Garden Visiting In February

I'm making a point of visiting a garden each month this year. Yesterday, we decided to head off to Roundhay Park in Leeds to take a look at The Specialist Gardens. We started off in the Gardens Of The World.

The first garden you come to is The Monet Garden.

The central pathway, or grand allee, running from Monet's garden gate to his house in Giverny has been recreated. The information board shows how it will look in summer, it was rather stark in February, though a few pansies have been planted in the borders to give, at least, some colour.

The Alhambra Garden is a reproduction of the Patio Acequia, part of the Palace of the Alhambra, the summer residence of the Moorish rulers of Spain.

You can see warning cones have been placed half way down the channel. This is because a couple of the trees are leaning precariously, victims of the recent storms, no doubt.

Leeds City Council have been exhibiting at The Chelsea Flower Show for a number of years. The 2008 Chelsea Garden won a silver gilt flora award.

Entitled The Largest Room In The House, it was based on the garden at Talbot House in Poperinghe near Ypres in Belgium. Talbot House offered rest and recuperation away from the horrors at the front to soldiers between 1915 and 1918.

The Hesco Garden 2009 highlighted some of the issues surrounding climate change, and also won a silver gilt flora award.

Different techniques were used to illustrate how we can manage the issue of flooding, something we should be addressing at the moment, given the weather we've encountered this winter.

The Hesco Garden 2010 was Leeds City Council's first gold medal winning garden.

This garden shows a snapshot of the green spaces in Leeds with woodland, wetland and floral meadow. The focal point is a pair of seeping lock gates, typically found on the iconic Leeds-Liverpool canal.

Seen from a different angle, this shows where the planting will come in to play once summer arrives.

The latest garden to be installed at Roundhay Park is The Hesco Garden 2011. This also won a gold medal at Chelsea.

The centrepiece of this garden is the traditional mill as seen in Yorkshire during the industrial revolution, complete with a working water wheel which pumps water around the garden.

The garden contains rockwork, trees and water-loving ferns and plants.

I did a post about the Gardens Of The World on my Through The Keyhole blog back in 2011. The Roundhay Park post shows the gardens as they look in May, very different from how they look in February.

We popped across the road to take a look at the Canal Gardens.

You can see it was a beautiful day. The temperature had soared in to double figures and lots of people had the same idea as us. The gardens had plenty of visitors.

The problem with herbaceous borders is that there isn't much to see in winter. There were pleny of signs in the borders though, which makes me think they'll be stunning come summer.

These low box hedges surrounded roses. I bet they look fabulous when they're flowering. Lots of children, and adults, seemed to think it was a maze, even though gates had been put up to block any entrances. Parents were lifting children over the hedges for them to run around, and even stepped over them themselves. I hope they haven't damaged the roses. Why can't people enjoy things for what they are?

It was a very enjoyable day out, I can thoroughly recommend a visit if you're in the area.

After visiting the gardens, we took Archie for a run in Roundhay Park. Pop over to my Through The Keyhole blog to see the remaining photos I took of the day on A Sunny Day post.

Don't forget, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Tuesday the 25th of February 2014 to do so. Just leave a comment on my Rosehips On A Kitchen Table post.

Rosehips On A Kitchen Table

The latest book I've been asked to review is Rosehips on a Kitchen Table by Carolyn Caldicott. This book has recently been published by Frances Lincoln (www.franceslincoln.com , @Frances_Lincoln).

Subtitled Seasonal Recipes For Foragers & Foodies, the book looks at ways to turn foraged and unusual ingredients as well as gluts into delicious meals and desserts, as well as jams, jellies, chutneys, pickles, pesto and cordials.

The book is divided in to different sections:- Rich Pickings, Gleaning, Grow Your Own, Gluts and What On Earth Can I Do With This? I particularly like the fact that not only does the book cater for the forager, but also for people who grow their own.

Each ingredient is introduced with information about it and tips on how to use, cook and eat it.

This is followed by several recipes where the featured ingredient is the star of the show.

I was pleased to find wild garlic featured in the Gleaning section. This grows in abundance in my local wood, though I've never used it before. The recipe for Wild Garlic Dauphinoise may just tempt me to give it a try, it looks delicious.

