joining the Big Butterfly Count. All you have to do is go to www.bigbutterflycount.org and print out a sheet identifying British butterflies you are likely to see. Then choose a sunny day from 16-31st July and sit in your garden (or your allotment!) for 15 minutes and see how many you can see. Simply go to the website and add your findings.

Plums!

2011-07-09T09:38:00.007+01:00

Our plums are ripe at the moment. It has been a really great year for plums, plenty of large, sweet plums that are completely free of maggots this year. This year, I just didn't get around to setting a sticky plum moth trap in the tree, but it seems it didn't matter! These will be eaten quickly!

Just have a look at the effect that the shortening days have made to these onions. On 20th June they were straight, as above.

and as the plant senses that the days are getting shorter, they start to store energy for the Winter. These Bedfordshire Champion onions were planted as seeds on Boxing day!

The Bishops Kiss chillis are just starting to set. Lovely, big, healthy plants in the greenhouse.

These are a brand new variety of cucumber which I am growing in the greenhouse. Delizia cucumbers are new this year from Medwyns of Anglesey. A short, pale green cucumber which is closely related to a melon. I look forward to seeing these grow.

These Crimson Flowered Broad Beans are in full production at the moment. A brilliant crop without a single infestation of blackfly. As with the lack of maggots in the plums above, I wonder if the very cold Winter has knocked back a lot of the pests? I've not known a year like it.

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

2011-07-06T19:21:00.013+01:00

This week sees Britain's largest flower show at Hampton Court. It is ENORMOUS! You are hard pushed to go all the way around in just one day. A stout pair of walking boots and regular refreshments are called for. Matron stopped for afternoon tea at the Palace Tea Rooms.

I was thrilled to see so many talented artists and sculptors a the show. I dare not buy anything precious for my London garden, thefts in suburban gardens are frequent and brutal. I would have loved this little robing sitting on a fork! The Grow Your Own area at the show demonstrated how you can position colourful vegetables in your flower border!! grrr. Certainly very pretty and ingenious. But I am left wondering whether there is a class issue here? Perhaps having a beautiful mixed border in your garden is seen as the preserve of the middle and upper classes, and the productive allotment is seen as the preserve as the working class man! Am I raising a contentious issue here?

You can pop in a few cabbages, swiss chard, pak choi or purple climbing beans in your flower border. I wonder if this is what new gardeners aspire to when they make the decision to try and grow their own veggies at home? The GYO Marquee however was fantastic!

My old friends from The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight were appropriately rewarded with a RHS Gold Medal for their display.

A beautiful display and demonstration on how to string garlic. If you ever find yourself on the Isle of Wight, be sure to take a visit and try their unusual 'garlic ice cream'....

Experienced visitors to the Hampton Court show came prepared with these wheeled boxes to carry home their purchases! They were a bit of a nuisance among the crowds, I very nearly tripped over several times.

Anyway, Matron kept her purchases to a minimum. A wonderful selection of stalls and shops on display here. Tasteful and interesting.

This purchase was right up my street! I saw it and knew straight away I had to have it!

Peas and Beans

2011-07-04T21:48:00.007+01:00

Absolutely no problem getting my 5 portions of fruit and veg every day! My favourite eating pea is Hurst Greenshaft. Here I find I get plenty of peas in each pod, and they stay tender and sweet even if you can't pick as regularly as you'd like.

And here are my first pickings of my Buddy Morris memorial vegetable patch! You might remember that I am growing a selection of veggies which have 'black' in the name. Well, here are the first pickings of my courgette 'Black Beauty'. Buddy adored eating courgettes! Happy memories!

These runner beans 'Salford Black' are nearly ready as well. I've not grown these before, but they have a dark strip on the outside of the bean. When the beans develop and dry they are jet black and beautiful!

These dwarf French beans 'Royalty' are just starting to set. They are very heavy croppers and you can see here they have beautiful purple flowers. There are masses of flowers on these plants. It's going to be a good year!

Now, I tried the 3 Sisters in earnest this year. Three crops which you can plant in the same spot and do not compete with each other, having different growth habits - these are squash, sweet corn and runner beans. Well, I have found that these runner beans don't know where to run! I thought they would find their way up the sweet corn stems, but they have run all over the patch! I had to poke some tall bamboo sticks in the ground this morning to show them where to go! The sweet corn is about 3ft tall, but the runner beans are 5ft already!

These lovely leeks are flowering all over the place! From the same packet of leeks, F1 hybrid Oarsman, have come two different colours of flowers, purple and white. I wonder if The F1 crossing is between these two varieties? Whatever the reason, the bees adore them, and they are flying into my veggie patch just in time to pollinate the pumpkins!

Strawberry Jam

2011-06-28T16:37:00.004+01:00

There is nothing Matron likes better than home made strawberry jam. Matron also likes a bit of crumpet.. providing that it is covered in home made strawberry jam.

It has been such an amazing year for strawberries that I couldn't resist making a batch. Not the easiest fruit from which to make jam, they have a low pectin content and a low acid content. Both of these elements are needed to get a good set. Here I used jam sugar which already has extra pectin added. I soaked the fruit in sugar for 24 hours. After this time the bowl was full of liquid as the sugar had drawn lots of water out of the strawberries. No added water was needed at all, though I did add some lemon juice to up the acidity.

So after some gentle boiling for a while the jam reached the setting temperature and was bottled up.

And labelled! Anyone for crumpets?

Salford Black Beans

2011-06-27T09:06:00.004+01:00

I've had some germination problems with these Salford Black BeansWith three separate attempts only 3 have germinated out of about 30 sown. The good news is that these three plants are healthy and vigorous. They have just started to set as well.

