Garden Blogs

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Rain, rain go away......

Haven’t managed to get in the garden to work for a couple of days now due to the rain and being away for the weekend – hence no photos this time. I did make the Strawberry yoghurt sandwich cake and it was delicious so if you fancy having a go you will need …….Cake – 125ml plain yoghurt (Rachel’s of course), 200g sugar, 100g melted butter, 2 lg eggs, 1tsp vanilla extract, 250g self-raising flour. Filling – 200ml double cream (again Rachel’s), 100g strawberries hulled and icing sugar. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160fan/350F/gas4. Lightly oil a 18cm across and at least 7cm deep loose-bottom cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Whisk together the cake ingredients, except the flour, until combined, then lightly fold in the flour. Transfer the mixture to the cake tin, level the top, place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted at the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 10 mins in the tin, then remove from the tin and allow to cool completely. When ready to fill, slice the cake in half horizontally. For the filling, whip the cream until firm. Roughly mash the strawberries with a sprinkling of icing sugar and fold into the cream. Sandwich the cake with the filling and dust the top with icing sugar before serving. Enjoy. We picked our first runner beans yesterday, just about enough for the two of us, very nice. Our tomatoes are starting to turn so hopefully by the end of the week we will be adding them to our salad’s. Raspberries are fruiting, so much so that I am freezing some for later on in the year. I would make some jam but they are not co-operating by enough being ready at the same time!! We also have Autumn fruiting raspberries, so jam may still be on the cards, we shall see. Strawberries on our veg plot are still fruiting. We had a few plants left over earlier in the year so, not wanting to waste any, I planted them in big pot and put it by our bench in the dogs garden. They are doing well, sending out runners and fruiting. Unfortunately we haven’t managed to have any of these fruits yet because they were being stolen, birds again we thought, but no not this time – the dogs!!!! Yes, it seems they have added strawberries to their five a day list. Hope to post some photo’s soon as everything looks so much better for the soaking we’ve had over the last few days’s.

Monday, 29 June 2009

Loving the weather

Our new oil tank is being installed tomorrow, so we’ve been busy preparing the top tier of the ‘dog’s garden’ where it will be sited. This has meant we’ve had to dig out a very large and unruly Red Robin and also an old conifer tree trunk hiding amongst the ferns. Of course we happened to pick one of the hottest weeks so it took longer than anticipated (many tea breaks). I am really thrilled that we managed to dig up the conifer root as it will serve as a natural sculpture around the pond area (I think we might wait for a cooler day to start digging out the pond). We already have a smaller tree root which a fern has seeded it’s self onto so hopefully the same will happen to this one. Our plan for the wall to create two levels to the ‘dog’s garden’ is now mapped out and we are ready to start, but again the weather needs to be cooler as this involves digging and moving several tons of earth. On the vegetable front we have been enjoying lollo rosso lettuce, spring onions, new potatoes, raspberries and two – yes two – blueberries!!! The kohl rabi have grown huge so I’ve blanched and frozen the larger ones. The peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse are doing well, the marigolds seem to be keeping the greenfly at bay. We planted out the celeriac and yet another row of leeks. I found a seed packet for miniature sunflowers which I thought would look nice in blue pot I had and I’m pleased to say the first sunflower came out today, also flowering are an array of fuchsia’s (my husband is a fuchsia fanatic), and penstamon’s to name but a few. All in all everything is thriving, and as luck will have it we had good downpour this morning (my husband who went fishing this morning didn’t think it was lucky!) so we don’t need to do any watering, except for the greenhouse, so maybe we will spend this evening sitting on our patio enjoying the view with nice glass of wine…..…….. PS I found a recipe for a Strawberry Yoghurt Sandwich Cake over the weekend which I plan to bake this week, if it proves to be a success I will share it with you next time, the recipe not the cake!!!

