Silver washed fritillaries

One of the things Vince and I share is our love of plants, flowers and wildlife in general. One of the things we love doing together is wandering round the garden or field looking at flowers or spotting wildlife, and on Sunday mornings we will often have tea in bed and get out some books. We have an extensive library from both my collection and Vince's dad who was also a keen wildlife spotter. We browse through the books finding out what butterfly/bird we saw, or try to find out what wasps and hornets eat. It's such a simple pleasure.

I planted two buddleia bushes in our garden this spring. They have given us hours of fun bee and butterfly spotting. We got quite excited when these fritillaries arrived. I took lots of pictures like this...

 and finally got some decent close ups, and (with the help of several books) identified this one as a male silver washed fritillary

 and this one as a female silver washed fritillary (and a bumble bee, unidentified)

Once again, as I write this, I am reminded how very lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.

A bit more chard and other gardening notes

One more ramble about chard before I move on. I know I've written about it a lot, but if you grow your own stuff then life is like that, chard for weeks on end, then beans for weeks on end, then courgettes, etc etc. I love seasonality and wouldn't dream of buying courgettes in winter or kale in the summer. My favourite chard of all is rainbow chard. It is not only easy and productive but it looks really pretty as well. I didn't get good germination on my rainbow chard last year, I think the seed was old, but a few plants made it through the winter so I've left the colourful ones to flower and set seed and I will scatter the seed about in the hope that I will end up with a selection of colourful plants in amongst my home saved seed.

The last few rainbow chard running o seed

Wonderful splashes of colour

 And so on to radish.
 A friend gave me some winter radish seeds last year which I sowed in the autumn, but it was so cold that only a few ended up large enough to eat. The rest I left to flower because radish produce these great little pods which, if picked while still small and green, can be added to salads. They are lovely and crunchy and have a slightly, well, radishey taste. They aren't as fiery as radish so are particularly good if you find radish a little hot as I do. The flowers are also great for bees and I expect, although I haven't tried them, that the flowers would be good in salads too.

Crunchy radish pods

And finally a planting tip.

Before planting anything out (this applies equally to flowers, veg, shrubs etc) always soak the plants well beforehand. By soak I don't mean just pour a bit of water over them, I mean actually submerge the whole root ball in water for several hours, and if they are dry to start with then overnight is not too long.  Any more than overnight and you will start to do more harm than good and actually kill off the roots.
My allotment is several miles away and there is no water except what I collect in water butts. I plant things out, water them in and then they are often on their own for several days, I rarely lose plants from drought. When I garden for other people the same often applies as I can't always rely on people to water things when I'm not there.

Bean plants having a good soak before planting out

Sorry these are rather poor little plants, it's a wonderful climbing french bean that I've been growing for years, and I think these particular seeds may have been a bit old. I'll write more about them later.

Chard in the vegetable garden

Belinda asked me about growing chard (ages ago!) so here'a ramble about chard.

My chard about a month ago
It came through this cold winter
with some protection from an old window propped over it
(see the brick?, that was propping the window up)

Chard is probably technically a biennial, which means it will run to seed in it's second year. I always have some on the go somewhere in the garden. It is fairly hardy, and will come through a mild winter without any protection. I always sow some late in the year then protect it with a cloche (or old window!) when it's really cold over winter and then I get a mad flush of growth in the spring before it rushes up to flower/seed. Mine is just running up to seed now, and I'm having to harvest it like crazy and give it away/freeze some. I also let a few plants actually run up to flower and seed and then randomly scatter the seed about in empty spaces. I always have chard coming up here and there and I just allow them to grow in any spaces I don't need for some other crop. They don't transplant very well except when very small and in very cool/wet weather, so I just use the thinnings in salads or cooked.
I use the leafy bits just like spinach and chuck them in stews, lasagne, risotto, in fact most meals right now as we have so much. The thick stems I cook separately and either cook and eat on their own as a veg or put in stews etc.

My favourite herbs

I had a very enthusiastic response to my suggestion that I might blog more about gardening, so although I felt a bit overwhelmed at the idea initially I've been taking photos and have decided to just tackle one little subject at a time. That's obvious really isn't it?!

So, I though I'd start with a few herbs. These are the ones (that I took photos of) that are currently growing away at the allotment.

