Red is the colour

 

Redcurrants and strawberries don't need any big introductions. They speak for themselves.  Glistening, juicy beads which have a sharp flavour.  Luscious, fragrant berries.  What's not to like?



 

We have enjoyed 6 of these....so far!

I freeze the redcurrants on open trays and then pack into polythene freezer bags.  I then make them into jewel-like redcurrant jelly (sometimes with the addition of Port!) or as a topping for baked cheese cake.  However, Summer Pudding would not be the same without redcurrants to compliment the rasperries and blackcurrants. 

Recurrants also team up well with almonds so occasionally I make a fatless swiss roll (whisking method), using ground almonds in place of some of the flour.  I fill the swiss roll with redcurrants folded into a mixture of whipped cream and marscapone cheese.  Decorated with toasted almonds, it is lovely.

After years of growing strawberries this is the first season we have enjoyed a glut and this is surprising given the awful early spring we had.  Dare I say, we are fed up of strawberries - literally!

Anyway, I given some away to friends and I have made some into puree and frozen it to have with porridge in the winter.  I also have a recipe for a speedy ice cream  The sliced berries are frozen.  To make the ice cream, put 1 1b of the frozen fruit into  a food processor and whizz up with 6 ozs sugar and a dash of rosewater, until chopped.  With the processsor running, pour in half a pint of double cream.  Serve it immediately as it is, or re-freeze and store for a day or two. 

 



My New Friend

Beyond Springfield there is a valley and open fields.  We love the view and the peace and quiet of nature and we have learned to live alongside the wildlife it brings, even if some people would regard some of the animals as pests.

There many early mornings that we see half a dozen rabbits grazing in the orchard and from time to time they venture further up the garden for a rummage in the borders or a play on the lawn.  They think they visit unseen but of course our ankles find the holes they leave behind and there are droppings everywhere.  

Mr Macgregor’s Garden is fenced off with ‘L’ shaped chicken wire and trellis because we did not think they would take any notice of Doc's ‘Rabbits Keep Out’ sign.  We also have high, raised beds and this does appear to help deter them.   In any case, there is a huge choice of food they can eat because the neighbours also have large gardens with plenty of lush munchings.  There is loads of space for everyone to share.

So, there is no need to trap the rabbits and make pies with them.  Any new ornamental borders are planted with hope (“let’s see if the rabbits destroy that.....”) and some plants have survived and some have not.  Anything precious is wrapped in chicken wire and the young fruit trees in the orchard have little jackets around the base of their trunks.

Yesterday, I was down on the plot picking sweet peas and enjoying the birdsong, when I noticed a cotton tail poking out of the grass near the raised bed where some tasty courgettes are growing nicely.  I suggested the rabbit move along by firmly shooing it away.  It looked me in the eye and then continued to graze.  I put down my snippers and trug and walked across to it.  And when I say right up to it, I mean within a couple of feet.  

With a mouth stuffed with clover, he/she looked at me again.   I looked at him. It was definitely a face off.  Again, I politely suggested he leave.  No response.

Usually, rabbits are shy creatures.  They will graze if undisturbed but if you go near them, they hop off into the hedgerow.  Not this one.  This one is friendly.  This one wants to stick around and get to know me.

Today, my ‘new friend’ was in the same spot again, laid on his side and basking in the sunshine.  He does not look poorly, it munches the grass and today it hopped onto to the raised bed to investigate the courgette plants which is not something I wish to encourage.

If anyone, has any suggestions how I can persuade this fury visitor that it would be better for him and me if we keep our relationship at a distance, please let me know.  Gardeners have to choose their friends very carefully because there could come a day when I will have to choose either our friendship or a row of lettuces - and I will choose the latter.  Already I am beginning to think the rabbit looks cute and a certain name keeps popping into my head.  

Please go, Peter, before it’s too late......

Pale, Interesting and Smelly

I was only introduced to the Astrantia a couple of years ago.  I won this plant in the raffle at our local Gardening Club and knew very little about it.  Members advised me that it was a cottage garden plant and that it would like light shade.  I planted it carefully and waited.  It grew very well and expanded well beyond its space so last autumn, I lifted the clump, split it and spread it around the garden. 

It seems to do well in both sunshine and light shade.  It is a pretty, understated flower but I don’t know the name of the variety.  I have since been told that people have difficulty growing this plant from seed and yet it can seed itself around a garden.  However, it does have one downside.  I was down on my knees weeding (my foot is still a problem) and there was an awful smell.  With a little investigation and suspecting that cats were the culprit,  I discovered the source of the odour was actually the Astrantia!  Still, it hasn’t put me off.  I am planning to buy a pink or lilac one too.

This Vibernum or ‘snowball’ tree is a popular feature at Springfield – when it is in flower.   For the rest of the year it looks uninspiring but is a healthy, old established shrub which has now grown into a medium sized tree.  It does tolerate hard pruning but it did suffer last winter.  The flowering has been relatively poor this year but in previous years it has been one huge snowball made up of lots of snowballs!  The flowers are supposed to have a nice scent but like the Astrantia, I find them rather unpleasant.  However, we like having this tree in the garden and try to make a point of admiring it when it is in flower.  This photo was taken the week and it was just finishing flowering and interestingly, the final flowers were all on the same part of the tree.

Mized trugs and Zingy flowers

The vegetable garden is becoming more productive and the trugs are filling up.  We have lovely Little Gem lettuces, lots of mangetout (which we eat raw in a salad or lightly steamed as a hot vegetable) and a good crop of Charlottes -  which are ‘First Early’ potatoes.  However, these are Late Earlies, if you know what I mean, because of the cold spring.

