The Lost Gardens – what a great find

The wonderful think about being self-employed is that you can sneak off every now and then without having to justify yourself to anyone…except yourself, of course. So, when himself had to go to Cornwall at the end of last week on business I thought I would tag along for the ride. While he was busy doing chit-chat, chit-chat, coffee, coffee, chit-chat with customers, I took myself off and got snappy happy around St Ives with my new camera. What joy. Blue sky, blue sea and tonnes of lovely golden sand.

On the way back we decided to call in at the Lost Gardens of Heligan near St Austell as we’d heard they were worth a visit. Although late in the afternoon, we decided it was still worth visiting as it was a chance to see the rhododendrons in flower and we also wanted to see the greenhouses. Well, there are greenhouses and then there are greenhouses. These have all been restored to their original state and they are absolutely fantastic. Take a look at these…these are greenhouses to die for.

 

Then there are the cold frames and the famous Pineapple pits (complete with the first of the season’s pineapple)…

 

All this before you even get to the veg patch…well, patch doesn’t come anywhere close, it’s more of a veg acre. I have never seen so many canes in such neat rows. Even the scarecrow had been to Specsavers, sporting a trendy pair of bifocals on the end of his nose!

 

It’s not only the plants that are fascinating, it’s the way that everything has been planted in the neatest of rows and someone has painstakingly painted and handwritten every label. Every detail in this garden has been restored perfectly.

 

This is definitely a place to come back to when you can spend the whole day soaking it all in. We only really had time to look at the greenhouses, the vegetable garden and some of the jungle garden. We’ll definitely be back. For the whole day. With a picnic.

If you happen to find yourself in Cornwall this summer, I would thoroughly recommend a visit. Allow yourself plenty of time to explore. I can guarantee there will be plenty of, “Wow, look at that”, “If only I had a greenhouse like this”, “This veg garden is just…”, “OMG look at this” moments – so it’s definitely worth the £10 to get in. The plant centre, cafe and farm shop are an added bonus, as always. Here are a few more pictures to tempt you.

       

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb

Another week gone by, another hanging basket hung in the overcrowded greenhouse, and … another wet day! Will we ever be able to plant anything out? There are so many jobs to be done but this grotty weather is stopping us from getting on with most of them.

We planted another lot of peas last night. This is our third attempt: the first lot got eaten by mice, the second lot got drowned in the rain, so hopefully third time lucky. It seems that if things don’t get eaten, they get washed away. The sprouts and Sticcolli got bombarded by the storms a few weeks ago so we had to dismantle the cloches. This was good news for the pigeons, who managed to peck their way through the lot before we had chance to protect them. A second batch has now been planted and surrounded by a very complex system of gold cotton – ha, try pecking your way through that without getting stuck!!

Despite all of this, there are a few things that are doing well. Many of the strawberries are in flower and looking very healthy, the currants all have currants starting to appear and the rhubarb is growing like wild-fire. So, with a very soggy Bank Holiday Monday there was no option but to get creative in the kitchen with the rhubarb. We were determined to pick it while it is young this year and make the most of it. Last year we were complete rhubarb novices and left it to grow far too long and it became woody. Anyway, we called in the rhubarb tester last week (my mother) who assured us it was just right for picking. She eats it raw – aghh! (that’s what growing up during the war does for you). Last year she spat it out, but this year she just kept munching – proof that it was fit for eating.

So, what do we do with it? Well, I came across a recipe for Rhubarb Vodka so that was high on the list. Here it is…

The Rhubarb Vodka in progress

It might look all a bit stringy at the moment but hopefully in 3 weeks time when I’ve strained it, it’ll be pure nectar. Could it be this year’s village show winner and help us retain that Vicarage Cup? Well, if that fails perhaps the Rhubarb and Orange Jam might be a winner.

Lovely rhubarb

Rhubarb & Orange Jam

This is really tasty – a bit like marmalade but with that slightly sharp rhubarb taste. All we need to do now is to wait for a few more sticks to grow so that I can have a go at Rhubarb and Cardamon Chutney – Yum!