These beautiful jet black runner bean seeds were sent to me by Celia at Purple Podded Peas as part of my Buddy Morris memorial vegetable collection this year! Happily, these plants have a wonderful, deep bed of compost to grow in. I look forward to eating these, and saving seed for next year.

Meanwhile I'm still munching through some home grown strawberries. Have you ever tried Eton Mess? This can be made either with strawberries or rasberries, partially crushed, then folded gently with whipped cream and crushed meringue. A taste of heaven!

Summer Fruits!

2011-06-24T17:16:00.006+01:00

You can just smell the vitamins in this little lot! Gradually all my top fruit are starting to ripen.

This is Gooseberry 'Invicta' a variety that is quite resistant to mildew, but sadly not sawfly attacks. These gooseberries were completely ripe and as sweet as sweet can be. Truly one of the most wonderful sweet fruit you can grow! If you can make room for a gooseberry bush in the corner of your plot, it will repay you abundantly!

This is another lovely, sweet gooseberry 'Hinomaki Red' these start green then ripen to a deep red colour. Not quite there yet, but I'm looking forward to them.

Blackcurrants are another of the top fruit that are wonderfully sweet when they are fully ripe. If you buy them unripe (which you will from a supermarket) they are horrid and sour. These are sweet and lovely!

Same here, redcurrants are generally quite acid and do better when mixed with other sweeter fruit, yet if you get them really ripe, they are lovely.

And I am not the only one enjoying the fruits of the garden! I had to keep my eyes wide open because he was sneaking around helping himself when my back was turned! The lovely Leo!

Soaking up the Rain

2011-06-19T06:12:00.010+01:00

A combination of bright sunshine and heavy rain has really brought things on in the last week. These Croatian Black beans are climbing inches every day up the trellis on the garden shed.

These Epicure new potatoes have doubled in size in just a week. They are perfect just now. I always try to dig up new potatoes while they are still new. In a couple of weeks' time they will just be ordinary potatoes... not the same!

In the greenhouse these Pink Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes are going nicely. They should ripen to a miriad of tomato colours. Very special tomatoes, I can't wait to see them ripen.

Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes have a different shape and habit altogether.

In fact, I've been having real problems when I nip out the side shoots on these Trifele tomatoes. They don't seem to grow in an upright cordon method like other tomatoes. This is probably because they are a Determinate tomato. They prefer to send shoots up wherever! I just have to choose a side shoot to grow!

The rain has certainly got through the hole in the black plastic to help these courgettes grow. The plastic has warmed up the soil and kept some of the weeds at bay. A good way to grow courgettes as long as they get enough water.

These Kent Blue Peas are ripening nicely. The flowers mature from pink and purple to a lovely blue. Peas are quite small but make excellent mangetout peas. Just as we are getting to the longest day here in the Northern hemisphere, just stop to take a look at your veggies. Almost immediately the days start to shorten, if only a minute at a time, your plants and flowers will start to store energy for the Winter. Within just a few days of the longest day, these will start to swell into Bedfordshire Champions! watch this space!

Anyone for tennis?

2011-06-16T18:15:00.006+01:00

I picked three and a half pounds of strawberries yesterday! They are coming thick and fast at the moment with these alternate days of bright sunshine followed by rain showers. There is a fear that because the strawberry harvest has been so early this year, that when the tennis at Wimbledon starts next week all the British crop will have gone and we will be importing strawberries from Europe! Shame! It has been an exceptional year for strawberries, I think the long, hard Winter was good for the developing crowns. Many soft fruit varieties benefit from long, cold Winters to enable them to form lots of fruit buds.

I have also been maintaining and attending to this strawberry bed for a few years now. I do not allow the plants to flower or fruit at all in their first year, I nip out the flowers in order to develop the crowns. The second year is usually quite good, the third year is spectacular with a good number of large fruit. Thereafter the berries just get smaller and more numerous. These plants are not a good use of space so I mark them with a plastic tag to note which plant to dig up when they have finished fruiting.

This one is getting past its best so I have marked it for removal. I have quite a good succession of plants of different ages now.

Elsewhere these lovely leek flowers have been doing what nature intended! The bees have been all over them and there are many more to come.

I hope they will keep going for several more weeks so that the bees will be encouraged into my allotment to pollinate the squashes and pumpkins. I must also re-iterate that Matron does not do flowers! Just in case you had forgotten - these are veggies!

June is busting out all over!

2011-06-15T18:16:00.007+01:00

You know it is June when you are picking strawberries and broad beans! This year I am growing Crimson Flowered Broad beans. They are an old variety which is seeing a bit of a comeback at the moment. The plant is a little smaller than the new varieties, and the pods are definitely smaller containing 3 to 5 beans in each one. I am pinching out the growing tips of all the plants now so that it can concentrate on maturing the beans.

The pods grow vertically up the stem.

We've had a bit of rain in the last few days and these pods have ripened quickly.

Crimson flowered beans cross-pollinate readily with the conventional white flowered varieties, and every now and then I will find a pale pink hybrid among the crimsons.

I am noticing this year however, an amazing lack of blackfly! In fact, I've never had a year like it! These plants are virtually spotless! I wonder if the cold Winter knocked them back? Last year I decided to be a bit greener and did not spray at all. I did not have a single bean last year, the entire crop was eaten by blackfly.

Only the tip of one plant showed any infestation at all. I will be taking this tip off and disposing of it. Has anyone else noticed a lack of blackfly on broad beans this year?

Tatties and Toms!

2011-06-10T18:57:00.005+01:00

I dug some of my first Epicure new potatoes yesterday! You can see from the photo that the shape of these is quite distinctive. They also have quite deep eyes which to some supermarkets and commercial growers makes them unsuitable for general sale. Well shame on them! This is, in my opinion, the tastiest potato you can get.

An old variety, an Ayrshire potato described in the catalogues as 'floury' (I strongly disagree) when these are newly dug and just washed over you will never get a tastier potato! Add it to your list for next year.

