Picture of last years harvest of belle de fontenay – half a row “5 seed potato’s planted”

My potato bed is now “finally” prepared for planting after spending an hour forking over and adding manure. I don’t trench ” too much like hard work”  after all that prep .. I prefer to use a small pole to make a hole and pop the seed potato in.. I’m  planning on getting them in the ground in a couple of weeks, though if it stays this cold I will delay a little..

I’ve chosen all new varieties this year apart from one..

Belle de fontenay – early main-crop salad variety. I grew these last year and were a big hit producing huge amounts on a single seed potato…

This year I’m trying out…

Sante  early main-crop.. Good for boiling, dry pale yellow flesh that grows well in all soils, so should do ok in my clay soil..

Rooster early main-crop.. Good all rounder red potato from Ireland  with a floury flesh..

Golden wonder late main-crop.. Good for baking, roasting, frying, stores well..

Cabbage – Greyhound

Cauliflower- all year round

Brussels - Clodius

Fennel – ?  name escapes me

Squash - Barbara

Squash - Avalon

Courgette – Verde di milano

Courgette  - Yellow something or other?

Pumpkin – Jack be little

Pumpkin – Hooligan

Pumpkin – blue hubbard

Beans – Asparagus

Asparagus beans didn’t do well sown direct last year, so this year I’m starting them off in root trainers..

The exhibition documents the governments ministry of food campaign during world war two for growing your own. Leaflets were handed out during the war on how to grow your own veggies month by month “dated 1945″ and these can now be downloaded on the site

If your in London I highly recommend  visiting  the exhibition which is on until January

There are also some books published alongside the exhibition ..

Two that I couldn’t resist are…

dig on for victory

Mr Middleton had a gardening radio show at the time..  Here’s the review I swiped from Amazon..

Mr Middleton was the Alan Titchmarsh of his time, and that time was during the last war, when the nation hung on to his every word during his BBC radio programmes on gardening. He was the first media gardener, exhorting us to Dig for Victory, Dig for Dear Life, and (as in this book) advising us that “An Allotment is like the army. The first month is the worst: after that you begin to enjoy it”. In 2008 Aurum re-published with success his wartime book Digging for Victory; now here is a second, first published in 1945 – a guide to what to plant, and how, and when, all through the year, from Celeriac to Strawberries. Reproduced in facsimile, it is full of sensible tips, as well as period advertisements for Mushrooms as a War Food Crop and The Value of Cloches (since, “as Mr Middleton advises us, ‘Available food will have to be shared with a starving Europe, which may mean even greater sacrifices for us’”). Qualcast advertise their mowers, even though they admit no new ones have been made since 1940, forcing the old ones “to do sturdy and efficient work through the war”. And, as Mr Middleton reflects, looking towards a new post-war dawn of peace, “Won’t it be grand when we can sit on the old garden seat, and listen to the birds instead of the sirens…?” Sage, gruff, touching and especially relevant to these new times of thrift, Mr Middleton’s All-Year-Round Gardening guide is the perfect gift for 2009. Mr Middleton was the BBC’s “famous gardener” on the radio during the war.

Eating for Victory..

How would you survive on wartime rations? Eating for Victory (subtitled Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations) makes for absolutely fascinating reading — and may answer the question as to what the reader might have made of these more straitened times.

The book reproduces official Second World War instruction leaflets (which have never before been published in book form) and demonstrates how millions of people in Britain endured food shortages during the hardships of WWII. With a perceptive foreword by Jill Norman, Eating for Victory shows that the government endeavoured to keep morale high by producing a host of the upbeat leaflets included here on such subjects as ‘using up stale crusts’ and ‘foods for fitness’ (the leaflets are most amusing in this area, showing how much thinking has changed over the years — the use of fats and lard looks very quaint in these more enlightened times). But what gives particular pleasure here is the verbatim reproduction of the original artwork and typefaces, which vividly conjures a lost era. To read this entertaining little book is like climbing into a time machine to take us back to the 1940s. –Barry Forshaw

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It’s  a lovely bright sunny day here today; hopefully spring has finally sprung and sometime this week I can get down to my plot to get my potato bed ready for planting later this month “No more rain please” My plot needs to dry out a little so I’m not wallowing in a mud bath..

Dee  xx

I’ve sown some herbs for my containers [window boxes] at home…

Basil

Dark opal and Sweet Genovese – most will be turned into pesto later on – usually I get 4/5 jars from the plants I grow, along with a good few handfuls that I dry to use in winter.

My ‘must haves’ to put in window boxes on the sunny side of my home  include chives, lemon balm, [ I make a herb tea with the lemon balm] coriander and basil…  On the shady side [north facing] I  have salad herb window boxes that includes wild rocket, French parsley and Japanese red mustard, all these like a little shade to stop them from bolting.. My salad boxes are re sown so I have a continuous supply from March till Autumn..

Two tips on growing herbs in containers…

The first is to use a soil-based compost, either organic or  John Innes potting compost. This is because there are very few herbs that grow in peat, and a soil-based compost retains moisture which is a must to stop the containers drying out. I also water in the morning rather than the evening because this helps the plants  if it gets too hot during the day [she says optimistically]

The second tip is to feed container plants weekly from March till September. This keeps the plants healthy. I use a seaweed feed…

And lastly pick a few leaves from each plant [top most]

OK..that was three!

