A beautiful blanket of frost coated Ryton Gardens this week turning it into a winter wonderland, which certainly put me in a festive mood. You can see my photos on Flickr at the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gardenorganic/sets/72157625423351643/
The only problem was that we were all unable to do anything with the plants. Planting and digging out have certainly been off the cards for over two weeks, so I spent my time between sorting out seed orders and planning what to do next year. I’ve grown a fascination with edible flowers and have decided to plant a patch in the Cook’s garden in the spring with flowers ranging from Hollyhocks to Violets, and will place recipe labels amongst each species. It’s such an unusual concept, especially as most people don’t know which are edible and which aren’t, but I think flowers can make a meal look and taste wonderful, and so should be enjoyed as much as vegetables!
This week we’ve mostly been ‘moving gardens’. The new Pest and Disease garden is being amalgamated with the Allotment, so we’ve all chipped in with day-to-day landscaping, including installing a new fence-line and stripping off frozen turf, or should I say turf-bergs (which we now want to be introduced into the Oxford Dictionary). With these turf giants we constructed what can only be described as a mountain in the composting area, which will eventually turn into loam. I’m really enjoying learning new practical skills; especially with landscaping… you never know when you’ll be called upon to build a fence! Next week it’ll be slabbing!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Grape Jam
An invasion of moles has swept through Ryton Gardens this month, leaving what resembles the Himalayas in our orchard. So last team day we armed ourselves with spades and wheelbarrows and dug every one of the molehills up. Team days are so varied which is why I love them so much. One day we could be clearing the woodland walk and the next mending rabbit fencing, but it’s never dull.
In the afternoon we tidied the biodynamic garden up, including the vines that had been hit by the recent frosts. I collected a hat full of what we thought were ornamental grapes, but actually tasted delicious, and took them home to make jelly. I decided this was more useful as I eat more jam than I drink wine. If anyone else fancies making the same, I put 1kg grapes in a pan on a medium heat for 15 minutes till they began to go juicy, and then used a potato masher to squish them further. I then turned the heat down and left them to simmer for about 45 minutes, mashing every now and again. When there were no more whole fruit in the pan, I took them off the heat and placed an old teatowel in a large colander. I poured the juices and pulp into the teatowel and let them drip through. You’re meant to do this overnight, but I was impatient and squeezed the teatowel full of molten pulp till it was dry (to the detriment of my scolded hands), I highly recommend you wait till it cools! You should have 600ml of liquid to which you can then add 450g caster sugar and heat in the pan fairly high, and check every 5 minutes to see if the jam wrinkles on a cold plate. It tastes yummy with cambozola cheese on nice bread.
In the afternoon we tidied the biodynamic garden up, including the vines that had been hit by the recent frosts. I collected a hat full of what we thought were ornamental grapes, but actually tasted delicious, and took them home to make jelly. I decided this was more useful as I eat more jam than I drink wine. If anyone else fancies making the same, I put 1kg grapes in a pan on a medium heat for 15 minutes till they began to go juicy, and then used a potato masher to squish them further. I then turned the heat down and left them to simmer for about 45 minutes, mashing every now and again. When there were no more whole fruit in the pan, I took them off the heat and placed an old teatowel in a large colander. I poured the juices and pulp into the teatowel and let them drip through. You’re meant to do this overnight, but I was impatient and squeezed the teatowel full of molten pulp till it was dry (to the detriment of my scolded hands), I highly recommend you wait till it cools! You should have 600ml of liquid to which you can then add 450g caster sugar and heat in the pan fairly high, and check every 5 minutes to see if the jam wrinkles on a cold plate. It tastes yummy with cambozola cheese on nice bread.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Pungent pond dipping
Autumn is on it’s way, and my daily jobs in the garden have shifted from weeding ‘nine to five’, to regrouping and moving plants around. Despite the fact that these jobs are tiresome, I really enjoy this type of destructive gardening. It gives me a better idea of what is actually meant to be in each of the beds. In the Cook’s Garden, for example, Sorrel and Geraniums had entwined so much within one bed that it took me three whole days to separate each small plant and regroup. I must say it’s very satisfying to be able to label each one individually now!
The Crab Apple in the Cook’s Garden had dropped most of it’s fruit now… mostly in the pond below, and when I went to turn on the pump last week there was a pungent smell of rotting fruit in the air and the water had turned black. With the kind help of my colleague Paul, we emptied the whole pond, sieving each bucket through a net so that we could fish out any wildlife into a separate container. After four hours of doing this in the pouring rain I was soaked through three layers of clothing, however it was definitely worth it, as we saved over thirty young newts, ten large dragonfly larvae and many water boatmen. Thankfully now the smell has gone!
A couple of weekends back I helped out at Audley End’s Apple Weekend. Garden Organic were giving free advice about apple and pear pests and diseases, so I frantically revised the week before for every possible question I might be asked. I’m now full of random facts about Codling Moth (a pest of the fruit) and Brown-Rot (a common fungal rot of the fruit), hopefully they’ll come in handy in the future! It was lovely to walk around the beautiful walled kitchen garden there, and see some of our heritage vegetable varieties growing. I was particularly amazed by all the different squashes they’d grown from melon-like ‘Bien Gusto’ to large pumpkin types such as ‘Cinderella’.
