Veg Plotting

I spent a huge chunk of the weekend peering up at the ash trees ( Fraxinus excelsior ) at the side of our house. They're always one of the last trees to decide it's autumn and last week they finally donned their seasonal clothes of buttery yellow. Saturday's blue sky and slanting sunshine made for perfect viewing. It's something I always do at this time of year, but this time was a poignant one because of the recent news about ash dieback fungus (aka Chalara fraxinea ). This fungus has attacked ash trees across Europe the past few years, for example decimating around 90% of those found in Denmark. Cases have been reported recently in East Anglia and Kent and many concerned groups - especially The Woodland Trust - have been actively lobbying the government to act swiftly to prevent the disease from spreading. Today, a ban on the import of ash trees comes into force and a number of civil servants have been redeployed to cope with the extra work anticipated over t...

Haynes are well known for their car maintenance manuals with their anatomical-style cut-away pictures and step by step guides for home car care. However, the increasing complexity of our cars means we're more reliant nowadays on garage mechanics rather than doing it at home. So Haynes have diversified their offering into other areas; adapting the style where needed, but generally keeping to their philosophy of using clear, colourful diagrams and pictures to get the information across to readers. I've been  offered the pick of their catalogue a couple of times this year, and have chosen three* garden related manuals to review. First up is the  Garden Landscaping Manual  by Paul Wagland. This is aimed at gardeners who are considering the DIY approach to a major hardscaping project. It would be a good start for anyone who's bought a new-build house and is looking to create a garden from the brown, muddy patch or wall to wall lawn the builders have left them with. ...

Battening down the hatches ready for winter. I'm also going to line the sides of this coldframe with some polystyrene sheets I've found to keep things as warm as possible Today has significance at VP Gardens because it's the last day we have daylight for 10 hours until the middle of February next year. It means my salad plants won't be growing much over the next few months even if today's wintry temperature goes back to the unseasonal warmth we had earlier this week. Salad leaves need both a decent temperature and sufficient light to grow. The experience we've had during the 52 Week Salad Challenge  so far suggests for many of us light is the more restricting factor in winter, even though quite a few salad crops usually do well in shade during the summer. I suspect in summer temperature has the major part to play as lettuce don't like things to be too hot and tend to bolt if they are. In that situation the shade is enough to keep them feeling comfo...

Spartan                                                                                      It's a mystery to me! I have an exciting 'Case of the Mysterious Apple' to solve up at the allotment as my Spartan apple tree is also sporting some completely different apples this year. The green apple shown on the right is confined to a sturdy upright branch. I've traced it back and it looks like I missed one of the growths from below the graft union when pruning a couple of years ago. I'm in the process of asking my apple supplier if he knows which variety it is. He often grafts his own trees, so may have the information to hand. When I asked about rootstock at Marlborough Apple Day  recently, the local nurseryman there was rather surprised as they're usually from ...

I received an email from Sy yesterday, who's asked for my help to drum up support for a talk by Charles Dowding. Charles is an excellent speaker and as the talk is at a not for profit organisation, I'm very happy to do so. Please pass the word around to anyone you know who may be interested. Here's what Sy has to say: Hi VP It’s so great to find someone that has met Charles, your blog about your visit to his farm is fantastic - it takes me straight back there. I wondered if you would be able to tell people about this talk on your blog for me. No one knows about him where I live - that’s why I wanted to have Charles talk to my community of grow your own enthusiasts. Little did I know how hard it was going be to find them. Stockwood Discovery Centre [the venue] may even cancel the talk as they are a charity and will not be able to make a loss. The text below is the email I’ve been sending to everyone. Thank you for reading this. I run Sweet Pea Gardeni...

Part of the glasshouses at Tyntesfield last year. The whole of the kitchen garden area there is being restored back to its former glory. I have dreams of having a walled kitchen garden and a vast orchard, but the reality of life means my ownership of such is a few fruit trees on my allotment and garden, plus regular visits to National Trust properties, or the likes of West Dean in Sussex to get my fix. I now possess another way of visiting; a rather nice way of doing it in the comfort of my own home. Kitchen Garden Estate documents life on the country estates looked after by the National Trust. The introduction briefly traces the development of estate management over the centuries, and how the Trust now sees their role for educational purposes, their restaurant/cafe supplies and wider community involvement. The bulk of the book is devoted to highlighting the produce an owner would expect from their country estate. This is much wider than what initially springs to mind. N...

I now have some bigger pots available after my autumnal clearing, so  these pots of Mizuna will be potted on to give them more room. As my plants are quite small, I probably won't be picking many leaves until around February next year When I asked you for your favourite lettuce varieties recently, there were spontaneous recommendations for a host of other leaves and herbs. Today's post bundles them up to form a companion to August's Tried and Trusted: Lettuce  :) Top Bloggers and Tweeters recommend: Agastache - 'Tasted an agastache leaf today. BLOODY HELL! Why'd no one tell me they're so utterly delicious?' Basil - 'amazing flavour'. 'Wow, what's the herb in our salad tonight?' - said NAH after I'd scattered the smaller leaved Greek basil over our summer salads  Beetroot leaves - 'earthy' Bulb fennel - thinnings, fronds and bulb all add a great aniseed flavour to salads Chervil - 'virtually indestructible'...

I'm trying to decide which apple is the most local to Chippenham - it could be 'Celt' from Melksham or 'Beauty of Bath', which hails from Batheaston. Click on the pic to enlarge if needed. After last week's post about Wiltshire's Apple Days , I decided to go to Marlborough's on Sunday. This was on the strength they were having some Wiltshire varieties available for tasting and I'd been wanting to find out more about them for ages. Marlborough has a community orchard project and they've decided the town's 'Diamond Jubilee Plantation' will "celebrate 60 years of HM The Queen's reign, and restore historic links between common land and local foods for local people". Part of this project has been to find as many apple varieties as possible which hail from Wiltshire. I knew of 3 before Sunday; that knowledge has now expanded to 10 and I've also tasted 7 of them :) Some of Wiltshire's apple varieties. Big p...

Salvia 'Hot Lips'  looking shiny and luminescent in the sunshine after the rain. I love how the flower colour changes depending on the temperature My thoughts are beginning to gel re the revamped terrace beds which I've been mulling over for quite a while now since the demise of the 'sentinel' conifers  early this year. 1. Rosa 'Kew Gardens' to froth over a larger version of a peony basket which NAH has promised to make, and 2. Have lots more Dahlias of the single flowered kind for the bees. 3. has taken me a bit by surprise because it involves Salvias, something that's relatively new for the garden. I've tried (and killed) S . 'Hot Lips' before, but the small plant I acquired at Combe Trenchard in early June has thwarted any attempts for an early demise so far. I did think I'd planted it in the wrong place as this year's Dahlias were threatening to shade it out completely. Instead it's sprawled comfortably from underne...