Growing: good return from allotment sown garlic

Drying nicely, but will get'em out of full sun in an hour or so...

Gardening: new denizen

My first common gnome, which oddly reminds me of my daughter. Gnorma has better dress sense though!

Gardening: more colour

lovely morning in the garden...

Growing: container grown & cell sown garlic

Harvested garlic container-grown over winter (sown at same time as on plot), & some cell-sown in January. The latter are definitely undersized, in some cases just a walloping big clove. The container-grown are small normal in size, & earlier than the plot-grown garlic, which is still in the ground.

Container-growing garlic is something I will consider again: 30cm x 40cm x 55cm boxes take a fair bit o'mixed compost, but it can be reused, & by sowing earlier in autumn I should get an earlier taste of fresh garlic - which is stunningly good.

Gardening: really useful gloves

Found these assembly gloves to be of great utility in the garden & allotment; they won't protect from thorn, but will keep hands clean, warm, & rub-free while allowing proper 'feel' for plants, tools etc. They machine wash, & last, very well. Wouldn't be without'em...

     

Photography: Newcastle

Gardening: allotment perennial bed

... all generated from cuttings & going away very nicely this year.

Growing: Sweetcorn, first squash, & summer leek planted

... & about time too. I want to be cracking on with giving the Three (or Four) Sisters planting system a proper trial.

Some 20 sweetcorn (Swift), a few Sunflowers (Titan), couple of pumpkin (Jack O'Lantern), & a courgette (Black Beauty). Squashes Uchiki Kuri & Tromba d'Albenga, & climbing bean Borlotto Lamon to follow.

Growing: Guard Bunny secures produce

Gardening: Colour noticed

Doing a bit of doing in the garden this afternoon, as I finished & looked up I was privy to this rather lovely sight...

Growing: Pear tree reboot

Having got completely racked off with the poor production of an overgrown, cankerous, old pear tree in the garden, I took a pruning saw to it with abandon, subjecting it to 'pollarding with extreme prejudice'. Here is the second year of comeback...

Cooking: Kale Soup

Remarkably easy & very tasty dish. These ingredients serve 4/5, but recipe is very forgiving.

1Tbs oil
1 large onion, fine chop
2 celery sticks, chop
4 medium carrots, chop
2 garlic cloves, crush
200g kale, fine chop
700ml veg stock
Fresh ground pepper

• heat oil in large pan on medium heat
• add onion, celery, carrot, garlic; cover, sweat for 10mins until onion soft
• mix in kale; cover, sweat for 5mins until wilted
• add stock & pepper; boil, simmer 20mins
• blend, but it's nice with some texture

Growing: Three Sisters plus one

Last year we grew sweetcorn on the allotment for the first time; very successful & tasty it was too!

This time around, we're going to have a crack at the Native American 'Three Sisters' method: growing corn (Swift) which will support beans (Borlotto Lamon) amongst ground-covering squash (Jack O'Lantern, Uchiki Kuri, Tromba d'Albenga). My partner has demanded we get the fourth sister sunflower (Titan) in there.

Good introductory article by the Rodale Institute can be accessed here

I'll let you know if we go with the four, & how we get on.

Photography: North Berwyn Way above Llangollen

UK General Election 2017

Having followed this farrago quite closely thus far - does that come from 'farage' by the way? - I'm increasingly ground down by the lack of manners & consideration, by the shallow & prosaic aspiration, by the self-important posturing & sense of entitlement that infect modern life, robbing us of calm, compassion, & creativity.

In these pages, I intend to focus on the natural, the simple, & the creative - to help keep my head clear if nowt else... 

I ain't gonna watch'em any more - they ain't worth it!