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Sparrows and String

We were sat on our patio the other day, enjoying a cuppa and watching the garden grow, discussing our plans for the front garden and our new water feature/pond. New thoughts sprang to mind and the discussion went something like this……… “Should we move the oil tank? It’s on it’s last legs and in the wrong place for refilling and possibly should be condemned. If we do this, we could site the new tank in a better position than the current one. If we dig the pond and then in a year or two’s time the tank needs replacing the pond will be in the way. We could then terrace what is left of the lawn area, (the dogs chase each other around the tree – very little grass left!!) which will make it easier to maintain as it’s on a slope.” ……… when, to our utter surprise and amusement we witnessed a couple of Sparrows land on our runner bean canes and start to tug on the string which is holding them together; they persisted until they had managed to brake / unravel bits and flew off with them in their beaks. A few minutes passed and they came back to start the process all over again, it was really quite funny. Anyway, upon close inspection of the canes we realised the Sparrows must be in need of huge nest repairs because some of the canes where only held together by a wing and a prayer. We have left the bits of string still attached (obviously their need is greater than ours) but we have reinforced the canes using plastic ties. Surely they will not need these??? Back to the pond discussion … how does one small job grow into a mammoth task? The garden is really enjoying the warm weather interrupted by heavy showers, everything is growing well and some of the flowers are starting to bloom. I will need to harvest the kohl rabi soon as they have suddenly got quiet big and if left will go woody. Dug up our first potato root today, not as many potatoes as I would have hoped for, maybe it’s the variety, I’ll have to check. Just one photo this week, taken from our bedroom window just after a heavy downpour.

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Success on the Strawberry front.....

Netting proved to be a good spend, as the birds, we think Blackbirds, have not been able to infiltrate the nets and we have enjoyed the sweetness of fresh, straight from the plant, strawberries – yummy ! At the risk of sounding like my world revolves around food, we’ve discovered an absolutely beautiful tasting turnip (sounds sad I know). It’s called Oasis – its says on the packet that it tastes like melon!!, well my husband disagrees but he does agree it beautiful. It has a sweet taste and is good grated in salad, just steamed, or mashed with potato or carrot. Even if you are not that keen and only eat them in stews etc. (as I did until now) please try this variety next year. We have also been munching our way through spinach blanched with butter and pepper. Well what’s the point of growing all this veg if you can’t get excited about eating it!! Out of the cold frame and planted are our winter cabbage and cauliflower and one row of late leeks. We haven’t really been very successful with cauliflower before so here’s hoping that the variety we have bought – Clapton – proves to be a winner, I’ll let you know how we do. On the flower front - all of our pots and hanging baskets are now hardened off and out on the patio and walls waiting to explode into a kaleidoscope of colour (I hope). Photo’s this week included some of our Kohl Rabi (the ones that survived the mouse attack), our apple and plum trees and part of the dog’s garden, (you can't see the part we have started to clear in prep for the water feature next year), I will include that next week– Lab’s and water, lots of fun….

Saturday, 30 May 2009

Nearly our first strawberry of 2009!!!!

Can’t believe it’s week ago since I did my last blog, not sure where the days have gone!! Anyway, not a lot has happened garden wise this week, except the normal weeding (and my goodness how quickly they grow), mowing lawns and watching our flowers and veg enjoy the sunshine. I did get excited yesterday because we had at least one strawberry that looked like it would be ready to eat today. So in preparation I got my bottle of Pimm’s out along with my Pimm’s jug, lemonade, fresh mint, etc, all ready to celebrate the first strawberry of the year only to find it was half eaten this morning!!! I think it may have be birds, so tomorrow we are off to get some netting. I don’t mind sharing, but pinching the first one is a bit rich. I have included a variety of photos this week which I hope you enjoy. But before I go, I thought I would share with you a tried and tested (and never failed) recipe which we had last night. It’s a marinade for Chicken Tikka, great for bar-b-ques or cooked on a griddle. Basically you whiz together all of the following :– 75-100ml of Rachel’s Greek yoghurt, 1tsp red chilli powder, 2 pinches of dried fenugreek leaves, 1tsp ground cumin, fresh ginger (about inch long), 2 cloves of garlic, 1tbsp veg oil, 1tsp lemon juice, and 1/2tsp garam masala. This is enough for 4 to 5 chicken breasts which you slash across the thicker part and then pour the yoghurt mixture over the chicken breasts and leave to marinade overnight. Cooked on a griddle pan it only takes about 15-20 mins, as I said we had it for dinner last night with our home grown salad leaves and new pots (not ours they’re not ready yet), and a very nice bottle of wine – enjoy!

