Whose garden is it anyway ?

I spent the day in the garden today doing some sowing, planting and weeding.    Lily, our Tabby always livens things up by repeatedly attacking me when I am least expecting it.  She does this occasionally in the house but really goes for it in the back garden.  I can be digging away quite happily and suddenly she will pounce on me open jawed and claws out. I cant quite make it out - but I think it could be something along the same lines as dog-walkers' attitude to public parks.  As she is sinking her teeth into my arm (she draws blood..) she has this expression on her face like "well, some of us are committed to shitting in these flower beds 365 days a year, we are not just out here when the weather is good". Or maybe not.  Anyhow, its really annoying.  

The sweet peas are hardening off outside and the leeks are up and will need pricking out shortly.  I planted out about a dozen Verbascum Southern Charm which were sown last year and have been in the cold frame all winter.  They look quite good.  Also direct sowed some poppies and rocket so the slugs will no doubt have all those.  In pots inside are some courgettes, several types of sunflowers and something I found in an envelope marked "weird tall Kiftsgate thingy" which was a seed pod from when we visited Kiftsgate Court last year.  Lets see what comes up and then I can try to identify it.  Lots more to do.  The Pulmonaria and Primroses are out and the Forget-me-nots are just coming into flower.

The Camellia by the front door is is full flower. Invasive weed of the week - bindweed.  It's like the enemy below. Not up yet but every forkful FULL of bindweed root.  Pah.  

Limbering up for Mothers Day

I've been busy with the lovely willow I got last month making heart bases in different sizes (some really small that will fit in a 15cm box) and getting some dried flowers together to make some Mother's Day and Easter treats in preparation for the Whiteladies Road Farmers Markets on the 2nd and 16th April in Bristol.

I'm getting there.  Really pleased with them now.  Here is the small heart wreath (above) which will be boxed with gift cards, and below is the regular size heart wreath.  These have nigella but some will have dried roses - all of them slightly different.

I now need to update the website but want to get these finished before I do.

Also sowing nigella, poppies and shortly going to make some more lavender cuttings in order that I have lots of new materials to work with during the summer.

Have fed all the soft fruit (the tays, blackcurrants and raspberries are beginning to bud) and dug out this week's weed of the week... the buttercup - well, as much as I could.  There are a million gardening jobs also to be done and other things to sow.  Its the spring equinox today and it feels good. I am list making like mad and scurrying around... need to take some more photos but these will do for now....

Starlings at Shapwick Heath

This weekend we were down on the Somerset Levels visiting  Musgrove Willows in Westonzoyland to buy some cut Willow (Flanders Red for me - beautiful, waxy, straight 4' withies) and new basketmaking tools to start work on some decorated hearts for Mothers Day and Easter for the Farmers Market at Whiteladies in April.   Westonzoyland is where the Battle of Sedgemoor was fought in 1685, the last battle of the Monmouth Rebellion.  All quiet there tho' this weekend.  This is low marshland with drainage ditches around the place and pumping stations. It feels slightly surreal, not helped much by the farmer at MW loading a wicker coffin into the back of a vehicle as we arrived (empty, we think).

    

We then headed off to Shapwick Heath to watch the starling murmurations.  As dusk fell hundreds of thousands of starlings flew into the Heath from every direction and settled in the reed beds to roost for the evening a couple of fields away from where we were watching.  Brilliant.   This used to be a regular feature of city life in Bristol where they would come to roost under the bridges making the most amazing patterns in the evening sky over the City Centre where I worked. I would watch them out of my office window during the winter months during the late 1980 and 1990s thinking that this happened in every city.  Sadly, there are very few starlings in Bristol and no evening spectacle any more.  Maybe something to do with the declining starling population - but today, at least, I was happy to think that they had all got fed up with doing battle with the seagulls and pigeons and had decided to head for a better life here in the wild, wet Somerset countryside.

I am now weaving this lovely willow and snipping away with my new sharp, sharp little basketmaking snips.  Will post some pics once I am happy with the prototypes.  Not quite there yet.. :)     



  

Cornus cutting...

or - Down where the Dogwood grows.  This weekend, despite the foul forecast, was spent in the Cornus patch where we harvest to make the bases for our wreaths.  Here is Garlandgirl looking a bit chilly, cutting last year's growth in preparation.  Photo courtesy of Liz of green-baskets.co.uk who not only took the snap, but also got  the secateurs out, AND cooked lunch for us all after.

  The frost stopped any cutting in January so it was good to get out there now before the plants start to put on growth again.    We cut and made bases as we were going along,  all the time rumbling around the normal topics of life, love, family and the delights of errant teenage children.  It stayed dry too, which was a real bonus.  Once all the bases are finished over the course of the next week or so (hopefully), they will be stored away ready for the 2011 Christmas season.

Other weekend jobs off the list included getting the potatoes chitting in the (unheated) greenhouse.  We are going to try some new (to us) varieties this year including Pink Fir Apple, Kestrel, Picasso Arran Pilot and Anya which will go in on Good Friday - weather permitting,  and hopefully will see us right through the season from June until February.  The new potato bed has been dug and is just waiting, perhaps needs liming before we plant, but otherwise ready...  This is a bit of good cheer in what otherwise could be a gloomy, typical February.  The wormcasts are out in force on the lawn and the terracotta pots are all breaking up due to the severe cold in December and January.  Pish.

