My new Rhubarb forcer! Father Christmas ‘did’ know where to buy one. Hooray! I’ll be putting it to work very soon. Once my Rhubarb is showing a few more signs of life I will be placing the forcer on top to block out the light and encourage the shoots to grow tall and tender.
I’ve never grown forced Rhubarb before so I’m looking forward to the reputedly sweet and delicate shoots that forcing produces. Its recommended to only try forcing with at least a three-year-old crown (which mine is) so hopefully the results will be good.
I’ve consulted Percy Thrower on the matter. He suggested that while you might need the extra warm that a thick layer of straw would provide with something like Seakale, you don’t need to bother with Rhubarb as it will grow on its own accord at this time of year anyway. So I’ll be sticking to just the forcing pot for now.
Anyone else forced any Rhubarb? Any tips?
Since Jackson already has a boggling array of presents under the tree from friends and family we decided to make him a present this year (well sort of). A cafe in town has a cute little train set that has been glued to a table top to make a train set. He loves it!
So I thought I would replicate it and make one for him for Christmas. I started to search for a suitable table and found this 70s coffee table at the farmers market for £9 (with free delivery I might add!). Perfect.
Then we painted it. Red for the base (because that’s what colour his room is) and green for the top because our train will be travelling through the countryside! Next we found a basic wooden train set. This John Crane set was perfect because it had houses and people and animals as well as track and a complete train. That was £20. Then we stuck it all down with wood glue.
It works like a dream.
Not that we’ve been playing with it or anything. I think he’ll like it. And the best part about it? It’s not plastic, we had a great time working on it and when he’s bored with it we can freecycle it. It’s a veritable eco-toy.
We’ve had some snow at mtp (hooray!). Not a whole lot but enough to get me worried about my Broccoli. So last night I threw a fleece over them. This morning it was like waking up to the three spirits out of A Christmas Carol. A bit spooky!
Underneath their blanket though they’re bearing it well. A little droopy but nothing some winter sun won’t fix. Come on Broccoli!
So I went on a mad foraging mission and found all this lovely greenery. I had to make two trips I found so much gorgeous stuff. Very heavy on the green (Laurel, Holly, Yew and assorted other stuff) quite light on the red (could only find one branch of red berries and a bunch of rose hips!).
Holly with berries on it = officially rare as hen’s teeth this year. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not short of Holly, not round these parts, but Holly with berries? well… I did actually spy some in the stable yard down the lane with ooh… at least three berries on it. But you can’t can you - even in the name of Christmas deckies.
So here’s my pile of outdoors, smelling like a gorgeous mountain of gorgeousness. Just waiting to be made into mantle decorations and door welcomers. I’ve got my two little helpers, one’s on Christmas cards, the other’s on erm… ribbon.
We couldn’t get more festive if we tried. Maybe some eggnog?
How’s everyone else making use of the great greenery shop outside their front door? Are you doing it yourself or did you cheat and go to the farmer’s market?
I’m pretty sure I saw the first signs of my future Sprouting Broccoli harvest today. Each branch has a tiny little sprout, tinged with purple, beginning to show. This is where the small bunches of curds will form. Ooh I can hardly wait. Purple Sprouting Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables from the garden. You can hardly buy it in the shops (maybe at a farmer’s market) but it tastes sooo much better than common Broccoli (actually Calabrese) that it’s worth waiting nearly a whole year for.
I made sure that the plants were staked firmly and even earthed them up a little to stop wind rock. It would be a disaster if one of them fell over!
It’s Chriiiiiistmas! And in the spirit I made these Super-Easy Mini Yule Logs for a kids Christmas party that Jackson went to. They are so easy but look quite the part. Simply buy some ready made mini chocolate rolls, then cover each one with chocolate icing (bought or made whichever you have time for). Then dust with icing sugar and don’t forget the ornamental snow-covered trees! Et voilà - the easiest yule logs you’ll ever make.
Finally!… I was able to get into the garden today. As dank and mouldy as everything was I managed to do some tidying up. And while I was rummaging in the undergrowth I found something which made me smile. A Coriander plant (I think you call it Cilantro in the US) that had apparently gone to seed in the Summer was now sporting bunches and bunches of perfectly dried seeds, ready for the harvest. A tiny miracle really.
They’re so intricate with their small ridges and bumpy exterior. Some of them are split but I think that’s okay. They seem pretty dry so I’m saving all of them and hoping for a bumper Coriander patch come next year. Well worth putting my wellies on for!
My Tiny Grape Vine is a bit of star in my garden. It sits in the far corner, quietly doing its thing. And then in September it produces the sweetest, tiniest black grapes you can imagine. It sounds like I don’t really have to do anything but sit here and wait for the Grapes but that’s not entirely true. Over the past year I have poured over many books and fretted over which training system to go for. Not to mention nearly having a mini-breakdown every time I have to prune it. But I think I may have turned a corner. Today, I winter pruned my Grape Vine in readiness for next year’s fruiting season.
Having already decided on the Guyot system I was all geared up to do the Winter prune with confidence. And that’s what I did. As you can see from the photo above all the leaves have dropped off the vine. This makes it much easier to see what you’re doing. The Guyot system allows for the vine to have two ‘arms’ off which the vertical fruiting branches grow. The arms must be one year old and the fruiting branches are this season’s growth - otherwise it won’t work.
So the trick is to earmark two branches from the current season’s growth to make next year’s horizontal ‘arms’. The two branches in the middle look perfect to me. Carefully bend them down so that they are horizontal. It’s a good idea to do this before you make any cuts to ensure they don’t break.
Now that I have my new horizontal arms in place I can snip off last year’s arms along with all of the vertical fruiting branches.
This will leave you with just two horizontal branches. Ideally, you’d want them both to lay flat like the one on the left but this isn’t always possible. The right hand branch will still fruit it just won’t look as pretty.
Then when you’re happy with your pruning, tie the arms in to protect them from the Winter wind. And you’re done!
