Rain and Flapjacks

Overnight Low: 5.0C Daytime High: 26.3C

The greenhouse seems to be really making a difference to the surrounding temperature, obviously keeping the wind off the plants is great but I need to find a way to store the latent heat in there overnight. I have collected a lot of plastic water bottles and tomorrow I am going to fill them up and leave them lying in the sun inside the greenhouse - hopefully it will work as a heat store.

I did some more planting today, having eaten lunch outside (now if I can do that everyday between now and July I'll be impressed) I skipped off to the garden centre in search of some sunflower seeds and more parsley - can't seem to find Rue anywhere anymore. I found some sunflowers named 'Irish Eyes' which are a dwarf variety suitable for shubberies (tee hee) and pots. They are also edible as young buds so I may try some in the vegetable garden.

Getting home I realised I had promised 'him' some flapjacks so I sorted those out with a very quick recipe.

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110g margerine

110g soft brown sugar

225g soft rolled oats

3 tablespoons of syrup

150g sultanas

Warm the oven to 180*C. Heat the margerine, sugar and syrup together in a saucepan, when melted and gooey pour over the oats and sultanas. Put in an 8" square dish and cook for 20-30min. Remove and draw a knife accross to cut into squares, allow to cool

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Then I got out into the garden, at which point it decided to rain. So I resorted to my deckchair in the shed and sowed

• 24 Sunflowers 'Irish Eyes' - dwarf variety
• 24 Lettuces 'Cos' - will also do some of these in the ground under the fleece polytunnel but need to prepare the ground first and allow it to wrm up a little.
• 6 Chilli Pepper 'Hot Tepin' - I wanted to try these as they grow as a shrub and have very pretty bulb shaped chilli fruits. I'll probably keep a couple in the greenhouse and have the others outside in pots - they have to be protected from the cold and frost at all times - can live to 30years old!
• 6 Gourds - Seeds from either last year or the year before, I will see if they germinate and if they do I'm going to grow them over the pergola on strings with the pots in the bathroom roof.
• 6 Sea Hollys, beautiful plants and very attractive to bees appartently. I am going to plant a couple in the back but most in the front as they are more likely to be able to deal with the south facing aspect. These seeds are from Heligan in summer 2008, as are the Globe thistles below, I hope the seeds haven't dried out.
• 6 Globe Thistles - these are specifically for the cats. I am going to place them at the entrance to the lawn so when one of the little sods tried to get past it'll get prickled.

Spring Cleaning

Overnight Low: 5.7C Daytime High: 25.2C I like my new toy.

This morning was bright but cold, after lunch I decided to clear out the shed and the sun came out - glorious! Grabbing my tools and my seed box I started to sow seeds and finished with;

• 10 Runner Beans 'Celebration' - two year old seeds but cropped well and by planting early if they don't germinate I can replace with 'Painted Lady' which were last years poorer cropping variety.
• 4 Greenhouse Tomatos 'Harlequin' - fabulous croppers, by reducing the number of plants I actually gorw in the greenhouse I hope to improve the crop.
• 6 Vine Tomatos 'Matkotska' - a new variety but I'll reuse the hanging baskets from last year and grow them around the edges of the pergola.
• 1 Butternet Squash 'Cobnut' - an old seed but going to try in a lined deep pot and see how I get on, my little sister makes the most jawdroppingly good soup from butternut squash (and cream - reather a lot of cream!).
• 2 Courgettes 'Midnight' - a very dark skinned variety, last years seeds but trying again for a better crop by planting in the veg patch rather than tubs.
• 2 Courgettes 'Black Forest' - these are the climbers from last year and I hope to get some decent crops off them this year, again by planting in the veg patch and not in tubs.
• 36 Peas 'Meteor' - winter peas but inspired by a few coming up of my pre winter sowing I redug one of the long thin tubs we used last year for onions and mixed in panty of home compost before covering with fleece to raise the germination rate and keep mice and pigeons off.

I have lots left which I want to sow, carrots and spring onions will go directly into the ground. I will do half and half for little gems - some outdoors inder the polyfleece tunnel and some in the greenhouse. I do need to do some tidying of the front garden which if the weather hold tomorrow I may do then. The tulips are now appearing in the front to the delight of the bumbly bees. which I am pleased to say I have seen many of. I am going to let just one borage grow at the back of the veg patch this year, along with cornflowers and limnanthus. I also have the honesty which is growing big and strong in the veg patch and will hopefully really bring bees in this year.


And then there are our wedding flowers as well to plant :)

Indian Summer Part II - Sloes!

Today we (nearly) lept out of bed in search of the elusive sloe. We have come to the conclusion that we will be having a traditional Christmas and celebrate all we love about Norfolk & English winter traditions. My Sarah Raven Christmas book has been well read and we've decided that we would try and make sloe gin & sloe vodka for Christmas, and having been told in some quarters that they were over, and other quarters that they wouldn't be ready yet we weren't sure if we'd missed the Sloe boat.

It was a cool start to the day but by the time we got up to Itteringham where we had asked a friendly farmer to help us to locate some sloes it had got really quite warm. In fairness I didn't know what a sloe looked like and so once the townies had been dropped by a hedge bursting with sloes we were left to get stung, scratched, prickled and generally made to work for our sloes. I was really surprised by the size of the little beggars and also the tenacity with which they clung to the hedge, the sheen on them was translucent and they are really pretty.

After picking some rosehips (not enough as I discovered when we got home) we headed up the Wolterton Park Harden open day where we immediately sought out lunch. The garden is rented out by the owners to a couple who grow enough to run Barker Organics. After lunch we toured the organic garden learning quite a bit about biodynamic gardening in the process. Growing up we were taken to almost every estate kitchen garden in England (well it felt like it sometimes) and while the Barker garden does not resemble one tiny bit the traditional national trust tidy type kitchen garden I can honestly say I have never been in a kitchen garden with so much wildlife. I saw a goldfinch for only the second time, robins, bees,(honey and bumble), and the various sunflowers were amazing, although they didn;t have any black ones like we grew this year.

After wandering around the stalls where we saw a whole host of amazing produce and crafts made in Norfolk we meandered home to an amazing supper of organic sausage, apple (mums tree), and Norfolk onion casserole. With it we had mustard mash made with our potatos - i can honestly say it was the best mash I have ever tasted! We had carrots plucked from the ground moments before going in the pan - he has to go and pick them by torchlight as the evenings have started catch us unawares.

By next weekend I hope to have my cloches which i'll need for winter growing - because of the veg patch dimensions then I have to cut accross my normal beds but if thats what it takes to get veg over the winter then so be it!

Oh and the sloes? 2.85KG - about 6 75cl bottles worth - Roll on Christmas!!!