A working kitchen garden

Last Saturday we went to Brockwood Park in Bramdean, Hants and visited a fantastic working kitchen garden in the grounds of the school. The garden is 1 1/2 acres and is tended by two gardeners aided by volunteers. It provides produce to The Krishnamurti Centre as well as to Brockwood Park School and produces an amazing 1/3 of the school's veggie requirements. Everything I saw looked very healthy and well tended.

There are 3 huge glass houses  and they were filled with rows of cucumbers, melons, salad stuff and tomatoes. I didn't go into the glass house with the tomatoes but from the door they all looked very healthy and blight free. The plants were at the far end of the house away from the entrance so maybe this has helped prevent them being affected.

The garden was very inspiring but, because of the difference in scale (the area growing courgettes alone was probably bigger than the whole of our garden), I didn't spot anything that I can apply to our own little plot. Maybe when we get our allotment in another 10 years time. Yes, the waiting list for an allotment in Poole is currently over 10 years!

The garden is part of the school so obviously you can't go wandering around willy nilly but the school does have open days and I'm sure that if you visited the Krishnamurti Centre it would be possible to arrange to be shown the garden by one of the staff or volunteers.


Full report of our visit to Brockwood.

Garden News

In the garden the sweetpeas are now exhausted but the annual scabious are beginning to flower. I love these flowers. I was going to say that they are one of my favourites but I have so many favourites that the term almost has no meaning. Apart from the things that I wouldn't or couldn't grow because they are unsuitable for our little garden the only plant that I wouldn't have in the garden because I don't like it is the lupin - too big and blousy. The scabious flowers are white with a hint of green and quite beautiful. I have been unable to get a satisfactory photo because viewed against the dark of the plants around them the camera seems to think that they are a light source or something and won't focus on them. I am not enough of a camera woman to know how to get around this with my little point and click automatic.

I am now picking runner beans. The kenyan beans in the troughs have been very prolific and are still going strong. Those that I planted in the half barrel and squat pot are just about to flower so we should have beans for some time to come. Other garden highlights include:

The decorative Dahlia 'Explosion' with it's large, double yellow and flame coloured flowers is magnificent at the moment. My father always grew giant golden coloured decorative dahlias which he overwintered in boxes in the shed each year. I am hoping that the plants continue to flower into the autumn. I would like to have some for samhain when I build a little altar to honour the dead who have been an influence on my life.

In the pond the Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata) is flowering well this year. I might have to remove some this year or next to prevent it taking over completely.

Both the white and blue Hibiscus are flowering profusely and the pineapple lilies are blooming. I have had a pot of Pineapple Lilies on the patio for a few years now. Over time they have increased so that the pot had become overcrowded. Earlier this year I re potted the bulbs keeping a couple of pots for ourselves and giving a couple of pots away. We've not had so many flowers this year as not all the bulbs have flowered but I expect a better display next year.

The hardy fuchsia plants that I planted under the front window have flowered better than I expected.

Over the weekend I put in my seed order for autumn sowings: broad bean aquadulce and turnip tiny pal for the ground, spinach campania and carrot nanco for the large pots and the round carrot early French frame 4 Lisa for the troughs. I have also ordered some onion sets and the raspberry Glencoe. I've ordered Glencoe, in spite of its purple fruit not because of it, because it is a clump-forming Floricane - I don't have the space for regular canes.

Cake

The anticipated courgette glut has yet to materialise. I seem to be keeping up with all that the plants produce. As a result I had to save up a couple of days harvest to get the 1lb required to make the Chocolate Courgette Cake in the Five-a-day Fruit and Vegetable Cookbook . The cake is a tray bake and the recipe was easy to follow. It makes a very moist cake which went down very well with my afternoon decaf. I'm not sure how to describe the flavour. You can taste the chocolate and the allspice and you can also taste the courgette but it's flavour is not so obvious. I had to eat some courgette by itself tonight just to be sure I wasn't imagining it! The whole thing has a wholesome sort of taste and I will definitely make it again. Alarmingly the recipe states it serves four to six. Maybe six navvies or growing teenagers! I cut mine into 16 portions and find 1 is quite enough. By the way the recipe is virtually identical to that for Chocolate Zucchini Cake given in What Will I Do with All Those Courgettes?. The latter uses sour cream or yogurt in place of the milk.

