Tomatoes are one of the most widely grown crops around the world, and have even been grown in outer space! But in Europe tomatoes were once feared to be poisonous, and so grown only for their decorative vines and fruit. By the 19th Century, though, the commercial development of tomatoes had begun in earnest. Unfortunately, this meant that by the time I reached adulthood, the tomatoes available in shops had become so bland, tasteless and watery...
Over the winter I’ve been dreaming up all sorts of upcyling projects for our garden and allotment. So when I spotted some wooden pallets were about to be thrown out by a neighbour, I quickly swooped across the road and dragged them back to our house. The planter needs to rest against a wall Pallet planters are so easy to make, and are great for greening areas where there is no space for pots or large planters. Our...
December is a dark and damp month and so, like many people, I’m looking forward to the return of light after the winter solstice. At this time of year, I usually find myself slowing up, slumping in front of the fire, and counting the days until the Xmas shopping frenzy has passed. After visiting the festival of making last month, though, I’ve caught the upcycling bug. I’m something of a bakeophobe so I was surprised when I...
Around this time last year, I wrote about Buy Nothing Day – a time when shoppers can take a 24-hour break from consumerism. This year, I sampled a different approach to the problem of ‘spend, spend, spend’ when on a frosty morning I set off for the Festival of Making in Totnes. Buy Nothing Day urges us to stop shopping for non-essentials, just for a day. It’s surprising how difficult some people find this...
A few days ago one of my allotment buddies asked if I could take a look at her runner beans. The plants looked pretty healthy and there were plenty of flowers but, suspiciously, no beans. On closer inspection it was obvious what the problem was: the beans were not being pollinated and so the flowers were withering and falling off the plant. It didn’t take too long to work out that the culprits were bumblebees. Nectar robbery...
There is something about blue flowers that makes them really special, so it’s no surprise to find that there is a long literary tradition associated with blooms of this colour. Blue flowers have been used to symbolise everything from love to the miracle of nature itself. Forget me nots are amongst the first flowers braving early spring on my allotment. Hot on their tail are borage, vipers bugloss and cornflowers which seem to explode...
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy visiting some fascinating growing projects dotted about Devon and Cornwall. It’s been inspiring to meet so many dynamic people championing locally grown and sustainable food, and along the way I’ve been introduced to some unusual new tastes. Courtesy of Transition Totnes Skillshares, I recently joined one of Martin Crawford’s forest garden tours. As we rambled along, Martin, a...
I’ve always been fascinated by the way that plants adapt to their environment. Since they can’t get up and run off when trouble comes along, plants have evolved some cunning strategies for outwitting their predators. I thought I was pretty clued up about these adaptations, but I’ve recently made some interesting discoveries by taking a closer look at what my broad beans have been up to. At this time of year, tiny brown...
Hey, the sun is back again this week and everything is set to become a little brighter! Has spring finally arrived? In my allotment it certainly looks like it – all around me the sap is rising and the buds are swelling. It’s wonderful to see the magic of nature at work again, and I am filled with anticipation for the great feast to come. Crimson Broad Beans -top of the pods Walking through my allotment at the weekend, I...
National Gardening Week has come to an end and here in Devon it seems to have temporarily ushered in a spot of warmer weather. Butterflies, and all sorts of insects have been getting busy in the garden and I’ve been joining in with my own frantic activity. But with spring temperatures still below average, many gardeners must be wondering if this will be another disappointing year. A few weeks ago, in my post ‘Climate of Change’, I...
Over Easter, I dipped into Richard Mabey’s excellent short read, Turned Out Nice Again. In one notable passage, Mabey reflects upon the connection between wildflowers and the arrival of spring. He considers how the wide variations in flowering times across the country, due to the effect of regional and local microclimates, creates a kind of invisible network which can help us to measure the progress of spring across the land. Using a method...
