Growing tomatoes in the greenhouse. Tips from traditional practice at Audley End House
This year we are going all out for rearing tomatoes. Growing them on the sunny wall in front of the cottage and in the greenhouse. We are nurturing fifty plants and if all goes well we’d love to be able to bottle some fruit for use during the winter months. Danny is a tomato as well as a potato fan – well they are related after all. He loves to graze on the toms when I’m out at work. If I grow loads he is almost able to steal with impunity. Unfortunately tomato blight has attacked the crop the past two summers but hopefully we will have...
read moreFlowers from the garden: May 2009
Next month I will be celebrating the challenge of not buying flowers for two and a half years. Apart from saving approximately £500 a year, this challenge has forced me to overhaul the herbaceous borders and become much more inventive with the flowers that grow in our garden. The arrangements are surprisingly soft compared to those in the shops. May is the start of the easy flower picking months. Perhaps next year I will grow flowers undercover for the winter months although I do enjoy the move from a tiny glass of snowdrops in January to a...
read moreUpdate on the leghorn chicks: first visit to meet Caroline, Kevin, Rusty and the brood
I woke early, with a semi conscious sense that something special was happening today. Apart from being a Bank Holiday Monday we were going to meet Caroline and husband Kevin to visit our new leghorn chicks for the very first time. These chicks are being raised by Rusty, one of C’s hens. Rusty is a gentle attentive mother with stylish reddish brownish feathers and kind eyes. Caroline and Kevin were welcoming and the hen and chicks were gorgeous. Caroline’s collection of photos are superb but there’s nothing like seeing the chicks in the...
read moreBest recipes for leftovers: St Clements chicken, Romano pepper and rice noodle stir fry
Danny found some rice noodles on the condemned food counter at Tesco and we decided to try making a stir fry with some of the leftover St Clements chicken and gravy. This was really quick and easy to make and quite delicious. Packed with lots of subtle, summery flavours, the sweet Romano peppers balancing the citrus hints of the chicken. St Clements chicken, Romano pepper and rice noodle stir fry recipe (for 2) Ingredients: I large handful of cooked diced St Clement’s chicken 100 ml of left over gravy (from the St Clement’s chicken) 1...
read moreMystery perennial. Can you help?
The main herbaceous borders are planted in a haphazard cottage style. The borders either side of the bower are about 10 feet deep. Many of the new plants come from the secret garden stand . At three for just £1.00 they are a bargain as they are always good strong plants. This past couple of weeks I’ve been drawn to gaze at this wonderful combination – pink Aquilegia that reminds me of giant shrimps (I have a passion for sea food) and a pretty white perennial which shares similar leaves to a phlox but has a wonderful almost lazy wildness....
read moreSunday roast: Chic St Clement’s roast chicken recipe
I think that a really good roast chicken with all the trimmings is my favourite Sunday roast. Last weekend I decided to firm up the idea that we had for St Clement’s chicken – stuffing the bird with oranges and lemons. It was delicious. Delicate, fragrant, summery and so easy. And it tasted wonderful – as if we had slaved for hours. The secret ingredient is adding the half teaspoon of chopped preserved lemons – these are essential. The recipe below is for a small chicken (1 kilo) so we only needed one orange and one lemon to pack...
read moreSometimes there is a balance
This morning I woke late, having snoozed past the alarm. I now know that a snooze of an hour or so is a dangerous path to consider. Especially as I have chickens, dogs and Danny to feed and water, plus I need to shower and dress and check the greenhouse and heated indoor propagator and go to work. The morning buzzes with questions. Have I made the thermos and lunch for work? Will Danny discover his breakfast toast after his conference call? When will our leeks finally germinate? I shot down to the chicken run and saw a fluffed up body in the...
read moreThe intriguing pc code
A couple of days ago I noticed that Danny was entering some sort of system on our calendar. The letters pc followed by a number. He’d started this on May 13th and the numbers were gradually rising each day. Was this a good or a bad thing? What did pc mean? I was very curious indeed. We share this calendar but I thought I’d give D a bit of space rather than dust off the thumbscrews. Eventually he would spontaneously explain what these annotations mean. We were engaged with the potato count in his border this evening. It’s become a...
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