Saturday, 23 May 2009

Forest of Dean - Part 2

This week has proved that patience pay’s off. Having planted asparagus last year and watched them grow, but not able to pick any (apparently they grow better if only picked after the first year’s crop), we were really excited to pick, cook and eat our first asparagus tips, all within 30 mins, along with spinach leaves from the garden and poached eggs from a lady in our lane. Can’t get much fresher - delicious!!!

Unfortunately the same principle applies to rhubarb, we planted ours last month – so next year we look forward to crumbles and rhubarb and ginger jam. What a wash out weather wise. Our runner beans were desperate to be planted out, so we took a chance they would not get wind burnt or snapped off by the gusty winds and we’ve got away with it - they’re fine. Really pleased to say that the poles for the runners survived the winds too. French bean seeds have been planted and are starting to show, along with the second planting of beetroot, turnip and spinach seeds. Leek plants have also made it into the ground – they look great all standing to attention.

Dodging showers/rainy days we have managed to plant out in the cottage garden perennial flowers, such as Rudbeckia, Verbascum, Foxglove and our Lupins (yes, some survived the mouse attack!). This has made room in the greenhouse for Fuchsia cuttings, cauliflower and cabbage seedlings, also some Thai Basil (some of which will be making their way to friends we are visiting soon in Sussex, don’t worry we won’t forget the leek plants we promised you!). We have decided to put most of our tomato plants in a bed in the greenhouse, last year the tomato’s planted in the veg patch caught blight. Hopefully we will able to tell you later if this makes any difference. Also thinned out the parsnips. We plant 3 seeds in a hole and then thin out the two weaker ones – seems a shame to do this as the thinnings did look good plants but they don’t seem to transplant very well. A good tip for parsnips if you have stony ground, is to use a long pole/stick to make a cone shape hole and fill it with compost or sieved soil, this means the parsnips don’t split as they try to grow around stones! You can do this for carrots but instead of a cone shaped hole dig out a row about a spit deep and fill with compost.

One last thing, if you plant marigolds in amongst your tomato plants and runner bean plants they are less likely to get affected by green and white fly. Have a great Bank Holiday weekend. PS thanks for your comments – will post a pic of the dogs next week as requested by Tom in Devon!!

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Welcome to The Forest of Dean

Over the next few months I am looking forward to sharing my garden with you. We moved to the Forest of Dean 18 months ago from Southampton hoping for a more rural way of life, and we have not been disappointed. Our property is on a hill, so level’s, or rather lack of them have meant we have divided our outside areas into three separate parts.

We have two young and lively Labradors, so the first area (our front garden) is the only part of the garden they are allowed in. So far it has not been properly planted up, as the few plants we have added have been trampled on and are looking rather sorry for themselves. We are hoping that some time in the near future, when the dogs are calmer, we can introduce a natural water feature in the lower stone tier which the previous owners built.

The second area is to be a semi formal cottage garden. Since last year we have grown as many perennial flowers as possible from seed. This has proved to very successful, in-fact friends and family have also benefited!! The new lawn we layed in 2008 has shrunk in size as we keep enlarging the flower beds to accommodate the plants. The greenhouse has more flower seedlings which we have been sowing since March, these are growing very well, so I can see the lawn shrinking even move once these new plants have hardened off.

The third and final area is our kitchen garden. I especially love this area, it is wonderful picking and eating your own produce. So far we have planted first and second early potatoes, beetroot, turnip, onions (red and white), shallots, primo cabbage, spinach and parsnip. In the greenhouse we have two types of leeks, kohl rabi, lettuce (which we have been eating since March), tomato plants and celeriac all of which will be planted out after the frosts have gone. Not all things go as planned………...a couple of weeks ago we left a very small gap open in the cold frame to circulate the air overnight. The next morning we found a mouse munching his way through our dwarf lupins, cabbage and kohl rabi plants – lesson learnt there!!! Hope you have enjoyed looking at our photos and I look forward to next week’s blog with our news and updated photo’s.