Lovage has a strong celery-like flavor and is wonderful in soups and stews and chopped up with other herbs in an omlette. It tends to end up growing huge and flowering, and is best cut down to the ground to get some fresh growth during the growing season. I now have two plants so that I can cut one down hard and still have greens from the other one. I also freeze it for the winter. I simply chop it up small and freeze it on a tray, then when it's frozen pour it into a tub so that it comes out loose. It is possible to dig it up and split the roots in the winter, but it has a big tap root and will often sulk a little after being transplanted, and will often take a season to recover fully.

Lovage

 Sorrel belongs to the dock family and is related to wild sorrel, which can also be eaten and has a stronger flavour. I use sorrel in stews (actually I use all my herbs in stews, so that might get a bit boring!), but it also adds a bit of zing chopped up and cooked with spinach or chard. There's also a wonderful sorrel soup recipe, which I could look out, but basically is fried onion, potatoe, nettles (or spinach) all cooked up with a load of stock and then a handful of chopped sorrel added 5 minutes before the end. It's a wonderful budget meal as it's mainly potatoes and onions. Sorrel can be dug up and split in the winter and any bits of root left behind will often grow. Split it and give some to your friends every few years, good for the plant and good for your soul...

Sorrel

 Marjoram is possibly my favourite all time herb. It's great in stews (!) and when I used to be mainly vegetarian it was particularly useful for adding a good meaty flavor to vegetables and pulses. It's also wonderful in omlettes. My favourite omlette is just an egg or two and a big handful of fresh chopped herbs. I love the golden marjoram because it's so bright and cheerful in the spring. I have been told the flavour isn't as strong as the green marjoram, but it grows so vigorously I think I can just cut more of it.  If allowed to flower it's always covered in bees and butterflies. I cut great handfuls of it in the summer and dry it for use in the winter. In fact that reminds me I need to go and cut some if it ever stops raining.

Golden marjoram

The only other photo of something herb-like, which isn't a herb, at all are these radish. I sowed them in the autumn as winter radish but most of them didn't get big enough to be worth eating. If radish are left to flower and set seed they produce small pods which are lovely and crunchy in salads if picked green. I'm leaving these to flower to see how many pods they produce.

Radish

Other herbs that I can think of that I have at my allotment are garlic chives, horseradish, chives and fennel. I'll do another blog about them. I've also got lots of seedlings coming up...
Anyone got any particular subjects they'd like? It's such a big subject I don't know where to start, I suppose just what comes to mind really?

I've got a Facebook bookbinding page where I tend to do more regular booky updates if anyone's interested ...
https://www.facebook.com/NinaFennerHandmadeBooks

My allotment

Spring has finally arrived and I'm enjoying spending time at my allotment and feeling warm, hooray! These were taken about a week ago, stuff has grown a lot since then.
All images can be clicked on to enlarge them

General view of my allotment

 Stuff I'm harvesting at the moment

Chard, overwintered and growing fast now

Broccoli, with pigeon protection

Rhubarb
Three different varieties, furthest one very early

Crops on the go, not many of these this year yet

Garlic and broad beans

Arty picture of rusty metal and pebble

The business end of the allotment

My shed
Built be me entirely from scrap wood

Water butts

Compost bins
Made from old pallets tied together with baler string

 And finally some weeds, or are they pretty flowers?!

Self sown primrose being allowed to stay

Celandines in the long grass nearby
and NOT allowed on the allotment.

I was recently considering the fact that I've been gardening now for nearly 30 years, both professionally and as a hobby (no wonder I'm tired?)
I feel I'd like to share my knowledge and experience somehow, but haven't worked out how yet. Any suggestions?

Parsnips and Books

How about this for an impressive parsnip?

Harvesting parsnips is always a surprise, all you can see on the surface are little green bits, underneath might be tiny scrawny things (lots of mine are!), or HUGE like this one..

..that's only a teaspoon, in case you're wondering!?..

We went over to my parents last week, and every winter she puts this little book on display, then puts it away in the spring. It's titled 'Things to enjoy in winter'.

It's beautiful.
What's particularly amazing is that I made it, many years ago. I made several, about 4 or 5 I think, and gave them to people as Christmas presents, they were a fairly major labour of love, I hope some of the other people appreciate them as much as my mum does!

Another blogging break.

I'm only doing this one because I think I ought to so I'll be brief.

Busy as usual. 