These tomatoes are doing well in pots on a sunny patio. You can see here the difference between the two different types of leaves that tomatoes can show. On the left is the Potato Leaf type tomato, this variety is Japanese Black Trifele. On the right is the Regular Leaf type, this one is Black Cherry.

Potato Leaf

Regular Leaf.

Rich Pickings!

2011-06-06T18:36:00.011+01:00

The strawberries are coming thick and fast now! I went out yesterday and it looked as if there would be just a couple of bowls full, yet when I took the netting off and explored under the foliage there were pounds and pounds. I always think it is a bit of a shame to have to make jam (though I do like it) these are fresh and sweet and divine. I have to report that 24 hours after this photo was taken... there are none left!

This leek flower is colouring up nicely. There are a couple of dozen of my Winter leeks which I left to go to flower as a prezzie for bees on my plot. Just under the leeks my Summer pumpkins and squashes will be rambling in a couple of weeks, so I will be welcoming bees onto my patch with open arms!

Sue sent me these lovely old heritage variety Kent Blue Peas which have just started to come into flower. Although the flowers start with this beautiful pink and purple colour, when they ripen and get a bit older they turn to this lovely blue. It is wonderful!

Just a joy to go out into the garden at the moment!

Crimson flowered broad beans are perfect at the moment. The bees love these broad bean flowers, and particularly so these lovely crimson flowers.

A couple of the plants have started to set pods. This older variety has much shorter, smaller pods with an upright growing habit. Each of the pods contain between 3 and 5 small green beans.

The Three Sisters = squashes, corn and beans. Early sweetcorn Swift was started out in modules in the greenhouse. They are growing nicely here, so I have planted a second crop of sweetcorn at the end of this patch, direct into the ground. These should make for a later crop. The climbing beans are a home grown variety which I think is a cross between a climbing flat bean Eden (smooth beans) and a traditional runner bean. The seeds produced were the shape and colour of a runner bean, but the small size of a French bean. Lets see what this crossbreed produces!

Tomatillos are outside and hardened off nicely. Quite a lot of flowers on this plant. I look forward to some hot, green Mexican salsa!

I have had a few germination problems with these Salford Black Beans. Twelve were planted in modules and only 3 came up. One was nibbled then there were two (these two). Another dozen were planted direct in the soil and one came up and was nibbled. Last week I have started another final 8 in modules in the greenhouse. Fingers Crossed. These two plants are really sturdy and healthy.

I have given these Salford Black beans a wonderful richly prepared bed, so they have the best of everything. Seeds were kindly donated by Celia at Purple Podded Peas for my Buddy Morris Memorial Vegetable Patch. Black coloured veggies of all sorts.

A New Blogger on the Plot

2011-06-02T08:25:00.002+01:00

There's a new kid on the plot! I know I appreciated some comments and encouragement when I started all those years ago. These continuing blogger problems are still making it impossible for me to comment on other blogs so why not go over to Growth Spurts and leave a comment. And while you're at it why not visit my other blog Matron's Dogblog and take a peek!

First Raspberries

2011-06-01T22:34:00.003+01:00

Raspberries are masters of disguise! To look at the raspberries from a distance you can just see green leaves. I suppose this might fool a passing blackbird from a distance, but this is why I missed these beauties ripening underneath. Only three today, but there are more ripening every day. There is nothing on earth like a freshly picked raspberry straight off the plant! They didn't make it anywhere near a bowl or a spoon.

Meanwhile, neatly tied up to a fence these loganberries are a few weeks away yet. Their super abundance is the first ingredient in a Summer Pudding. I love this time of year, and the time is drawing near.

Hot sunshine on these past few days has brought my leek flowers nearer and nearer to opening. I can almost see the bees queuing up around the corner!

Apples and Strawberries

2011-05-31T08:08:00.007+01:00

I picked a bowl of strawberries yesterday. The smell of the strawberries as I was picking them was divine. This is one thing that people who grow their own fruit and veggies understand. So ripe and so fresh there is nothing to compare. You would never get this quality from any supermarket.

It is a really good year for fruit. I think the long, hard Winter ripened fruit buds on fruit bushes and trees. Look at all these apples on the end of one branch. If left like this, I would end up with a large number of really small apples.

A difficult job to rub off most of these little apples but in order to get much bigger apples they must be thinned.

So I thinned out each bunch to just one or two apples. I chose the best one on the branch and discarded the rest.

A strange phenomenon in my greenhouse as I look at these tomatoes developing in the greenhouse. This variety is Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, an American beefsteak variety sent to me by Dan on his Urban Veggie Garden. It looks as if 3 tomatoes are developing from this one flower. It also looks like they are all joined together! Siamese triplets! I wonder what will develop?

Finally, I managed to get most of my courgettes and squashes into the ground. I have Black Beauty and Defender courgettes. This year for a change I am trying to grow them through black plastic. These are just compost bags split open. I hope this will warm up the soil a bit more and keep some of the weeds at bay. Fingers crossed.

Blogger Trouble

2011-05-30T08:39:00.003+01:00

Is anyone else having Blogger trouble? When I navigate round some other blogs and try to comment I am shown as not signed in. I sign in and I'm still shown as not signed in. The only way to my own blog is through the dashboard. Is it just me?

Matron's Swag

2011-05-27T17:38:00.003+01:00

It rained and rained and rained yesterday! Hooray! We haven't had rain like that for months. Everything has just perked up and looks a lot happier. Here is one of my leeks which is sending up a flower spike. Any day now and it will be a mass of flowers, covered in bees!

Whilst at the Chelsea flower show, I made a few purchases! I bought myself a new trug. Just the thing for bringing back fruit and veggies from the allotment.

