And so a year goes by…

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Jo
 …without a post!
Scandalous!  Since my last (real) post in July ’12 there’ve been a few developments – new and interesting job in September – which ate up most of my spare time from September through to March this year.  And more involvement in the local Transition Town Tooting group.  But my work like balance is getting better and there will be a proper post about my poor little garden in the next day or two.

I say poor little garden because the wet summer, wet autumn and high winds in winter and spring finally took their toll on my 10 year old panel fence and it collapsed in March.

Alas, a busy time at work followed by a holiday in New York meant I’d not had a lot of time to investigate repairs/replacement.  I bit the bullet last week when I realised unless I got something done I’d lose another veggie growing season and that wasn’t on!

Charming chap came around on Tuesday night, gave me a great quote and right now he’s nailing the last of the closeboards in place.

He’s been here since 9:30 this morning, has worked his socks off and I”m pretty sure he’s going to be leaving me with a solid fence which will withstand the elements for a good few more years.  It’s also given me the opportunity to prune the Pyracantha and winter and summer jasmines back a bit.

Once he’s finished the task for the rest of the weekend is paint the fence, weed and tidy up and plant up the herb pots and strawberry bags, I think that’ll take up most of what’s left of today and tomorrow. And review what’s in the 5 beds and plan for moving some things (foxgloves) to the Transition Town Tooting Community Garden and look at reviewing some veggie and flower bed planting schemes.

Thank goodness next weekend is a holiday weekend!

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Community Gardening in Tooting

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Jo

Hello world, it’s been a while. Apologies. I lost a lot of May and the first part of June to a cough that would not die and have been playing catch up ever since!  Also  been a bit busy blogging on the other blog, Nights In London, as there’ve been a few theatre (ah The Globe, how much do I love thee!) and film visits (Magic Mike anyone)?

But back to gardening!  I don’t think I’ve mentioned here that I’ve just started to get involved with my local Transition Group – Transition Town Tooting – a fabulous bunch of people with endless energy, wide interests and a desire to get things done differently. You can also follow them on Twitter, or even better if you live in the Tooting or Mitcham areas come on down and get involved.  I’m cheating a bit here and cross-posting a blog I put up on the main TTT blog.  Blogging about my own garden – and my visit to Hampton Court, will resume shortly!

The weather gods were kind and Sunday blessed us with a break in the endless grey skies and rain. Warm, sunny (at least some of the time) and gorgeous blue skies reminded us all what a summer day should be!

Ten of us met at the Community Garden to make the best of the sunshine. It was my first visit to the site and I’m very enthusiastic about the size, scope for doing lots of interesting things and what the group has already achieved in a little over a year. Lots of bodies and hands available so we got plenty done:

  • Michael and his friend got busy doing the heavy work to dig a hole to install the pond – if the weather continues it should fill naturally with all the rain!
  • Charlotte and Jenny planted seedlings including sprouting broccoli, squash and tomatoes – now all we need is the slugs to hold off and the sun to shine
  • Adrian tackled the compost heap – bravely withstanding a flagstone and foot interaction!
  • I sowed a few rows of radish, leeks, beetroot, carrots and dwarf beans in the hope we might get a quick catch crop before winter sets in
  • We got creative and cut some spare plastic tubing down to enable to us drape netting over the freshly sown seeds while the local pigeons watched with interest.
  • We discussed sitting down and planning a herb garden in the quiet months over winter and whether we should have a go at growing over winter crops under some form of protection (Rocket, pak choi and komatsuna at christmas? Yes, please)!

Added excitement was provided by the small kitten who had scaled a nearby tree and refused to be tempted down by either the RSPCA or Fire brigade though I’m fairly sure he’s scampered down now and is settled back in a warm and cosy flat.

Then there was a picnic to celebrate the hard work. It was delightful!  Astonishing how a little sunshine and working with people who have similar interests can suddenly make you feel so much better about life, the universe and everything. I came home full of energy and tackled some slightly neglected bits of my own small garden.

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Garden Organic’s Master Gardener Induction – Day 1

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Jo

I’ve just spent the most wonderful (sunny!) day at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening (well worth a visit) with three of Garden Organic‘s fab staff and 18 other South London gardeners completing Day 1 of the Master Gardener induction. Which is good because the day started off with a wee bit of stress when First Capital Connect cancelled the train I’d planned to catch. Cue a quick sprint down the road and a rather expensive cab fare across South London!

Philip, Fiona and Anton from Garden Organic were absolutely brilliant, warm, welcoming, motivational, encouraging and inspirational.  The programme was pretty full on from the welcome chat and refreshments we went straight into introducing ourselves. “What’s your name? Where are you from? What’s your favourite veg?” asked Philip and what a great icebreaker that was! The coriander connoisseurs, chard addicts and courgette devotees sharing smiles of recognition and already making allegiances across the room. (People did like veg and fruit other than those starting with C.  Mulberries and loganberries were mentioned, among several others)!

From there we moved onto finding out exactly what we’d volunteered for: our role, what resources and support would be available – lots! We also got our first set of homework to complete: to read up on the volunteer agreements and policies and procedures in the manual we were given (I’ll get on that as soon as I finish this blog).

After a quick cup of tea, and more chatter came a great discussion about outreach and how to make those all important contacts with people. This was a joint session presented by Fiona and Maria, a lovely lady who was in one of the early Master Garden intakes and has been doing the role for 2 years. Lots of tactics that work and great ideas and plenty of enthusiasm in the room.

Then it was off outside, into fresh air and sunshine, for a hands-on demo from Philip about how to engage an audience with a practical demo of seed sowing and making paper pots.  Much laughter here!