The Crab Apple in the Cook’s Garden had dropped most of it’s fruit now… mostly in the pond below, and when I went to turn on the pump last week there was a pungent smell of rotting fruit in the air and the water had turned black. With the kind help of my colleague Paul, we emptied the whole pond, sieving each bucket through a net so that we could fish out any wildlife into a separate container. After four hours of doing this in the pouring rain I was soaked through three layers of clothing, however it was definitely worth it, as we saved over thirty young newts, ten large dragonfly larvae and many water boatmen. Thankfully now the smell has gone!
A couple of weekends back I helped out at Audley End’s Apple Weekend. Garden Organic were giving free advice about apple and pear pests and diseases, so I frantically revised the week before for every possible question I might be asked. I’m now full of random facts about Codling Moth (a pest of the fruit) and Brown-Rot (a common fungal rot of the fruit), hopefully they’ll come in handy in the future! It was lovely to walk around the beautiful walled kitchen garden there, and see some of our heritage vegetable varieties growing. I was particularly amazed by all the different squashes they’d grown from melon-like ‘Bien Gusto’ to large pumpkin types such as ‘Cinderella’.
Friday, September 10, 2010
The Cook’s Medlar
Last week I decided to give the Medlar tree in the Cook’s garden some much needed attention to open the crown and let light in to the bed. It hadn’t been pruned for a few years and I have never pruned a tree in my life, so it was challenging to say the least. But with some help from our lovely volunteer Jill, I managed just fine. We plucked up the courage to cut back each gangly, long branch to an upward facing side-shoot, which would allow that to become the new leader. However, as lovely as the tree looks now, I’m somewhat discouraged from eating its fruit. They’re interestingly shaped, quite similar to a rose hip, but apparently they need to be left alone to rot or ‘blet’, which I find off-putting. I would however like to try making a medlar cheese, which is supposedly like lemon curd.
Matt, Claire and I have been learning tree identification of British species for our diploma, and in a week’s time we’ll have to identify twelve species at random for our assessor. I find identification really enjoyable, as it requires you to pay a great deal of attention to characteristics of the tree that would normally be overlooked, such as leaf arrangement. I’ve since begun obsessively staring up at trees that I normally wouldn’t have noticed, blending in with the backdrop to the gardens.
Last Friday I was really excited to see my garden on BBC Gardeners World, for a piece on green manures. The day before they filmed, I frantically tidied up areas of the Compost Display Garden ready for the camera, and everyone helped me spread new woodchip on the paths. I was beaming with pride when I actually saw it on TV…just wish I’d recorded it!
Matt, Claire and I have been learning tree identification of British species for our diploma, and in a week’s time we’ll have to identify twelve species at random for our assessor. I find identification really enjoyable, as it requires you to pay a great deal of attention to characteristics of the tree that would normally be overlooked, such as leaf arrangement. I’ve since begun obsessively staring up at trees that I normally wouldn’t have noticed, blending in with the backdrop to the gardens.
Last Friday I was really excited to see my garden on BBC Gardeners World, for a piece on green manures. The day before they filmed, I frantically tidied up areas of the Compost Display Garden ready for the camera, and everyone helped me spread new woodchip on the paths. I was beaming with pride when I actually saw it on TV…just wish I’d recorded it!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Blackcurrant Jam
One of my favourite things to do is foraging, especially when it involves cooking what you’ve spent backbreaking time collecting. So being here in the gardens, with fruit and veg at my fingertips is a dream. A few days ago, quite unexpectedly, the Gardeners World Magazine team took photos of my blackcurrant bush in the Compost Garden being pruned, and I was left with branches coated with lovely juicy fruit, which I hadn’t seen, hidden in the depths of the plant. I gathered every tiny morsel and made jam in the evening. It was so good that I was worried the amount left in the pan wouldn’t be enough to fill a jar, after removing copious amounts for taste testing. Luckily I have another bush in the Cook’s Garden with fruit ready to pick, so I’ll be showing how to make blackcurrant jam in my next video diary.
We’ve begun learning practical skills for the diploma this week, and started with a module on propagation, so yesterday morning our head gardener, Andy Strachan taught us how to take woody cuttings. Matt, Claire and I ventured out into the orchard to take the cuttings and simultaneously prune some of this year’s new growth of the ‘Winter Gem’ apple tree. Cuttings have always been a mystery to me, yet in actuality they’re relatively simple. You don’t even have to be delicate, and I have a theory that the more you mollycoddle a plant, the less strength it builds on its own. After all, natural selection discards the weak and maintains the naturally tough.
On that note I’m going to head back out in the rain, and finish some weeding!
We’ve begun learning practical skills for the diploma this week, and started with a module on propagation, so yesterday morning our head gardener, Andy Strachan taught us how to take woody cuttings. Matt, Claire and I ventured out into the orchard to take the cuttings and simultaneously prune some of this year’s new growth of the ‘Winter Gem’ apple tree. Cuttings have always been a mystery to me, yet in actuality they’re relatively simple. You don’t even have to be delicate, and I have a theory that the more you mollycoddle a plant, the less strength it builds on its own. After all, natural selection discards the weak and maintains the naturally tough.
