Veg Plotting

September 2004 - This is the kind of magnetic poem you write when you've been waking up at 3 in the morning and not getting back to sleep again in months.

Self Contained from Beholder's Eye I love Malvern. It's a place of good times and memories as it was our family's premier choice for a day out when I was little. It was like magic - the number 144 Midland Red bus from the end of our road would whisk us away from the dingy outskirts of Birmingham and we'd arrive in a sparkling new world full of hills and fresh air. We'd climb up Worcestershire Beacon , unpack our picnic and drink in the view as well as a welcome cuppa brewed up by dad on a tiny camping gas stove. The rest of the world was spread out below us like a map and it was easy to spot the Three Counties Showground from our perch atop the hill. So it felt a little like coming home yesterday when I pitched up at the showground for the Malvern Autumn Show . I'd only been to the Spring one previously and I was a little worried on my arrival as most of the stands seemed to have very little to do with plants. Luckily I'd arranged a couple of rendez...

Just back from a fab day at Malvern with Patient Gardener - more on that tomorrow as I'm a bit pooped. I just wanted to share this e-mail I found in my inbox from KLC when I got home: Dear VP, RedHouse TV have developed an exciting new series for C4 about people and their passion for Nature. It follows the design and creation of the most ambitious and inspiring private gardens, and tells the stories of the inspirational people driving them, over the course of a year. It is a celebration of what is achievable in outdoor spaces, but a realistic portrayal of how hard it is to create truly stunning landscaped gardens. Created by the people behind Grand Designs it will be both inspirational and aspirational in tone. They are looking for a couple of ambitious, large-scale garden projects to include within the series and follow over 12 months. Ideally the gardens will be at least 1 acre and above in size, with work due to commence this Autumn. The style of the garden is not necessarily i...

Warm September sunshine Meeting a friend not seen for months - good company and chat Coffee and cake at St Michaels Without - proceeds support projects in India Unexpectedly finding another King Bladud Pig Street advertising's still there Feel good busking - particularly this fiddle player with an inventive way of playing his Dobro guitar A lovely long browse in the Garden section at Waterstones - sadly no purchases as I forgot my book tokens Finding a book about Banksy with the publisher's disclaimer that they're not condoning Graffiti Art Banksy must be having a laugh...

From this... ... to this. Yum! This is the first year I've had a sufficiently large apple crop where I haven't insisted we eat the windfalls up ASAP before tackling the really nice fruit. My allotment cordons have yielded nearly 300 apples, so I can afford to do other things with the less desirable ones. Our current favourite use is to bake this rather nice apple cake. As it was the World's Biggest Coffee Morning earlier on today, I made one to accompany my morning cuppa. The apples in the bowl are a mixture of Scrumptious, James Grieve, Sunset and Princesse (aka King of the Pippins). I found this recipe for West Country Apple Cake* by Googling 'Apple Cake' and it seemed the most apt one to use bearing my location in mind. I intend to try substituting cider in the recipe sometime to make it even more authentically West Country. The cake slices into 8 generous portions, which means you're getting about one of your '5 a day' per slice! * = the...

For solving heinous crimes and mysteries, Agatha Christie had Miss Marple . EmmaT currently has Miss Maple on the case at Midsomer Berryfields. And recently I've had a most courteous Male to help me solve the mystery of my Clematis . She's appeared here before and also over on my Open Garden . A completely beautiful floosie who makes everyone visiting my garden say 'Wow! What is that?' At which point, I have to shuffle my feet and answer 'Er, I bought it as a C . 'Crystal Fountain' from the garden centre, but it looks nothing like it. So, actually I've no idea!' Nevertheless, I do love her. In my previous posts, two people were kind enough ( Fat Rascal and Niels ) to suggest what my Clematis could be: C . 'Blue Light' . I could see where they were coming from, but there were some differences, particularly in the way the flower looked in bud, that made me unsure. Besides, the lineage was different ( C . 'Mrs Cholmondeley...

... Junk! A couple of weeks ago Karen at Artistsgarden wrote a great piece about the messy bits in her garden and challenged the rest of us to 'fess up on the situation chez nous. At the time I was feeling most superior having frantically tidied everything up so I could safely show you my garden without embarassing myself. However, old habits die hard and like the pile of 'useful things for later' on my allotment which I had to remove and rehome earlier in the year, a quick inspection last week shows that I'm beginning to accumulate things at home again. It took me less than five minutes to take the pictures in the above collage. Some of the pictures give you a sneaky extra look at some of last week's Impulse Buys too. Here's what they are - clockwise from top left: 1 & 2 - pots from planting up winter planters and various seed labels 3. Old washing up bowl - why it's there is a complete mystery 4. Useful bits of pipe for adding drainage 5. You can ...

Picture courtesy of: WaterAid /Daniel O'Leary I feel a bit like my old Headmistress at Speech Day. It was always held at this time of year and she'd be presiding over a table groaning with prizes for presentation to high achievers. But it was always a bittersweet time as it marked a fresh chapter in the school's history and not everyone could receive a prize, no matter how deserving they were. It's the same with my Open Garden . I've decided to keep it open for a while: the Just Giving website is valid until 9th February and some of you've asked to come and visit a few times more. I also have a couple of great prizes to auction a little later in the year - watch this space for more details. Thus begins a new chapter in my open garden's history - I'll be revamping it over the next few weeks to reflect its new status. I'm in the process of adding some new bits and pieces, such as the plant lists for each bed. I've also added another recipe - for co...

This Gladiolus was too late for Blooms Day , but has brightened up today instead Firstly I need to thank those of you who've nominated Veg Plotting for a Blotanical award in the Best UK Blog and Best Agrarian Blog categories. It was a complete surprise as my feed (or lack of it) has been caught up in the Blotanical feed problems saga, so I've been feeling a bit lonely here of late. Thanks to all of you who've remembered me and especially those of you who are still coming over to have a read. I'm in extremely good company, so I urge those of you who are in registered in Blotanical to go and vote for your favourites. I've found it an ideal opportunity to make acquaintance with some new blogs too - what could be better than a recommendation via the votes of my fellow bloggers? Now let's get down to the day's business - the results of Friday's quiz. I received three entries; two were 100% correct. Thanks to Anna, Happy Mouffetard and Zoe for entering: I ...

No problem with blight here - tomato selection courtesy of Patrick & Steph Yesterday found me in Oxford - at the Botanic Gardens on a glorious September day. Thanks to Patrick of Bifurcated Carrots , a number of food growing bloggers met to chew the fat and also some produce. It was a nice mix of bloggers present - some of whom I read regularly, some I lurk on from time to time and others were completely and delightfully new. And with a real international flavour, as not only had Patrick and Steph come over from Amsterdam, Kate ( Hills and Plains Seed Savers ) had stopped off on her whirlwind tour from Australia to be with us for the day. The day kicked off with non-stop chatter. That's the great thing with meeting bloggers, there's no introductory barrier to get over first. Ben from The Real Seed Catalogue had to be very assertive and insist he start his talk. At this point we gave up on the hired room and decamped outside to listen to his whirlwind tour of seed domesti...