Just hanging around for fine weather

What do you do when the heavy rain stops you from getting on the allotment? Hang around and wait for it to stop? No, you go shopping. Yes, that’s exactly what we did on Saturday. A thorough browse round Wilko and Homebase soon helped to brighten up the soggiest of days. A few bargains were had. It’s amazing how quickly you can fill a shopping basket when you didn’t really need anything! We managed to get some sweetcorn plants and two mini cucumbers from Homebase (these were on the list) and picked up some bargain dahlia tubers in the reduced section. These were a definite bargain – £1.74 for two…so we got eight to go with the fifteen we bought last week from Sarah Raven. Do we need them all? No…but it’s hard to walk past a bargain, especially when they all had shoots on them.

Bargain tubers

Now, I’m the one in this partnership who holds on tightly to the purse strings…in fact, it’s not often that those purse strings get untied…but himself on the other hand, has no strings on his purse. It might have had elastic at one point but I think that went ‘ping’ a long time ago. So, not a surprise to find him lurking down the Homebase aisle with a swanky metal watering can in his hand. The look on his face told me that hand and handle where not going to part company until they were securely on the other side of the checkout. That can was not going back on the shelf. Yes, I know we need a second one, I know we need one with a long spout, I know we need one with a decent rose so it doesn’t wash my delicate seedlings out of their pots … but how much is it? “Quite a good price.” came the reply. Yeah, how many times have I been fooled with that one? Actually, he was right, it was a good price, and here it is…

The smart new watering can

We spent the rest of Saturday camped out in the greenhouse with a flask of coffee, radio on, planting out our new purchases and testing out the watering can…lovely rose. The greenhouse is now at the stage where a hard hat really needs to be issued at the door. Having to negotiate your head around the twelve hanging baskets that are suspended from the roof is proving quite a challenge. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have nothing on our greenhouse!Everything’s just hanging around waiting for the decent weather to arrive, whenever that is.

Just hanging around

Still hanging!

Even our heads have been replaced by baskets!!

Even though not much could be done outside this weekend, a lot of progress has been made on the inside jobs: seedlings transplanted on, tubers potted up. We’ve even managed a bit of cooking: a batch of chilli jam and a very rich ‘Death by Chocolate’ cake. Well, with weather that makes you want to hang yourself, you might as well end it all with chocolate!

Who’s had a picnic on our peas and a mange on our mange tout?

Having set ourselves a whole list of jobs to do on Sunday, we were a bit disappointed to have only completed a couple of them by the end of the day. Still, the carrots are in and some nasturtium have been sown around the broad beans to help control any blackfly. If it’s anything like last year, the broad beans will have come and gone long before the nasturtiums have sprung into action, but they do add a bit of colour in the veg patch…eventually. This is what they should look like.

Nasturtium Tom Thumb

Anyway, there has been much progress on the Jubolympic sitting area. Although a couple of hours were spent scratching our heads trying to work out how on earth to reconstruct the polytunnel frame in a creative way whilst making the best use of all the pieces, we finally cracked it. It seemed that the DIYerphobe member of the team suddenly came into his own once he had attached a pencil behind his ear. He was suddenly transformed into a Tommy Walsh-like character (spare the thought!) and soon had the whole thing adapted and ship-shape. The idea is to attach canes to it so that we can grow the runners, squash, borlotti and french beans up them. They should then grow over and cover it to provide a shaded area to sit under for those well-earned coffee breaks! In theory, it’s seems a good idea although there are concerns that it will either attract so many bees that we won’t want to sit under it, or that we might end up having to wear hard hats for fear of being tonked on the head by a butternut squash! It’s not complete yet, so not willing to post any pictures until it’s finished. So instead, here’s a of picture of our lovely tulips…

and another…

Whilst being so engrossed in our masterpiece construction, we failed to notice that something had pinched our peas. Himself had planted them the week before and had made quite a display of how neatly he had done so. Since he has finally understood the ‘piece of string attached to two wooden pegs = a straight line’ concept, his planting skills have come on leaps and bounds. Sadly, some cheeky mouse has decided to take the mickey and pinch every single pea seed without leaving a trace except empty holes where the seeds had been. So, it was back off to Wilko to buy more seed today. This time we’re starting them off indoors – he’s not ‘aving ‘em this time!

