Talking about hellebores

Well, the weather continues to be cold and miserable, but there is sunshine in my heart because now is the season of the hellebore! I've been building up my collection over the past few years since they really are a lovely flower both for picking and bringing inside, and also for lighting up the garden and adding colour at a bare time of year. I have about eight different varieties (and covet several more) which is nowhere near enough!

Hellebores are well known to wilt if you pick a stem to put in a vase. The solution is to just pick the heads and float them in bowls of water. One big bowl looks stunning, or you can do what I've done here and use a selection of small bowls, jars and glasses. I have also found that if you pick them a bit later on in the season when the flower heads have aged a bit, they are less prone to wilting. And sometimes it's worth just picking them anyway, and finding a stem of greenery to rest their little faces against!

Here are my hellebore lovelies:

Clockwise from top left: Pink Lady (a beautiful clear pink with nice round petals), White Lady (similar to Pink Lady but lovely pure white), an unnamed chartreuse variety, White Picotee (very large flowers, green-tinted white petals edged with purple, and black-ringed stamens).

Clockwise from top left: Tutu (green-tinged purple petals with freckles and a gorgeous ruffled centre), a Double Hybrid, a common purple with pointed petals, and Pink Lady with her lovely rosy buds. I also have a new-to-me variety called Mrs Betty Ranicar, which according to Google is a pretty double white. But Mrs Betty is so new she has decided not to show herself this year which is a bit frustrating! Will she be as pretty as the pictures? Perhaps we'll find out next year.

This is my Common Purple staking out its turf next to the jasmine bush. It's getting nice and big and having lots of little babies.

I hope to cross pollinate some of these different colours and styles and create some of my own Double Hybrids... it's a bit of a wait as they take about 4 years to bloom from seed! It's too tempting not to try though... who knows what Frankenstein-like creations will emerge.

Such pretty plants in the garden (left, Tutu and right, Picotee). I only wish they bloomed in summer too. Funnily enough, a couple of years ago I had one that did - I think it was Pink Lady. I have heard from other bloggers who have had summer blooming hellebores too so it's not unheard of! I had to move Pink Lady when we had house repairs done, so she didn't bloom last summer. But I'll be keeping an eye on her and the others just to see what's what...

Talking about mandarins

Today I want to quickly talk about my mandarin tree. This year it's done better than ever before, loaded with little fruits that are lovely and juicy! I've had the tree for five years now and I'd almost given up on it. I'd actually decided that it wasn't worth the space it takes up in the glasshouse and considered dumping it, but during the spring and summer I decided to give it one more go. Instead of tossing it I cosseted it, giving it plenty of water and even remembering citrus food. I kept its pot weeded and its stems free of scale. And now I've been rewarded! 

This variety is called Clementine. The fruit aren't as big as the ones in the shops but they are juicy, and sweet with a bit of tartness. Easy to peel, and seedless since there aren't any other citrus nearby to fertilise them. In winter I often eat lunch in the glasshouse if the sun is shining, and a lovely fresh mandarin is the perfect end to it! In fact I've never felt better than I do this winter and the fresh vitamin C must have something to do with it.

It also looks pretty in my glasshouse (and is getting too heavy to shift!) so I'm calling it a keeper! Do you have any winter stars in your garden?

Talking about tomatoes, part 2 - March 2015

Tomato season is coming to an end, so I want to quickly jot down some notes here to refer back to next season. We had a great summer but the tomatoes took a while to really get going, especially the outside ones, so next year I will need to think twice about whether it's even worth planting them outside - perhaps just the tried and true varieties. (Oh who am I kidding, I always have too many seedlings and I'm not going to just throw them out, am I?) Anyway... when you are picking that sweet, savoury, juicy, delicious fruit and putting it straight into your meal (or your mouth), you forget all the challenges and it all becomes worth it.

Tomato notes - glasshouse

• The caterpillars were slow arriving but they did come at last. Not as bad as previous years.
• Tomatoes succumbed to blight at the end of the season as usual, but fruit not affected.
• I usually like to make my own fertiliser from comfrey but I just couldn't be bothered this year. I also had a bag of Tui Novatec to try, which did a good job.