Then came a slap up lunch, pizza, salad and veggie rolls outdoors in the sunshine and we all had time to find out a bit more about each other, where we gardened and what we were interested in. Lots of people already actively involved in community gardening or other community activities, plenty wanting to do more, enthusiasm for permaculture and forest gardening and biodynamics and…and…and!

After chocolate cake it was back inside for a double session with Anton (with a pause for more tea) and a whistle-stop tour of what growing organically means (holistic, ecologically balanced approach), how to get the message across and what to do about pests and diseases when you can’t break out the chemical napalm.  Again plenty of great discussion around the presentation and people sharing experiences and ideas.

The final session was a quick intro to the  Master Gardener’s website and the regional Master Gardener’s websites.

Then it was time to say goodbye and head off home, with my two of my newly discovered colleagues, who both live within walking distance! Possibilities for very local support and collaboration on events I hope. Not to mention a lift in to tomorrow’s session since First Capital Connect apparently don’t run trains before 11am on Sunday through Tooting (what?!)

This evening I’m going to examine the swag we were sent away with: manuals, leaflets, catalogues and more! Oh no – the Garden Organic catalogue and Heritage Seed Library info. I’ve mentioned my inability to resist buying seeds haven’t I?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s good for the soul to spend time with people from a wide variety of backgrounds who’ve all taken incredibly different and varied paths but have ended up in the same place: with a passion and enthusiasm for plants, gardens, the environment and sustainability and more!

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Cranberry & Orange Muffins

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Jo

The results of last night’s baking are rather lovely.

Cranberry and Orange muffins with certain “off-recipe” additions, notably chopped pecans, several teaspoons of Neal’s Yard Omega Sprinkle (lovely sunflower, pumpkin, poppy & other seeds mix) and some dark choc chips courtesy of Dr Oetker.

I wasn’t quite sure how these would turn out as not only was butter and milk involved but yoghurt too (yoghurt & chocolate…hmmm).  But they’ve they’ve turned out very well.  I stretched the mix to 12 rather than 10 muffins and though they are very fluffy and light they’re a wee bit flat on top as I had no self-raising flour so just threw more baking powder into the plain flour mix.

All in all though I declare them a success!

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Recipe

Ingredients

  • 250g self raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 100g caster sugar (I used the unbleached unrefined kind)
  • 100g dried cranberries
  • zest of an orange
  • 150 ml milk (in my case semi-skimmed organic)
  • 4 tbsp natural yoghurt (greek 0% Total)
  • 100g butter melted and cooled
  • 2 large lightly beaten eggs

My additions – I would say handfuls but I did weigh them before I threw the extra ingredients in!

  • 45g chopped pecans
  • 70g Dr Oetker dark choc chunks
  • 35g Neal’s Yard Omega Sprinkle

It’s supposed to make 10 but it comfortably make 12 for me!

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F/ gas mark 4 and set out muffin cases.
  2. Combine all dry ingredients down to zest of orange and the three additions (if required) in a bowl & mix well.
  3. In a separate bowl whisk the milk, yoghurt and butter. (I started with the butter, added the milk & yoghurt).
  4. Add eggs to milk mix and whisk again.
  5. Pour the liquid into the bowl of dry ingredients and combine slowly.
  6. Do not over stir, just mix till all flour etc coated. Mix should be thick and slightly lumpy.
  7. Spoon into muffin cases.
  8. Bake for 15-20 mins, until muffins spring back when the top is tapped and a skewer or knife comes out clean.
  9. Cool (if you can wait that long).
  10. Eat.

If  you want an extra punch of sweetness mix the juice from the orange with 2 tbsp of icing sugar and heat in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved and then for 1-2 mins further until it goes syrupy. Spoon glaze over muffins.

I find them sweet enough without more sugar but then again I don’t like really sweet cakes.

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Balham Farmers’ Market

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Jo

I’ve been a fan of Farmers’ Markets since I tried out one in Clapham back in 2007. The Clapham market used to be part of the London Farmers’ Markets but has since either ceased trading or split off from the main group.  I should nip back and check whether it’s still operating.

A new farmers’ market opened in Balham last year – which is just a short bus ride or 40 min walk away. They generally have a fabulous range of stalls most weeks – see an indication of the suppliers here.

This week there were fewer stalls than usual but it didn’t stop me picking up a decent amount of food.

This week’s haul included:

  • red sorrel, french sorrel and a new lemon verbena plant over on the left
  • bunch of small purple tulips and 3 bunches of daffs at the back
  • unpasturised goats milk and goats cheese
  • a large duck breast and chicken breast
  • a spelt loaf (or Roman Marching Bread according to the chap selling it to me)
  • rocket (in the plastic bag)
  • half a dozen large organic eggs
  • four gigantic scallops (in the plastic bag on the duck’s breast)
  • two cartons of homemade soup (spicy chorizo with red pepper and cannellini beans & spicy butternut)
  • fresh wild ramsons (the greenery on the right) and a jar of organic apple & bergamot marmalade

All in all a rather fabulous selection of goodies.

farmers-market-2012-04-16

The ramsons and marmalade come from one of my favourite suppliers Brambletye Fruit Farms who grow according to biodynamic principles (I confess to being intrigued by the idea of biodynamics, it’s something I want to read up on) and they produce some of the best tasting apples and pears I’ve ever eaten.

I had the scallops for lunch – they’re a bit of an extravagance but I love sea food and these were giant and lovely and just perfect  pan-fried quickly in a little butter.

I would have liked to head down to the market this coming Saturday as they’re having their Plant Fair but I’ll be doing my Master Gardener induction and don’t think there’ll be enough time to whizz around the market and get over to East Dulwich by 9:45am.

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