No mouse is going to mange through these mange tout!

It’s pouring with rain today so not sure if we’ll get much done tonight, except pea planting. Still, it’s all helping to fill up those water butts. Not good digging weather for us, but apparently ducks don’t mind it!

Posts, paving and planting progress

Well, it’s been a highly productive Easter weekend on the plot and in the garden. We set ourselves two major tasks that had to be completed before the holiday was over: putting in all the posts for the fruit trees at the allotment; and laying some slabs in the garden to rehouse the wheelie bins. Both jobs required some DIY skills so the weekend was doomed to have a certain level of grumpiness and disagreement attached to it! However, it was only the weather that turned out gloomy, the mood around the allotment and in the garden was all quite ok and all jobs have been completed. We’re now feeling quite smug with ourselves.

The 8ft posts have all been concreted in (thank goodness for Postcrete), wires attached and the fruit trees (two apples and a pear) are now nicely tied in and starting to look like proper espaliers.

Apple tree tied to its very sturdy wires!

A windbreak has also been erected around the currant bushes to protect them. Although the posts aren’t particularly straight, hopefully the whole thing will do the job.

The new windbreak

Down in the garden, a few slabs have been laid so that the wheelie bins can be taken out of the shed. This frees up a bit more space for the more untidy members of the household to dump more crap! Although you can see floor space at the moment, in a week’s time it will again be littered with pots, recycling bottles and anything else that doesn’t have a proper home.

On the growing front, everything is coming along nicely. The spuds are all in, the onion seeds are growing well and some of the chillis are showing the first signs of flowers. Space in the greenhouse is now at a premium and is about to get worse once I’ve potted on some of the seedlings. It’s all going to be a juggling act from here on in until everything can be planted in it’s final resting place.

There is also huge excitement as we have just found out that the village are going to hold a garden and allotment Open Day on 5th July over the Jubilee weekend. That’s sent us into a complete panic about all sorts of things – will the plot be tidy enough? Will we have managed to get everything planted out in time? Whose going to provide the tea? Should we make cakes? What about bunting? You can’t have a Jubilee without bunting!

Amidst the excitement, work is now in progress on a seating area – this involves the use of the old polytunnel frame. It’s in the design stages at the moment but it won’t be long before saws and hammers are back out…watch this space!

Getting our house (well, plot) in order

Well, it’s thanks to this hot weather and the change in the clocks that we’ve been able to spend more time on the allotment catching up with all those jobs that somehow never seem to get done. So, armed with power tools and hammer I have finally finished the lovely gate – marvellous! No rabbit will dare to burrow through this. Himself has been collecting horse poo like it’s going out of fashion (a strange hobby – not sure if it comes under the same category as trainspotting or stamp collecting, but hey ho), so trenches have been dug ready for all the planting to be done.

The lovely rabbit-proof gate

I have also completed the back-breaking task of putting weed control sheeting under the two strawberry beds. This involved spending the whole of Saturday afternoon on my hands and knees, backside in the air, cutting out holes to feed the strawberries through – not a joyous sight for other allotment holders to witness but a job well done I feel.

Strawberry beds with fresh sheets

The cloches have all been put together and onions and broad beans have been rehomed whilst I’m waiting for Mr Tiller to finish getting the soil ready so that things can be planted out. The parsnips have finally found their way out of the loo rolls so they can soon be planted in their final resting place – hopefully we’ll get straight ones this time.

Parsnips peeking out of the loo rolls

The greenhouse is filling up nicely and I’m trying to keep one step ahead of everything so that we don’t run out of space. All the plants have been purchased for the hanging baskets so it will be a challenge in the next couple of weeks when they all need potting on. It’s a real Jubilee collection – well, sometimes you just have to join in with the rest of them – so everything is red, white and blue…allegedly.

The cut flower beds are coming along and some of the perennials have been repositioned. The herb section has also had a bit of a make-over so will be ready for some new additions at some point.

