GROW YOUR FOOD for FREE (WELL, ALMOST)

I've just got in from an interesting evening down in Paignton at the Epicentre Book Cafe.  It was a local author, Dave Hamilton,  giving growing tips and publicising his new book on great money-saving ideas for the garden.  It is evident from browsing through this book that Dave Hamilton has lots of experience and ideas, even for comparative 'old hands' like me.  

http://www.epicentrebookcafe.org.uk/home.htm

According to The Ecologist website, below: "... (the book is) packed with useful nuggets of advice; Dave Hamilton’s tome, says Andy McKee, has everything you need to kick start a more self-sufficient way of life."

http://www.theecologist.org/reviews/books/894899/grow_your_food_for_free.html

The article goes on to say: "Grow Your Own Food (for) Free (Well, Almost) by Dave Hamilton is all about gardening without spending money. Rather than dealing too much with actual gardening advice, which after all you can get from pretty much any book, the watchwords here are reusing and recycling. Whether it's planting a wildlife corner or making a tunnel cloche out of - well, nothing much, really - this book points you firmly away from the shops. It directs you instead to take a good look at what you've already got, or what other people are giving away free."

So, no need for me to say much more as 'nuff said and I'll be avidly reading this book under the covers in bed tonight, making notes, and hopefully adopting many of his ideas.

Sweet Potatoes

I'd like to try growing sweet potatoes next year, so in preparation am finding what information there is and this site looks informative:
http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-sweet-potatoes.html

How to start

If you can't get hold of cuttings you can start growing sweet potatoes by planting the tubers. You can use any shop-bought sweet potatoes.

Place them on the ground, cover them with soil, and keep them moist. The tubers will develop shoots, called slips. Slips can be snipped or pulled off and planted out when they are about 15 cm (6") in size. The original root will continue to produce more slips.

Soil Conditions

Sweet potatoes like growing in sandy soils, lots of sun, lots of space, and a reasonable amount of water and nutrients. They love heat. The hotter it is the faster they grow. Wood ash, potash, seaweed.

Sweet potatoes don't like heavy, waterlogged soils, cold weather, and fertilizers high in nitrogen (like chicken manure, it makes them grow lots of leaves but no potatoes).




So, roll on 2012!

Old Wives' Lore for Gardeners

I've just found Old Wives' Lore for Gardeners by Maureen & Bridget Boland which has many useful tips, such as:


"Candlemas Day stick beans in the clay,
Throw candle and candlestick right away.


The second part of this admonition may not have been magical so much as economical in intent: the thrify Old Wife perhaps considered that by 2nd February one should not need candlelight to get up by, dinner would have been eaten at three o'clock, the evening stew, already prepared, could be eaten by firelight, and one should go to bed early and certainly not read in bed.


Roll seeds of beans and peas in paraffin to deter mice."

Another interesting quote:
"Every Old Wife will tell you to sow see and to transplant only with a waxing, never a waning moon. The scientists have now caught up with this ... "


And, finally:


Sow Seed Generously
One for the rook, one for the crow, 
One to die and one to grow.

There are lots of copies of this book on Amazon 

priced from very cheaply to collectors' copies.

Pears - and Crumbles

A friend very kindly gave us some pears this week, windfalls - wonderful! But what I have learned is that windfall pears are about 50% likely to be soggy and rotten, so no point in storing them.  
We've been cutting them up and eating them - and have made a lovely crumble, using pears, apples, pineapple and a satsuma. It was a wonderful flavour, not identified as any of the fruits mentioned above - just nice.  
I've also frozen a batch, just to see how they are when defrosted, although I fear they may be discoloured, so might cook them with something colourful to hide this, perhaps blackberries or blackcurrants.

16 September: Today we had a yummy crumble - it was apple with a few raspberries.  It was a Delia Smith recipe but I don't put any sugar with the fruit, that way its slight tartness balances well with the sweet topping of 3 oz butter  - 7 oz flour  - 4 oz sugar rubbed together very gently and spread on top of the chopped raw apple and raspberries.  Then cook and enjoy. Bon Apetite!

Leave Your Garden Alone - It's Summer!

There was an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph recently, by Germaine Greer, someone not normally noted for her green fingers, in which she suggests that in this lovely summer weather, instead of gardening, we go off walking or doing something else and leave the garden to itself.

She suggested that if plants are left to their own devices it soon becomes apparent which plants actually suit living in your garden which will save lots of cosseting and hard work.  


I had never thought about this concept until we moved to this garden and found the soil so difficult, so it was good to find my idea backed up by Ms Greer - and if you think about it, it makes absolute sense.


For instance: our house is built on a quarry.  So under the soil in many places it's just bedrock, also we are pretty near the sea, have lots of sunshine and less rain than many other places and on top of that it's quite windy.  


Therefore, we have a particular soil and habitat which some plants absolutely love and many which I've grown successfully in the past in other locations don't like living here.  


Because of this, anything which thrives I either divide and spread all round the garden or if that's impossible, go and buy more.


Several summers recently have been extraordinarily dry and we've just had a (comparatively) cold winter.  This has killed off several plants and so I don't see much point in replacing them.  


Another factor here is the inordinate number of slugs and snails.  In the past year, on average, I've killed at least 1,000 a year - and still they come.  They love living in the ivy, which encroaches on all sides and because the ivy comes from other gardens it's impossible to keep it out.  (See my new article on how to deal with snails, else I shall ramble on for ever on what to do about them!)


It would be interesting to hear what others think of Ms Greer's ideas and what people have discovered ...


