Growing strawberries from seed. It’s well worth it in the end.
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 hanging basket. Not expecting great results. I used ericaceous compost as I discovered last year that strawberries prefer a more acidic soil than mine. They immediately began to thrive – clearly they hated...
read moreBiodynamic gardening update: July 2010
“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 he’s desperate to start harvesting his favourite. Runner beans. They are a bit late this year but a careful examination of the beans revealed that they...
read moreOne Pot Pledge®
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 a superb initiative as everyone has a place somewhere for a pot. Even if it’s on your desk at work. This campaign started much earlier this year but there are still lots of things that you can grow and enjoy. Salad leaves, peas or even nurture a tomato...
read moreBottled fruit: enjoying the bounty seven months later
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 bottling frenzy that dominates September and October. I do enjoy bottling fruit but sometimes it seems a bit of a palaver if I have other things to do. Sitting by the pond on a clear and sunny morning as the fruit and yoghurt combination burst in my mouth I...
read moreHardy orange trees: Calamondin
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 our tiny windows and poor light would make a citrus tree suffer and go straggly. Ages ago I bought what can only be described as an expensive lemon twig on Ebay. It was given the affection that only a proper bountiful tree deserves. Kept in the...
read moreStrawberry companion planting dilemma
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 (Christophii) in one of my fruit cages – left over from the days when it was a herbaceous border. So when I discovered that strawberries this incompatibility on the companion planting charts I whistled down the garden to...
read morePropagating fruit bushes by mistake
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 froze too! This spring when I pulled away the cloche half of the ‘pea sticks’ had rooted. I had no idea that fruit bushes germinate so easily. All I did was push them into the soil around the peas. The only problem is that I’m not sure...
read moreRhubarb: memories and plans
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 the sunshine wearing smocked summer frocks and Startrite sandals (big enough so you couldn’t feel your toes in the shop) . The awsome privilege of being allowed to take china saucers outside. The love hate marriage of the rhubarb and white sugar crystals that...
read moreStrawberries, spuds and pelargoniums
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 loathe my five surviving plants (a pack of fifteen seeds cost £4.19). Sown late January they germinated quite quickly in the electric propagator. Since then they have developed their...
read moreSoft fruit, chickens and rose petals
“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 good harvest of strawberries next year. Today I am planting out my new strawberry plants in the overhauled soft fruit bed that sits beside the chicken run. I know that the chickens will stand patiently...
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Recent Comments
{ I was thinking the same as Magic Cochin but then like you I don't have my phone attached by an umbilical cord wherever I go.... } – Wed 8 :47 pm
{ Good point but I don't tend to take it about with me everywhere 
} – Wed 7 :25 pm
{ Doesn't your mobile phone have an alarm setting? C x } – Wed 6 :32 pm
{ I would put it towards a bbq, it's just a shame you can't purchase some sunshine from b&q } – Wed 12 :04 am- { Hi Lesley The clucking means that she is brrody also plucking her own feathers is a sign too. } – Tue 11 :58 pm
- { Hi Lesley They have to stay in the broody coop 24/7. Could you put in a garden shed or garage? } – Tue 11 :57 pm
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