The past, the future and good friends

Where I grew up, there was no garden. We had a couple of balconies, and my mum filled them with pots and troughs of colourful flowers. There was a playground between the blocks of flats, with a bit of grass around the concrete paving and a few evergreen shrubs dotted here and there. The year after the building work finished and we moved in, the council finished the landscaping and planted a young silver birch sapling. That tree grew with us kids, and as we matured so did the birch; the tips of its upright branches now almost reach the top of the 4-storey buildings surrounding it. It is known that silver birches attain maturity around 40 years of age, and can live for 90, sometimes even up to 150 years. Seeing that I am now "around" 40, I sometimes wonder which of us is going to outlive the other...

Although we have dispersed throughout the world, I still keep in touch with some of the friends I grew up with, around that silver birch. But sometimes they still surprise me! For my recent birthday I received a package from the States, containing (in addition to a marvellous cookbook) a collection of seed packets from the Jefferson Monticello plantation near Charlotesville. Apparently, the plantation has some of the most beautiful and special flowers and plants that Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the US, collected on his travels or from friends. It certainly sounds like a place I would love to visit one day! Thank you so much, I., P. and little A.! :))

Here is a little picture with the germs of the future:


In the middle are the Monticello seed packets from the US (allowing me not to buy any more ornamental plant seeds for a couple of years); the tulip bulbs I bought on a recent Amsterdam trip; the clay pots are filled with crocus bulbs and winter flowering white cyclamen; the black pot contains an olive tree sapling that was growing in a friend's garden in Nice, France, and which he generously gifted us; there's a little envelope in the bottom right corner with my mum-in-law's nasturtium seeds. The future is likely to be bountiful, indeed.

Or, in words of my favourite Zen teacher - master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda:
Yesterday's history
Tomorrow's a mystery;
Today is a gift. That's why we call it present!

Autumn, shed

That is shed as in a garden storage structure, not as in the verb. Actually, we don't even have a shed, it's a garage. But it doesn't house the car. It's a 45% DIY workshop and a 20% garden shed. The remaining space is filled with rubbish we still haven't managed to take to the skip. But that is steadily reducing...

Some time ago, we spent half an hour clearing one side of the garage, and my wonderful SO built me a storage shelf in that space. He neatly sorted all the gardening tools and equipment that used to live in an old laundry basket and piled up on top of other things. Now, this is what my organised gardening storage looks like:


In the red box are all the hand trowels, shears and pruners (those really add up!), and in the white drawer is my collection of seed packets (and gathered/gifted seeds too). You may notice some herbage in the top right corner - that is where I've hung up bunches of herbs to dry, having recently harvested them before the cold weather kills them.

Regarding herbs, I was picking them all summer to use in cooking as and when required. As long as you don't remove more than 30% of the plant at any one time, you can harvest regularly. It's great to use the freshest herbs in your food! Some of my favourites were:
- parsley and mint in cucumber salad (with Greek yogurt)
- pot marjoram leaves in tomato salad
- rosemary, thyme and bay leaf* in any stew-type dish
- sage and thyme in meatballs, burgers and stuffing
- mints and lemon balm added to green/white tea

* Bay leaf actually has a stronger aroma after drying, so I was really using week-to-month old leaves in cooking

However, once the cold weather sets in, annual and soft (non-shrubby) perennial herbs will be destroyed. The perennials, like mint and lemon balm, will return in spring; but to enjoy them over winter we need to dry them. And that is what I've done with those herbs (including pineapple sage, which is really more like a type of mint). I've also trimmed the thyme and sage plants, and those trimmings are now in spice jars. Same with the fennel seedheads, though I have left some (together with lavender) to feed the birds in winter. I've finally let the parsley flower, just because I wanted to see if there are any bees still around; otherwise, I would have harvested the leaves, chopped them up finely and frozen them in an ice cube tray.

Courgettes may be useful...

