Edible But Beautiful

In a break from my garden posts, here is one about wild mushrooms - St George's mushrooms. St George's is one of my favourite wild mushrooms, partly because its arrival heralds the arrival of warmer weather and the opening of the mushroom season. The mushroom gets its name from the fact that it appears around St George's day (23rd April). They disappear when the weather starts to get hot in June. The best indicator of when to start looking for it is just as the bluebells start to flower. I often find it among bluebells and wild garlic. It often grows in grass alongside paths and even roads. I have even found them under a tree in a National Trust car park, but my special place for them is a traditional parkland. They are a comparatively good mushroom for beginners, as they come at a time of year when there are few mushrooms around. If St George's grew in summer or autumn even I would think twice about picking them, as the white form of the death cap and the destro...

Before I turn the blog's focus onto the new growth, let's look at the plants that have managed to survive the winter. The first of these is red-veined sorrel (above), which I planted in a container in the summer and rather forgot about. Now it is beginning to put on a fantastic show. I love the contrast of burgundy red veins against the lime-green leaves. It seems a shame to pick it. But it adds a nice lemony taste to salads, not to say anything about the visual impact it has. I will leave it a while until it gets some more growth before I start cropping it for salads and as a spinach substitute. Talking of spinach - my Czech winter spinach is thriving. I took this photo a couple of days ago and now you would hard pressed to see the soil between the plants. It was never covered despite the bitter cold and the snow. It will soon bolt with the spring warmth, but I will keep cropping it while I can. Another winter wonder has been my red Russian kale. It has croppe...

With the brief onset of summer (before the return of the cold spring winds) I have removed the pvc cover from the winter cloche. Underneath the cloche the lettuces that have been providing salad leaves for months were still going strong. I have been harvesting outer leaves regularly for the plate, but recently have been having to share them with slugs. Hopefully the removal of protection will help with the slug problem by allowing predators (including me) to get at the slimy bastards. If you ask me what was my favourite veg, I would have to say lettuce. In the summer I eat it nearly every day and ideally I would like to do the same in winter, but would settle for once a week. The lettuces I grew over winter under the cloche were winter density, marveille des quatre saisons, and red salad bowl.  Also under the cloche were rocket (now beginning to bolt), red frills mustard, and a woodland strawberry (already showing flowers). The pak choi has been removed, as it bolted a fe...

10 days ago Today Sorry about the gap in posts. I lost the battery charger for my camera and so couldn't snap what was going on and frankly it makes little sense to post about beautiful plants and not post photos. Anyway that is my excuse and I am sticking to it. Now Amazon has supplied a new charger and I am back. So much is happening in the garden, in my little plastic greenhouse and in the perspex-roofed utility room. One of the good things about photographing my plants is that it is a way to see easy progress. In the last fortnight the tomato and pepper plants in the utility room have grown like triffids. I am beginning to worry that I will run out of space for the plants before I can transfer them into the greenhouse and garden, especially as warm sunny weather is forecast for next week. Oh well.