Flower Power

Good evening,

One of my customers asked me other day what fruits and vegetables I grew altogether. After reeling off a rather long list (and witnessing someone falling asleep with their eyes wide open and staring at me), she asked me what flowers I grew. I explained to this lovely lady that unless I could eat it, I didn't grow it. By the time I got home I started thinking, did I grow anything I didn't have any intention of eating? Yes, I did! FYI: my memory can be awful at times. Despite being able to remember the ISBN number of a box of Crayola's from primary school (1050215304348), I cannot remember simple things from the last year. Inconsistent and annoying to say the least.

I digress. 

Last year I grew lots of nasturtiums in order to attract bees and repel horrid bugs that would eat and destroy my plants. Vibrant little flowers they are, sweet smelling (and edible, of course), these little beauties are a vegetable garden essential. Not only do they trap aphids in their flower-heads, but they repel blackfly and whitfly from nearby plants. This method worked particularly well with my runnder beans and broad beans last year.

This little memory has inspired me to do a bit of digging - pardon the pun - and find some other flowers which will help fight bugs and insects. 

Lavender

A brilliant general pest repellant, lavender, if grown in abundance, will even keep mice and ticks away. Lavender smells great, looks great, and if your plants are getting a bit to wild, then the flowers can be picked, dried and sewn into little fabric patches and used to keep those drawers smelling fresh. Chest of drawers I mean.

Borage

Fun to say and great to grow, borage repels hornworm and cabbage worm. It is a particularly strong ally to the tomato plant, and seeing as I will be growing a greenhouse full of tomatoes this year, I will certainly be needing my fair share of borage plants. Borage has pretty blue star-shaped flowers which are edible.

Petunias

These beauties repel aphids which are the Godfather of pests in my garden. They also deter asparagus beetles, leaf hoppers and other predatory insects. Maybe I should plant more petunia's next year...

Sunflowers 

The mighty giants aren't just eye candy, they attract all sort of lovely pollenators, such as bumble bees which are my favourite summertime critter, which will help surrounding pumpkin, courgette and squash plants. These happy critters they attract will eliminate the horrible little aphids and flies. As if sunflowers couldn't get even better, they also come in the colour red. Totally fabulous. 

French and Mexican Marigolds
The roots of the marigold secrete a substance which repels soil nematodes (horrible little things which can cause havoc underneath the soil where our blessed roots and veggies are).

Herbs are also an effective method of combat against veg-patch nasties... (and used as fresh herbs in the kitchen, it's a win-win situation!)

Rosemary
Deters bean beetle and carrot fly

Mint
Deters aphids, ants and fleas. 

Lemon Balm
Repels squash bugs and many other garden pests. Fresh lemon balm leaves also make a delicious cup of tea.

Sage
Repels cabbage moths and flea beetle.

If you know of any other flowers or herbs which repel garden pests, I would love to hear from you. Especially is they get rid of millipedes/centipedes/earwigs.

Ruth

How To Make: Homemade Pectin

Good afternoon,

It's a horrible rainy day in Wales (surprise surprise) so I thought a nice little blog might make it all better, especially when the blog is about making homemade pectin for all those delicious jams and jellies that we will all be making in the beautiful, long summer days ahead.

Pectin is VITAL for jellies, jams and marmalades to set. Fruits which are naturally high in pectin, such as cooking apples, currants, gooseberries and cranberries, won't have any difficulty in setting. However, fruits such as pears, elderberries, figs and peaches are low in pectin and so they will need a little bit of help to set.
With the summer coming up and an abundance of berries and soft fruits to be had, it will be quite handy to have a store of pectin available in order to make some jam or jellies.

The following recipe and "pectin test" are, from "The Gentle Art of Preserving" by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi. This book is not only one of my favourite recipe books, but it's full of practical information and guidance on how preserve all sorts of foods. It is a definite asset to any kitchen!