If you would like to know a little more about the Five-a-day Fruit and Vegetable Cookbook then read on. The book, which runs to a little over 500 pages, begins by explaining the size of a portion and how many times you can count it a day. For example spuds don't count towards your five-a-day and no matter how much fruit juice you drink a day it only counts as 1 portion. The same goes for dried fruits. The fruits and veggies are then presented in groups (stone fruits, berries and currants, squashes etc). Each fruit (or veg.) in the group is described and information is given about its nutritional value and how to buy, store, prepare and cook it. This is followed by recipes incorporating the various fruits (or veggies!) from the group. It is sumptuously illustrated with photographs throughout.

First cauli

My First Cauliflower! I tried to grow cauliflowers, unsuccessfully, a few years back. I had another go this year. I read that they like hard ground so I planted them in an area that hadn't been dug over. It was so hard it was difficult to dig a hole to plant them! They seem to have liked it though. They are in a bit of a poorly accessible part of my veggie plot next to the hedge so they haven't had much attention. And I haven't yet quite got the hang of covering them with their leaves to prevent rain damage and keep the curds white but even so I think they're pretty impressive.

No use spraying tomatoes

After further investigation I have decided spraying will be of little use even on the unaffected plants as it's washed off by rain and won't protect new, unsprayed growth. If you're interested check out this interesting discussion on use of Dithane etc. I like the plastic rigged up to protect the plants from rain but still get water to the roots! For now it seems the best I can do is remove infected leaves to slow down the spread to the fruit. Unfortunately my fruit is still small and so it may not be enough to get a crop. Until I can give plants some protection I won't be growing tomatoes again. :-(

Top Fruits and Veggies to Buy Organic - Gaiam Life

If you prefer not to eat chemicals but are unable to always buy organic because of availability or cost then check out the website above for advice as to which fruit and veggies have the most residues. I always try to buy organicwhen purchasing leafy stuff.

Tip: Wash your fruit and veggies in water which has white vinegar added (about 3 tablespoons per 2 pints). This will remove traces of pesticides which are usually water resistant (to stop them being washed off by the rain).

Top Fruits and Veggies to Buy Organic - Gaiam Life

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Moral Dilemma

Last night I binned another two tomato plants that had blight. Leaves on other plants are beginning to show sign of being infected too. I have been looking on the web for advice. Click for more info from the RHS or Allotment Growing

The only remedy available is to use the fungicide Dithane 945. Now I'm in a quandary because I don't use chemicals in the garden. It seems I have the choice of no tomatoes or to spray - if it's not already too late. I didn't grow tomatoes last year because I lost them all the year before. It appears that blight really has got a hold in the area. Apparently tomatoes grown in a greenhouse are less likely to be affected but that's not an option for me here.

When I am in town later I'll see if I can find any Dithane and read the packet before making a final decision. I am leaning towards trying the fungicide this year on my remaining plants as they represent quite an investment in time and money but not bothering to grow tomatoes here in the future.

Anticipating a bonanza of courgettes

Over the last couple of weeks the courgettes have been coming in a manageable one or two at a time. In anticipation of a bumper harvest I have been looking out some new recipes to add to my somewhat limited courgette repertoire.

I dug out my copy of the Five-a-day Fruit and Vegetable Cookbook.It's got three nice sounding recipes. Baked courgettes (with goat's cheese), Courgettes Italian-style (browned with onion and garlic then cooked in stock) and Chocolate Courgette Cake. As a chocoholic the later is going to be an early experiment!

Having heard good things about Elaine Borish's What Will I Do with All Those Courgettes?and read some good reviews about it I have acquired a copy. It's got more than 150 recipes featuring courgettes.. soups, salads, starters, snacks, side dishes, (that's a lot of words starting with s) mains and cakes and breads including another two cakes with chocolate! Phew! All those recipes to choose from. It's as overwhelming as... a glut of courgettes!