I’m tired of going into florists and not being able to afford the most beautiful flowers. I love gladioli but don’t have them in the house nearly as often as I’d like, mainly because they are pricey, but also because the flowers in the shops are so much smaller than I know they should be. Where they send the huge specimens - I don’t know. So this season, I’ve decided to devote some space on the allotment to growing cut flowers. I’ve done some research and Gladioli prefer full sun but can tolerate a small amount of shade (perfect for the allotment). They need to be spaced out fairly widely and I’ll need to keep them weeded (as they don’t compete well). Also I’ll need to feed them with all purpose fertilizer. On the surface of it it looks pretty simple. I’ll need to stake them if they are to grow in the wilds of the allotment - but that can be arranged. You can buy around 25 bulbs for £6 or £7 and I’ve chosen to go with Black Jack and Nymph. If I order them now they won’t arrive until March (when you need to plant them) which is long time to wait but I get the feeling that suppliers run out once you get closer to Spring and so I’m putting my order in now. Wish me luck! And if anyone has any growing tips then send them over.
It’s official - I love my husband. And why? Because he bought me the most amazing, Victorianly fantastic, mini greenhouse for Christmas! (I love him for other reasons too but we’re splitting hairs here). I had no idea what he had bought me. The box was very long, flat and heavy and didn’t look anything like the shape of my gorgeous new plant house. So when I opened it on Christmas day I was very surprised. I assembled the side and polished the glass and wasted no time in putting my present to work straight away. I planted up some broadbeans and some winter lettuce and cut some matting to line the bottom (since the cold air was coming in through the deck slats). My Mini-Greenhouse is my new favourite thing. And it beats the socks off my old cold frame.
I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to all my fellow allotmenteers. I hope that Santa brings you many pairs of gardening gloves, much gardening data, and the odd pair of wellies. I’ve already received a smashing pair of pink secateurs! This Christmas will be much the same as last year but with the addition of Ryan’s Dad who is flying in from Denver. Well… we hope he’s flying in. Between the snow in Colorado and fog in London it will be nothing short of a miracle if he makes it in time for the Queen’s speech. But we’re looking on the bright side. We’ve raided the stores and have the chutney, pickles and cassis ready to make their dining room debut. And a sackful of potatoes ready for roasting. My parsnips didn’t make it this year (too tiny to feed us all) so it will be down to the farmers market for me tomorrow. The photo is one of my favourite tree ornaments. It’s a banana split - how Christmassy is that?
My leeks are getting big enough to pull now. I pulled up this one and cooked it with an onion from my store and some tortellini. Very nice.
They are buggers to get out of the ground though. I’m always paranoid that it will snap if I pull at it and so I dig down so deep that all the other leeks around it start to come out too. Then I have to replant them. Maybe they are too close together - I’m not sure.
On a different note - one of the great things about keeping a blog is that you can have a peek at what you were doing this time last year. It just so happens that I was planting some raspberry canes, 10 Autumn Bliss and 3 free ones (Golden) from Grow Your Own Magazine. The Autumn Bliss canes were fine and cropped very heavily. But only one of the three Golden canes survived and while the fruit tasted great there were very few of them. I guess I can’t complain since they were free!
A couple of days ago I bottled up my cassis that had been laying in a bottle since July. The amount of liquid that resulted was smaller than I had hoped but still, you don’t want too much of a good thing (especially when it’s mostly vodka.) I got the recipe from The Cook and the Gardener and apparently the author got the recipe in turn from Madame Milbert, so if it doesn’t taste good then I have a few people I can blame instead of me. The cassis is prepared in two parts:
Firstly you need to pick enough blackcurrants to fill a large bottle. Wash them and pack them in. Then pour vodka over them and fill to the top. Seal and leave until the first week in December.
Strain the berries over a pan, squashing them to bring out the last bits of juice. What you should have is blackcurrant flavoured vodka (good enough for anyone, you might think) but the next stage is to make it thicken. Measure how much liquid you have and then add equal parts of both sugar and vodka. I have a quarter of a pint, so I added a quart of a pint of sugar and the same of vodka. Bring it to the boil until it starts to thicken but don’t let it get to the jelly stage. Bottle it into sterilised jars. And there you have Cassis - ready for Kir Royale on Christmas day!
I’ve tried to keep pictures of our new kitten off mtp because, well, pictures of your new kitten are really only interesting to you aren’t they? Kittens also have nothing to do with growing vegetables; even though he’s fairly handy at digging and takes a keen interest in whichever gardening book I happen to be reading. But of course resistance is useless and for no other reason than he has to be the cutest kitten in the world, here he is making his mtp debut. Say hello to Marty.