The Grow Your Own section covers such things as rhubarb, sorrel, chard and chillies, amongst others. The Chilli and Cider Mussels recipe may just encourage me to grow chillies again, I have a penchant for mussels.

Gluts covers such things as strawberries, runner beans and the thing we all must have been overrun with at one time or another, courgettes. It's good to have some new recipes to have a go at when the gluts return.

The What on Earth do I do with This? chapter is a very good idea. Vegetables such as beetroot and brussels sprouts are featured as well as fruit such as gooseberries and quince. Some of these things get a bad press, but it's probably because we just don't know any enticing recipes to use them in. Take brussels sprouts, boiling or steaming is as far as I go with them, but Creamy Brussels Puree With Walnuts, or Brussels Stir-Fry With Ginger, Cumin and Chilli sounds much more appetising.

All in all, this is a very nice little book which looks at over twenty ingredients and contains over fifty recipes. I wouldn't try all the recipes covered but I'd certainly have a go at some of them.

The publishers are offering a copy of this book as a giveaway prize, so if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning it, just leave a comment on this post before twelve noon on Tuesday the 25th of February 2014, after which, a name will be drawn at random. Please note that this giveaway is open to UK/EU only and that I will be passing on the winner's name and address details to the publishing company in order for them to send out your prize.

To order Rosehips on a Kitchen Table at the discounted price of £7.99 including p&p* (RRP: £9.99), telephone 01903 828503 or email mailorders@lbsltd.co.uk and quote the offer code APG97. 

Alternatively, send a cheque made payable to: 

LBS Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex, BN13 3RB. 

Please quote the offer code APG97 and include your name and address details. 

*UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

Sorted

We had a snow flurry last night. Luckily, it didn't settle, the rain washed it away as quickly as it had arrived. The dull, rainy weather we've been experiencing hasn't tempted me to go to the plot over the last couple of weeks, so instead, I've been sorting out my seeds.

I've got so many seeds there's no way I'll ever get round to sowing them all, so I sort through them, see which I want to grow this year and then I stack them in to sections in my seed box according to the month they need to be sown. This way, I don't forget to sow anything. Any seeds I want to sow more than one batch of, such as lettuce or spring onions, can be put back in to a different monthly section after sowing, so it helps with successional sowing too.

I didn't realise quite how many packets of peas and beans I've got. Actually it's mainly beans, some dwarf French, some climbing, some runner, some green and some purple. Oh, broad beans too, though I'm not growing them this year. Some of the packets are already opened, some aren't, so I've decided that I'm going to grow a variety of beans this year, mainly just to use up all the opened packets. It will add a bit of variety too.

I've sorted some flowers out too. I can sow my sweet peas any time now, but I'm in no rush so I'll probably leave it until the end of the month. Every year I say that I want to grow some biennials, such as Sweet Williams and Stocks, but I still haven't got round to it yet. I've popped them in my seed box, yet again, in the hope that this will be the year that I do.

Once I've sorted out my seed box, there's always one or two other things that get popped in there later. I'd already made up my mind to grow parsnip Tender and True this year, but I received a free packet of  White Gem with Kitchen Garden magazine, and as parsnip seed needs to be fresh when sown, they won't keep for next year. They've been popped in the box and I'll sow two varieties instead of one. At least I'll be able to compare the two.

Most of the seeds need to be sown over the next three months, with the majority around the end of March/April time. It's going to be a busy few months.

Lagging Behind

The bulbs which I planted in containers in autumn are getting ready to flower. This is crocus Advance. It's lilac on the outside and yellow on the inside so it should make for a pretty display. We just need a bit of sunshine to bring it on, but that seems to have disappeared after the bright start to the week, it's back to dull days and lots of rain again.

As you can see, just about all the crocuses are at the same stage.

That is except this one which is lagging a long way behind. I wonder why it hasn't grown at the same rate as the rest of them.

This is iris reticulata Gordon. These are such cute little flowers so I'm looking forward to them blooming. I haven't grown Gordon before, I think he's a darker colour than the popular Katharine Hodgkin, I shall soon see.

