Wednesday 10 June 2009

What a Difference a Day Makes!


After a day of rain and then a day of showers and cloud and now today a smattering of sun the garden has put on a completely new face! The deluge of rain and then eventually some warmth has obviously been good for my new climbing rose. The buds are beginning to open and as it is a scented rose I'm hoping for some lovely perfumed evenings sitting on the patio.



Suddenly the Lollo Rosso lettuce are ready for picking and the Salad Bowl lettuce is putting in lots of energy into spreading out too. The Lollo Rosso are good for what I call 'cut and come again' picking which extends their growing season considerably.



The bronze Fennel has shot up and I'm glad I put a shaped cane round it as the recent winds haven't hurt it at all. Fennel is very good in mushroom soup!


The spinach I grow in pots is suddenly inches bigger and ready for picking. The more I pick the bushier the plants grow. I've also got some darker green perpetual spinach in the seed bed and this should take me through until the frosts.


This plant hiding under the Angelica is English Mace. It was a tiny little scrap of a plant when I planted it about a fortnight ago. It is a new plant to me and I thought it would be tiny but suddenly it has sprung to life and is quite tall. Apparantly the leaves are good chopped onto potato salad. In fact I have been able to go out this evening and pick several different kinds of leaves to make into a salad. I love it when the plants come through for me food wise!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing the photos! I love how you used the lettuces as edging! We had a sunny, but hot day but we are awaiting thunder storms tonight. You hever know here, though. Last night, they stuck to the mainland and didn't affect us. It's been good having the back and forth of sun and rain...unlike a mostly sunless May!

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  2. Perpetual spinach? You just made my day, Valeri! I should have it!

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  3. Torrential rain here tonight - will save me from watering at the allotment tomorrow :) Mace has gone down on my wish list but I have never seen mace for sale on my travels. Was your plant from a local source?

    10 June 2009 21:40

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  4. We had heavy rain here last night, but it's sunny, although a little windy here today.
    I always grow cut and come again lettuce, usually Salad Bowl. We don't use a huge amount of lettuce so I find these types serve me better as I only need to cut the amount I require.

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  5. Thank you all for your comments!
    Anna I thought Mace was something to do with Nutmeg but after I'd bought this plant and looked it up it turned out to be something quite different. It has an unusual but pleasant taste and is great with mayo on potatoes...and anything else you fancy. Bought it at a local garden centre!
    Jo we don't use a lot of lettuce at one go either so salad bowl is ideal. And the Lollo Rosso is happy to be picked over time!
    Tatyana glad to give you a new idea! The perpetual spinach I grow is dark green compared with the lighter green of ordinary spinach.
    Island Gardner I had no choice but to use the lettuces at the edge as I was running out of room. Serendipity! :-)
    Val

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  6. Kooks lovely and that's a good idea I have spinach and have no room in the beds perhaps it can go in pots.

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