My eyes were drawn to a stall selling hand made, carbon steel gardening tools. This is a right-handed hand hoe. Hand made by De Witt in Holland. Just the ticket for weeding between delicate plants!

Matron at Chelsea - Part 2

2011-05-26T19:46:00.009+01:00

Cheering to see this exhibit of a programme by the RHS to encourage children in schools to grow fruit and veggies in a garden or in a growbag. Matron herself started her allotment career planting Radish 'French Breakfast' on my Dad's allotment. It looks as if the next generation of allotmenteers are well on their way if the photo above is anything to go by.

You could still catch a glimpse of Alan and Joe up in their BBC studio, high above the showground.

What a stunning display from Trinidad and Tobago here. If you love chocolate, then you will love these cocoa pods on their amazing stand.

One of the main show gardens was the M&G Garden designed by Bunny Guinness (the only Bunny safe to be let loose round these lettuces!) Mostly edible fruit and veg, but I was left thinking that in order to grow lovely big veggies, you have to get your spacing right. In the real world you would never be able to grow such lovely spinach, chard, black kale in such cramped and confined spaces. These plants were obviously raised in the right conditions then crammed into this show garden. In the real world, I don't think this would work. But hey! it's only a show garden and I should be thankful that veggies are getting their share of the limelight at last!

The B&Q sponsored garden built a big tower block to illustrate how you can be self sufficient if you live in a tower block in London. Yeah! if all you needed to eat in 12 months was a handful of cherry tomatoes! Great idea! But again, if it inspires people to make the effort to have a go for themselves then why not!

Toys for the Boys! just look at the body language!! legs apart, groin thrusting forward leg raised to claim his trophy! (sorry... Matron the psychologist at work)

I was moved and thrilled at the amazing talent of some of the garden sculptors on show at Chelsea.

Matron kept finding doggy friends all over the place!

When Matron went to Chelsea!

2011-05-25T22:11:00.005+01:00

What?? Matron actually went to a flower show?? Whatever next! Worry not gentle readers, Matron was in search of fruit and veggies at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show today. It just seems to me that fruit and veggies are still the poor relation, the underdog when it comes to horticulture. Things do seem to be changing slowly however, and here's what I found.

Ken Muir had an amazing stand of ripe strawberries. You should have smelled them!

Lots of favourites on display, but this variety Chelsea Pensioner caught my eye.

Matron found a friend among the garden statues! Not sure I'd have room for these two though!

Lots and lots of gardening goodies to buy there. Matron will be displaying her swag in an upcoming blog. Watch out for part 2.

Growing Turmeric

2011-05-23T18:44:00.010+01:00

Blog readers will know that from time to time Matron likes to try growing something exotic. I have tried lemon grass, pineapple and sugar cane, and now I am seeing if I can grow turmeric.
Today in the post I received a gift from the DimSumGardener . This is fresh turmeric, a relative of ginger which is the yellow powder commonly used in Asian cooking. These little roots have quite a few good growing points so I am hopeful that they might grow for me under the right conditions.

A quick check on google for propagation tips, then I planted them in a pot of seed compost in a heated propagator loosely covered with a plastic bag to keep some of the moisture in. I am really looking forward to seeing these grow.

Another kind gift from a fellow blogger last year was these Colossal leek seeds. A heritage variety from the heritage seed library at garden organic. I am a bit late sowing these, but they should be big enough to go into the ground in the Summer.

Here is the latest update on my sugar cane. I repotted the shallow tray into a larger container this weekend. The roots had developed really well and were well and truly ready for potting on. Looking good!

I spent some time this weekend clearing out the greenhouse and potting up my indoor tomatoes. I think that tomatoes do better for me in large pots in the greenhouse rather than in a growbag or an automated watering system. Pots or ring cultures give the tomato much more room to grow.

In one growbag I have put 3 ring cultures on top so that these tomatoes have a bit more space. Both growbag and pots are placed in a plastic tray to catch spare water. These tomato plants have their first truss of flowers, so I am beginning to feed them with a diluted high potash feed to help the fruits develop nicely.

Ripe Strawberries

2011-05-22T20:55:00.004+01:00

The pictures say it all!

Turning Colour

2011-05-19T17:25:00.009+01:00

I've been out every day to look at my strawberries. Today here is the first sign that they are starting to ripen. Only a couple of days now and I will be eating my first fresh strawberry.

I must get the net over them now because if I have noticed them, then you can be sure that the birds and the labradors have noticed them too!

The fine weather has brought on my lovely Royalty dwarf beans. They are fully hardened off now and planted out. Unfortunatlely the local cats have also decided that they will take advantage of the newly dug soil and have dug several of them up already and used the bed as a toilet. Grrrrrr!

I have also taken the plunge and planted out some of my Queensland Blue pumpkins. They are covered at night with a plastic cloche to keep a little of the warmth overnight. Another squash I have planted out are the Hunter Butternut squash. These have been specially bred to withstand the British climate, so they will compliment the Queensland Blue that prefer the warmer climate.

It is always worthwhile leaving some veggies to go to seed. These are some of my Oarsman Leeks which I left to flower and go to seed, alongside some brussels sprouts and broccoli. These beautiful blue Alium flowers will break open soon. The bees will love them.

Meanwhile in the greenhouse these Bishops Kiss chilli plants are enjoying the heat and the light. Very good going in the greenhouse for the heat loving plants.

These Mexican green Tomatillo plants are romping away too. I think they have doubled in size in nearly a week. You can see the benefits of these long days now!

And finally, Leo went for another swim today. I couldn't hold him back, he loves it! He even took a few jumps off the side of the pool into the water to go retrieve his toys! He just swam round and round without much encouragement. Brilliant exercise!

Growth Spurts!