Homemade pectin stock

1kg cooking apples or crabapples 
1-1.5L water

"Chop the fruit into bite-sized pieces... put in a saucepan and cover with the water. Put a lid on the pan and bring to the boil, and then simmer until the fruit is really soft and pulpy, up to 1 hour. Transfer the pulp to a jelly bag and set aside for at least 5 hours (preferably overnight)."

The juice which will have come from the straining will be the desired pectin. However, this can be tested by doing the following...

"Remove one teaspoon of the cooked juice and put into a small jar or ramekin. Add 1 tablespoon of methylated spirits and swirl them both together. If the mixture comes together in a jellified lump, the juice is high in pectin; if it forms small clumps, then it has medium levels of pectin; if it forms tiny lumps or no lumps at all, your fruit is low in pectin."


This pectin can be used straight away or can be frozen in small quantities. It can also be poured into sterilized jars and then placed in a water bath for 10 minutes, and this way it will store safely for around 6 months.

This is something I will definitely be doing this year, as I have already faced a few issues with strawberry jam not setting properly and also grape jelly not setting at all! It also ensures that good, homemade pectin is being made from produce from the garden (or someone else's) rather than using mass produced stuff. Win-win!

Plants and Trees Wishlist...

Good morning,

It's freezing cold in Swansea at the moment, so to make myself feel warmer and more joyous, I've been reading up about what exciting fruits and veggies I'm going to grow in the summer to liven up the garden (and my plate!)

I love growing fruit and vegetables; tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, fennel, beetroot, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries et cetera. I love the whole process of nurturing the plant, watching it grow and develop, the excitement of the first flower and finally the fruits. Its a beautiful, natural process with a brilliant end result: food.
This year, I want to broaden my garden horizon. I would like to grow more exotic and interesting plants along with more unusual varieties of vegetables and colourful fruits in order to bring different shades to the garden. Whilst looking around for trees and plants I could grow in the UK, I was incredibly surprised to see the variety of tropical plants which were hardy enough for our cold Welsh winters and relatively non-existant summers.

Figs
I already have a fig tree in the garden, "Brown Turkey". I bought it last year on a spontaneous spree and I had about 12 fruits from it. I'm not completely sure how old it is, but I imagine it's a few years old. I was pretty chuffed with the fact that I could walk out of my french doors and pick sun-ripened figs off my own tree! This year I'm going to buy another tree but a different variety; it's called "Gustissimo Two Timer". It can produce two crops in a single year with a little bit of TLC, which I can an abundance of when it comes to my garden.

Pomegranate
"Provence" is a variety of pomegranate which is suitable to grow in the UK. Therefore, I'm going to get one for the garden. Why not? In the back garden, where all the other fruit trees are, there is a brick foundation of an old summer house which was built with the rest of the house back in 1834. The walls have since fallen down and just the base and a small surrounding wall remain, which, incidentally, has become the perfect place for my greenhouse and other plants as the location in the garden is a great big fat sun-trap.

Kiwi
Up until I googled kiwi plants the other day, I had no idea how they grew. They're such weird little fruits that grow on these vines, and although they sound (to me) like the diva's of the fruit world - they require vigourous pruning and only last a few years - I think it would be flippin' awesome to have a kiwi vine in the garden. "Jenny" is a self-fertile plant which will do good in the garden. I will either grow it (her?) on a south facing trellis or I will grow her inside my greenhouse. Either way, I think she will fit in to my fruit menagerie quite well.

Blueberry
"Pink Lemonade." As if. A pink variety of blueberry! Who wouldn't want a pink blueberry bush?! I don't think anything else needs to be said on this...


Ruth x

P.S Oscar, the little blighter, had a funny 5 minutes on the weekend, darting around the house with huge pupils, jumping in the air for no reason and chasing his tail. He ran upstairs and after a few seconds I could hear some pathetic mewwing. I ran upstairs to make sure he hadn't hurt himself and found him like this...