27 August 2011
Well, have given in and started pruning/weeding, taking stock of what's died over the dry summer, what's been crowded out by either 'thugs' or plants that just love their situation.  These poor souls who've been crowded out have now been moved to new situations, there to have more of a chance to survive.  The garden's taking on a whole new look and once this tranche of pruning/weeding/relocating has taken place the garden will be left to itself again - giving me time to tackle the allotment.  But that's a different story as leaving things to 'take their chances' isn't such a sound idea.

Colyton Fishacre

We visited a very busy Colyton Fishacre today. 

This is a nearby wonderful National Trust property,

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-coletonfishacrehouseandgarden 

(to quote from this site:  'Travel back in time to the Jazz Age at the holiday home of the D'Oyly Carte family')

This interesting property was built in the 1920s, with very up to the minute furniture and effects, so everywhere we expected to bump into Bertie Wooster or Jeeves the butler.

We had a quick look through this fascinating house, then had a slow ramble though the extensive gardens and here are some of the lovely flowers and shrubs we saw.  However, it was so beautifully sunny that some of the pictures aren't as clear as they could be.

 

Baby Courgette - it's too dry to plant it out - we have had no rain for
about 12 months now and none forecast for the next two weeks
(22.5.11)

 I don't know what this is but it is rather pretty and likes shade.

Hosta, before attack by slugs

Euphorbia 

Some vegetables harvested in 2010

Some luverly glads

All Those Courgettes (Zucchini if you live on the west side of the pond)

What to do with courgettes (and other cucubits):

• courgette cake - see my item 'Comparatively Healthy Cakes.
• grate into soup and cook for a couple of minutes
• ratatouille soup, will give recipe* later
• saute in oil with garlic, herbs and seasoning, adding a little stock from cooking the vegetables
• ratatouille, with aubergines, peppers, onions etc
• steam 
• chargrill
• cut in half lengthways, scoop out middle (put middle bits into the soup!), fill with any mixture of your choice and put grated cheese on top and grill and/or serve with a tomato sauce 
• a mixture of grated courgette and carrot with some sesame seeds makes a fine salad, can add dressing if liked
• courgette chutney (recipe* to follow)
• aubergine and courgette crostini (recipe* to follow)

(* my reminder)

On the Paignton Garden Home & Allotment Society website  (http://www.phgas.org/) I put a query about what to do with all those excess courgettes.  I await ideas, but in the meantime here's a site with a few suggestions:
http://glallotments.blogspot.com/p/courgette-recipes.html and these people may be able to help: http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/

Allotment - Mid August 2011

I spent a couple of hours at the Allotment this afternoon, digging up some potatoes and harvesting runner beans, courgettes, lettuces, a couple of onions.  Then I carried on tackling the new bit which hasn't been dug over yet, removing lots of stroil and feeling very virtuous.

There was a frog in the pond today but photos of it didn't come out clearly, so are some of the rest of the photos:

 Glorious nasturtiums amongst the onions

 Bumble Bee on the runner beans

 Beetroot, onions, marigolds, lettuces and windmill:

As you can see the beetroot looks rather sparse - that's because we've picked so many. I'm pleased to say that there are some tiny ones coming along for later.

 Spinach, tomatoes, cucubits, broad beans, peas, marigolds (above and below)

Slugs and Snails

As these are such a big problem in the garden - it's either them or us! - I'm preparing a comprehensive article about this battle, making notes of what has and hasn't worked for us.

Potatoes

Today we started digging up this year's maincrop potatoes. They were quite variable, some were sparse and tiny, others were sparse and large; the smaller crop than usual may be a reflection of our especially dry summer.   

Many of the potatoes were planted on a new piece of ground which we hadn't had chance to dig over, so I thought potatoes would help sort out the soil.  They certainly did, but only down to a certain depth where the soil is rock-hard. 


We suspect this was because the soil hadn't been cultivated for many years and had become like an earth floor in an old house.  So now this area will need a double-dig before next year's planting.


We had a beautiful Pan Haggerty for supper tonight, made with our own potatoes and onions, served with our own runner beans and spinach.  All we need to do now is make our own cheese and be self sufficient!


Pan Haggerty (as I make it)
Potatoes
Onion
Grated cheese
seasoning (I especially like pepper and thyme)
(anything else you fancy - tomato, peppers, peas, corn, spinach, ham, beaten egg, stock)

• Part cook potatoes and onions.
• Grease dish and layer potatoes, onions, other bits if used, black pepper, cheese. 
• Repeat, ending with layer of cheese.
• Cook in oven or microwave, then brown under grill for a cheap simple supper.
• Variation: don't cook potatoes and onions first and cook longer in the oven.

Leek & Potato Soup

This soup is lovely any time of the year but especially when leeks are plentiful in the garden:

1 lump butter

1 tbsp oil

1 lb leeks, sliced

1 LB Potatoes

1 tbsp flour

2 cups chicken stock

1 bay leaf

1 tsp dried tarragon

1 cup milk

s&p

• Heat butter and oil in pan, add leeks and potatoes
• Cook about 5 mins, stir in flour, pour in stock.
• Add bay leaf and tarragon, cover, cook until ready, adding milk half way through.
• Serve either chunky or whiz.

Serves 4 - 6

Coming Soon: Recipe for Potato Soup

These are all plants which need minimum 

looking after and 

grow despite the gardener.

Tiny Euphorbia

 60th Birthday Rose - Thanks Vicky and Steve

Mike Robertson Rose

What my mother would call a 'B***** Old Weed' 

but they look lovely for a spell.

Unusual Hosta