Garden soup..

Weather: Mild and dull - nearly 12C while I was working in the garden today.

There is one weekend in the year that I look forward to. It is the start of the gardening year for me and it is often this last one in February. So....I was out digging today and sorting out in my head where I'll place all the vegetables in the plot this year.

This also means clearing the last of many of last year's crops so the ingredients for the lunchtime soup this year were:



4 Red Giant carrots (not exactly giants).
3 small potatoes - thrown up during the digging process
3 straggly leeks
A small handful of purple sprouting
A few spinach leaves
A small Mizuna plant
A small Japanese greens plant...
1 Bay leaf
1 of last year's chilies.
3oz pancetta (not home grown!)
Small knob of butter
Stock - including tomatoes from last night's dinner
1tbps Creme Fraiche

Method:

Chop the potatoes,carrots and leeks and gently heat with with the pancetta and butter. Add the chili chopped (without its seeds as I grew a very hot variety last year). Add a little water and the bay leaf and simmer until tender. Then chop the spinach and add to the mixture and last night's stock. Finally add the purple sprouting and chopped Mizuna and japanese greens and simmer for another minute or two until the purple sprouting is just tender. Stir in the creme fraiche and heat through. Serve immediately.

There is nothing more satisfying than a meal that is nearly all gleaned from the garden in February.

Big attack of smugness! And it was delicious, though I say it as shouldn't...

Blowin' in the wind...

Weather: Mild and breezy. No frost last night. Daytime temperature by 11.00am 10C

After a week or so of sunny frosty weather we're back to dull, mild and windy days. At first I thought my photo of my Hellebores was less than sharp but the slight ghosting you see is as they are tossed in the breeze! They are flowering beautifully at the moment. The plant has been there for the last five years or so on an east facing wall that doesn't get much sun. Why is it that these early spring flowers - like snowdrops - are best viewed lying on the ground because the flowers dangle downwards? If only I had a shady bank at eye level - now that would be a place to plant Hellebores!

Last year I responded to a 'free offer' for three Hellebore plants. They were more at the 'plantlet' stage and I mistreated them somewhat by planting them out in about April and then changing my mind a few months later as to where they should go. So I moved them. They have no more than three leaves each and no sign of flowers - but.....I'm going to move them again this weekend. They are going to the bed I cleared of the huge Choisya a month back, under my crab apple tree. I promise I will take better care of them this year and next year this time....I might even have persuaded them to flower.

That's the way to do it!

Weather: frost overnight to -3C. Brilliant sunshine from first light with promise of 14C but the frost in the shade (nearly all my garden) is still apparent at midday.



I've just been recording a Podcast at a most beautiful stately home. Compton Verney is in Warwickshire between Banbury and Stratford and houses a wonderful art gallery owned by the Peter Moores Foundation. My podcast is to encourage more visitors to walk in the grounds which were designed by the great Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the late 18th century.


As you can see from my photo I had pretty good weather for my visit! The podcast should be published on the Shakespeare Country website by the middle of March in time for their first exhibition of the year.


What a lovely place. It is closed throughout the winter so when I recorded this epsiode of the Talking the Walk podcast I had the grounds to myself and the privilege of being shown round, and recording my walk, with the head groundsman, John Schumann, who is nearing retirement and had taken over the role from his father. We were joined by archictectural and garden historian John Phibbs and between them they provided a fascinating insight into the place as it is now and as it would have been in its stately heyday.


On a completely different tack - I have consulted my In Tune with the Moon calendar (see my previous post) and see that it is a good day for sowing 'leaf' plants as it is a 'leaf' day and a waxing moon. So there's a good excuse to get away from editing the Compton Verney Talking the Walk to nip down to the greenhouse for a spot of seed sowing in the sun!

It's nice to be a lunatic...

Weather: After a mild, wet and windy week today is almost spring-like. 7C by breakfast time




The title refers to the immortal lines of Ian Dury! But rhythm sticks aside I have invested in a lunar gardening calendar...is it all twoddle or is there something in it? I see I have to take three things into account. Whether the moon is waxing or waning, ascending or descending, and whether it is a root, an air, a leaf or a fruit day (based on the moon's relationship to the constellations). After my disaster in the vegetable garden last year - have I mentioned that before? - I think it's worth a try.

So - the first thing I did was in lunar calendar terms a disaster. I sowed my lettuce and aubergine seeds on a 'root day' with a descending waning moon. January 27th would have been a great day to have sown root vegetables (albeit rather early). It would have been great to fertilize the soil (for better absorbtion on a waning moon). But for sowing lettuces and aubergines it wasn't auspicious.

I sowed two lots of lettuce - one for my windowsill and one in the greenhouse. The windowsill ones are about an inch tall (I think you'd call them leggy!) This photo is of the greenhouse tray in the propagater. Leggy too, I'm afraid, but probably more down to low light levels than germination I'd say. The Aubergines have yet to show but that isn't unexpected.

If I go by the calendar then I should sow aubergines on a fruit day with a waxing moon...a quick look at the chart and I see I missed one of those yesterday - the 12th of Feb . As for the lettuces the next waxing leaf days is... the 10th. If I get time on either of those days I'll sow some more and compare!