Leopard's Bane Starts Off The Herbaceous Season

I always like to see the bright jolly flowers of  Doronicum, or Leopard's Bane, in late Spring - it's the first of the herbaceous perennials to flower. I'm surprised that it's not more popular, as it does flower quite a bit before even the early subjects in the border. One of the problems is that it's about the same colour and size as the dreaded dandelion, which is in flower at the same time, but it's really well worth having, bridging the gap, as it does, between the spring bulbs and summer perennials.  It  grows pretty well anywhere, mine is under trees, in light shade. It makes a large clump in just a few years, and can be divided after flowering. I think mine's the ordinary sort, but several named varietes are available.

Brandy and Lovage, tis 'ansome, my luvver*

These are the first few shoots of my Lovage coming through in the vegetable garden. Although it's a herb, I wouldn't recommend planting it in a little herb patch, as I did when I first had it, next to parsley and thyme. Little did I know, but like Topsy, it just growed and growed and was soon taller than me, and quite overwhelmed its neighbours. So I moved it to the veg garden where it comes up bigger and stronger every year, a bit like a rhubarb patch.

The young shoots have a strong celery-like flavour and can be used to advantage in a vegetable soup. Or you could try making the famous Lovage cordial with it. I've no idea how you make it, but when I was a pub landlady in Devon some years ago we always had a bottle of  Lovage behind the bar, and it was quite a popular drink for specific occasions. I think it must be a Devon thing, as I'd never heard of it before. But it was especially popular as a remedy for the morning after the night before. Rarely drunk on its own, people would come in lunchtimes and ask for a Brandy and Lovage "to settle my stomach", and then proceed to down another half a dozen in short order,  which did, I think, rather defeat the object. But it seemed like fun. 

*translates as "Brandy and lovage is quite delicious my friend" 

Rhubarb Crumble

I've picked some rhubarb at last, despite my earlier disparaging remarks, and as there's already quite a lot of it, I feel I should be using some, if only in the interests of seasonality. Crumble is always a winner in our household, and the sourest fruits seem to make the best crumble - Bramley apples, blackcurrants, and of course rhubarb.

I always try to keep a bag of crumble mix in the freezer, - it's just as easy to make a big bagful if you have a food processor, so that provided you have some fruit, frozen or fresh, or even tinned, you always have the makings of a quick pudding, without all the washing up and fiddling about.  

This is my standard crumble mix:

1 lb/500g plain flour

8oz/250g butter

6oz/150g demarara sugar

4oz/125g porridge oats

Whizz the flour and butter in the processor to breadcrumb stage. Add the sugar and oats and pulse minimally to just mix in. Tip into a plastic bag and keep in the freezer.  To use, simply place your chosen fruit in a dish with enough sugar to sweeten, and top with the required amount of  frozen crumble, according to who's eating it. In our house, if  John's coming round, it's hold the fruit, heavy on the crumble for example. 

Bake in a medium oven for about half an hour, depending on the size of your dish of course.

Best with cream, or custard, although some weird people like it with ice cream. There's no accounting for taste.

Clear As Mud...

We have, or rather had, a nice pond in the garden. It's still a pond but it's not really very nice. You can't really see from the picture but it's the colour of pea soup.  I'm afraid I put this down to the ducks, who were allowed to spend quite a lot of last year on the pond, and their somewhat careless personal habits mean that the water has been "enriched" and is now too high in nitrogen which has caused the algae to flourish, hence the green water.

 I've had ducks on the pond before and not had this ill effect, but I think really you do need to have a source of running water such as a stream to make ducks really at home without running the risk of this kind of problem.  At the moment the ducks are in a run and have their own childrens paddling pond, which I can empty and refill at regular intervals. I'd prefer to let them free range, but I know they'd be straight on the pond, if they got the chance so it's not an option, for a while anyway.

So if you have ducks, and you don't want to end up with this

keep them out of your ornamental pond!

And Pretty Maids All In A Row

I planted these tulips along the edge of the drive two or three years ago, as an underplanting to a lavender hedge. Sadly the lavender hedge has been a bit of a disaster, and its remains will have to be dug out and replaced this year, but I was waiting until after the tulips had finished before starting the job.

They are the very ordinary Red Aperdoorn tulips, for me the quintissential Max Bygraves Amsterdam tulip, and I like them for their very tulip-ness, if you know what I mean, and although I wouldn't normally plant things in soldier-like rows, I think tulips lend themselves to this situation and I'm pleased with the effect. Underplanting with forget me nots (rather than dead lavender) would be un-original, but no less enchanting for all that.

You need to get your tulips in the Autumn for planting in the dormant season, but you don't need to rush to plant them early when you put in your other spring flowering bulbs, and they can happily go in any time during the winter months when the ground is reasonable, even as late as January.

Elizabethan Stockings?

These are my Hose in Hose Primulas, which are really just starting to go over, but I thought I would post a couple of pics as they are fairly unusual, and very garden worthy. They are called Hose in Hose, because of a mutation which causes the calyx of the flower to form itself into a second set of petals, so that you have one flower appearing to grow out of another. You can see how ancient the variety is since the name came from the Elizabethan gentleman's habit of wearing two pairs of stockings one over the other, with the outer one folded over, ie hose in hose. The variety was first mentioned in John Gerard's Herbal in 1597 and although it used to be common in gardens it has faded from availability for some reason. It's a good strong grower, and is easily divided to form a large clump giving a lovely display in March and April. Here's a picture showing how the flowers grow one inside the other.

