Posts from ‘January, 2009’

Green Lane Allotments Diary
Weekend 27 January

 
On the plot
 

Paid a brief visit to the plot to gather vegetables for the week. Harvested leeks, cabbage, carrots and parsnips.

Image copyright Fennel and Fern
Grow Campsis x tagliabuana if you have one of those sought-after south-facing, sunny, sheltered walls. It romps happily over walls and fences to height of 30ft if left unchecked and will produce clusters of fiery orange trumpets in a warm summer. Just make sure you’re not too fond of your brickwork: [...]

Image copyright Fennel and Fern
Bindweed is an evil plant. Its white roots snake through the soil, can reproduce from a very small section of root, and are extremely resilient. But if you have ever felt a twinge of regret as you pull down those beautiful white trumpet-like flowers, its annual cousin, Ipomoea tricolor, is here [...]

Ever been stuck for recipe inspiration during a glut of vegetables?
Now, thanks to monthly blogs from the team at Vegalicious, the step from potager to plate never felt so easy, or fun.

 
Chris, who runs the blog with her husband Harald, gives us a taste of her work.
Vegalicious is a website created by my husband [...]

Vegalicious January 2009:
Pasta with Kale, white beans and almonds
 
 
Kale, also known as Borecole (Dutch: Boerenkool), is a typical winter vegetable here in the Netherlands and Germany. Traditionally it is used in a dish called stamppot.
But there is much more you can do with kale and this is one of our favorite recipes. When we cooked [...]

::cress heads:: originally uploaded by Stripy Sock Studio
Shame on any gardener who chucks their eggshells in the bin. They are even more useful once you have eaten their contents. Leave them in your compost heap and they will help counteract excess acidity. Use them to start seeds in, as Helen has done (make sure you [...]

Green Lane Allotments Diary
Weekend 13 January

New Routes: January 2009
by Jill Coleman
 
 
New Routes has had a slow start to the New Year. Although we were on site all the way up until Christmas Eve, we shut down for a week and the end of December and were due to return in the first week of January. However, along came that cold [...]

If you’ve got a packet of parnsip seeds languishing in your drawer from several years ago, think twice before sowing. Some seeds (parsnips in particular) need sowing fresh.
And just so you don’t make any mistakes, here is the Fennel and Fern guide to seed shelf-life.

Image copyright Fennel and Fern
This white hyacinth has been poised on the brink of bursting open all week. The white stars are beginning to tentatively open and shout their scent all over the room.
Previous experience with hyacinths inelegantly falling over like a model on a catwalk has taught me a number of things. The first [...]

This morning was beautiful. After weeks of hiding under my duvet on Saturdays, trying to think of reasons to lie in all morning, the spring-like sunshine and cheerful breeze pushed me out of my door and into the garden.

Green Lane Allotments Diary
Weekend 6 January

These glorious leeks, with a lovely long white shaft, were snapped at the superb Ockley farm shop in Surrey. If you’re planning for an early harvest of leeks in August or September of this year, you’ll need to sow seeds in February, so get ordering!
Sow indoors in a warm room (on window sill and just [...]

Green Lane Allotments
 
 
 
In the first of her regular guest blogs from Green Lane Allotments, Susan Garrett introduces her plot and gets us excited about allotment gardening.

Garden Raspberries, originally uploaded by Alison
Now’s the time to get your hands on some bare-rooted raspberries for planting as soon as possible. The plants are dormant at this time of year, and so won’t be harmed by the planting, but tuck them in under a blanket of thoroughly rotted garden compost.
Fennel and Fern recommends ‘Malling [...]