Watercress

One of my favourite salad veg is watercress and last year I decided to grow some from seed on the allotment. I had grown some in a salad bed in the garden before and it had grown well but been a bit straggly and all over the place. It disappeared eventually, probably having been dug up by mistake.

 This time I grew it in a big container and this seems to work well. The container helps to keep it under control. Last year after the first cutting, I was pleased to find that it grew back a few weeks later.  I thought it might have died over winter, but no, it returned this year and is doing even better.  I cut it, then it grows back, again and again.

I have also found that if I take some home and put the stems in a little jug of water, roots will grow from the stems. These can be planted into pots of compost and will grow. This is an easy way of growing watercress if you didn't want to be bothered growing it from seed and could be done with shop bought watercress. 

If grown in the ground, watercress needs a moist soil.  In a container it will need regular watering to keep the compost damp. If you don't have anywhere to grow it outside, then it can be grown indoors on a windowsill in a small pot or recycled food container.

Watercress is one of those foods which is really good for you, it is rich in vitamins and minerals. I love it's strong peppery taste and much prefer it to rocket.  It is a very versatile veg.  It's good in salads, on sandwiches with cheese or egg,  chopped up in a sauce with fish, it also makes a delicious soup. In fact if you look up watercress recipes on the Internet you will find loads of ways if using it.

And the great thing about watercress is that the slugs don't seem to
be interested in it.

Sweet peas at the allotment

If I had to choose a favourite flower then sweet peas might be the one. They flower for a long time over the summer and their fragrance is exquisite.  They are easy to arrange, just pop them in a vase and they do their own thing.

A lot of people say they have trouble growing them and I used to have problems when I grew them in the garden.  But since I have been growing them on the allotment they have been great.  What's the secret to success?  I'm not sure, but at the allotment they have soil enriched with well rotted manure or home made compost, they have plenty of space and an open position with sun. I don't do anything complicated, just plant them to grow up a netting frame and let them get on with it.

I have been picking sweet peas for weeks and weeks now and over the last few days have wondered if it is finally time to cut them down.  They are looking a bit tired, the stems are shorter, there are aphids on them, the leaves look a bit mildewy and there are not as many flowers.  But short stems doesn't matter, they can be put in a smaller vase. When I bring them back from the allotment I give them a rinse  in a sink full of water to get rid of the aphids.  They don't last as long now, just a couple of days, but they still smell wonderful. I won't cut them down just yet.

Through the garden gate--August

I'm joining Sarah again at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' slot.

August has just flown by and with grandchildren to look after during the school holidays we haven't had a lot of time for gardening.  The garden itself seemed to take a rest from mid July to mid August, it's been all quiet in the flower borders with not much happening.  It's like the flowers have been charging up their batteries and are now ready to explode, full of energy again. And now in the last couple of weeks things have started to happen. The rudbekias, heleniums and phlox are brightening up the borders, the sedums are starting to show signs of colour and the white buddleia is happily flowering away.

When I have managed to find time to get out in the garden I have been cutting back the alchemilla mollis which has now gone over and also the ferns which pop up all over the place and would take over if left to do their own thing. The ferns grow everywhere and obscure the other plants in the borders so it looks much better after a good tidy up. They soon grow back again though so it's a regular job in the garden. With some of them I can manage to dig out the roots, but others are really tough and some grow out of walls so I can't get rid of them. The recent wet weather has brought out all the slugs which have nibbled the dahlias and had a feast on the hostas leaving them in shreds. 

The good news is that our Bramley apple tree, which is quite old and produced hardly any fruit last year, is now almost bending over with the weight of all this year's fruit. That means I need to tidy up the shed, clear a space to store them all and then start making things.  I found a  recipe for spiced apple chutney recently which I want to try out.

School holidays means lots of days out with the grandchildren and we've visited one or two big gardens recently--Parceval Hall and Tatton Park.  These were both fantastic places to visit and I will save these for another blog.

A garden for wildlife

 

We do quite a lot of garden visiting during the summer, some of them large gardens, others quite small by comparison.  I like to visit other peoples' gardens to get ideas for garden design, planting schemes, spotting how well  plants grow in different conditions.

A few weeks ago Helen and I visited an NGS garden which was open for the first time and quite conveniently was only just down the road from where we live. Park Head opened this year for the first time under the National Gardens Scheme. The garden slopes down to a woodland stream and beyond that is open countryside and farmland--quite a beautiful setting.

We entered  the garden through a pergola covered with clematis and the occasional tinkling mobile hung here and there. Through the pergola I caught a glimpse of a lawn bathed in sunshine and a summer house. There was music coming from the direction of the top end near the house and we spotted a saxophonist. We've done a couple of garden visits this summer where there has been a musician. Maybe it's the latest trend to have music at open garden days. I prefer not to have music as I walk around a garden,  I like gardens to be peaceful places. I found the music intruded on my thoughts.