Sorry about the dirty gardener's hands.

Snakes Head Fritillaries

I took some time out today to have a walk just down the road, around North Meadow, Cricklade, which is an ancient Lammas Meadow, a National Nature Reserve, and is home to more than 80% of the nation's population of Snakes Head Fritillary, Fritillaria Meleagris. North Meadow represents a part of England's rural heritage which, once common, in now almost extinct. It is a flood meadow, and although now owned by English Nature it is still largely managed by the ancient Cricklade Court Leat in exactly the way it's been done for hundreds of years.  Most such meadows have been either developed or "improved", by being ploughed up and treated with artificial fertilizers, but North Meadow has the distinction of being "unimproved" and is therefore able to support it's amazing crop of wildflowers.

People come from all over the country, indeed all over the world to see the fritillaries in April, and if you are in the West country at this time of year, it's well worth taking a detour to see them. More information here

Eco Warrior

The cost of potting compost can be quite prohibitive if you have a large garden like ours. And peat based compost has environmental concerns too. I make my own compost of course, but it's never enough for my needs, and since I have fairly terrible soil, I do tend to need quite a lot of compost to improve the soil when planting out, just to give the plants a decent chance. 

 I shop around for the good deals at garden centres and usually find I can get reasonable compost for around 5p a litre. Lidl is often good value, but currently I'm using Countrywide Stores own brand compost which is available at their stores for 3 x 100 litres for £16.

However, for garden use, as opposed to potting use, I get a cubic metre, which is 1000 litres, of Warrior Compost produced by my local recycling centre here in Wiltshire, Hills, and costs £33 including delivery. It's made from recycled local garden waste and is excellent stuff, weed free and accredited by the Soil Association and at just over 3p a litre great value. When I can make enough room by the gate, I intend to have a bulk delivery which will be even better value then I will be able to use it with abandon as a soil improver and top dressing. And I can  feel good about it because it's not only cheap but it's green as well. 

 If you don't live in Wiltshire, try your local recycling centre to see if they do a similar scheme.

Not That I'm One to Complain About The Weather....

It seems no sooner has the snow and ice gone, than this happens

By the time I got down to the greenhouse this morning, the temperature had risen to almost a hundred degrees! It's not that hot here in April, but it is bright and sunny, and although I have two automatic vents in the greenhouse, it isn't enough to keep the temperature down to reasonable levels when the sun's in full force.

I will have to remember to get down there straight after breakfast if the sunny weather continues, so that I can open the door and all the windows. Amazingly, it's also really dry in the garden nowas we've had no rain for several weeks and I have had to get the hose pipe out on the last few evenings to keep the new plantings sufficiently moist. If it's not one thing it's another! Sometimes it just seems like we gardeners are never satisfied. 

Trout Lilies, What's in a Name?

I always look forward to seeing my clump of Erythroniums come up in April. Trout Lily or Dog's Tooth Violet is the common name, neither or which do this lovely flower any justice at all. It's not huge, no more than a foot tall, and the colour is delicate rather than flashy, but the form of the flowers is well worth getting down on you knees for a close inspection.

They do well in shade, mine are under deciduous trees, and once established will come up every year, increasing gradually as  the years go by. To encourage the clump to increase, take off the flowers as soon as they are over, before the plant sets seed. I think there are other varieties and colours available, mine is called Pagoda, and is widely available.

Late Spring Frosts - Belt and Braces

"When the wind is in the East, 'Tis neither good for man nor beast"
I've just read in the paper that there has been longer periods of East winds this Spring than we would normally expect. This partly explains why, even though recent days have looked nice and sunny, the wind still nips, and when the sun goes behind a cloud it feels like January. Winds that blow across the North Sea before arriving in the UK tend to bring cold damp weather, and traditionally were said to make people depressed. Voltaire said the  " le vent d'est" blew in England in March and November and that during his visit in 1727 it affected everyone so much that suicides were commonplace, and in fact the entire country became miserable and grumpy. Must have felt like home from home for Monsieur V then.

Anyway, back in the veg garden, and for once the Met Office got it right yesterday and, as predicted, the the remains of a ground frost was in evidence as I peered out of the bedroom curtains this morning. So I was glad that I had taken a few minutes to cover my new plantings of salad leaves and peas with  horticultural fleece held down with a few stones. And as another cold night is likely tonight, I'd suggest keeping an eye on the weather forecast and investing in a bit of fleece, or plastic or whatever you have that will just keep the frost away from the new and tender leaves, if you've planted anything out.  Not that I'm alway so careful, mind you, but I always think it's worth taking a gamble with early plantings, as long as you adopt a belt and braces attitude - putting a few out early and saving the rest for later - if the worst happens and frost (or slugs/chickens/rabbits) get your plants you've still got some left for a second go, but if you get away with it, you've got nice early pickings. Go on, live dangerously.