Monthly Archives: December 2013

broad beans, project othello

Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

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Finally, after a delay; have managed to sink broadbeans. About four weeks later then normal. Have been desperately trying to shoehorn the time in to do so. Lo and behold, mama H has taken umbrage at broadbeans; and pleaded with me not sink them. I can sink runner beans, that’s fine. But she has a personal disdain for them, and didn’t want them to be grown.

I don’t mind them, and the double podded they don’t taste too bad. That was an Trial and error finding, I tell you. This years I am sowing three digest varieties. Bunyards exhibition, suttons dwarf and some form aquadulce. You may also read of them being term field beans or fava beans. Minus the lecter, I assure you.

A whole bed on project othello has been dedicated to them. One of two beds that had yet to be filled. Each bean has been sunk through cardboard with a dibber. That’s a lot of beans, certainly. And we shall see if anyone of them comes off.

chillies, classroom experimentation

Purple rainbow chilli that wants to live

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A few weeks ago, I tried to end the being of one of the purple rainbow chillies in the classroom. I didn’t think they would survive the winter, and now I won’t have a classroom anyway after the festive period. The time came that the pots had to be brought home. I was about to empty the pot when I saw that this one was actually still going. The leaves are lovely and green. So this one has a temporary stay of existence and is sat on a window sill at home.

project othello, roses

Ring o’roses; pocketful of posies

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With the news yesterday that the dementors are coming to work; horticultural therapy is urgently required. Good thing I had a stash of roses waiting to be sunk.

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Spent this morning sinking 17 lost label roses. Would have been 18, but mama h has pinched one for the back garden.

I have no idea what they are; other than being hybrid tea roses or floribundas. Something of a surprise will occur in the Summer with them all being a mystery. Got pricked here and there with the rather sharp thorns, which was a bit of a negative. The roses have all been sunk on the project othello part of the plot. The wet heavy clay was a nightmare; no match for the magic spade and and hobbit fork.

There is something quintessentially English about roses. If you have ever been to Blenheim Palace; there is a beautiful rose garden there that is truly inspirational. Project othello will be something an avenue of roses. Just have to imagine it. A bit hard in the desolation of winter. This will hopefully build on the success on the roses that were sunk this time last year.

Squashes

Sweet Nothing

Remember these?

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Was just thinking. The jury is still pretty much out on these. This fruit and vine is that of the sweet dumpling squash, and was grown upwards in a raised bed. From one plant; there were three perfectly fruit. This was an experimental crop; in that the seeds were free and as ever I like to experiment.

The proof in any pudding is of the eating, and it was with baited breath that these were prepared. We had them with roast dinner with some sweet potatoes. The one fruit was diced and roasted with chilli flakes and cumin.

And didn’t taste of anything.

Not a single bit flavour; in stark comparison to the lovely sweet potato.

A bit of a shame. Can’t say why though. But I have refs that other growers have had the same issue. A lack of flavour. Which suggests some consistency in observations. Therein a dilemma. I would like to grow a few more different varieties next year of squashes. This one, however, might not be one of them.

Preparation, Taking stock

Thinking out aloud

Outside a hanging gale blows; the cold bites, winter is on its way. And all I can dwell upon is aubergines. That’s eggplants by the way.

How soon after Christmas could I sow seeds, where shall I put the seeds to germinate, and will they be okay in the poly? All questions that have me thinking. The poly is of course a huge toy to play with next year. As well as aubergines, there also chillies and bell peppers to think about. Thing is I won’t have any warm window sills to use. This year chillies were sown in January, and then again later as the first batch keeled over with poor light. Mother advises me not to sow so many. A scary prospect when there are so many in the seedstasher; and there is never any guarantee that each and every chilli or sweet pepper seed will actually germinate. I actually want to find some Naga seeds, incidentally, to experiment. Might sow a variety of seeds but just not many. That is going to be difficult.

Melon.

I would rather like to grow one in there. I managed to grow a butternut; so I am somewhat encouraged to try a melon.

Squashes too. More winter ones. On the hunt for a Turks turban. Purely because of beautifully ugly they are.

classroom experimentation

Class cacti

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The class cacti are moving home. They have all flowered in unison. Flushes of pink, white and red and made the classroom look a little pretty. Have all gone a bit funny coloured but it www lovely to see the ugly creatures display resplendent with flowery plumes.

One thing that I have noticed is that the plants have actually changed colour. Gone from a shade of green to red, and look a bit wrinkly. My guess is that they need a feed and some water.

I’m proud of these creatures. Many of them were only 25-99pence when they were rescued last year. Last year they flowered in stages. This time it was all synchronised.

Sadly, there will be no classroom experimentation for a while. I will have to claim some other window sills!

Mama H recipes

Holy basil, Batman!

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Meet Tulsi, mama H’s holy basil plant. Tulsi is something of a fickle creature; if she doesn’t like where she is positioned; she dies. So goes the mythology anyway. This is probably the biggest and bushiest the plant has ever been. Ma tells me she will give poor tulsi a hair cut soon. The plant is actually flowering. Ma has been known to cook with the leaves and also use dry leaves as tea leaves.

Uncategorized

The very inspiring Blogger award

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viba-2

My thanks to Steve at greenwood, for nominating the blog for this award. It is always nice to hear about people having positive experiences in reading what makes up the horticultural hobbit blog.

Rules of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

  1. Thank the person who nominated you and supply a link to their blog.
  1. Display the Award on your post.
  2. List the Award rules so your nominees will know what to do.
  3. State 7 things about yourself
  4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the Award.
  5. Contact your nominees to let them know you have nominated them and provide a link to this post about it.
  6. Proudly display the award logo (or button) on your Blog, whether on the About page, your sidebar, or on a special awards page.

Posting the award to your post

Since Steve was so kind as to nominate the horticultural hobbit blog, I am putting in the link as to how it might be posted by the future nominees. As described by Lonnie. My apologies to Lonnie for getting things mixed up!

http://thebelmontrooster.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/my-very-inspiring-blogger-award/  is the link where you can see how it is all set out. But http://gardeningingreenwood.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/the-very-inspiring-blogger-award/ is where you can see where I received the nomination,

Seven things about me:

1. I barely scrape five foot. Hence the hobbit-ism.

2.Love Shakespeare, have seen three in the last three months. Scheduled to see three more next year at the RSC, Stratford.

3. Rather liked Sue Grafton’s Alphabet Novel series, currently have ‘G for Gumshoe’ waiting to be read. But reading ‘Long Goodbye’ by Raymond Chandler.

4. Want to grow a more diverse range of winter squashes next year,

5. Got sick of the sight of courgettes this year.

6.Chilliles were fantastic this year.

7.Love having a polytunnel and a wendy house.

Nominees

I have chosen five that I think are lovely, truly inspiration and shape the writings on the horticultural hobbit page. Please have a look and see what you might like.

Allotment adventures with jean http://allotmentadventureswithjean.wordpress.com/

Gardening vix http://gardeningvix.wordpress.com/

Sophie http://sophiecussen.wordpress.com/

Sarah the gardener http://gardeningkiwi.wordpress.com/

http://theanxiousgardener.com/

Crafty Garden hoe http://craftygardenhoe.wordpress.com/