The good news is that with all this walking uphill everyday to check on everything, we are getting fitter by the minute. The muffin tops are slowly shrinking – we’ll be positively size zeros by the summer!!

Unearthing our roots

Well, it’s been a quiet couple of weeks on the blog but it’s been all go on the plot. Suddenly spring has sprung and there are a thousand and one jobs to do. Thankfully the Mantis tiller arrived in time. It was a bit of a shock to realise that we had to practically build it ourselves (mechanics isn’t our strong point) but after much swearing and cursing over the instruction manual, the pieces seemed to all fall into the correct place and now man and machine are working together in perfect harmony.

Man and Mantis in action

 Since man and tiller have been united there has been no stopping them – every piece of earth has been churned up. So, whilst the two of them have been eagerly working their way through the plot, I have been trying to keep one step ahead by clearing everything that was either due to be pulled up for composting or salvaged for eating. This is what I unearthed.

The final harvest

Yes, it looks a bit like a line up for a Dr Who audition. For some reason most of the parsnips seem to have developed pairs of crossed legs. Some can even sit on a fence by themselves. Are parsnips supposed to do this? This year we’ve planted them in toilet rolls to try to solve the problem. Gnarled up shapes are one thing but it makes preparing them for the Sunday roast a very slow process.

Parsnips keeping their legs crossed

Sitting on the fence

Whitchetty grub or parsnip?

As for the celeriac - well, that’s all roots, shoots and no body. This is the second year we have attempted growing these and still aren’t very successful at it. We like celeriac but are we just wasting our time trying to grow them? Anyway, I’ve planted a few more seeds again this year but if they don’t produce anything, they’re out.

All roots, no body

Still, the greenhouse is filling up nicely now and in about a month’s time I think we’ll be struggling for space in there. This weekend I’ll be spending plenty of time in it transplanting all the onions so plenty of coffee and chocolate will be required. Since it’s going to be a wet weekend, it’s probably going to be the best place to be!

Off to Stoneleigh tomorrow to the ‘Grow your own’ show and then back to watch Monty in the evening – it’s good to have Monty back.

Ailsa Craig & the Red Baron have finally come to the party

Finally, after weeks of waiting, Ailsa Craig and the Red Baron have stuck their heads above the parapet. Just when we thought they had given up the ghost, they finally appear – hurrah!

Ailsa Craig & Red Baron have finally made it

The sad news is that yesterday we discover we are living in an area of severe drought and could be heading for a ’76 water crisis. Will we now have enough water to stop these lovely onions from shrivelling to their death? I do hope so…or do we have to start making stem cell onions to go with our stem cell burgers? Now, DON’T get me started on that one! The Dutch should stick to what they’re good at – growing tulips – not trying to grow a cow that “feels like and hopefully tastes like meat” (as quoted by Dr Mark Post).

Anyway, on a lighter, less controversial note you’ll be pleased to hear that the sweet peas and peppers have also decided to pop their heads up above the soil – things are starting to happen, spring is on its way at last. I think I will take a walk up to the allotment today and check on the greenhouse. Have a look at all that natural produce growing while it still has water and perhaps ponder over the possibility of having to become a vegetarian! Enjoy your pancakes whatever you choose to put on or in them.

A few onion thoughts for the day…

Life is like an onion and one cries while peeling it ~ French Proverb

An onion will not produce a rose ~ Latin Proverb

He who walks through a field of onions, will smell like an onion ~ Arabian Proverb

Onions, smoke and women bring tears to your eyes ~ Danish Proverb

Life is like an onion. Why is life like an onion? Because you peel away layer after layer and when you come to the end you have nothing ~ Yiddish Proverb

Different men have different opinions; some like apples, some onions ~ Indonesian Proverb

A Tiller for Hun

For the past two years we’ve been hiring a big old rotavator to break up our new pieces of allotted earth. Although this is a costly exercise, at the time, it seemed the cheapest option as we couldn’t afford to buy a rotavator, let alone know where to store one. However, over the past few months we have talked ourselves into believing that a tiller would be a good investment – especially now that the plot is established.

