Posts from ‘July, 2009’

One of our Kale ‘Nero di toscana’ plants is enormous. So enormous, in fact, that it is growing across the tiny path running through our vegetable patch, and I have had to harvest a number of the strap-like, green-black leaves. This is obviously a terrible hardship.

It’s that time of year again. When your fruit bushes are so overflowing with produce you scarcely know what to do. And when your kitchen worktops are covered in gleaming jars, ready to be filled with damsons and gooseberries. It’s jam-making time.

Not everything in the garden is happy with this rain. I’m sure we have had more than our fair share of Smith Periods (the humid conditions which bring dreaded tomato and potato blight), and the aubergine was looking so grumpy I brought it inside. But under the raspberry canes, a frog has set up camp, [...]

When I’m not digging, I love baking. Just love it. I don’t think there is a more lovely way of showing a visitor how pleased you are to see them than by baking a nice big cake. And when special visitors come, I bake them a nice big Kitsch Cake.
The most important thing about the [...]

Green Lane Allotments
17 July

This week has been a real disappointment for July. Visits to the plot have more or less been to harvest in between showers. Heavy rain has pounded the soil, and once the sun has dried the clay surface, it can crack and become hard and lumpy.
However, the crops are growing well and [...]

These Bristol onions, Allium sphaerocephalon, have been threatening to flower for weeks. When they unwrap themselves, the flower buds are still resolutely green. And they remain so for a while until slowly a gentle blush appears at the tip. For a few weeks more the flower looks more like a make-up brush until eventually the [...]

Guest blogger Ali bagged her allotment two years ago. She shares her tips for novice allotmenteers here.

Don’t despair
Once you have acquired your coveted plot, don’t despair if it is a jungle of weeds of every shape and form. My current plot was thick with brambles, bindweed, six trees, and lots of rubbish including an old [...]

I’m so glad I grew cornflowers this year. Especially the ‘Black Ball’ cornflowers, which are port-dark and ever-so chic. I’ve grown them in thick drifts in different parts of the border, which increases their visual impact. They are such perfect plants for filling awkward spaces in borders, or seeding over the dying foliage of spring [...]

When we started househunting last April, I never imagined we were going to have a garden. I envisaged growing a few lettuces in a window box, and maybe even some herbs on the kitchen windowsill. So when we found a house with a large fire escape and small balcony, I was thrilled that I would [...]

How can you resist a plant whose flowers are the colour of a crushed strawberry? I bought two Digitalis x mertonensis plants this year, and I’m hooked. They have softer gloves, and they are such a lovely vintage colour. The petals have a faint checkerboard pattern on the outside.

One of the things I really adore about Buddleia x weyeriana is that the globose blooms look like scoops of thick, rich cornish ice cream. You can’t actually eat these flowers, but they really are irresistible, especially for bees.

Squash flowers are truly beautiful. If I didn’t enjoy eating pumpkins and courgettes so much, I’d probably just grow these plants for their huge cheese-coloured flowers. This is a female flower on my ‘Delica’ pumpkin. How do I know it is a female flower? Because it has a little tummy.

This is not your usual green plastic gardening chair. If you are used to stackable chairs which look like this, then our latest pick of stylish garden furniture will make you sit up.

One of the nice things about Hampton Court is that it is altogether a more practical flower show than some of its relatives. That’s not to say there is anything wrong with inspirational, high-end design, but every once in a while it is nice to step into a show garden and find that it really [...]

I have overcome my lifelong fear of marigolds, and grown these beautiful Tagetes patula ‘Durango Red’ in my vegetable beds. When I was growing up, marigolds were the beasts of municipal planting, and they looked terribly miserable. I’m still not at all fond of bright orange and yellow cultivars, but these deep scarlet and gold-edged [...]