The narcissus Tete a Tete don't look as though they're ready to flower quite yet.

I'm a little worried about my daffodils Professor Einstein which have only just started to poke one or two noses above the soil. I've got daffodils in the garden which are growing at quite a pace so I'm wondering if the container grown daffodils are going to grow at all. Time will tell.

The Full Set

I visited a local garden centre and nursery at the weekend and bought my onion and shallot sets ready for the approaching growing season.

I've tried growing onions from seed for the past couple of years, but they certainly haven't done any better than growing them from sets, worse if anything, so I'm giving that a miss this year.

The onion sets I've gone for are Turbo and Red Baron. I grew Turbo in 2011 and I was really pleased with them so I hope they do as well for me again this year. I haven't had any luck at all previously with red onions. I don't treat them any differently to other onions I grow, yet they just never seem to get going at all, so in true gardener spirit, I'm giving them yet another try.

I'm trying two kinds of shallots, one which was named as Yellow Shallot (on the left) and the other, Red Sun (on the right). As you can see, this has a reddish tinge to the skin.

I'm not going to do anything with them yet, but when the time comes, I shall plant them in to modules to get them going before planting them out.

Rabbit Ramblings

I sometimes mention our rabbits on the blog and I get quite a few requests to tell more about them. I have done posts about them before, Introducing Sammy and Coming...Ready Or Not.

We hadn't intended to get rabbits, we'd had hamsters and guinea pigs for a few years but found ourselves with only fish as pets after they'd all died. Back in 2008, on a visit to a local pet shop for fish supplies, we saw the cutest little baby Rex rabbits. There were about four little brown ones and the softest, cuddliest little grey one, all brothers. I'd just come back from a weekend trip to London with work and feeling guilty at having left Daniel and Eleanor at home with Mick, my defenses were down. It didn't take much of Eleanor's nagging for me to crumble and allow her to choose one of the litter to come home with us. Her choice was the little grey rabbit which she named Sammy.

It was the following day that Daniel decided that he'd quite like a rabbit too, so back to the pet shop we went and one of the little brown bunnies came to join Sammy. Daniel named his rabbit Monty.

Originally, we'd hoped that they'd live in a hutch together, and they did whilst they were babies. We had them neutered thinking it would calm them down and that they'd live in harmony, but it just didn't work, they really didn't get on together so they now live in separate hutches and have separate play time.

Sammy is the softest of the two, he likes to be held and cuddled and doesn't hop too far away from his hutch when it's play time, but Monty is the most nosey, inquisitive rabbit you're ever likely to meet. He's such a character and makes me laugh how he gets his nose in to everything.

When I eventually stopped working, we got the dog which Eleanor was still nagging for. Archie goes to see the rabbits when they're in their hutches or their runs and they sniff each other through the bars, the rabbits don't seem to be nervous of him at all. I always keep him indoors when they're having a run around though, you just never know.

My very favourite photo of Monty is this one which I used on my Coming...Ready Or Not post back in 2009. I think he looks so cute.

Last year, when I was choosing my seeds in The Garden Centre Group sale, I came across this seed mixture for rabbits. On the back it says A mixture of seeds for sowing as living pet food which has been specially formulated to supplement the diet and suit the natural and nutritional needs of rabbits. The seeds can be sown in containers or in the ground and the rabbit can eat the plants directly or they can be harvested, washed and dried before being given to eat. I thought I might sow a couple of small trays and then once they've grown, they can be given to Sammy and Monty as a treat.

Sammy and Monty are six now. There's no way of knowing really how long they'll be with us. Some information I've read states that the average age of rabbits is between six and eight, other information states eight to ten, yet I've heard of rabbits living for twelve years and beyond. The vet always says they're in very good health when they go for their annual vaccinations and health check so I can't see any reason why we shouldn't have them for another six years.

Fruity

I've mentioned before that there's quite a bit of soft fruit on the new plot we've taken on. It's something we haven't grown much of before so I'm going to have to learn how to look after everything properly.

There's lots of raspberry canes. Thankfully, the label has been left on one variety.