Signs of Spring

Today, at least in this house, was the start of the gardening season.  Tom turned thirteen on Friday and I always try to sow some seeds around his birthday so am writing this post with compost under my nails for the first time this year. On the windowsill upstairs are the Nicotiana Sensation in a tray, some Sweet Peas (parentage unknown, seed gathered from the allotment last year), and in the cold frame are a tray of Leek Musselburgh, soon to be taken over to the greenhouse at Mums for her to keep an eye on.  I also pruned the autumn fruiting raspberries and gave them a bit of a mulch with some leaf mould from a couple of years ago.

It was a very cold (freezing) day but blue skies, and I went down to the allotment to see what was happening down there.  No one around but really nice to be out there.  We have summer raspberries there, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, a big, big strawberry bed,  and we planted four blueberry bushes last autumn  with some ericaceous compost (but will probably have to do battle with the wood pigeons for them come the summer).

Also in is the Purple Sprouting Broccoli, which is looking okay despite the freezing weather (fingers crossed, lost the lot in the bad weather last year), garlic, onion sets planted in the autumn, some artichokes, rhubarb,  and some broad beans under cloches doing nothing at the moment due to the cold.

So it feels good to be starting again.  This is one of the oak trees

that line the path of the allotments.  I would really love to know how old these trees are (about 3 1/2 hugs around if anyone can work it out)....  We have promised ourselves a petrol strimmer this season so we dont spend so much time on maintenance and can spend more time actually growing things, ruminating and generally making it up as we go along.  Welcome to my world.   

Seville Orange Marmalade

Seville Orange Marmalade. That's what I made today.   Making marmalade makes jam making look like fast food.  I got all excited and ordered 5kgs of Seville Oranges from Phil at Westbury Veg.  I was a bit disappointed as 5 kg didn't look like a lot of oranges and was even at that stage thinking of ordering some more.  Madness.   Really pleased with it but not for anyone that doesnt have about six hours on their hands..

Anyway, for the record....  Seville Orange Marmalade



1.5 kgs of Seville Oranges, scrubbed

1 lemon, scrubbed

3 kgs granulated sugar

3.75 litres water



Also need:-  large preserving pan, muslin square about 25cm, jam funnel, dozen or so jars (clean and sterlised - more later),   wax discs, endless patience, juicer.



1.  Put muslin over a shallow bowl and cut oranges in half, removing pips into muslin.  Squeeze oranges into perserving pan.  Save all the inner bits of the orange from the juicer and put in the muslin.  Put the orange halves to one side.



2.  Juice lemon into perserving pan. Discard peel, put pips in muslin.



3. Pick all the nice bits of orange peel and slice thinly - added this to perserving pan.  Put any other bits into the muslin.  Tie the muslin and put the juice from bowl into perserving pan. Fish out any stray pips from the perserving pan and put in the muslin. This is about when I had serious misgivings about the whole thing.  Add water to pan.  Tie the muslin tight with kitchen string (or in my case garden twine, but not the green stuff). Put the muslin in the perserving pan and tie to handle.



4. Gently simmer perserving pan with juice and water etc for two hours or until the peel is soft. Fish out the muslin and put in a bowl and leave to cool a bit.


5. Add warmed sugar making sure all the crystals are dissolved.  This is a good time also to put your jars and lids into the oven at about 100c and put some saucers in the freezer for use later.  Squeeze the muslin hard to get all the pectin out and mix into the perserving pan.  Discard the muslin.  Cry a bit.



6. Bring to a rolling boil and test for set after about 15 mins.  To test for set take saucer out of freezer put tsp of marmalade on and put to one side for about 5 mins.  Look for a wrinkle.  If no wrinkle, continue boiling and testing about every five or ten mins. Cry a bit more.



7. When you have set, take the pan off the hob and leave for about 20 mins before putting into clean jars using jam funnel. Make seal with wax disc and screw lids on straight away.  Dry eyes.  Its nearly over.



8. Label and store in cool dark place. Have large drink.  At this point I couldn't quite work out how I was feeling but then realised it was smug.  Not becoming on a lady.


I think I may learn to juggle with the other 3.5 kgs I have in the fridge as I am not sure whether I could do all that again for a while.   I think you can freeze these oranges but I don't have much room. But....  thinking of making some Seville Orange Jelly which would mean I wouldn't have to cut all the peel up... hmmm...



Credit, apart from to me, of course, should go to St. Delia and Thursday's G2 in the Guardian.  The techniques were all Delia's but the quantities were taken from G2.  Delia always makes me cry...

garlandgirl goes on location.....

all the way to Westbury Park (!), to borrow  Jo's fab fireplace which is just perfect to photograph the Christmas greengarland swag, even in January.  Its a lovely stone Minster fireplace which is well loved and used, in her pretty late Victorian house, in a beautiful light sitting room with a window that gets all the afternoon sun.  We even got some of that sun, which at this time of year is a bonus ...
This is a job that I should have done during the season, but as always, the business  got in the way, and I was too busy with my order book and customers (hurrah!)  to take the time to take proper photos.  I always think that I will find the time to do this sort of thing, but I never do.    So I did today.  It  was good.  This is a plain fresh blue pine swag on a grapevine decorated with ribbons and cones gathered from Stoke Lodge. It really smelled great and looked fantastic.  My demo swag was made in the middle of November and is still going strong on the table outside the kitchen door... That may have something to do with the fabulously cold weather we had in December, and the snow, and the frost, and more snow, and more frost....   
Also have some proto-types of spring candle rings that Jo ordered to replace her Christmas candle rings, but will leave that for a another posting.
Thanks to Jo, Duncan, Hannah, Rory  and Rex for indulging me.     Good tea...