Land Cress

One very easy plant to grow is land cress.  If you are a bit of a water cress fan this is a brilliant alternative.  Water cress to buy is never cheap and often I don't use it all and it doesn't keep, which makes it even more expensive.  For the price of a packet of seeds (I scattered these in June to fill a space by the rhubarb) you have more cress than you can shake a stick at.  I grew it last year with exactly the same ease and success.  It seems to stay bug-free too. I suppose you could grow it in a pot too if you don't have a spare corner.  Cress to hand whenever your sandwich needs it.

Help from Colin G

Just in case you aren't tracking old posts and attached comments I thought I'd put this one in as a post.  It is a comment from Colin G attached to Why a Blog.  




This may be one step too far for you - it is for me.

Did you know Hugh Fearnley setup a 'Landshare' site a few years ago. I just had thought - I wonder if it is still going and low and behold it is. Also if you are interested or any other visitors there is a growing plot available in Hawkshaw, off Ramsbottom Road. Take a look - it can be found at this web site:

http://www.landshare.net/listings/17060/

I tried looking for further information about the plot, but it said I need to register with the site. 



Thanks Colin - it made me go back and check out the Landshare site and there are lots of bits of land and people all round the Bury area looking for each other.  It is well worth checking out if you've outgrown (or don't have) your own garden.

Filling in Gaps in the flower border

When I plant up chimneys and hanging baskets in the Spring I often have a few plants left over which I stuff in odds and ends of pots.  They come in very handy for filling gaps in the borders as the summer goes on.  Stuff dies down or new stuff isn't as big as I want it in its first year and I get odd spaces so I shove in a pot of annuals to fill the gap.  I noticed a space around the bird table this year so I hung two very small pots from it (with S hooks) with just one Surfina in each and stood a clay pot with a white geranium in it at the base and it looks much better for it. 

Do you grow tomatoes outdoors?

Do you grow tomatoes outdoors?  If so do you have any success?  How?


I grew a couple of varieties last year - Tumbling Toms and Moneymaker (maybe also Gardeners Delight).  They all grew well and put on loads of fruit but being this far north the fruit came on too late to ripen before the end of the season.  I tried to start them off earlier this year but they seem to have have arrived at the same point, i.e. end of July and loads of flowers and small fruit forming. I am growing Tumbling Toms again and four bush tomatoes called Amateur.  (see their picture in the post on Potting on Plants)  We seem to have hit another cool and wet period which has 'stopped them' again, so I don't hold out much hope of getting the fruit ripe before they have to be ripped up.  Down south they are,of course, being picked now!

The photo above shows Tumbling Toms in two window box type troughs standing on bricks on the edge of the patio.  They were hung on the fence but had to be moved when I bought my 'greenhouse'.  The photo on the right is a close up of the fruit and flowers - prolific but, as I said, probably too far behind where they should be at this point in the season.


Please tell me if you have any success with tomatoes outside and, if you do, is the secret in the variety, your planting routines or  what.

Slugs and snails and ..... frogs

When we came back from our break and had the front door open to unpack the car - this chap let himself in.  I suspect he lives pretty near the front door as he often leaves a tiny present on the doorstep.  We have quite a lot of frogs and toads in our garden which is pretty surprising as I don't have any areas which don't get fettled by me at one time or another (no peace for the wicked); also I don't have any water in the garden, unless you count the bird bath!  Nevertheless, as I said, I'm pleased to say our friendly slug eaters live here.  We also see the scat of a hedgehog now and again who visits fairly regularly and must do his bit.  I still suffer pretty badly from slugs and last week I found my first snail!  To add insult to injury it was a huge one with brown and orange striped shell.  I do use organic pellets without which the garden wouldn't stand a chance.  I've reduced the population dramatically from that which I inherited in the football pitch outside the back door when we bought the house three years ago.

Hacking back the jungle

I suspect the test of a totally obsessed gardener is his/her refusal to go away on holiday at least between April and September.  I've just got back from a week away and the garden looks like Miss Havisham's.  I also managed to arrive back complete with gammy foot and drizzly weather so am doubly frustrated staring out at it rather than tackling it.  I did manage a pirouette (a one-footed balancing act)  in a raincoat and gathered the veg which needed picking.  I know the photo looks remarkably like one I did earlier but the observant amongst you will notice the addition of runner beans and four (!) baby beetroots. I roasted the baby beets (cut in half) and discovered I liked beetroot!  It was sweet and delicious.  I've always hated boiled beetroots as they are either totally tasteless or fusty.  So if there's a beetroot hater out there I'd recommend trying growing your own, picking, cleaning, cutting to reasonable size, rolling in a little oil (I also dusted mine with smoked paprika as they were being roasted alongside some haddock steaks) and roasting for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade.


This leads me to the real purpose of this note - I thought I might add recipes as I go along.  They will be filed as a page rather than a post and can be found by clicking 'Recipes' on the tab at the top of the page.

Fill the gaps in the veggie garden

When I pull up something like today's potatoes it leaves a space in the garden which the local cats like to use as a toilet so I always try to fill it in some way to prevent this.  Sometimes I cover it with plastic mesh, or poke in numerous sticks but recently I've just cottoned on to a more useful method.  I plant something.

I grow trays of cut and come again salad leaves and drop those all over the place (also to cover gaps).  I thought if I transplanted some of the sad looking plants which have been cut a couple of times it wouldn't matter if they thrived or not, they were just there to 'cover' the loose soil.  So I hack out a lump and separate out a few plants and shove them in.

.... and, wouldn't you know it, they thrive on neglect and up they come!  I know you can keep planting radishes and lettuces and stuff to fill gaps but sometimes it isn't a workable space. It would be a problem trying to dig up the next potato plant with decent crops in the way, but I am going to plant some baby gem lettuces in a tray and move them on as the spaces grow and also plant some more radishes.