Beautiful blackcurrants, deep rosy red fleshed apples, delicious patio tomatoes, and a ginger rosemary cocktail that will blow you away - all on offer at Hampton Court this week in the Edible Eden Garden, designed by Chris Smith of Pennard Plants... Edible Eden combines a formal vegetable area, unusual edibles in the forest garden and … Continue reading Fruity New Ideas in the Edible Eden Garden at RHS Hampton Court
1. Wildflower Power Everywhere you turn at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, indigenous trees, shrubs and perennials are interpersed with native biennial and annual wildflowers. The gardens are awash with hornbeam, birch, willow, yew, guelder rose, cow parsley, foxglove, ragged robin and sedum. The pinks of red campion and ragged robin are particularly conspicuous … Continue reading 5 Environmentally-Friendly Ideas to Take Home from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
In January I banished grey days by reading The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair. It took me on a vivid journey through the history of colour, to explore the unknown corners of sepia, fallow, orchil, Isabelline and vantablack. As I read, I noticed how many of the terms are derived from plants like madder, … Continue reading 25 Colourful Crops for a Vibrant Vegetable Garden
In 2013, in a North Lincolnshire kitchen, pea farmer Ben Branson began experimenting with a copper still after reading about the non-alcoholic remedies distilled by apothecaries in the 1600s. Ben's family have been farming for 300 years and their peas are picked by hand by Ben and his team. His kitchen experimentation led to the … Continue reading In Praise of the Humble Pea: The Seedlip Garden
With chilli sowing season already upon us, it's time to unearth my special seedy shoeboxes to plan for the growing year ahead. One particular box contains an exciting collection of seeds - those I'm trialling for Suttons in my role as a guest blogger for 2018. I'm really looking forward to trying out some of … Continue reading Seedy Saturday: Rainbows, Crocodiles and Pearls
It's been a busy year of writing, studying, volunteering and looking after a young family, but the hard work is all worth it when projects and crops come to fruition. Not all our growing endeavours have been successful - we failed to get even one pear, most of our greengage fruitlets were blasted by a … Continue reading 4 Tastiest Crops Of 2017
This will be my fifth year growing cucamelons and the first year I've successfully overwintered them. Heralded as an exciting addition to cocktails by James Wong in 2012, I've spoken to many people who have grown cucamelons only to be disappointed with either the taste or harvest of these diminutive fruits. I am prepared to accept that for some (misguided!) individuals the … Continue reading Do My Cucamelons Look Big In This?
When we inherited our allotment last March, the only crop which had overwintered was a collection of celeriac - clearly beloved of the previous occupants if the quantity, amount and size of the plants was anything to go by. I've long been a fan of the nobbly, bald vegetable after having it in soups in Austria … Continue reading Allotment Soup Challenge: Celeriac and Blue Cheese
We've been having festive fungal fun all through December in our house, thanks to the Oyster Mushroom Kit sent by the nice people at the Espresso Mushroom Company. This week it's been the highlight of the process - harvest, cooking and scoffing them in waves of warm garlicky goodness. On Day 16 they were ready … Continue reading Oyster Mushroom Advent Calendar: A Christmas Harvest
On the first day of Advent the postman gave to me, some mushrooms to grow in coffee... My children (aged 4 and 7) were exploding with excitement this morning as they opened the first door in their Lego advent calendar - a special treat this year from Grandma and Grandpa. We also have the atmospheric beauty of … Continue reading Oyster Mushroom Advent Calendar: Part One