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5 Perennial Plants for late colour in the garden – Part 1
I’m really pleased this year with the amount of late colour my perennial plants are still giving. I remember distinctly in the first garden I created, getting to August with just one plant still in flower and thinking, “where’s all the colour gone”? I set about learning which plants gave late summer colour and started incorporated them into my borders. When we arrived here and started to create a wildlife friendly garden from scratch, I was determined to have flowers for as much of the year as possible. This wasn’t just for my benefit but for the insects needing fuel, especially later in the year before going into winter. I’m…
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Tomato Bonanza
It’s turning out to be one of those, tomato bonanza years. I think it’s because we had the really hot sun early on which stimulated their growth and ripened fruits early, but then the cooler temperatures slowed them down. Whatever the reason though I’m not complaining, as I now have many portions of delicious tomato sauce in my freezer. Most of you know by now that the first food crop I ever grew were tomatoes and I’ve grown them every year since. If I only had space to grow one crop, tomatoes would be it. The flavour of a homegrown tomato is simply unbeatable, especially if you pick the right…
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Naga Chilli Relish – Best made outside!
After the garden apprentice discovering his favourite curry of all time, is made with Naga chillies. Guess what I’m now growing? Yes, Naga’s. Growing Naga Chillies I bought the seeds mid-season last year and had a bit of trouble with germination. I ordered two varieties, ‘Yellow Blaze’ which as the name suggests are yellow and a classic red ’Norfolk Naga’. I didn’t get any Norfolk Nagas to germinate at all and only managed one yellow blaze. It was slow to grow as chillies are but it got to reasonable size and I managed to keep it going through the winter. In the new year I ordered more seeds of the…
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Cosmos – Lost and Found
I say lost and found, as when I first started gardening a long time ago… I always grew cosmos, but then I discovered perennials and gave up growing annuals for years. Last year though I rediscovered what wonderful plants annuals are and particularly. 2021 – Cosmos came back to the garden It came about as I created a small wildflower border last year, I bought a few packets of annual seeds including cosmos. Coincidentally a friend had also grown cosmos last year and gave me some of her seedlings – it was meant to be! Gosh I really had forgotten how lovely they are; how big they grow; how prolifically…
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Produce coming out of my ears!
It really is hard work trying to keep up with all the harvesting at this time of year, I feel like I have produce coming out of my ears! So as not to waste any I am cooking at least as much as gardening – which doesn’t always make me happy if the sun is shining outside. The freezers (yes two) are filling up fast! Luckily we had an old one of my mum a couple of years ago and honestly I don’t know how we ever managed without it! It’s true though that you don’t miss what you haven’t had, but once you’ve had it you would really miss…
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Fragrant Summer Bean Curry
We are big curry fans in our house, so at this time of year there is a lot of bean curry being made. The heat of the curry is where we differ, but this is easily remedied by adding homemade, hot haberero chilli sauce to the individual serving. Lots of curry is made all year around – always from scratch – in large portions to freeze. This makes for super easy week-night meals. It’s also a great way to use the produce from the garden, as most things can go into a curry. July is the beginning of the main harvest time in the veg garden, but now as we…
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My Wildlife Pond – Dragonflies, Frogs & so much more!
I know I bang on a lot about the pond but… It really is so hard though, to describe quite how much pleasure the pond gives me. And it’s one of the few things that makes me stop! I’m always thinking that I’ll take a coffee outside and have a sit down. No sooner have I finished my drink, or sometimes before, than I see something that needs doing, which of course leads on to something else that needs doing, resulting in little or no sit down. But when I crouch by the pond it’s hard to drag myself away, watching all the creatures living in there. Even the builders…
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Dierama Plants – Fussy, but worth the trouble!
Dierama plants are fussy, but once they are happy in your garden, they will reward you with multiple, unusual flowers, that dangle delicately on a tall, impossibly thin arching stem 5ft in the air. Then you will understand their common names of ‘Angels fishing rods’ and ‘Dancing Ladies’. When the wind catches their flowers, they literally do dance around. Dieramas are classed as a perennial plant but their leaves are evergreen. They’re thin and resemble a type of grass, with tufts around 2ft or 60cm high. They originate from mountainous grasslands in South Africa. So they are looking for a sunny, south facing position with well drained soil. Anything less than these…
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The First Week of July
Well, to say that it’s been a busy week is the understatement of the century. Hasten to add that there hasn’t been much chance to write about the garden. The building work on the house is in full swing and as is so often the case it hasn’t all been going smoothly! So this week I’m just leaving you to your own devices to have a little look at what’s growing in the garden in this, the first week of July. Keeping the bees happy It’s getting fruity Eat up your greens The colours of summer A lesson in relaxing And of course whilst we’ve been running around like two…
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Salmon Pasta with Broad Beans, Soy & Honey
Salmon pasta with soy and honey, is one of those meals we never tire of. It’s a weekly staple that tastes delicious; is really good for you; and only takes half an hour, so what’s not to like? There is however one little down side, it uses three pans. So not the end of the world if you have a dishwasher, either the mechanical type or the human type! I grew up with a rule that whoever cooks, gets out of the washing up! I appreciate though that that doesn’t really help if you live alone. Back to the food! Today I’m using broad beans, because the harvest is in…
