So far I have done the top half near the house.

Top part of garden

Top part of garden

I have also removed a shrub beside the greenhouse which is on the left just behind the green shrub on the picture above.  Here I have created a small perennial herb garden. So far I have planted Chives, Garlic Chives, Fennel, Sage, Thyme, Wild Marjoram (Origanum vulgare), Winter Savory and Mint (in a pot sunk in the ground) . There is also a pot of French Tarragon which will go into the greenhouse over the winter as it is not reliably hardy.

Cleared for a Herb garden

Herb garden

The bottom half of the garden remains untouched. Well, not quite untouched as my large Agave in a pot finally succumbed to the winter weather (despite protection) so that has gone. I have also removed an obelisk which supported Rosa ‘Zephrine Drouhin’ which suffered badly from blackspot.  I can’t be bothered spraying Roses so it just had to go. In  the space I have planted Hammammelis ‘Vesna’.

I must get started on this area soon – there are so many plants in the wrong place and if I leave it much longer it will be too late. There is a Fern planted in front of the wooden seat below that in mid summer grows so big you have to climb over it to sit down!

Bottom corner

The old Herb patch used to be in the small allotment that lies beyond our garden gate. This was not ideal because herbs need to be near the house so that you can pop out on impulse to pick some. Am I just too lazy?

Entrance to small allotment

It is called the small allotment because our main allotment is another 2 minutes walk away – how lucky is that!

The allotment has now been weeded and some seeds sown under cloches which I will remove soon. The Digger has planted a Tayberry ‘Buckingham’ where the herbs used to be (to the right of the white chair).

Small allotment

All in all the garden is looking much more alive.

Visit The Patient Gardener who hosts End of the Month Views from other gardeners.

Well my first picture is  literally a pinch of green. During the winter months I use the dried herb until I can harvest fresh Dill later in the year.

Dill (Anethum graveolens)

One of my favourite spring flowers with those beautiful green markings..

Galanthus nivalis

These flower buds look like little green balls. They belong to my white Quince.

Chaenomeles speciosa' Nivalis'

When I lift up this flower haed I can see a subtle splash of green in the centre.

Helleborus x hybridus

Finally there are these tiny leaves resting on a large rock. The foliage is very aromatic and the small shrub is covered in white flowers in June.

Prostranthera cuneata

For more Blooming Friday posts visit Katarina at Roses and Stuff.

Have a good weekend.

Chilli Peppers – Our Summers are fairly short and there is no period when you can guarantee that one week of sun will be followed by a second. Despite having a greenhouse I am still having trouble getting Chilli plants into full production as they seem to reach maturity just as temperatures drop. I never have a huge crop. In some years I have sown seeds in mid March and sometimes  mid February.  Some varieties take ages to germinate and others take even longer. This year I am trying mid January in a heated propagator. I have planted double what I actually need. Please let germination be quick. Please let us have a real Summer.

Chilli 'Bulgarian Carrot'

Salad Leaves – “Sow every two or three weeks for a continuous crop”. Hmm – as if that ever works for me. Even when I remember to sow the seeds erratic germination and pesky slugs throw that continuity right out the window. This year I am sowing in pots and planting out instead of sowing directly in the ground. I am also going to sow directly into large pots raised off the ground and positioned near the house so that at least some of the lettuce/endive/chicory/assorted leaves will be under my beady eye. Every 3 weeks I am arranging for  Google Calendar to send me a reminder  to pick up that seed packet and get moving. Here’s hoping that 2011 will be “The Year of the Salad Leaf”.

Lettuce

Root Crops – I like beetroot but not a mountain of it and this year I will try to get to grips with the concept of “Sow a  little…and often”. I must remember to thin the rows if very crowded. This also applies to Turnips and Radishes.

Beetroot 'Chioggia'

Annual Herbs – Last year was a disaster as the Dill, Basil, Summer Savory and Sweet Marjoram germinated and then either bolted into flower (Dill, Savory, Marjoram) or grew a little and then sulked when the weather turned cool (Basil).  This year I will sow more than once. They will be in pots near the house and I will do my best to create a Mediterranean environment.

Bush Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Perhaps if I play them one of my Greek music CDs they will think they are on a Greek island.