2011-05-13T18:15:00.007+01:00

Leo had his first hydrotherapy session today! Swimming will build up muscle around his joints to help with the arthritis. What a star! A canine physiotherapist showed him round the pool for the first circuit, then he discovered that tennis balls float!! He was like a torpedo after that, zooming up and down the pool like a shark! Fearless! my hero! He loved it - we are definitely going again. You can see some more photos of Leo's swim on Matron's Dogblog.

Anyway, back to the veggies. Gooseberries are developing nicely after all this lovely warm sunshine. I just hope I can keep those pesky sawflies at bay for long enough.

It is going to be a bumper year for strawberries this year. I've never seen so many, I have put down the straw to help keep them clean and dry. Out with the netting so that hungry blackbirds and labradors don't steal them.

Only a few days ago these were just flowers waiting to be pollinated. Again the bees have enjoyed this warm, sunny weather and they have done their job.

Pumpkins and squashes have been romping away. They really put on a growth spurt in the past couple of days. I am hardening them off outside during the days and they might be ready to plant out soon.

Buried Treasure

2011-05-10T23:14:00.006+01:00

It was on February 17th that I planted one first early seed potato 'Rocket' in a pot in a heated propagator in the greenhouse. It was potted on several times and put on an amazing growth spurt. In the last week it looks as if the leaves were starting to fade, and yesterday I decided to see if my experiment had worked.

So I tipped out the pot, to see what just 11 weeks of Spring growth had done for me.

I dug deeper into the potting compost and more buried treasure began to emerge. I was only expecting a few golf balls for a bit of an early treat.

But I had 7 lovely new potatoes for lunch.

So I cooked them, and ate them with nothing on ;-) (the potatoes - not me!) Delicious!

Wiggling Things!

2011-05-08T20:09:00.006+01:00

Many people in the UK will already know what this post is about from the first picture! In case you don't there is a wonderful company here in the UK that will post you live composting worms! Wiggly Wigglers is just that. After a long and very cold Winter here in the UK my kitchen compost bin is practically void of worms. I think they emigrated to somewhere warmer. There are usually hundreds in there.

The postmark on the package gives you a clue what's inside the parcel when the postman delivers it.

Nicely packed in a bag containing some dry compost.

One pound of worms! A mixture of different types of composting worms ready to munch their way through my kitchen waste and turn it into rich garden compost.

But composting worms weren't the only wriggling thing I found in the garden this morning.

I went to pick this one up from the patio when one end of it appeared stuck to the ground...

A leech !!!! I have no idea where this came from, we don't have a pond and neither do any of the neighbours. I hope there aren't any more.. I am reminded of a scene from 'The African Queen' where poor Humphrey Bogart was covered in the nasty little critters. Does anyone know if this is a native inhabitant of a suburban London garden?

Royalty!

2011-05-05T17:46:00.006+01:00

A couple of nights ago there was nothing interesting to watch on TV (it seems to happen a lot these days!) so I put on my video of the Channel 4 series about the discovery of the Lost Gardens of Heligan. As the old productive gardens were brought back to life at Heligan, the staff there insisted that all the varieties of vegetables grown there were period correct. Royalty were one variety of French dwarf bean that was grown there. So nearly 8 years ago Matron made a pilgrimage down to Cornwall to see the productive gardens fully restored to their glory. Royalty was a variety of dwarf French bean that interested me. A dwarf, bush bean with magnificent dark purple beans which grew at Heligan. Matron was more than a little excited therefore to see some old plants discarded on the compost heap at Heligan. With slight of hand, and more than a little guile.... a couple of dried bean pods made their way back to Hillingdon. A grand total of 4 beans was all that were viable, and from that only one precious plant made it to adulthood. This year I decided to plant a handful of Royalty beans. They are truly amazing to grow, and perhaps next year I will have a few more to swap.Excuse the titchy photo, but this appeared in my very first month of blogging way back in 2006, before I mastered the art! I have kept this variety going by planting seeds every few years. Like many of these old heritage varieties Royalty is incredibly prolific. You can just pick, and pick, and pick and they keep coming!

So elsewhere in the greenhouse I have a couple of Tomatillo seedlings coming on nicely. I look forward to some nice, hot, Mexican tomatillo salsa later in the Summer!

And finally, being such a tomato-holic, I couldn't resist buying a late packet of Hillbilly tomatoes. This is a potato leaf variety which is an unusual red and orange mottled beefsteak tomato. Let's wait and see what comes of it. I can see some lovely, colourful photos to blog about later in the season. Watch this space!

Planting Out

2011-05-02T18:36:00.011+01:00

Everything in pots is just growing like crazy at the moment. I have been able to harden off almost everything long before the ground is ready to take them. Last year, Sue very kindly sent me some Kent Blue peas. An old heritage variety of pea with blue flowers. These are well and truly ready to plant out, so they were put in the ground today with a lovely net to crawl up against a brick shed in full sun!

Another kind donation for my collection of Black veggies this year was from Kath at Veg Heaven, these Croatian Black Beans have shot up and have been planted out in a container up against a trellis on a shed. They look really healthy!

This Early Purple garlic is enjoying the full sun this year. I am making sure it is well fed and watered in this dry patch.

Another addition to my Black veggies this year is this Shetland Black potato which poked its head above the soil this week.

I planted my squash and pumpkin seeds this week. I have learnt over the years that planting curcurbits too early is a false economy because they are really set back if the temperatures are too cold for them. They stop growing and never really recover, some of these are;

Black Beauty courgette,

Dalizia cucumber,

Queensland Blue pumpkin,

Hunter butternut squash,

yellow straightneck squash,

crown prince pumpkin.

A few tomatoes will have the luxury of a cozy home inside my greenhouse this year, I am particularly looking forward to these Pink Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes which Dan sent to me from his Urban Veggie Garden. Can't wait to see these multi-coloured beefsteak tomatoes!

