Veg Plotting

Having given up half of my allotment , I was worried I wouldn't have the space any more for the kind of growing experiments I love to do. Thank goodness for the discovery of Echalote Grise, the strongly flavoured gourmet shallot (aka echalions or banana shallots, a variety I've always wanted to grow) which is planted in the autumn. Isn't it great to find something which can be planted out now ? To the left are some I bought from my local supermarket. Now most books warn about using shop bought edibles as seed. I'd certainly agree with them about garlic and potatoes*, but these British grown shallots look pretty healthy to me. On the right are some sets I bought from Edwin Tucker , a new supplier for me to try** and theirs was by far the cheapest I could find. However, they're still about twice the price of my supermarket ones for around the same number and weight. Will I get what I pay for? Will proper seed triumph over shop bought? Will I be able to save a...

This spring, I was surprised to find some of my hardy fuchsias hadn't survived the harsh winter, even though some of the more tender plants like my in-ground dahlias and potted olive tree had. Usually when I lose a plant, I treat it as an opportunity to try something else. After all, there are so many more I'd like to grow than there's room for. However, my Fuchsia 'Garden News' worked so well in my lower terrace bed I decided to replace it with one I found at the Malvern Spring Show . There's not that many hardy fuchsias with a double form and this one flounces its skirts so prettily. It's also good at arching itself over the wall which makes it particularly noticeable when taking the side path down into the garden. On the upper terrace bed Fuchsia magellanica 'Versicolor ' has grown particularly tall this year, despite its slow start after the winter. The flowers of magellanica type fuchsias always remind me of earrings. These are also pro...

Our local supermarket was selling off tins of chestnut puree very cheaply recently, so it can introduce slightly smaller ones of the same brand at the previous price. Naturally I was very happy to score quite a few of the larger cans for my store cupboard :) Last week, I decided to make chestnut and mushroom soup for lunch and devised this very quick and simple recipe. Ingredients 1x 435g can unsweetened chestnut puree 250g well flavoured mushrooms e.g. chestnut (!) 1 tbsp oil (I used olive oil for its fruity flavour) 1 litre vegetable stock (or 1 stock cube made up to this amount) Salt and black pepper to taste Method Empty the tin of chestnut puree into a large pan, swilling it out with stock to ensure all the puree is obtained Add the remaining stock to the pan Bring the liquid slowly to the boil, stirring well at the beginning to ensure the puree is dispersed into the stock Meanwhile thinly slice the mushrooms Add the oil to a frying pan and add the mushroom...

I found this poppy in the meadow at The Organic Garden at Holt Farm back in August. It seemed appropriate to revisit it today.

Canal Boats at Bristol Harbour Update March 2012: Blogger have now added the ability to add the alt attribute directly onto images. Only read on if you'd like to know more about why it's a good thing to use in blogs. When I wrote about Bristol BlogCamp recently, we had quite a conversation in the Comments on whether using the Alt Attribute for our photos is worth the extra trouble when writing our blog posts. Colleen and Esther asked for a better explanation than the link to Wikipedia I gave at the time, so I'm giving it a go... What is the alt attribute? It's an HTML command which can be used to display some descriptive text when you use your mouse to hover over the image. The author decides what that text should be. But I'm showing everyone lovely photos on my blog, why should I be bothered with adding some extra text? There's many different ways people are accessing your blog - lots of browsers, different PCs, laptops, mobile...

Set up your dental practice Decide to raise awareness of a particular health initiative Create a simple poster for your window Wait for a blogger with a camera to notice the second poster is definitely needed after displaying the first one Et Voila! Joking aside, please do get checked out. Whilst we're on the subject of adverts, you may have noticed a new bit of blog bling at the top of the right hand sidebar. My thanks to whoever nominated me for The Horticultural Channel 's inaugural awards. I'm really chuffed, amongst some very fine company and I wish the best of luck to my fellow nominees. You can go along and vote here - there's lots of your other gardening favourites nominated in the other categories too :)

I ignore most Press Releases, but the one I received yesterday is too good too miss, especially is it allows me to share the kind of plant picture I can't take myself... As you can see May 18th next year has been designated as the first international Fascination of Plants day . Many of our tippety top plant organisations in the UK are involved, such as the Eden Project, lots of botanical gardens like Kew, the Natural History Museum, plus various research and educational organisations. The full list of participating UK organisations will be here *. In the run up to next year's special day, Kew Gardens have selected ten of their most fascinating plants, from the giant titan arum rising three metres high to the smallest water lily in the world, with pads as little as 1cm across. The myriad of plants that has shaped history, and continues to affect our lives, is showcased by the John Innes Centre . Here's the amazing plant picture as promised, taken by Olivi...

Have a look at my fellow Wordless Wednesday bloggers here .

This post's for Nutty Gnome , who recently reviewed a 'sample' of Sarah Raven's latest opus on wildflowers . I said in her Comments my copy of The Wild Flower Key by Francis Rose takes a lot of beating when it comes to the art of identifying our wild flora. It's small enough to take into the field and allows me to identify both flowering and non-flowering plants. Much of the text is abbreviated so you need to decode it first, but this allows a lot of detail to be crammed into a relatively small volume. As you can see from the cover it's also beautifully illustrated. An updated version was recently published, so it's better than ever. I'm also a big fan of the laminated guides produced by the Field Studies Council such as those shown on the left and right of this picture. I have quite a few of these, but the ones on grass identification and the structure of flowers are particularly good. I have a few of the AIDGAP* guides too - these are f...