Tomato notes - outside

• Tomatoes outside were much slower to flower and ripen. The plus side is that they are continuing after the glasshouse ones have finished.
• The best performers are Juliet and Kumato... the rest really aren't worth the trouble.
• For fertiliser I used Novatec, sheep pellets, compost and neem granules (for pest repellant).

Tomato varieties

• Juliet - always reliable. First to ripen, prolific. Firm skin and fruit, not really the best texture but they store really well, and fallen fruit don't tend to rot and will continue to ripen.
• Brandywine - same growth habits as other beefsteaks. Nice flavour, but didn't beat my favourite Black Krim!
• Brown Berry - Prolific cherry tomato with nice flavour.
• Black Cherry - slightly more pink/maroon than Brown Berry, otherwise very similar.
• Black Krim - didn't set a huge amount of fruit this year but I think that's normal for beefsteaks? As the fruits they do set are so big. My favourite sandwich tomato!
• Yellow Pear - the slowest to get going, but good once it did. Doesn't set quite as much fruit as the other cherry tomatoes.
• Green Grape - I remember this one being fussy when I first started growing it, but I've been saving my own seeds for several years so I must have kept the good ones! They have chartreuse skin and green flesh with a lovely sweet taste. 
• Kumato - this was the wild card this year and it's proved itself. It did ok outside and would have been even better in the glasshouse. Medium size, brownish maroon fruits with firm skin. They had a nice smoky flavour and were good in sandwiches, also the firm skin meant it was easy to remove when blanched, so they are good for making sauce/relish. I've saved seed and am looking forward to trying it again next year.

I've been gorging myself on fresh tomatoes, in sandwiches and salads, on toast and mixed into almost any dish I've cooked! I made a batch of relish and several batches of semi dried cherry tomatoes in the dehydrator. I dry them for about 8 hours so there is still some moisture in them, then pack them into bags and freeze them. They are a treat in winter.

Talking about tomatoes, part 1 - Jan 2015

 It's tomato time... finally! We had a cold, late start to spring last year. I sowed my seeds inside and usually I just need to put them on a sunny windowsill and they sprout fine. Not so this time - they sulked, refused to come up, and those which did poke up a sprout wouldn't go any further, so I had to resort to putting them in the hot water cupboard. That worked, but I was well behind schedule, and even though the weather's been great for the couple of months they've only just started ripening. Better late than never though and I am now going to gorge myself on fresh tomatoes for hopefully the next three months at least. (Pictured above: Juliet)

 Tomato notes - glasshouse

• Juliet - first to ripen as usual. Always reliable, has lots of green fruit and flowers.
• Brandywine - I noticed very sporadic fruit set with a lot of unfertilised flowers on each truss.
• Brown Berry - looking promising with lots of ripening fruit.
• Black Cherry - lots of fruit. Starting to ripen. I'm not sure how dark the fruit has to get - I tried to pick one and it didn't want to release so I'll wait a bit longer.
• Black Krim - sporadic fruit set as well. Is this typical of beefsteaks? I grow Black Krim every year... I think it is normal as they grow so big.
• Yellow Pear - not much fruit yet, still flowers. As I recall it was one of the last seedlings to pop up.
• Green Grape - still lots of flowers. The fruit is starting to ripen too.

 The potager is filling up. The tomatoes are right next to the glasshouse. They are a forest of leaves and laterals... I need to spend some time in the evening pruning a bit!

Tomato notes - Potager

• Kumato - I was given two cuttings of this by a friend. I'm not sure of its qualities, but it's grown faster and developed fruit faster than the other tomatoes planted outside. Also it's less bushy than the other plants - I wonder if this is because the plants are lateral cuttings. Fruit is not ripe yet, but looking promising.
• Green Grape - has flowers and green fruit
• Brandywine - no fruit yet as far as I can tell
• Juliet - the winner again. Just started ripening.
• Brown Berry - some green fruit and flowers.
• Black Krim - some fruit.