Sugar cane is doing really well in the full sun! I planted these bits of cane in a shallow tray of sandy compost, but the roots are coming out of the base now. I think I will pot these up into a terracotta pot and let it send roots down. I'll find a sunny spot on the patio and let it grow free!

Other peas here, my Hurst Greenshaft are doing well. I have been collecting twiggy peasticks on my morning walks with Leo. Leo thinks that all sticks are his playthings and I doubt all of these will remain in place for much longer!

and on the subject of Leo

I thought I would take a cute picture of Leo holding a flag last Friday for the Royal Wedding.

But he had other ideas....

But I forgot there was a STICK attached to the flag!! Perhaps he is not the patriotic sort.... or perhaps he has republican tendencies??

Matron's Alternative Royal Wedding

2011-04-27T21:04:00.007+01:00

Just a few suggestions which a Royal bride might like to consider in her Wedding bouquet? Have you ever seen a Medlar flower? Well you have now! Stunning aren't they?

Amazing white flowers, some as big as 2" across, with lush green foliage.

This year is going to be a glut of a year for strawberries if these flowers are anything to go by. I've never seen so many flowers on my strawberries in all the time I've had them!

Or perhaps a Royal bride might choose these stunning crimson flowered broad beans. Exotic and the most amazing colour.

Or have you seen brussels sprouts flowers before? The bees simply love them.

Or chive flowers? Just the thing for a little posy for a bridesmaid perhaps?

Or how about some purple podded peas? Whatever she chooses, they will be equal to these beauties! I wonder if there are any veggie florists out there? hmmmm a business opportunity perhaps?

Know Your Enemy!

2011-04-25T22:08:00.005+01:00

What a fabulous Easter weekend. Sun shine and heat! Although Matron does not do flowers, I like to leave some of my veggies to set flowers and go to seed in order to encourage bees and other pollinating insects. Here you can see my brussels sprouts and leeks just about to flower.

Elsewhere on the battlefield I have been straining my back for hours to weed my plot and get this hard London clay soil into shape for planting. This bindweed is just relentless.

This nasty stuff is everywhere, it always is, every year despite taking every single piece out of the soil.. it returns. When you try to dig it up or pick it out it is so brittle that even if a tiny piece remains it sprouts and continues. This is not just Matron's patch, but everywhere gardeners battle with the enemy be it dandelion, dock or couch grass.

So it made me annoyed last week when my favourite TV Gardener - my telly-welly-totty Monty Don, demonstrated how to grow vegetables. He just put his hands into perfect, friable compost, made a little hole and popped in a seed. Simple! No digging, no sweating, no broken fingernails, no bags, no weeds... just perfect conditions. Grrr! Matron had to sweat for hours on this claggy London clay to make even this much progress.

Tomato Leaves

2011-04-22T20:11:00.002+01:00

Did you know that there are two types of tomato leaves? There are Regular leaf (RL) tomatoes and there are Potato leaf (PL) tomatoes. This picture above is one of my Japanese Black Trifele tomato seedlings, and you can see here quite clearly that it is not like other tomato plants. A little research on the internet shows that there are many hundreds of tomato varieties which have potato leaves. Big Boy and Brandywine are two with which I am familiar. There are lots more out there.

In comparison this is a regular leaf seedling. Some research has shown that the potato leaf (PL) varieties are slightly darker and thicker than the RL varieties and this is thought that it might make them more tolerant to disease. Interesting. I'll come back to this subject when more leaves have developed.

Lovely bright, hot sunshine in London recently and these tomato seedlings have been spending their days outside, hardening off.

The Black Vegetable Garden

2011-04-17T17:24:00.011+01:00

It has been a lovely weekend. My lovely four-legged garden helper Leo has been close at hand. Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth until your back is turned.

I suppose being a retriever means that you have to pick up everything and carry it somewhere else! Giving it a chew along the way goes without saying!

I've made some progress with my Buddy Morris Memorial Vegetable Patch this weekend. Here is one of the Shetland Black potatoes that I managed to get into the ground.

I managed to prick out and pot up some tomatoes. This Japanese Black Trifele tomato donated by Dan from his Urban Veg Garden is looking good. The leaves I think, are those of a 'potato leaved' tomato, quite different to others.

These black cherry tomatoes are so tasty, not just a novel thing to grow, but one of the best tasting tomatoes I have grown. Definitely a regular in the garden.

I received a kind donation of a rare Gloucester Black Kidney potato from Nic at Nip it in the Bud. Here starting off in a pot in the greenhouse until it is big enough to go outside.

Some wonderful Salford Black runner beans from Celia at Purple Podded Peas. These are so beautiful to look at and to touch!

Some wonderful Black Croatian climbing beans from Kath at Veg Heaven. I have just the spot for these growing up a trellis against my shed.

And another kind donation from Nic of a courgette 'Black Beauty'. Throughout the Summer and for years to come I will think of Buddy when I see these black veggies!

A Trip to Market

2011-04-15T18:51:00.012+01:00

I went for a trip to Borough Market today. This market is just nestled underneath the railway arches near London Bridge Station. I remember growing these Noir du Crimee tomatoes last year, otherwise known as Black Krim. (Krim = Crimea)You can get all sorts of everything at Borough Market.

I just love wandering around here, the produce is first class. The rule of thumb here is that if you don't produce the product yourself, you can't sell it at Borough Market.

so the butchers, fishmongers, bakers, cheesemakers or ostrich farmers have to have produced it themselves.

I wonder if someone nabbed this wild garlic out of a hedgerow somewhere? I hear it makes a tasty addition to stir fries!

A scarey looking monkfish on the fish counter!

Just over the road from the market is Neals Yard Dairy, the most wonderful cheese shop!

Staff in the shop know their stuff. They are happy to give you samples if you look hungry, or if you look as if you might buy. I had lots of free samples!

