We made elderflower cordial for the first time last week, and it was so much easier than I expected. It’s an ideal weekend job, and a British summer classic. The fragrant, flowery, lemony flavour is delicious. Here’s how we did it: 1. Collect some flowers Elderflowers can be found everywhere at the moment in hedgerows and on trees. If you’re… Read more →
Category: Grow to Eat
Bank Holiday Jam Day, and other ways to cope with a glut
This past bank holiday will forever hence forth be know as Jam Day in our house. Something powerful came over me that weekend, and I knew I just had to get my jam on. I spent hours that Monday, chopping, coring, stoning, peeling, boiling, simmering, pouring, and then cleaning up, copious quantities of fruit and veg harvested from our garden. In fact,… Read more →
July: What To Do Now
The overwhelming theme of my garden this month seems to be scent. There are masses of sweet smelling blooms on the roses, honeysuckle and philadelphus. It’s a pleasure to walk along the borders and now much narrower paths, especially on a warm day when the the flowers’ scents seem strongest. There is a climbing rose growing by my front door which fills the front… Read more →
Winter at the veg patch
A few weeks ago, I finally moved the last of our raised beds from the back garden to the front. I’d left it there through summer and into autumn because we were waiting for the sweetcorn that was growing in it to ripen. The cobs swelled up promisingly in September but sadly the kernels didn’t make it to the juicy… Read more →
Autumn is here
The early signs of autumn are appearing. Cyclamen have popped their heads up out of the ground, bare-stemmed and without their heart-shaped leaves yet. Apples are starting to fall and the plums are turning the most delightful shade of rosy pink. The rest of the veg have slowed down now with the arrival of colder temperatures, and there is mildew… Read more →
The Good Life
One of the most thrilling moments of our first summer in this garden was our first harvest. It was a crop of cute ball carrots that were given to us as plug plants by my father-in-law. My just-three year old daughter had the pleasure of pulling them out of the ground, seeing their orange heads peep through the crumbly brown… Read more →