... for things other than eating! ;)

Woman fights bear with courgette


Still, two things worth mentioning:

1. There are no bears in the UK

2. My courgettes are round, not 14-inchers. Maybe I should grow some of those next year, anyway... ;)

And this is what we came back to:

Beautiful cherry tomatoes! I'd say we harvested about 50 from 3 plants of Gardener's Delight, and there's still maybe a dozen that I've left on, in hope of more clement weather. There is definitely a real sweet-acidic tomato taste (and scent), especially in those fruits that have at least started to go orange on the vine. I've picked a couple of green ones yesterday and left them to ripen on the window sill, as an experiment - I have a strong suspicion that all supermarket tomatoes are harvested when green and ripened indoors, maybe already in plastic packaging. No wonder there's hardly any taste to them!


The buddleja still has some wonderful honey-scented flowers. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to deadhead the spent blooms, but I have a feeling there is no need for that. It's really a tough hedgerow shrub, not needing much mollycodling.


Also, more clematis flowers. This one, Ville de Lyon, has now had 3 flowering flushes (the first one being rather minimalistic, very soon after planting). I'm afraid that the other clematis, Multi Blue, has not survived being placed in front of a north-facing garage wall. Although, spring can bring surprises, so I won't be that quick to plant something else in that space yet.

Guest garden

Other blogs have guest writers, my dream garden journal will have guest gardens featuring in it. :)

The first one is a Mediterranean garden in the fortress (Chateau) of Nice, south of France. I often think that having a sunny climate in Britain would be great. Well, maybe for the vitamin D and less SAD, but gardens would become much less interesting, visually. Or the water bills would go through the roof! In Nice, unless it's the Promenade where flower beds and palm trees are irrigated twice daily, the greenery is pretty greyish and uniform. There are a lot of plants with narrow, thick leaves which help reduce water evaporating under the relentless hot rays. Many of those, however, release scents that are much more pungent when warmed up: rosemary, sage, pine trees, cypresses...

There are also some flowering shrubs that do well under the Mediterranean sun. Oleanders in all colours (well, white, pink and red) are very popular in private gardens too. Here is a white one in the Chateau garden:


Many prickly succulents are also grown or naturalised in the area. In fact, there are a few public gardens fully dedicated to them. Here's a prickly pear and a Joshua tree:



And here's proof that shady area plants like ferns can also grow in the Med. Just find a waterfall grotto!


It's more than plants that maketh a garden, or some such olde wisdom. Well, here is a stunning mosaic depicting one of the oldest stories in the world, the Oddysey:

Miserable weather

It is rather weird to feel Autumn descending upon us, when I'm still looking forward to my Summer holiday! It's still August, often the hottest month even on this island, but the rain, wind and a thick cloud covering makes me think it's October.

The garden has been somewhat battered in the process; actually, the flowers have suffered, but the grass is thriving:


There is also beauty in rain:


The courgette count is currently 19, with three sitting on the kitchen counter taunting me. Maybe I can chop them up, blanch and freeze them? Roasting them, sauteeing, making soup and stew has become slightly boring by now.

Oh, and without the sun, will my green tomatoes ripen at all?

Courgettes

Here is a picture of the two latest courgette fruits. We usually categorise it as a vegetable, but, just like tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers and avocados, the courgettes that we eat are the fruit of the plant. Meaning, a fleshy cover protecting the seeds - the same as apples, peaches or figs.

For size comparison I've placed a large lemon (from the supermarket, unfortunately - I wish we had enough space for a small orchard and enough sun for a lemon tree) and a salt grinder in the composition. The larger courgette is probably the largest size it should be harvested before it turns into a squash...



This may be a good place to mention garden productivity. Some crops have finished, others have been squeezed out due to space limitations, and some are still to come (tomatoes). Here is the tally, as far as I remember it:

* radishes - 25ish; could have more, but the tray is now on a shelf, with little light

* strawberries - 2 handfuls, not a very rich harvest but that's common in the first year

* salad leaves, including spinach, pea shoots and rocket - about 12 salads; same fate as the radishes

* courgettes - 10 (including the uneaten ones above), with plenty still to ripen, but also more flowers to be set

* patty pan squash - 2

* butternut squash - nothing ripe yet, several growing

* tomatoes - not ripe yet

I have also harvested herbs aplenty - rosemary, mint, parsley, marjoram, thyme, sage and bay leaf; what's missing this year is basil.