Earlier in the week, I cooked up a delicious spring supper using oca. I still have about a kilo of tubers left from last year’s harvest, and they have kept really well in a paper bag in our cold porch. Last year I grew a mixture of tubers, and I read that it’s best to sun the red ones for a week before cooking to cut down the oxalic acid content and to reduce any bitterness. The sunning also helps to increase their sweetness, so that...
With one half of the country under snow and the the other under water, it’s not been the most inspiring start to spring here in the UK. Now the Met Office is predicting more cold weather for the weeks to come, possibly even until the end of April. I’m an optimistic soul, though, so I’ve been cracking on with planning the veg I’ll be growing this year and dreaming up new designs for my garden and allotment. ...
This week I should have been celebrating the return of spring and the promise of a new growing season. Instead, news that a friend may lose her allotment has set me thinking about the vulnerability of us landless peasants. As allotment holders we are often heavily reliant on the good will of landowners, and there is only a sprinkling of legislation in place to protect statutory allotments here in the UK. Many people rent allotments...
A few days ago I saw the first hoverflies nuzzling up to the Celandine flowers over in the allotment. But now the temperature has plummeted again and icy winds are keeping most of the insects tucked up indoors. This is just the type of weather that damages early fruit blossom, so I’ve been keeping a close eye on my peach tree this week. This early buzzer was enjoying a bit of sunshine on my window ledge after a very chilly night...
With all the chilly weather recently, I’ve been cooking up a lot of soup. So with my compost bins filling up, and my pockets fairly empty, I thought I’d take a look at ways of squeezing out a bit more from my veg. I’ve read that you can regrow a range of vegetables from kitchen scraps and as I’m on a tight budget this is definitely an appealing prospect. In the past I’ve tried cutting leeks close to their base...
Last week spring seemed to be in the air. I imagined the frogs would soon be hopping about, and the blue tits would be enjoying themselves scoffing all the insects attracted to the willow trees. Then the temperature plummeted and the skies darkened, and now it’s clear that we haven’t shaken winter off just yet. Richard Mabey, in his book Nature Cure, welcomes the first Celandine flower as a sign that spring is on its way ...
Even though the weather has turned a little chilly, it’s so good to have a few dry days. The recent sunshine has got me all excited – spring is here, the buds are breaking and the frogs are coming out of hibernation. I’ve already seen one or two fat bumble bees hurrying across the allotment, and a friend is lucky to have hoverflies visiting her garden. Wow! How great it is to be alive and able to witness the magical return of...
I’ve been mooching about in my allotment today and everything is looking quite bedraggled after yet more rain. And there is something missing, too. Broad beans should have been out there doing their thing over winter, getting a head start on the later spring sowings. However, last year’s soggy autumn meant there was no way I was going to sacrifice my precious bean seeds to the cold damp soil – risking them rotting in the ground, or...
A few days ago, I watched a rather disturbing report on BBC Newsnight about the accumulation of plastic in our oceans and the effect it’s having on marine life. In recent years, there has been a much greater public awareness here in the UK about the environmental damage caused by plastics. This is largely due to Rebecca Hoskins who, in 2007, initiated a campaign to rid the Devon town of Modbury of plastic bags. As a wildlife...
Travelling between between Devon and London over new year, offered me a good opportunity to observe how last year’s torrential rain has affected the South of the country. As my train sped through the normally picturesque landscape, I was shocked to see just how saturated the soil has become. The Met Office has now indentified 2012 as the wettest year in England, since records began. So it’s easy to see why much our farmland still...
Rain, rain, rain! Everyone I speak to says they are fed up of all this miserable weather. it’s, damp, dark and depressing and we’ve all had quite enough of it. So I thought it might be good to remember sunny days and colourful flowers as a way of cheering up these dark January days. As I started to scroll through last year’s pics in search of sunshine, I came across a batch I took at the Sunny Border in Dartington Hall...
Hi I’m Lynne and I’ve been gardening organically for more than twenty years, first in city gardens in London and now on an urban allotment in Devon.
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My allotment is a second home for me and even after many years as a grower, I’m still filled with excitement when the first seedlings emerge and the fruits begin to ripen.
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