Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

I managed to get a few hours in the garden on Sunday, on a cold and frosty morning as they say, undertaking the usual winter tidy jobs and, as it happens, it was just in time.  Having cleared the greenhouse the non-hardy plants in pots such as the numerous Agapanthus and the French Lavender are all now tucked up in the relative warmth under the glass. An hour or so was spent raking leaves from around the garden, all added to the leaf mould bin, and a general tidy of the veg beds and flower beds was done. The entire garden was covered in frost and looked quite beautiful so wrapped-up nice warm in several layers it was actually quite an enjoyable few hours and in the crisp clean winter air certainly it certainly cleared the hangover from the football the night before. Within a couple of hours of me finishing the snow arrived, see below, and boy did it arrive with around four-inches falling in total overnight.  A few of the plants have probably suffered, the Salvia Hot Lips for example lo

I mentioned in my post of late October that I would be  planting my  Narcissi Paperwhite bulbs in the hope they would be in bloom indoors for Christmas.   A delicate Narcissi they actually don't do very well outdoors in the UK, it is native to the Mediterranean, but will grow happily in a pot indoors and, in theory, if sowed that last weekend of October should be in flower for Christmas - flowers 8-10 weeks after planting. The first flower bloomed 30th November, just four-and-a-half weeks after I popped them in the pot! All being well there are plenty more of the delicate little flowers to come, and I am tole they last some time, so fingers crossed they can still form part of the centrepiece  for the Christmas table.  Confession time, I am behind where I wanted to be clearing the plot and generally tidying up for winter. Late October and November have been wet to say the least, and it has been difficult to find the time to get all the jobs done in such rubbish conditions. I don'

I am writing this article on an unseasonably warm Saturday morning in October, the thermometer tells me it is twenty Celsius. The garden is still looking surprisingly fine considering the clocks go back this weekend and next week we are into November. The Salvia Hot Lips remain covered in bloom, Marigolds are still in flower in their pots, I have tomatoes ripening outdoors (hopefully anyway) and one of the Agapanthus still has a bloom on it!  I will be pruning the Climbing Rose this afternoon and as it is now pretty established it is a simple case of training the stems I want to keep horizontally to encourage flowering and cutting back where it has outgrown its support. As for new stem for next season which will carry the flowers, w hen pruning climbers, cut just above a bud that points in the direction that you want a new stem and let the rose do what it does.  I have already taken a few cuttings from my Zonal Geraniums,  P elargoniums to give them their correct name as I understand i

I will admit it, I have become a little obsessed with my Pink Brandywine beefsteak tomatoes; there I have said it!   I have mentioned them more than once on this site but they really have impressed me this being the first time I have grown them; and it should be remembered they were a replacement sowing sown late to replace the failed  Limoncito  and  Black Cherry  seedlings that wilted and died on me in the first week of May. When you consider they were sown weeks after I would normally sow tomatoes and grown outdoors on the Veg Patch rather than in the Greenhouse the results have been amazing.  This particular American heirloom variety, apparently dates back to 1900, will be grown again by me in 2023 provided I can get the seeds. The marketing blurb suggests t his type of tomato plant is not a big producer but I have several fruit on each plant (see below). Another bonus for me is it will give you fruits long after many other types have stopped producing, I will certainly be getting

I have pulled a number of the  Carrot Eskimo  this week and will be blanching and freezing a couple of batches at least as I have far more than required for now. Most are  lovely long thick straight  roots but there are naturally a few slightly wonky ones, one that is three for the price of one and naturally one with a willy, there is always one  with a willy for the annual rude carrot picture on social media see below.  Carrot Eskimo were new to me this year and they have grown and cropped well, and I am happy to report those that I have eaten so far have been very tasty. There are a number of ways you can store Carrots, the most basic being keeping in the ground until needed; as the name suggests this particular  variety apparently resists splitting and retains its flavour throughout the autumn and winter if left in the ground according to the marketing blurb - I will be testing that by leaving a few where they are.  Blan ching and Freezing Carrots  Prepare the carrots by washing the

With such a glut of Tomatoes coming from the Greenhouse at the moment and the  Buffalo Steak  variety fruits averaging just shy of a pound in weight each, the biggest so far just over the pound at 530 grams, I have decided it's that time of year again to start making Tomato Ketchup.  I really do need to do something as the outdoor plants haven't begun ripening yet but the  Yellow Pear  plants are ladened with little pear-shaped fruits and the two American Heritage variety Pink  Brandywine   plants both have a number of fruits on as well, see pictures below. It's a nice problem to have! My recipe for Tomato Ketchup is pretty standard but if you are interested it can be found below; Jamie Oliver I aint:  3.5kg tomatoes roughly chopped 1 onion roughly sliced and diced 1 head of garlic peeled and chopped/crushed  110g salt 1kg light brown soft sugar 600ml red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 4/5 whole cloves Few turns of black pepper Little oil (of your choice) fo

I am currently enjoying a bit of a glut on the Tomato front, no bad thing, and find myself experimenting with a number of recipes; that said an oven baked Beefsteak Tomato is still one of my favourite guilty pleasures. The   Buffalo Steak Tomatoes  from the Greenhouse have been a roaring success, baked, fried, in a salad, on a burger or in a sandwich I have used them in multiple ways for breakfast, lunch and dinner recently and these will definitely be grown again in the future - absolutely brilliant. The  Gigantomo  variety are also cropping strongly with a number of large fruits on the plants I have allowed them to grow on. I have a couple of very large fruits on one plant I deliberately left only a few tomatoes on but no world record breaker.  The Tomato varieties I am growing outside on the veg patch following the disaster that was the Limoncito and Black Cherry seedlings failing on me are now of course the  Yellow Pear  and  Pink  Brandywine   and these are going well I am happy t