I’ll post a few recipes when I get time. For now here are a few tips and ideas on using home made pesto..

I never buy shop bought [cant stand the stuff ] so this is a seasonal treat for me!!

Tips and ideas for pesto…

Fresh basil will turn brown if it gets too hot  Many cooks use fresh spinach as well as basil in their pesto to help maintain its brilliant green colour.

When mixing pesto with soup, pasta, potatoes, or risotto, stir it in at the last minute, just before serving.

Store pesto in a jar or airtight container in the refrigerator for a fortnight or in the freezer for about six months..

A good way to freeze pesto into portion sizes is to freeze it in an ice cube tray, and transfer the cubes to a heavy duty plastic freezer bag…

Serving Suggestions for Pesto..

On pizza in place of or mixed with the tomato sauce

Stirred into mashed potatoes

Stirred into risotto

Dolloped onto soup before serving [tomatoes a good choice]

Whisked into scrambled eggs or folded into omelette’s

In pasta salads as dressing and potato salads

Mixed with cream cheese and spread on a bagel.. Yum!

The first year I grew peas was a total disaster!

I started the seeds off in loo roll inners and everything was going well – nice little healthy plants at home, then the time came to plant them out and it was down hill from there. They slowed down growth wise and the pods were far and few between [ all that effort for a very small meal] The following year I sowed direct [  roughly the same amount of two 5ft rows] and was sick of eating them. I put down the previous years failure to the cardboard loo roll inners and heavy clay soil, even though the bed had copious amounts of compost dug into the bed to break the soil up. I’m convinced the two didn’t give ideal growing conditions – I also had a problem with my squash started off the same way, though in little peat pots [the idea of just plant everything pot as well just doesn't work on my soil]

I grow two types of peas

# dwarf- A early pea, enabling me to cover them until the weather warms up – they don’t need any support..

Followed by a main crop climber ..

Remember to soak peas overnight before sowing!

Early March through to April..

I sow my dwarf peas three to four weeks apart. – I completely ignore the spacing advice on the packet and grow in blocks close together so they support themselves

April

I put up the support for my climbing peas and fork in some bone meal

End of April/May

Depending on the weather I direct sow my climbing peas – delaying if the ground is too wet..

April/ May..

I sow my beans direct around the end of April/May

[runners,  broad, etc. ]

Adding compost and bone meal to the bed in March..

leaving the more tender varieties

[French beans asparagus beans ]

until June…

pic is of last years effort..

14 out of 15 ain’t bad..

Only 1 of my Aubergines didn’t show.

I’m growing this year…

2 Aubergine - diamond

2  Aubergine – thai long green

1 Aubergine - black – enorma

Aubergines require warmer conditions than tomatoes. If you want to grow them outdoors you will need a sheltered position and protection to get them to fruit. Aubergines need higher temperatures and protection from wind. You will also need to limit the number of fruits on an aubergine by pinching out side shoots

I use John Innes.  No. 2 compost and sow into 3in pots –giving the pots a good soaking before sowing. I don’t water again until the seedlings are well through and only pot on before transfering to my plot when absolutely necessary.

I can get three largish, sometimes four fruits on one plant grown outside in central London and six smallish fruits..

This is basically how I grow my Aubergines

Jan/Feb

Sow seeds indoors into 3in pots in warmth (65 °F) I grow mine on my windowsill, placing the pot into a plastic bag [these in effect are mini greenhouses]

May

If plants get too large before the weather warms up I pot them on into 5 inch pots

June

I plant out onto plot staking and covering with Enviromesh making a frame with some piping – the mesh is usually put in place 2 weeks before to warm up the soil. On open ground like a allotment they need to be sheltered and this tightly woven mesh is ideal. I then start feeding using a high potash feed [comfrey] once first fruit has set

Aubergines can suffer from blossom end rot so I try to keep watering constant as I would my tomatoes. Though I’ve never had that problem so far..

I continue to tie in and pinch out the top when they get around 18in high and the side shoots when I have 4/6 fruits to encourage bushiness and feed approx every 2 weeks with a comfrey feed until the first fruits are ready – My first year this happened in late August (did well that year) or September, depending on our summers. Lol

It’s now dawned on me that I’ve been buying seeds in bulk! I somehow have six packets of  Gladiator Parsnips, all unopened and useless. As you know Parsnip seed should be bought fresh every year… And, I have unconsciously stockpiled enough peas/beans to plant a field. I vaguely remember Mr D asking for some cherry toms the year before last. I now have 11 packets… How!!  Admittedly some  were free with magazines.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one who’s come down with this affliction and its comforting to know I’m not alone. Otherwise I would have to face the fact that I’m getting on a bit and loosing my marbles..

I stumbled across this site Recently..  I’ve printed a few off to give some seeds to my Daughters and a couple of friends. Not necessary I know but its a nice sentiment..

My peppers are now starting to germinate and my tomatoes  surprisingly started to germinate 5 days after sowing [All were sown around the 10 Jan]

I’m growing  Red pointy pepper [yes that's it's name] along with  bell peppers [red green orange] from real seeds. I’ve also decided to grow a Thai green aubergine [ she says optimistically ] also from real seeds along with my usual black enorma aubergine..

I’m sticking with my usual tomatoes.. Roma for sauces and cherry sweet million. Next on my list is to decide what squash/pumpkin to grow,then start those off in pots in March..