A Greek CD to set the mood

Small allotment before tidy up

I need tools before I start work and find my first splash of colour. We photographers are so innovative.  I also have some packets of seeds to sow.  Yes the hoe is a funny shape but it is very easy to use and prevents back strain. My camera is to hand should anything exciting happen – or not!

Garden tools, including camera

I need to weed and prune in the perennial herb bed. Note the gap in the fence and the flattened earth – Mr Badger is visiting again.  Back left is Sage (Salvia officinalis) which needs a heavy prune to keep it neat and to stop the plant getting too woody. Back right are the pale green leaves of Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum). Front right is the buried pot which stops the Mint escaping and creating havoc and next to it are the ordinary Chives (Allium schoenoprasum). Front left is Winter Savory (Satureja montana) which also needs a trim. I think I have lost my French Tarragon (Artemesia dracunculus) and Oregano (Origanum vulgare ‘Compactum’) both of which lie under the Badger’s path.

Herb bed with Badger trail

I am not good at overwintering salad leaves and get very mixed results. The seeds for these were sown in August and the plants put under the cloche shown in the first picture. The Lettuce did really well.

Lettuce 'Bronze Arrowhead'

But the Chicory – they made no effort at all. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Chicory 'Grumolo Bionda'

I dug up the some of the remaining Beetroot  ‘Chioggia’  from last year. They did surprisingly well over the winter considering they had no protection and temperatures fell to -11C (12F).

Beetroot 'Chioggia'

I spread the compost around and sowed some seeds:

• Climbing Pea ‘Stenu’ which will climb up a cane and netting support.
• Dwarf Snap Pea ‘Zuccola’ with some small branches and twigs pushed into the soil for support.
• Beetroot ‘Chioggia’
• Radishes  ‘French Breakfat 3′ and a trial yellow radish from Marshalls Seeds (free with an order)
• Parsley ‘Lisette’
• Leaf Beet ‘Bright Lights’

I felt quite pleased with myself when I had finished.

Small allotment after seed sowing (1)

Small allotment after seed sowing (2)

The cold winter seems to have improved the Rhubarb which is growing very strongly. I think the winter hibernation has done it some good.

Rhubarb

In an effort to make the post a tad more interesting I thought I’d feature a faithful pet amongst the vegetables.  That didn’t go so well. She ran back into the garden and up the Eucalyptus tree. Now I have a colour combination infinitely more boring than brown and green.

Cozzie

The show is held in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace in London. Here are some pictures of stalls inside the Floral Marquees to give a flavour of what was available. There were also over a hundred stalls outside, displaying plants, garden furniture, sundries etc. Also outside were a number of show gardens.

There were many nurseries showing perennial plants. Here are three of them. I don’t know the name of the first one but the second is Foxgrove Plants then Hardy’s.

There was a stall from Fernatrix selling, you’ve guessed it, ferns. I’m beginning to get interested in these. There are so many textures and shapes.

There were five stalls with Carnivorous plants. Fascinating and so beautiful.

Then there were cacti and succulents of various shapes. These were shown by The Plant Lovers, Cacti & Succulents. They always show to advantage when grouped together. That’s when you realise how varied they can be, much better than the single cactus forgotten on the windowsill.

A touch of the exotic comes with the orchids. I love the spidery ones but can’t give them the humidity they need. This was Burnham Nursery’s display.

Bonsai. Some of these trees are extremely old and are works of art in my opinion. Years of care are lavished on these specimens.

Oaktree Nursery showed one of my favourite plants, the grasses. These look like shaggy hairstyles.

I smelled these lilies before I saw them. The fragrance was very rich and powerful. I prefer lilies singly, in pots or borders so this sort of display is too over the top for me but obviously unavoidable in a show context.

As I run out of space in the garden some alpine plants are becoming more and more attractive because of their small size. They are particularly good for pots and troughs like this one by Rotherview Nursery

There was this fine display of herbs with lots of thymes in the foreground from Jekka’s Herb Farm.

Finally the Horticultural Society Of Trinidad and Tobago produced this astounding display of tropical plants. I could have looked at them for hours.

As you can see there was lots to look at. Unfortunately all the plants on display aren’t always available for sale. Just as well really as I’d need a truck to get home. I’ll do a second post showing some show gardens.

As usual the basil is sitting there waiting for hot weather before it makes any growth. I’d put it in the greenhouse but I haven’t got room. I do wish it would hurry up. There are six pots of it, one of which still needs thinning out and the seedlings transplanted into more pots.

