Edible But Beautiful

The garden has exploded in a mass of colours. The most vibrant of all the flowers are those of the crimson-flowered broad beans. No photo can do them justice, the colour is so rich and when the sunlight is behind them they glow red. This variety is so beautiful it could be grown in a flower garden. It also has a lovely scent and the bees love them. Crimson-flowered broad (fava) beans are a heritage variety, said to date back to the late 1700s. They definitely were around in 1831, featuring in a report by the Horticultural Society of London. The plants are shorter than the ordinary modern broad beans', but they are said to be less troubled by blackfly which is a blessing. I think next time I will plant them closer together or in a pot. As for the flavour I am happy to wait for the beans a while and enjoy the flowers.

The garden is really beginning to fill up with colour and flowers. This plant is the arctic raspberry that I grow in a container at the top of the steps entering the garden. It is delightful at the moment.  When I bought the plant last year I did not know what pleasure it would give me. It was cheap at The Range and sounded interesting so I took a bet on it. Having been restrained by a small pot, it was only a little thing when I bought it and looked overwhelmed by the container I put it in. But its growth took off and even gave a harvest of sweet deep red berries in its first year. It laughed at this year's cold winter, which was no surprise given it does indeed grow in arctic conditions, and now is in full bloom. The Russians call it the Prince of Berries and I agree. 

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. 

Today I went to the Seed Swap organised by the Stroud Valleys Project. The aim of the swap was to allow people to bring any surplus seeds to exchange with others. I have accumulated a load of seed packets (unopened) which had arrived on the front of gardening magazines. This seed swap was ideal for me. I took sixteen packets to the swap and I brought back four (see above).  I don't mind the imbalance, so long as the seeds get grown. I feel guilty about keeping seeds which will never be sown. Whilst sifting through the packets of seed, I got chatting to another swapper,  who turned out to be a teacher looking for seeds for the school garden. I hope she took some of mine. Stroud is a centre for environmental activism. One of the sets of seeds I took was from the Stroud Community Seed Bank. They offer a limited range of seeds, all grown by a team of volunteer seed guardians, many of the seeds are heritage varieties and there are some you are unlikely to find anywhere else,...