Not necessarily in any particular order...

Sailing

Map making (West Town Farm)

Gardening

Morris dancing (at Sidmouth Folk Festival)

Sketching, at the allotment

And meals with friends and partys and swimming in the sea (twice) and making birthday presents for Vince. Life's pretty good
That's all for now folks!

Estate maintenance

I always rather grandly and jokingly call this stuff  'estate maintenance'. In some ways it's the down side of owning land. Fortunately I enjoy it.

We have about 2 acres with our house and it was pretty neglected by the previous owner. Fences need patching/propping up, actually they need replacing but we can't afford it, gates need replacing, fallen trees need clearing (hence the huge firewood pile), weeds need keeping in check, hedges need cutting (we pay a man with a tractor to do that)

Why would I want to be lounging in the sun, watching telly or simply going for a walk...

when I could be doing this for example?

overgrown and falling over fence

 fence liberated from undergrowth
waiting for new fence posts

As I work I keep reminding myself how very fortunate I am to live in such a beautiful place.

And oh my goodness we have a river too

I'm almost embarrassed to show you what an amazing place we live in.

Perhaps I think I don't deserve it?

Cobwebs and butterflies

Hi there

ok, so I'm actually missing blogging ......a bit

trouble is I've now got SO much news I don't know where to start!

How about some pretty pictures first.. taken a couple of weeks ago before the winds and rain came.

You'll have no problem spotting the cobwebs.

 but you might have trouble finding the butterflies, they are there, honest... the flowers are quite pretty anyway

Comma

Brimstone

Red Admiral

Colour in the garden in autumn

Although I've been a professional gardener for over 25 years I am fortunate to still love gardening. I've been out gardening (for other people) all day today, and what a lovely day it's been gosh I had my shorts on!
When I moved to this house 3 years ago there weren't many flower beds, and the ones that did exist were full of lots of weeds and strangled plants. So, in some of my spare time I've been clearing beds and creating new ones. I very rarely buy plants. Often people that I work for have too much of something as a lot of plants multiply by expanding sideways or self seeding. I hate throwing things away so I often bring home these unwanted lumps of plant and re-distribute them or plant them in my own garden. I also take cuttings, save seeds and grow things from seed. I do gardening on the cheap. Below are a couple of pictures from around the garden at the moment.
This is an area I only planted up this spring. I'm not sure if the rudbeckias are perennial or annual, a friend gave me the seedlings. They have been fabulous, flowering constantly all summer, and still going strong

Sunflowers, rudbeckia, some kind of polygonum
and a wild mullein which seeds itself around everywhere

Sunflower, aren't they fabulous

Below is a wonderful autumn show of pinky red colours, purely coincidence, as I just shove things in where there's a space!

Fuchsia, a very late michaelmas daisy and sedum

Tall yellow daisy!
This can be pretty invasive, but it looks fab here
I don't know what it is, not very professional of me!

Collecting seeds and sewing birds

In case you think I spend all my time doing wooly stuff...well, I do spend a lot of my time at the moment..here are a few other things going on..
These are some beans I grew this year. A friend gave them to me and they were labelled 'Dalmation bean'' you can see why can't you, they're really pretty. They were also labelled 'climbing french for eating/drying' Well they weren't climbing..they stayed resolutely down at ground level at the bottom of the canes I put them next to! I didn't eat any as I wanted to build up my stock of seed, and I'm not sure if you're meant to eat the pods or dry the seeds for eating...I must ask her...or look it up on the internet!
Let me know if you'd like a few to grow. I've got some other fab purple climbing french beans, it would be good to share them around too.

Dalmatian beans

I didn't have a very productive year on the allotment because it was so dry and everything stopped growing in July. The beetroot are just swelling to about golf ball size now. Because the veg weren't doing well I let more free range poppies than usual fill in the spaces.

see photos of them here (oops, I've lost one photo!)

 It was very pretty, and I now have a HUGE harvest of poppy seeds to put in bread, cakes and puddings. This is the bowl of empty seedheads, so pretty.

Poppy seed heads

And finally here are some birds I made after a late night blog browsing session. They are stuffed with some not very good wool (oops, did I mention wool). I thought that with red breasts they'd make good Christmas decorations. I haven't decided if they need eyes or wings adding yet. I found the pattern here.
http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/birdpattern1-1.pdf