The Cottage Smallholder

 
Do you remember my excitement over growing Florian strawberries from seed? And later, my frustration when they just didn’t seem to grow- just sat there the size of doll’s house plants?
Eventually I got fed up with viewing them though a magnifying glass and planted the five plants that had survived my fury in a large, redundant Read More »

 
“It’s nearly the end of July. Surely there’s something we can eat from the garden?”
Danny was exasperated – forgetting that we have already munched loads from the garden in the past few months. Spuds, orach (German Mountain spinach), calabrese, turnips, broad beans, raspberries, strawberries, tayberries, loganberries, peas, lettuces and salad leaves.
But then I twigged that Read More »

 
Have you heard of the One Pot Pledge®? This is a great campaign started by Garden Organic – the largest organic growing charity in the UK. The idea is to encourage 30,000 people who have not grown some of their own food before to make a pledge to grow something edible in a pot.
This is Read More »

When I sat down to savour the superb third day of creamy Greek yoghurt and organic blackberries and blueberries bottled last October from our own garden, I just had to take a photo. This is now pasted on the kitchen wall to  remind me how good bottled fruit is when I’m caught up in the Read More »

 
We are trying to become less dependant on imports to the UK. One key ingredient that we lack at the cottage are easily grown citrus fruits. We have a greenhouse which is chock-a-block in the winter so an ordinary citrus tree would have to live in the cottage for the winter months.  We reckoned that Read More »

 
I love the idea of companion planting and really want to get the best out of my strawberries this year. Most companion planting charts state that strawberries hate potatoes and cabbages. A lot of charts declare that onions and strawberries are incompatible and a few declare that they are friends.
I have a patch of alliums Read More »

 
Last year I used the prunings from my gooseberry and currant bushes as pea sticks for my overwintering crop of peas. Those six inch pea shoots were guzzled over a matter of just a few days by mice during the freezing winter weather. The mice had everything going for them as the wooden mouse traps Read More »

 
Stock photo by Ayla87
As a child I remember being given a stick of raw rhubarb and a saucer of sugar. The trick was to dip the rhubarb in the sugar and munch. The sharp acidic taste of the rhubarb remains with me still. I can still see me and Seraphina sitting on the grass in Read More »

 
I stared at the dinky little pelargonium plants on my mother’s sunny kitchen windowsill.
“I will never grow them again,” she announced.
“Why on earth not? They’re so cute”
“They have taken ages and ages. I’ve got fed up with them.”
My Waterloo was growing strawberries from seed this year. Suddenly I understand how she felt. I’ve begun to Read More »

 
“Wow £4.19 for 15 strawberry seeds. Is it really worth buying these?” Danny shook the seed packet pensively.
“We couldn’t buy 15 plants for £4.19. Even at the church fete. I want to grow enough for wine and jam this year.”
“Won’t we get enough from the 12 plants that arrived yesterday?”
I am deeply into getting a Read More »