So that's how the tomatoes are faring so far. It's also worth noting that so far, I haven't had any trouble with pests like caterpillars. I did add neem granules at planting and have also top dressed with neem granules again. I've used Tui Novatec as a fertiliser along with sheep pellets and compost.

Talking about garlic and spuds (and a summer harvest)

It's full swing in the potager as my various summer crops begin to come due for harvest. I love to put my basket over my arm and head out with a pair of secateurs to fill it. It's best done as a lazy potter in the late afternoon, when the brick paths are sun-warmed and a glass of wine awaits me on the deck.

The basket above was a bit more work as I had to dig up my spuds! That's always fun though, like searching for buried treasure, and the thought of melt-in-your-mouth new potatoes kept me going. I grew my usual Laratte heritage potatoes, which were a bit small when I dug them up - probably they could have gone on growing for a few more weeks but I needed the space in the bed. There were also a few purple-skinned potatoes which are probably Heather, and must have grown from an overlooked small spud from last season. This year I shifted my potatoes to a new bed to see if they fared any better as last year they were quite small... but as I didn't grow Heather again (at least not on purpose) I can't quite tell. I did plan to grow my spuds in grow bags or straw this year but I didn't quite get around to it - so maybe next year!

Also in my harvest basket are runner beans, sugar snap peas, strawberries and raspberries, a zucchini, and a cheddar cauliflower. (The caulis did well this year - they were planted in early spring. There are a few small caterpillars on them at harvest time but they are still small enough to wash off easily and not have caused much damage.)

 The main point of this post was going to be to talk about my garlic and shallots. (Garlic pictured top, shallots bottom.) I harvested them around New Year's when the weather was warm and dry. The leaves were dying off and had been for a few months actually - they started looking a bit sad in spring and I must make a note here to water more in spring! When there aren't any other seedlings in the potager I don't tend to put the sprinkler on it, but I must make sure I do it next year.

The size of my garlic bulbs is average-to-small this year and here are the possible reasons why...

- not enough water in spring

- some bulbs being crowded by pansies (though not all of these ones were small)

- there was an infestation of those little black bugs that like onions. These horrible bugs also took out a lot of my chives! Very annoying as pests aren't supposed to like to munch on alliums!

 When I had dug up my bulbs I spread them out in the sun on this old wooden trellis. At night Jon and I moved it into the garage. When they have dried like this for a few days they can be tied together and hung in bunches. I cut the leaves off and store them in baskets hanging from my garage rafters.

 I'm much more pleased with the size of the shallots. To replant shallots, you just break up the clumps and keep the biggest bulbs for replanting. You put the bulb back in the ground in winter and it sprouts and divides itself into a clump of bulbs. Easy as anything and you get a very high return for putting just one bulb into the ground! I usually plant 4 (the bulbs shown come from 4 plants) but next year I'm going for gold and planting 5.

All right, enough talking about all this food, I need to go and either cook, freeze or otherwise store it. Are you harvesting any crops from your garden right now?

xx

Talking about gherkins

 I grew gherkins last year in my glasshouse with great success, so this year I thought I'd try growing them outside. I started them from seed in the glasshouse and when the weather was warm in late spring I transferred them outside, to a climbing frame under the cherry tree. There, they grew quite slowly, had a few flowers and fruit form, but never really took off in the way that I was expecting. The site obviously didn't suit them well... too shady, too windy, not enough water perhaps? Luckily there was still time in the season to sow some more seeds and plant them in the glasshouse, where they grew rampantly. In fact, they are still there, still flowering and fruiting, much more to my satisfaction. Lesson learned: don't bother trying to grow gherkins outside even though there is more room and they would look so cute scrambling up a fence...

