Both the upside and downside of seasonal produce is each crop’s end. There’s nothing better than going out with a really explosive firework of a haul and this year’s forced rhubarb has just rewarded me with truly exquisite last knockings. It’s been a long season. I’ve been dipping into that forcing pot since the end…
Spring Cleaning
What’s a beautiful, sunny April day for if not for the sheer nerdery of cleaning out your shed? All winter long I’ve been taking stuff out in a hurry, shoving stuff out of the way to get to it, using it, then just chucking it inside. And c’mon, admit it – so have you. By…
Unwanted Volunteers
Bloomin’ heck, look at this. An invader among my lovely January King savoy cabbages. To be absolutely honest, it’s the cabbages that are the invaders, this plant was here first, but it has to go. Last season I grew International Kidney potatoes (grown as Jersey Royals in the Channel Islands) in this bed, and I…
Year-Round Events: Pea Shoots
Ever since I read the ever-excellent Naomi Schillinger’s column in Grow Your Own last year, I have been growing pea shoots. I read it after experiencing a week’s worth of pea shoots decorating every meal I ate on holiday in Nottinghamshire (I don’t think it’s anything to do with that area of the country, just that they are…
Capability Brown and His Landscape Gardens
Sarah Rutherford, Pavilion Books Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and I enjoy a slightly awkward relationship. Don’t get me wrong, I love his landscapes and never pass up an opportunity to visit any of his gardens. Stowe, Croome, Wallington, Blenheim, Petworth – the list goes on and on; infinitely it would seem, since according to author Sarah Rutherford he was…
On Test: ‘Climbing’ Strawberries ‘Skyline’
Last year I tested – and approved of – three French strawberries. Each scored highly in the flavour stakes but for different reasons. My plot just isn’t big enough to grow lots of different strawberries, so I’m not planning any new trials of standard strawbs but I am intrigued by the concept of a new ‘climbing’…
The House of Dreams
A garden is, perhaps more than any other part of our homes, a reflection of ourselves. Whether going for formality, cottage-style, practicality, potager, rubbish tip, wildlife haven or simply abject neglect, it tells the world something about our inner soul. Artist Stephen Wright’s soul is on painful, beautiful display in every inch of his living…
Ooh, La, La: French Strawberries
Gariguette is probably my favourite strawberry ever. Long, conical and superbly flavoured, it reminds me (to look at, of course) of the strawberries Dougal used to eat in the Magic Roundabout, though frankly it clearly also inspired the local Brians too. My meagre haul was decimated by slugs. It’s supposed to be a really…
On Test: Johnson’s Reusable Growing Tray
Mustard and cress was probably the first thing I ever grew. No one called it ‘microgreens’ then, but the principle was the same: bit of wet kitchen roll, sprinkle seed on it, wait for them to germinate, water for two days, forget it’s on the school windowsill; throw away dried bit of kitchen roll. Now they’re…
Growing Licorice
“When I was a kid thirty five years ago all the children in Pontefract chewed on liquorice sticks.” Farmer Rob Copley’s decision to plant the UK’s first commercial crop of liquorice for over a century is driven more by nostalgia than hard business sense. He’ll need to wait another couple of years before he can…
A Volcano in my Compost
Jennifer Brodie has a theory. That the obesity problem Britain – and, indeed the world – is facing is down to our bodies craving trace minerals. She believes that every time we harvest vegetables we deplete the soil, yet with traditional fertilisers we’re only putting back basic fertility – Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium, AKA NPK. We’re…
Norwich’s Plantation Garden
“I don’t like the word ‘secret’,” says Roger Connah, chairman of the Plantation Garden Preservation Trust. “It implies it’s private. Henry Trevor wanted the public to enjoy it.” Public or not, the secluded Victorian paradise just outside Norwich’s inner ring road and left to sleep under a blanket of ivy for much of the 20th…
The Event Gardener 