In the small allotment I’ve got a small herb garden of perennial herbs. I picked some sage ((salvia officinalis), winter savory (satureja montana) and a dwarf marjoram (origanum vulgara compacta) to dry. The growth on the sage was very lush so I took the leaves off the stems to reduce the bulk.

The herbs are dried in my airing cupboard on the slatted shelves above the hot water tank. I lay them out on a sheet of newspaper. When they’ve dried I rub the leaves off the stems. It’s a relaxing job and the smell of the herbs is very pungent and oddly relaxing. Here the savory is on the left and the marjoram on the right.

The final stage is putting the herbs in jars, or in this case bags and putting them away in a dark cupboard until needed. Now I just need the basil to get a move on so that I can make some basil pesto.

Eventually I got round to making Parsley Pesto. If you too are knee deep in parsley – flat or curly – you might want to try this. It makes a delicious sauce for pasta. The same recipe can also be used to make Basil Pesto (substituting basil for the parsley – but of course you already knew that!). I use jars that have already held pesto as I find they are just the right size.

PARSLEY PESTO
(fills 3 x 190g jars)

115g/4oz flat leaf parsley leaves (no stalks)
6 garlic cloves, crushed
115g/4oz pine nuts
115g/4oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
235ml/8fl oz good olive oil

Method
1. Put all the ingredients into a food processor. Whiz until blended. You are aiming for a roughish texture. I don’t add salt as the parmesan is salty enough.
2. Put into clean jars and cover surface of pesto with a thin layer of olive oil. This will help preserve it and stop oxidisation which affects the colour. Put on the lids
3. Keep refrigerated until needed.

I planted:

• Turnip Bianca Lodigiana
• Beetroot Chioggia
• Carrot Adelaide F1
• Spinach Monnopa
• Perpetual Spinach (Spinach Beet)

Everything in the allotments is doing well. There are cabbages ready to harvest (planted last year). I picked some Mirabeau radishes, evicting a large slug from the row as I did so – Yuk.

I grow shallots but must confess that I tend to use them as spring onions while they are young. I’ve never had much use for them – being more of a “take a large onion” sort of cook. I find them fiddly to deal with and having pickled them once I wasn’t inspired to do it again. As spring onions though they’re great.

I’ve also got lots of flat leaved parsley – so I’m scrabbling through the recipe books for recipes that start with “Take a bucketful of parsley and……” I’ve frozen it before but it seemed to lose all texture and taste. I think I might try a parsley pesto and put it in jars. That should get rid of a small bucketful at least.

Annual Herbs: Dill, Sweet Basil, Bush Basil, Summer Savory, Coriander (Cilantro) and Lemon Coriander

For the allotment:

• Runner Bean “White Lady” (rather late to sow these but I expect they will catch up)
• Lettuce “Bronze Arrowhead” (very reliable and stands well)
• Lettuce “Feuille De Chene” (HDRA Heritage variety. The name translates as “oak leaf”. Supposed to stand well and be unattractive to slugs – we shall see)
• Dwarf French Bean “Negritos” (HDRA Heritage variety. To be grown in a large pot as dwarf French beans always get eaten if I plant them in out the ground. Aren’t bean seeds interesting colours?)

For the garden:

• Ipomoea (Morning Glory) “President Tyler”, “Scarlet O’Hara” and some mixed saved seed from last year.
• Mina Lobata (a very attractive climber, see picture below from last year. Now renamed Ipomoea lobata but I’ve just learned the old name and I’m sticking with that)

The seed sowing took place in the garage. On the side of the garage is the blue tit nest box. Every time I stepped out of the garage I got between the tree the blue tit uses as a look out before flying into the box, and the box itself.

Blue tits look so edgy and nervous at the best of times. I didn’t want to frighten it into abandoning the nest so I kept freezing in mid-step so as not to put it off. I ended up as twitchy as the blue tit.

Bright idea! Perhaps I could get a picture of it entering the nest box. It’s zipping in and out like a yo-yo. Surely it can’t be that hard. All I have to do is stand still with a camera and wait. Yeah right.

I took a number of photos and the blue tit wasn’t in any of them, not even a blur. All I’ve got is the bird box – where did the birdy go?….is it faster than the speed of light. Drat!

All I got was aching arms from holding the camera.