Out of the pergola we came  to the wildlife pond where we did a bit of frog spotting. Across the lawn was the summer house where a dry river bed led down to the wildlife pond and beyond this  to a wild flower meadow. There were fruit bushes and a few salad and vegetable beds amongst the borders which contained many perennial plants and shrubs. This was a garden for wildlife, amongst the natural planting in the borders were bird feeders, bird baths, logs left to rot, plants attracting bees and other insects.

Up near the house pots of herbs arranged along low stone walls and a few vintage pieces added a bit of quirkiness.

 Apart from the music I loved this garden and will probably go on my favourites list. It was my sort of garden and one I would like to return to.

 

Harvesting the onions

 

It's now that time of year when all the allotment holders are harvesting onions. As we walk along the lane to the allotment we can see onions strung up in greenhouses, laid out along benches or left lying on top of the beds. They are everywhere.

I spent an afternoon last week harvesting my onions. The tops had started to bend over so I knew they were ready to be pulled up. Not only that, I could see that they had grown amazingly in the last couple of weeks. Then came the annual problem of where to put them to dry out. The first lot went on top of the brassica net frame, another lot went on an old growhouse frame which Richard dragged out of storage.

A couple of days later when the roots had dried out I moved them all to the cold frame which is not being used for seedlings at the moment.  There is no room in the greenhouses to store them and not much space in the shed either.  They will be fine in the cold frame until they have dried out completely and I can clean them up and put into onion bags.

With the onion bed cleared and weeded I made use of the space to plant some lettuce seedlings and sow some more radish and beetroot.

Richard has been doing some work on the fence down one side of the plot recently. Our neighbour on the other side does not look after his plot and the weeds get out of hand. There are some really bad weeds growing there--nettles, Himalayan Balsam, bindweed, hogweed to name just a few. So Richard has put some black weed suppressant membrane along one section of the fence and a length of bamboo fencing along another. These are just materials which we had to hand. They will not stop weeds from growing under  the fence into our plot, but they will help to stop them growing through and will hide the ugly view we have of a very neglected plot.

Through the garden gate-- July

Once again I'm joining Sarah at Down by the Sea for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' slot.

Everything is growing well in the garden now, the borders have filled out hiding the weeds. Occasionally I spot the odd weed raising it's head above the plant foliage and I can pull it out. It's a relaxing way to do the weeding--no bending! There's a lot of deadheading to do as flowers go over--that's another gentle sort of job--especially if the weather is very warm.

Some of the earlier flowering plants have needed a good cutting back, like the hardy geraniums which get to look very untidy when they've finished flowering and will sometimes flower again if cut back. This has left some gaps in the borders. It's a problem I have in my garden during July and early August that there can be a lack of colour before the vibrant hot colours of August appear. I bought a dahlia and a liatris to fill a couple of gaps, in other places I have put pots of flowering plants.

We went to a car boot sale last weekend. Richard hates car boot sales, but I love wandering around looking for bargains. So it's not a thing we do often, but we always manage to get a few bargains, usually old items which we can put in the garden to use as plant containers or simply to add a bit of interest in little corners. This time I bought an old copper coal scuttle complete with verdigris even Richard thought it was a bargain and was happy for me to buy it. 

I also bought an old metal lantern which the stall holder said she had bought in France, she said French stuff has lots of character! There were some other good things on her stall but I'd spent enough money by then. In time I will plant something in the coal scuttle--when I find the right sort of plant. I think a fern would look good.

It's good to be able to take time to enjoy the garden and July and August are the months for that. We have been spending time  having lunch outside when it's been warm, sitting with a coffee in the morning or a glass of wine in the evening. Hope you've all been enjoying your garden this month.

At last the leeks are planted

One of my favourite winter vegetables is leeks and I like to grow as many as I can. We've usually had a good lot of leeks to harvest down at the allotment, but last  year they didn't do at all well. So I'm determined to do better this year.

We have been planting leeks for a few weeks now as space has become available. The first lot were planted at the end of the onion bed in late May, another lot were planted a few weeks later in what I call the spare bed which is not part of the plant rotation. The last lot were planted this week.

I łove planting leeks, it's so different from planting other vegetables. Make a planting hole with a dibber, pop the leek plant in then fill the hole up with water. Easy but back breaking! It's also a job which the grandchildren enjoy doing.

I sowed two varieties earlier in the year-- Autumn Mammoth and Blauwgroene Winter Bandit. Two problems we have with our leeks are bolting and rust. Blauwgroene claims to have some resistance to both of these problems so I am hoping for better results this year.

All the leeks are planted now, and the first lot are doing well. I am now dreaming of all those lovely leek dishes, soups, cheesy vegetable bakes, stir fries and more.