Hun rotavating in 2011

So, the discussions started along the lines of ,”We’ll look for something cheap and second-hand”, “We don’t need a new one – that’s just a waste of money when it will spend most of the year sat in the shed”, “We just need to have a look around and see what we can find for £150-£200. There’s no point in spending any more than that.” – absolutely right!

Then, thanks to the powers of marketing, all those sensible theories went completely out of the window – all thanks to DT Brown for putting that shiny Mantis tiller flyer in with my seed order.

Since then one of us has become completely obsessed (as he does) with the need for a tiller. The discussions then started to go along the lines of “We really need a tiller and this one does everything”, “It’s no good buying second-hand – it’s bound to keep breaking down”, “We really need the Deluxe model – and we need that plough attachement, it’s essential”, “I know it’s more than we planned to spend but…” “…and…the handles fold down!” Short of making coffee, this thing does everything, and so it should seen as it’s already completely churned the budget upside down.

The Mantis

So, after watching numerous videos about how good this thing is, all that praying for a Mantis has finally paid off. We’ve ordered it – the complete all-singing, all-dancing deluxe model with plough attachment, planter attachment and border edger (It would have been almost as cheap to buy a Massey Ferguson!) It arrives at the end of the month.

A Tiller in 2012 – love those safety specs Hun!

Tilly and her Tiller - look at her go! She'll soon have those 20 acres flattened and dug in ready for replanting

Now all I have to worry about is, that once I’ve brought obsessed man and machine together, how do I stop ‘Tiller the Hun’ from ploughing straight through my strawberry beds, the raspberry canes, the artichokes…? Nothing will be safe. Suddenly I feel the border edger attachment will be a wasted expense – the borders will have disappeared after the first outing!

In the meantime, to stop my precious fruit section from quaking in its roots, I’ll give everything a good prune and a good dose of potash at the weekend and pray that this Mantis comes with a foolproof set of driving instructions!

Beans, berries and bloomin’ snow

Not to be deterred by a little bit of snow (well, quite a lot of snow actually), we pulled on those wellies, filled the flask with coffee and wobbled our way up the hill with the wheelbarrow to the plot. The snow was not going to deter us – especially after having spent £45 in Wilko (oh, how we love Wilko) the day before – we had stuff to do!

Snowy views from the strawberry bed

The snowy allotments

White earth

Some of us were a little optimistic (as always) in thinking they would be able to dig up parsnips for the Sunday roast dinner. Not sure what part of frozen earth and four inches of white stuff on top he was not comprehending, but that’s men for you! (Let’s face it, it was only last Sunday when, after 4 hours of trying to drill drainage holes in a barrel and getting nowhere, he realised that the drill was in reverse!! Sometimes he can be quite…challenging.) So, once realisation had filtered through to those little grey cells he finally saw the sense of shutting the door of the greenhouse from the inside, pouring a hot coffee and setting to with planting the broad beans. All quite simple you would think until reality hit again and we remembered that the bags of compost we needed to plant the beans were outside – and yes, they were frozen solid! With many cups of coffee and a lot of positive thinking (even from me), we managed to thaw enough of the compost to plant them – 96 Aquadulce are now shivering in seed trays. Which seems to be what the onions are still doing as, 4 weeks later, there’s still no sign of anything happening. They need heat.

Not letting the snow stop planting

There is, however, good news. I have now transplanted 18 chillies which are looking strong and healthy, and I’ve also planted some sweet red peppers. These are all happily sitting on a nice warm windowsill. The other good news is that, thanks to My Tiny Plot, I now have four white strawberry plants (courtesy of Wilko, £2.28 for 2 – we love Wilko – have I mentioned that already?). When I first saw these in Wilko I wasn’t that impressed – they just looked like anaemic strawberries to me. It wasn’t until I read My Tiny Plot‘s post that I realised that they had a pineapple taste. Suddenly they became more attractive and an absolute must-have. So, now they are nicely potted up waiting for the weather to improve before going into the strawberry beds.

White strawberries

All we need now is a big thaw so that the compost might actually be ready for the next planting session and those blasted onions might actually start to sprout!