GBMD: Give it a chance

Most people, early in November, take last looks at their gardens, are then prepared to ignore them until the spring. I am quite sure that a garden doesn't like to be ignored like this. It doesn't like to be covered in dust sheets, as though it were an old room which you had shut up during the winter. Especially since a garden knows how gay and delightful it can be, even in the very frozen heart of the winter, if you only give it a chance.

Beverley Nichols (1898-1983)

Time to stir and get going methinks - despite the chilly weather!

Bradshaw's Chippenham

NAH and I have been enjoying the latest series of Great British Railway Journeys on TV recently. Last week's trip took us back to our old stomping ground in the North East and I was taken by surprise by the wave of homesickness which hit me.

Great British Railway Journeys is one of those gentle little gems. A trip along various railway lines is the opportunity to explore the scenery, towns (often the less well known ones with the kind of quirky items I like) plus the history of Victorian times, particularly how the coming of the railway changed the face of Britain.

Each series is based around using Bradshaw's Guide*: a guide to Britain's delights aimed at the Victorian who wanted to explore by rail. It's different to most guidebooks as the order isn't alphabetical or by county, but by region and railway line.

Such is the series' popularity, the 1866 edition has been republished and NAH bought me one for Christmas. The entry for Chippenham (once I'd found it) reads:

Distance from station, 3/4 mile.

A telegraph station (most important - this was the internet of its day).

HOTELS - Angel, George

MARKET DAY - Thursday (I wonder when it changed to Friday and Saturday?).

FAIRS - May 17th, June 22nd, Oct 29th and Dec 11th (I wonder what happened to those?).

This is a parliamentary borough, on the Great Western Railway, in North Wiltshire on the river Avon, but not otherwise remarkable, except as being a great seat of the cheese trade. Population 7, 075 who send two members to parliament (over 30,000 today with just one MP). A little cloth and silk are made. It has two tanneries, a foundry, four banks, a new Town Hall and Market House, built for £12,000, at the cost of J. Neeld Esq., MP of Grittleton, and a long bridge on 23 arches. The old church large and handsome. In the time of Alfred it was a city of strength, and was taken by the Danes in 880. It is delightfully situated in a valley on the south bank of the river Avon, by which it is almost surrounded.

This is a snapshot of Chippenham around 25 years after the railway came and it would seem before the town was transformed by it. There's no mention of the great railway engineering works, nor of Nestlé or Wiltshire Ham. The bridge has been replaced and the Market House renamed the Neeld Hall and whilst it's still a place for meetings and events, the cheese market there is no more. It would appear the coming of the railway brought about the demise of Wiltshire cheese as there was more profit to be made in selling the milk to the London trade.

It shows how in a mere 150 years a town can change dramatically more than once. I wonder what George Bradshaw would make of Chippenham today?

* = apparently it should be called Bradshaw's Tourist Handbook and the original one you see Michael Portillo using is very rare indeed.

Salad Days: Of Sprouted Seeds and Microgreens

I'm experimenting with some radishes for microgreens - not quite the mini forest of waving seed leaves I have in my mind's eye yet, but aren't those root hairs fab?

Welcome to January's edition of Salad Days: our monthly get together on the fourth Friday each month to see how everyone's getting on with their 52 Week Salad Challenge!

When I kicked off the challenge 3 weeks ago, I didn't expect the enormous reaction I've seen from right across the globe. Many thanks to you who've already started writing your blogposts and tweeting your pictures, experiences and questions using the #saladchat hashtag. I'm really chuffed with everything that's been happening this month :D

You'll find Mr Linky at the end of this post for you to enter all your Salad Days entries. Don't worry if you don't post today, that's why I'm using Mr Linky so that you can add them when you're ready...

The pea shoots are enjoying their move from the kitchen windowsill to the bedroom. So is Skimble - you can just see his whiskers at the top left in the photo

As you know the challenge is about growing, foraging and eating salad leaves every week of the year. I've left things flexible so you can design the challenge to suit you. However, I haven't said what I'm aiming to do this year, so in 2012 I will...