I pickle my gherkins in the microwave. Slice the gherkins if you like (cutting them in rounds means they fit in the jar better) and pack them in a jar. Add 1 tbsp dried mustard seeds and some sprigs of dill if you have it (sadly mine didn't self seed this year.) Pour about 1cm white vinegar in the jar and microwave for 1-2 minutes till hot. Pour about a cup of white vinegar (or you can used spiced if you want a chilli kick) in a microwave safe jug and add 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp salt (don't forget these or your mouth will pucker when you eat your gherkins!) Microwave for 3-4 minutes till boiling. Pour the boiling vinegar over the hot gherkins in the jar, then microwave the jar full of gherkins for another minute till it's boiling. Meanwhile pour boiling water from your jug over the jar lid to sterilise it. Using tea towels screw the hot lid on the hot jar. Make sure the lid seals, if it doesn't, keep the jar in the fridge. Wait six months before eating the gherkins.

That's my easy way of pickling one jar at a time which makes it easier to deal with the harvest. I'm looking forward to cracking these open in 6 months' time!

Talking about capsicums

One of the many reasons I'm grateful for my glasshouse is that it allows me to grow capsicums. I've experimented with growing them in it and also in the garden, and come to the conclusion that it's not even worth trying to grow them outside. (If I didn't have a glasshouse, I'd rig up some kind of cold frame for them.) But the glasshouse ones did well this year.

Last year in autumn I heard that it's possible to keep a capsicum alive over winter if you coddle it, and then it will regrow in spring. I decided to try that, so I trimmed the glasshouse peppers down to a smallish stump with a few leaves still attached, put the pots in a huddle together and covered them with frost cloth. One out of six survived, despite us having the mildest winter we'd had for a long time. In spring, the surviving capsicum did regrow and have flowers and put out baby capsicums . But the six new plants I'd bought as seedlings grew faster and overtook it! So again I conclude, it's not worth the bother of trying to keep them alive over winter.

So my method of growing capsicums is to buy a punnet of 6 seedlings in spring, when the weather has started to warm up and they'll be ok in the glasshouse. (I've tried growing them from seed but they take ages to sprout while the weather warms up, and I'd rather buy seedlings so they can take advantage of the growing season straight away.) I put each one in a big pot with lots of sheep manure and compost and water well. Then I treat them the same as I treat my glasshouse tomatoes.

As you can see I got some lovely big ripe beauties this year! I've put plenty in the freezer so I'll be eating capsicum for several months to come.

Talking about corn

 My corn has done really well this year. I planted it in mid spring, and didn't coddle it too much aside from some sheep manure and a few waterings with comfrey tea while it was young. I planted it in a block and it seems quite happy, basking in the sun and the leaves shushing in the wind. Now it's ready to harvest, and while some ears either didn't develop properly or have gone to seed, most of them are plump and ripe and full of lovely pearly kernels. This variety is Honey Pearl.

  The tops of the corn are in the perfect spot to catch the early morning sunbeams. I can see them from my window as I have breakfast, which always makes it look like the perfect summer morning.

My favourite way to cook fresh corn: Trim the cob at top and bottom but don't remove the husks. Put the cob in the microwave and cook for one minute. Cut the top and bottom off the cob, peel away the husks and there is your fresh, sweet, beautiful corn. It's easy to run a sharp knife down the side of the cob and slice away the kernels if, like me, you don't like getting it stuck in your teeth.

I've also read that you can freeze corn by putting the unpeeled cob straight in the freezer. I'll probably try that with the rest of the harvest, but that's only if I get sick of eating it fresh!

Talking about spuds

I harvested some potatoes today and was disappointed with my crop this year. I grew Heather and bought a bag of seed potatoes just the same as I usually do, and put them in the same spot at the same time as usual. They aren't diseased, just small. The foliage is dying off and usually when I harvest them at this point they are whoppers, not this time though! Such a pain since peeling potatoes is one of the kitchen chores I hate the most, and small ones are extra fiddly.

I've read that you shouldn't grow spuds in the same spot two years in a row, so next year I might have to find somewhere else for them. Maybe a no-dig method, either in a pot or under some pea straw. Has anyone tried no-dig methods - does it work for you?

These were my 'maincrop' so I planted them in later spring for harvest late summer. My early crop was Laratte, an heirloom variety given to me by my mum's neighbour. They were ready in early summer. They turned out well and seemed to be of an ok size, so I saved a few to plant again next spring.

Small or not I'll still happily eat these homegrown potatoes. Probably as wedges with their skins on!