I know that Glen Ample is a summer fruiting raspberry so it will bear fruit on last year's growth. How I know which is last year's growth though is another matter.

There's no sign on these raspberries so I don't know if they're summer fruiting or autumn fruiting. Each are treated differently when it comes to pruning.

I do know that there were some berries left on them when we took on the allotment in October, so perhaps that would indicate that they're autumn fruiting. The berries were yellow, something a bit different from the usual red.

There's a blackberry. This also has the label left on it but it doesn't give its name.

This is a gooseberry bush, lots of mean looking thorns. I've also got a red thornless gooseberry which has yet to be planted at the plot.

There's about six currant bushes along this hedge, I don't know if you can see them properly in this photo.

I don't know whether they're black, white or red currants. I wonder if there's a way to find out before the fruit is produced. I've got a black currant bush at home which is destined for the plot.

I don't know what this bush is but it's very big. Time will tell.

Here's the strawberry patch. I'll wait and see how productive it is this year before making a decision on whether it stays or goes. Strawberry plants only last about three years before the yield is reduced.

There looks to be plenty of rhubarb. It's just starting to grow again now.

I don't know what variety it is but I've got a Stockbridge Arrow crown at home which is waiting to be planted out at the allotment.

I think we've been extremely fortunate to be offered a plot with so much fruit on it. It all looks to have been looked after so well too, all the canes are tied in to supports. I've also got a tayberry to plant, I think it's going to be a very fruity year.

Veg Journal Giveaway Winner

The giveaway for Charles Dowding's Veg Journal ended at noon today and I'm pleased to announce that the name drawn at random from the hat is Linda Penney from Linda's Wildlife Garden. Congratulations, Linda. Can you please let me have your name and address details so that I can pass these on to the publishing company so they can send out your prize.

It was very interesting to read all the comments I got on my last post about composting. It seems that we all compost different things and some of us are more cautious than others about what we put in our bins. As you can see from the Index, Charles Dowding covers composting in a lot of detail in his veg journal so I will be reading up on it, but I know I need to start including things which I don't already in my compost otherwise I'll be making numerous trips to the tip.

He also covers composting in nearly all of the monthly Jobs For The Month sections, advising how to use the compost, where to spead it and which plants will benefit from it.

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway. Don't forget that if you fancy buying a copy of this book, the publishing company are offering it at the discounted price of £12.00 including p&p. Please look at my Charles Dowding's Veg Journal post for details.

Congratulations once again to Linda who has won the giveaway.

The Heart Of The Allotment

We didn't get to the allotment this weekend, but Mick spent lots of time there the weekend before, clearing out the compost bins. The heart of any allotment is good compost so this was a job we wanted to get done as soon as possible.

We've inherited two bins with our new plot, both made out of pallets and quite roomy. Unfortunately, one of them was filled with lots of rubbish, so we wanted to get it all sorted out before the new growing season starts. Mick filled lots of rubbish bags and made numerous trips to the tip. Our local tip has closed down so we've got a fair old trek to dump anything now, but at least all the rubbish has now been cleared.

The second bin was filled to the brim with good quality compost, so that's now been half emptied and the contents spread on one of the beds. The remaining compost will be used in due course and then we'll be able to perform some maintenance on the bins themselves.

I'm always very cautious when it comes to putting anything in the compost bin, over cautious actually. I don't like to put weeds in there in case there's seeds and they end up spreading all over the plot and I don't like to compost potato or tomato foliage in case there's any blight spores. I wonder if anyone else is as cautious as I am. I think I'm going to have to throw caution to the wind though and start composting at least some of these things, I don't want to have to be making lots of unnecessary trips to the tip.

Whilst Mick was clearing out the compost bins, he also had a bit of a clear out in the shed. The previous owners have left lots of things in there, some useful, some not so useful, so that's also had a bit of a tidy up.

Eleanor has decided that she's going to give the shed a lick of paint when the warmer weather arrives. She hasn't had any interest in the allotment at all for the last few years, but I think a bit of painting appeals to her artistic side. I hope she keeps her promise.

Don't forget, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Friday the 24th of January 2014 to do so. Just leave a comment on my Charles Dowding's Veg Journal post.