On that note I’m going to head back out in the rain, and finish some weeding!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Summer fruit scrumping
I’ve just come in from the gardens for lunch and have picked a punnet of mixed summer berries from Claire’s fruit circle, which I’ll turn into a delicious pie this evening, if they can survive the afternoon without being eaten! Today is our team day and we’ve been harvesting all the soft fruits for the restaurant to make yummy deserts with. I’ve discovered this month that “scrumping as you go” is a fantastic incentive when doing laborious tasks such as weeding, and have had to actively restrain myself from grazing the alpine strawberries in the Cook’s Garden beds when I’ve been in there.
I’m really enjoying giving mini-makeovers to some of the gardens at the moment, regrouping plants and weeding. Last week I wood chipped the paths in the Compost Display Garden, and this week I’ve been planting up parts of the restaurant borders with Lychnis, Achiliea, Penstemon, and Heuchera. Although I think I let my girliness get the better of me as all of those have pink flowers. I’ve also planted out the alpine bed with Primula auricula, which Matt had going spare in the Vegetable Kingdom glasshouse, so I’ll be interested to see how they survive over winter.
We’ve recently begun choosing our modules for the diploma in Work-Based Horticulture, and there have already been a few modules which have caught my eye and am really looking forward to learning. We’ll be getting the chance to study plant nomenclature, terminology and identification, so I’m hoping my botanical work will come in very handy with this. We’ll also be learning about propagation methods, and also the identification and control of different pests and diseases, which should be very useful to me in the future.
I’m really enjoying giving mini-makeovers to some of the gardens at the moment, regrouping plants and weeding. Last week I wood chipped the paths in the Compost Display Garden, and this week I’ve been planting up parts of the restaurant borders with Lychnis, Achiliea, Penstemon, and Heuchera. Although I think I let my girliness get the better of me as all of those have pink flowers. I’ve also planted out the alpine bed with Primula auricula, which Matt had going spare in the Vegetable Kingdom glasshouse, so I’ll be interested to see how they survive over winter.
We’ve recently begun choosing our modules for the diploma in Work-Based Horticulture, and there have already been a few modules which have caught my eye and am really looking forward to learning. We’ll be getting the chance to study plant nomenclature, terminology and identification, so I’m hoping my botanical work will come in very handy with this. We’ll also be learning about propagation methods, and also the identification and control of different pests and diseases, which should be very useful to me in the future.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
First month in the gardens
My first month working in the gardens at Garden Organic has been a dream come true. Not only have I had chance to work with wonderful gardeners, but I’ve also been blessed with gorgeous weather! Weeding becomes a pleasure on a warm summers day here and I’m happily reminded by passing visitors that I have the best job in the world.
My three gardens are at their peak at the moment. The Judas Tree in the Cook’s Garden was at its best a couple of weeks ago, with a beautiful pink bloom that encourages you to walk the winding path under it. We’ve finished planting out the crop rotation for this year’s vegetables, and already have others on the cards for succession sowing later on in the year. Succession sowing is when you sow seeds of fast growing vegetables at regular intervals, so there is always something ready to replace what has been harvested throughout the year.
When I arrived one of my first tasks was to sow eight different green manures in the Compost Display garden, as a comparison for visitors to see. This was great practice for sowing in drills (making a ‘V’ shape groove in the soil with a hoe, then sowing seed and covering using a rake) and broadcasting (scattering seed evenly on the soil, then raking over). I’ve been following plans for several beds to demonstrate different types of mulches, such as leafmould, compost and even grass, to cover your soil, and planting out different crops on each.
My third garden is the Restaurant Borders, which is predominantly ornamental, filled with Alchemilla mollis, and irises.
I’m having so much fun working with Matt and Claire, my fellow Seeds of Change Apprentices, and looking forward to an exciting year ahead!
My three gardens are at their peak at the moment. The Judas Tree in the Cook’s Garden was at its best a couple of weeks ago, with a beautiful pink bloom that encourages you to walk the winding path under it. We’ve finished planting out the crop rotation for this year’s vegetables, and already have others on the cards for succession sowing later on in the year. Succession sowing is when you sow seeds of fast growing vegetables at regular intervals, so there is always something ready to replace what has been harvested throughout the year.
When I arrived one of my first tasks was to sow eight different green manures in the Compost Display garden, as a comparison for visitors to see. This was great practice for sowing in drills (making a ‘V’ shape groove in the soil with a hoe, then sowing seed and covering using a rake) and broadcasting (scattering seed evenly on the soil, then raking over). I’ve been following plans for several beds to demonstrate different types of mulches, such as leafmould, compost and even grass, to cover your soil, and planting out different crops on each.
My third garden is the Restaurant Borders, which is predominantly ornamental, filled with Alchemilla mollis, and irises.
I’m having so much fun working with Matt and Claire, my fellow Seeds of Change Apprentices, and looking forward to an exciting year ahead!
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