Bought a big hunk of Stinking Bishop and a strong and very ripe camembert that was virtually escaping from the packet! We sat outside Southwark Cathedral in the sunshine at lunch time and enjoyed a loaf of rustic French Bread and a runny camembert! Bon Appetite!

Hughenden Manor

2011-04-12T07:55:00.006+01:00

Last week I made a special trip out to Hughenden Manor. Hughenden was the home of the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Only 20 minutes away just outside High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, I had always wanted to visit to see the newly restored walled kitchen garden. Benjamin Disraeli was one of Queen Victoria's Prime Ministers, and in later life they had much in common having both been widowed and they also shared their love of dogs!

Of course, Matron was interested to see the walled kitchen garden. Hughenden was left to the National Trust after having been taken over during the Second World War as a secret base from which the Royal Air Force planned operations such as the Dam Busters raid.

I was really disappointed by the walled kitchen garden! Too much grass, just a few raised beds and way too many flowers!!

A few small rows of onions and leeks, a few fruit bushes and a few herbs. Quite a nice scarecrow though!

Benjamin Disraeli also started a small graveyard for his beloved dogs! A small space on top of a hill overlooking the vale of Hughenden is the resting place for a variety of working dogs. This one named 'Li Hung Chang - A wire haired terrier - 1899-1901' I hope it lived a full and happy life in its short 2 years (despite the name!)

If the walled kitchen garden disappointed, the doggy graveyard did not!

Matron's Weather Cock

2011-04-08T20:05:00.002+01:00

Amazing blue sky over most of the country these past few days. Not a cloud in sight. Temperatures rising. But do you understand how warm it is if someone tells you it is "22"? I don't! Maybe it is a generation thing, but if someone tells me it is 80 degrees today then I know what they are talking about! So here's an easy way of calculating it. A simple rule of conversion from celsius to fahrenheit. Double it and add 28. So if someone told me it was 22 today in London 22+22=44 then +28 = 72degrees! Now you're talking!

Heritage Beans - Sharing

2011-04-06T08:54:00.006+01:00

I was going through my seed tins this week, and I have too many bean seeds for my own use this year. These two are much older, lesser known varieties that must be preserved.. so I want to share them to keep them going. This first variety is Mrs Fortunes climbing bean. Saved by the Heritage seed library, originally thought to have been obtained by an estate gardener at Windsor - a Royal connection!

Short, speckled beans, beautiful mauve flowers.

Borlotti type speckled beans.

The second variety I have spares from are Lazy Housewife! An old Victorian variety. A climbing French bean that is a really prolific cropper, beautiful cream flowers and loads of beautiful beans.

Can grow to 9 or 10 inches long if you grow them for seed. (update) I have now given all my spare seeds away. If you have asked for seeds they have been posted, all I ask is that if they grow for you, post a picture on your blog and if you have spare seeds then pass them on and keep these precious varieties going

Potting Up

2011-04-05T08:00:00.005+01:00

Everything is just romping ahead! My rhubarb is at its absolute best at the moment. Sweet and tender at this time of year these are the best few weeks to pull rhubarb. It gets more acid and more fibrous later in the year.

A few weeks ago I planted some broad bean Aquadulce Claudia into these long, thin coffee cups. These make good root trainers, you can see here the roots have gone right to the bottom of the cup. Almost time to plant these out now.

I planted one Rocket new potato in a small pot in January. This has been pampered in a heated propagator and re-potted almost weekly! The growth rate is phenomenal. We've had bright sunsine and warm days for the last few weeks and it has made good growth. I will give it plenty of liquid feed! I am hoping to have a small crop at Easter!

Bishop's Kiss chilli are enjoying the heat and the bright light in the greenhouse too. These have been potted up and are looking good!

Last April I received a present of an ornamental coffee plant. Actually it was about a dozen small coffee seedlings in a pot. Beautiful shiny, dark green leaves but the plants were quickly growing too large for one pot. I re-potted a dozen coffee plants yesterday! Apparently coffee plants enjoy shady, warm and damp conditions. I'll give it a go! If they all survive it looks as if some of them will be making their way to the church bazaar!

Introducing the Dog-Apple

2011-04-01T07:20:00.002+01:00

Well, you've heard of crab apples? So now here is the dog-apple! An early Spring variety which overwinters on the tree. Gives off an amazing scent which can be smelled by dogs from miles around! What a useful addition to help fill the hungry gap when there is little else in the garden. Leo loves it!

Sugar Cane - Update

2011-03-31T19:49:00.003+01:00

You might remember that on 21st March just 10 days ago I planted 3 short lengths of sugar cane which I had bought in Madeira. You can see that on the joints there are some little shoots. Well, look what's happened just 10 days later!

I wasn't dreaming that I would get any sort of result, let alone this quickly.

I placed this seed tray full of well drained compost in my heated seed propagator in the greenhouse! Exciting stuff! Watch this space!

Grow Your Own!

2011-03-28T08:11:00.008+01:00

The Peach Blossom in the fruit garden at RHS Wisley is looking fantastic.

I went to the RHS Grow Your Own weekend at RHS Wisley yesterday. To be honest I was a bit disappointed. Just a few staff on a bit of field showing you how to dig, how to plant potatoes and how to plant a tree. Then in the model vegetable garden there was a glum looking gardener with a cowboy hat answering questions. No tents, no exhibition, no stalls, no market, no shopping.. it was widely advertised, and if 70% of all seeds now sold are vegetable seeds, I was expecting more!

So I went for a lovely walk elsewhere in the gardens. Peaches grown in the UK have to be kept fairly dry during Winter to protect them from moisture, so they are mostly grown under glass, or protected from the rain with a plastic sheet.

