We had Jon’s parents staying us with last week so we were far too busy to do any gardening until the weekend. We’ve planted up the flower border with some tallish flowers that Jon took a shine to (v. embarrassed as I can’t remember what they’re called) and some marigolds which I love and the slugs hate.
We also bought some ‘ready grown’ cut and cut again lettuces as our home grown crop has been such a disappointment. In fact, we’ve come to the conclusion that we probably won’t bother growing from seed in the future. I know some will regard this as an act of heresy but we ended up discarding a fair few of the plants we did grow from seed as we just didn’t have sufficient room for the grown plants, and, once you take into consideration the financial cost of seeds, compost, pots as well as the cost in time, letting someone else do all that for you, then cherry picking the amount of plants you can realistically cater for is far more cost-efficient. However, so far, the leeks, shallots, onions and potatoes are still holding their own so we haven’t totally given up, but they are on probation. We made the mistake of harvesting our early potatoes too soon so the crop isn’t as good as last year’s. They’re a blue-skinned variety so they look a bit odd. Haven’t tried eating them yet but we’ll have them with quiche on Thursday.
One area I would like to explore more is herbs as are really thriving and can be used in such a variety of ways. I currently use them extensively in cooking, mainly dried though. Must get into the habit of using fresh! I have a really good recipe for herb bread in a breadmaker. To make a 2lb loaf
330 ml of tepid water
560g of strong white flour
1 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of dried milk (optional but I add it)
3 tbsp of olive oil
2 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of tarragon
1 tsp of basil
1 tsp of oregano
1 tsp of parsley
Sachet of dried yeast
The dough is a lovely texture and tastes delicious with home-made watercress and/or spinach soup.
Finally, I’ve just picked our first crop of strawberries – grown in baskets attached to the side of the shed which keeps them slug free – now waiting in the colander to be added to the fruit salad I’m having for lunch.