• Kick my 4 bags a week bought salad habit by growing my own - at least one bag per week will be replaced by my own fresh produce
• Extend my usual April to October salad cropping season and by the end of the year I will be able to continue growing all my own salad leaves into 2013
• Make better use of the resources I have already - cloches, cold frames, seed sprouting kits, growing trays, horticultural fleece, left over seed packets etc. Reuse/Recycle are also allowed
• Only buy compost, seeds and feed - i.e. I won't be buying a greenhouse or polytunnel to make things easier for me
• Try new techniques and varieties including microgreens, foraging and eating more edible flowers
• Write a blog post about salad every week

Pea shoot at dawn

Over the last few weeks I've learned:

• The challenge is lots of fun and it's been great learning from your experiences and helping wherever I can
• Chickweed and hairy bittercress are surprisingly tasty. So was the carrot top I furtively nibbled whilst out shopping
• There's a surprising amount of greenstuff available in January
• Beansprouts are traditionally sprouted in the dark. In a later post I'll report on my experiments to compare lentils sprouted in the dark and light
• NAH likes sprouted seeds! For someone who only liked peas when I first met him and has a real aversion to roots, this is progress
• Microgreens grown in compost will yield 3 crops, those grown on trays (like my radishes in the first photo) yield just one. Guess which version is sold in the supermarkets
• My houseplants have really perked up since I started watering them with the rinsing water from my sprouted seeds
• Ungerminated and leftover sprouted seeds are great in soups
• I have far too many seeds in my seed tin - at least I can use lots of them up for trendy microgreens (NB don't use parsnips for this as they're toxic - thanks to Mel for asking the question and @simiansuter for tweeting the reminder a couple of weeks ago)
• I can replace at least 1 bag of salad a week with sprouted seeds and microgreens started in January. This bodes well for the rest of the year

Now it's over to you, how are you getting on with the 52 Week Salad Challenge? Leave a link to your blogpost via Mr Linky below. NB the next Salad Days will be on February 24th.

NB You can catch up with all my weekly 52 Week Salad Challenge posts, plus lots more useful links and information re the world of salad leaves on my dedicated 52 Week Salad Challenge page :)

Update: This Mr Linky is for genuine 52 Week Salad Challenge posts and others recommended via #saladchat. It's NOT for links to websites offering gardening services, materials and suchlike. These will be removed as soon as I find them.

Some Dates for Your Diary

Filling out the pages of this year's calendar reminded me there's quite a few brand new gardening related events to look forward to in 2012. Here's a roundup of some extra dates you might like to put in your diary...

March

There's no Red Nose Day this year, but there is Garden Re-leaf Day on Tuesday 13th March instead. All proceeds will go to the charity Greenfingers, which raises money to build gardens at children's hospices.

April

16-22 April has been designated as the first National Gardening Week by the RHS. Expect all kinds of activities designed to encourage us to get gardening - here's the schedule for what's happening at the RHS.

May

As I reported last November, May 18th is Fascination of Plants Day. The extensive list of participating organisations in the UK can be found here.

Various times and locations

This year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations include the creation of 60 'Diamond Woods' around the country. I'm delighted I've been invited to a tree planting session at the one closest to me: at Caen Hill near Devizes on February 12th. Check The Woodland Trust's Jubilee Woods website for more information.

Edinburgh is famous for it's Fringe Festival and many other festivals now offer an alternative point of view. This year the Chelsea Fringe will be joining it's famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show sister. Look out for pop-up gardens, installations, secret gardens and all kinds of mayhem in London from 19th May to 10th June. NB Chelsea Fringe is also participating in the Fascination of Plants Day.

Much of the talk this year will be centred around the Olympics. The gardens at the Olympic Park promise to be quite an eye opener if the talk given by James Hitchmough I went to a couple of weeks ago is anything to go by. (I also gave you a bit of a sneak preview here). For those of us who didn't manage to obtain tickets OR who might just possibly prefer gardening, the Olympics Committee has devised Garden for the Games, a countrywide community gardening initiative which forms part of the cultural Olympics events planned for this year.

Plus, if you miss this you'll have to wait 10 years for the next one...

I'm contemplating a trip to Holland for the Floriade. It lasts from April 5th to 7th October, so there's plenty of time to visit. I'm wondering if anyone's been before and can offer advice on whether it's worth the trip and the best time to go?

And if all that's not enough, you can always check my Perpetual Events Diary for all the regular gardeny events happening on our shores :)

However, that's not all...

This weekend it's the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which allows you to gainfully stare out of the window for an hour in the name of science ;)

I'm up for a local Potato Day too (in Marshfield on Saturday) - you can see if there's one near you here, or there's always the mega one put on by Garden Organic at Ryton.

And not forgetting there's the first of our monthly Salad Days get togethers here on Friday as part of The 52 Week Salad Challenge :)

NB The full list of Salad Days dates (fourth Friday every month) is as follows:

• 27th January
• 24th February
• 23rd March
• 27th April
• 25th May (might include a 'spot the salad' from Chelsea!)
• 22nd June
• 27th July
• 24th August
• 28th September
• 26th October
• 23rd November
• 28th December (might bring it forward to the 21st?)

Do you have a particular gardening event you're looking forward to this year?