A plastic polytunnel shows what hardy Winter leaves you can grow with just a little protection, cabbage, spinach, salad leaves.

Garlic was looking good in the model vegetable garden.

And I visited an old friend, the fruit orchard. I've never visited this time of year before, normally the trees are laden with fruit and you can't see from one end of the orchard to the other. It was just like meeting an old friend whom you know well... but naked!

The Award of Garden Merit

2011-03-27T09:14:00.004+01:00

The Royal Horticultural Society has designed a new Logo for the Award of Garden Merit. I find this award very useful when choosing a particular variety of vegetable. Plants are grown as part of a trial at one of the RHS sites and are judged by a panel of experts. I remember a couple of years ago there was an RHS trial of Runner Beans. Dozens of different runner bean varieties were grown side by side, in identical conditions. The judges attend and look at the whole plant, decides how prolific it is, how resistant to disease it is, how easy it is to grow, how tender and tasty the finished product is.

The official criteria for awarding an RHS AGM are:

* It must be of outstanding excellence for ordinary garden decoration or use

* It must be commercially available

* It must be of good constitution

* It must not require highly specialist growing conditions or care

* It must not be particularly susceptible to any pest or disease*

* It must not be subject to an unreasonable degree of reversion in its vegetative or floral characteristics.

So next time you are going through a seed catalogue trying to choose a new variety, I have found the RHS AGM to be a good recommendation.

Matron's Garden Helper..

2011-03-23T17:19:00.006Z

It felt like the warmest day of the year so far here in London. Beautiful, bright sunshine all day so I spent the day hard at work. The soil was just a little damp, but perfect for weeding. The greenhouse was hot and bright and my little seedlings are romping away. But Matron has a new garden helper...

Every time I turned my back he was helping... tidy up the bamboo sticks,

cutting them into smaller lengths...

Sorting out the flower pots...

cutting them down to size..

and just lazing around being cute. Actually, for the rest of the afternoon Leo brought most of his toys out of the house and down the end of the garden, then he fell asleep on the lawn in the sunshine. A perfect garden helper!

Growing Sugar Cane!

2011-03-21T17:40:00.000Z

Matron loves to try growing new and exotic things on her patch! Well, I couldn't resist buying a length of sugar cane in the market and giving it a go!. I have heard that it is possible to grow sugar cane in a pot in a greenhouse here, so I looked up the cultivation instructions on the internet.

On this piece, at each joint there happens to be a little new shoot already. Cultivation instructions suggest cutting the cane into lengths which contain 2 or 3 shoots.

So I cut the cane with a saw, and soaked them in water for several hours. Apparently they are sown on their sides where the new shoots grow up vertically.

So I covered them in some seed compost with some vermiculite to ensure good drainage, and I have left them covered up in a heated propagator in the greenhouse. Watch this space.

Fruit and Veg

2011-03-18T19:32:00.007Z

Well it really was a case of too much to do and too little time to do it! Just a couple of days in Madeira wasn't enough. One of my favourite places in the world is the fruit and veg market in Funchal. Baskets of locally grown exotic fruit and veg just waiting to be eaten.

These custard apples are just a world away from the hard green efforts that you can sometimes buy here. All the fruit in Madeira is ripe and sweet and out of this world!

After all that shopping Matron just had to put her feet up for a while, sip some Madeira wine and watch the ships sail into the harbour!

I had time to fit in a helecopter flight round the island too! Matron just loves helecopters!

I have always called this the 'Labrador Market' but the Mercado dos Lavradores is the Portugese name for the main market in Funchal. Leo pricked up his ears when I told him there was a Labrador market in Madeira!

Though Matron did make a few friends among the strays walking the streets out there!

A trip to the Botanical Garden was fascinating, alongside the flowers (Matron does not do flowers) there was an edible garden. Amazing to see how coffee, bananas, guavas and sugar cane grow. I managed to bring back a length of sugar cane which I will attempt to grow in a pot in the greenhouse. Bob Flowerdew has managed it, so Matron will humbly follow in his footsteps and have a go! More later!

Filling the Hungry Gap!

2011-03-13T18:29:00.004Z

By all accounts I am lucky to have purple sprouting broccoli this year. The cold Winter seems to have devastated the commercial crops but a few of my early PSB 'Rudolph' have done quite well. This is one of the better shows, early pickings like this are tender and tasty. Leave them a few weeks more and they can become fibrous and chewy. I will certainly leave one of the plants to flower because the bees just adore PSB flowers! If you get a chance to let any of your brassicas go to flower then please do! You will encourage the bees to come and pollinate the rest of your patch.

My Bishop's Kiss chilli are continuing to grow nicely in the heated propagator in the greenhouse. They need such a long growing season they are one of the few things that has to be planted this early. I am probably going to plant a few tomato seeds next week.

Another little experiment in Matron's greenhouse is this first early new potato 'Rocket'. I planted it in a pot in the heated propagator a few weeks ago. I will keep re-potting it and I hope to have an early crop of new potatoes at Easter! Just about the time when the seed potatoes will be going in the ground outdoors! The traditional time to plant new potatoes according to the garden calendar is Good Friday!

Matron is off to the sunny island of Madeira for a couple of days sunshine and luxury. Baxoon!

Veggies can wait!

2011-03-08T18:16:00.002Z

This blog is supposed to be about growing veggies, but I know you will forgive a little indulgence. Leo was a stray! someone left him on the streets of London and didn't bother to look for him. Aside from a little arthritis in his joints he is still full of life! Like all Labradors, Leo loves his food - so getting him to eat his veggies will not be a problem!

Some Happy News!

2011-03-07T17:59:00.000Z

This is Leo! Need I say more? Leo came home today. 11 year old Labrador that someone else didn't want - can you imagine that? I'm sure you will be hearing more from him as he settles into his new home. What a lucky boy!