The radishes needed a bucket rather than a trug to bring them up to the house because we have a glut of them.  I have not mastered the skill of producing just enough of the 'catch crops' when we need them.  I do succession sow radishes but the rows either catch up with each other or one row fails and we have a gap in supply.  I had to pick all those that were ready today, wash them and put them in the fridge because the recent heavy rain is inviting slugs to dinner.  Still, homegrown radishes are much more flavoursome than those you buy so we don't mind pigging out on them for a few days.  They are lovely dipped in salt but we use them as dippers for a greek yogurt, grated cheese and mixed herb dip. 

I expect all the salad onions will be ready at the same time too but they will stand for a while and don’t attract pests.  There are several Lollo Rosso lettuces and a whole row of Webbs Wonderful that will probably bolt before they get to our plates.  I miss the chickens and today there were enough leaves to share with them.......

The baby 'bunching' carrots are those I sowed in pots in the greenhouse, during the late winter and I am very pleased with the results.  We have had 10 generous portions from 2 x 10 inch pots.  I just sprinkled the seed thinly on the surface of peat-free compost, sprinkled extra compost on top and kept the pots watered and fed occasionally.  The taste is sublime and it is a real treat to eat carrots which taste of carrot.  The carrots in the raised bed outside are growing slowly but hopefully we will get larger carrots for the main season which will store for a while.  However, I did not erect a baffle - working on the principle that they were sown very late and the carrot fly will have flown past before the carrots were up and about wafting their scent across the open fields behind us.  Only time will tell, of course.

There are pleasing eyefuls of colour dotted around the garden.  Roses and clematis lift our spirits and this clematis is the gaudiest of all at the moment.  It is called Fireworks and a single flower is bigger than doc’s hand.  They might not be the most sophisticated flower choice but who cares?  We need an overdose of colour after such a long, cold winter and disappointing spring.

 

Friendly Plants

 

When we moved here 9 years ago, there were many unfamiliar plants. It was like arriving at a party and I didn’t know many of people here. But as I got to know them, many of the new plants became good friends and I would really miss them if they disappeared. 
 
We have both white and pink clumps of Dicentra and these pretty ladies been a revelation.   The pendulous heart-shaped flowers dangle on the arching stems, delivering both colour and movement every season.  Dicentra does well in shade or sunshine, has a long flowering period and does not suffer from any pests or disease.  This glorious pink one sits underneath the purple/copper beech tree and the contrast between the pink flowers and bronzy leaves is striking. 
 
The Laburnum tree was another new friend I made and believe it or not, I named it the ‘yellow tassle’ tree until a neighbour explained what it is.  For some inexplicable reason I always think of the Laburnum tree as a male.  Perhaps it is because most of the year he is a little rough around the edges and quite boring!  He is poisonous too, if consumed in large quantities but he is worth having around because once a year, in early spring, he puts on a dazzling show.   

Some plants are friends because friends have given them to me.  I met my treasured friend, Sally, over 30 years ago and she brought me a Honeysuckle Americana as a housewarming gift.  I had always thought of these plants as shy, shade lovers but at the time the only available place to plant the Honeysuckle was in the south-west facing border at the back of the house.  But it adores the heat and the red and yellow flowers are seductively fragrant.  Like most things this season it is flowering later this year and currently it is worth stepping out through the French window just to take a really good sniff of it.  I also have a later flowering, pale pink climbing Jasmine growing through it and the two of them are quite chummy, rubbing shoulders as they scramble up the house.

Chocolates are nice but the gift of a plant is nicer.  It lasts longer, offers calorie-free pleasure and you never forget who gave it to you.  The only thing you have to watch is that you don’t kill it.  Now that would be a bad omen for your friendship!

Loppers, Faith and Tea

I read with amusement a while ago that Camellias can be grown successfully in containers.  Our Camellia, which has been at Springfield for decades, had grown to over 20 feet high and 10 feet wide at the last calculation and our acid soil suits it.  We don’t know the variety (maybe it is a Williamsii) but it has delivered consistently for the 9 plus years we have lived here and is a mass of bright pink flowers in late winter.  For us, the Camellia in full bloom is a sign that spring is on the way.  In the past we have had flowers in February though this year, the late spring caused it to come into flower much later.  We thought it may miss flowering this year but we were not disappointed. 

However, the size of our Camellia is now history because it started to look unruly a couple of years ago and Something Had To Be Done.  Today, Doc set out with the loppers and it now stands 8 feet high, diminutive compared to what it was.  We are hoping it is sighing to itself: “Oh thank goodness, you have taken me in hand!” rather than “Oh help, I am dying.......”

The time to prune a Camellia is immediately after flowering so that there is enough time during the active growing season for it to form new buds for next year.  However, with such a hard prune in mid June, we doubt we shall see a single flower next year.  We are prepared to take the hit and hopefully, our beloved Camellia will come back rejuvenated and with increased vigour in a few years time.

According to the RHS, hard pruning and renovation is safe and reliable.  I shall feed it with ericaceous feed, leaf mould and mulch with bark.  With some decent rainfall (never use tap water on a Camellia) it should perk up by the end of the season.  We have faith in it, we must believe it will flower again.

As I type, Doc is still trundling up and down the garden, taking the amputations to the bonfire.  Whilst he had the loppers in his hand, a couple of rhododendrons received a similar treatment.  I wish I could help him but my foot is still painful and I am confined to light duties.

The Camellia is related to the tea plant (Camellia Sinensis, I think), which also belongs to the Camellia family of large trees/shrubs.  Doc is addicted tea and would drink it all day, every day, before food, with food, after food and between food.  By the time he comes in this evening, he will be in need of a very large cuppa.  It is well deserved and thoroughly appropriate under the circumstances.  Better go and put the kettle on.