I was suprised when I looked on the web the other day how long the ideal time to boil a cabbage was. I was amazed, 8 minutes! Why did my mum used to put it on first thing in the morning on a Sunday (or it seemed like she did) in time for dinner at 2pm. Why?
Pulled up this beauty Sunday afternoon after walking past it a few times this week trying to think of what to have with it! Sausage and Mash was the choice in the end. This is the first time I’ve really had a decent Cabbage as the plants usually get eaten earlier on or bolt. These were started as seed in the spring and I stuck them in and forgot about them and as you can see they look half decent. Success!
Everything is looking good in the garden (okay things are a few weeks late), apart from the runner beans are terrible and god knows what’s happening to my blackberry bush, it was looking great with lots of berries on it now it’s turning yellow, it’s not lack of water as I’ve been giving it a nightly hose. Help! Any ideas?
Also a big up to Paul W for sending us this article. You can sell some courgettes to your neighbours but don’t let the taxman find out our he’ll nick your strawberries as payment!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jul/26/making-money-allotment-gardeners
Gardening’s great innit? Last week my wife pulled out the spuds from the plant that was growing in an old sack which gave us enough for a posh family tea (new potatoes, fish fingers and beans!) The seed potato cost me 5p from the Sydenham seedy sunday event earlier this year, a big bag of multipurpose peat-free compost was less than a fiver from Shannon’s and the sack was given to me free. All I had to do was water the plant and feed it every now and again with some diluted comfrey liquid. Cheap as chips, no pun intended!
After harvesting the potatoes I was left with the top of the plant, a rotting sack and a mound of used compost. No problem! The plant went on the compost heap, the sack put to use behind the pond to stop weeds growing and the compost reused again. I’ve filled some old plastic pots which were found in the street and split some pineapple and eau de cologne mints and giving them away to mates. Keeps the old circle going around as they say. I do love receiving seeds and stuff from me gardening mates so it’s nice to repay the favour sometimes!
Talking of Shannon’s I popped in there the weekend and got myself some more seed potatoes to stick in now so they’ll be ready for christmas unless they get blight but that depends on the weather, just like a lot things to do with gardening! Big up the ‘umble spud!
A photo of the great front garden up the road from us clandestinely taken on the way home from work. It’s not your normal boring front garden as it’s laden with all sorts of fruit and veg if you look hard enough. There’s even some Bob Flowerdew endorsed upside-down wire refrigerator trays to stop the birds and some beer traps for the slugs. Big up non-conformist front gardening!
Two Richie Stephens sizzlers to go with the bonkers weather here in the UK! Can you believe it’s 30 odd degrees in London today, madness! Big up David Rodigan on his excellent BBC 1 Xtra show for these and a lot more classics! If you ever hear that the great Mr Rodigan needs any Tomato plants or his Comfrey liquid is running low put him in touch with us and we’ll do our best to oblige!
Found this mad cloche outside a house with a “take me” note the other night (it will need a few air-holes drilled in the top). Typically I was knackered and had a full bag of shopping with us so it was a bit of a bind carrying it home (it’s well heavy as it’s glass and quite large) but I reckon it’ll be worth it’s weight in gold! The day after I thought I had another touch when I saw seed potatoes for a pound to clear in Robert Dyas. On closer inspection they were the unhealthiest seed potatoes I’ve ever seen! They all looked like dried prunes and the chits had grown into sprouts that looked like twigs and were well dried out. The only use for them would be the compost heap. Watch out for those so called bargain offers!
Talking of composting, the other day I found the above mad article by chance which mentioned Dial House home of the punk band Crass. It’s a review of a two day compost toilet building workshop, brilliant! Question: Do they owe us a living?…
Bob Flowerdew (pictured in his King Tubby type vest) said a great thing on a recent Gardeners Question Time. The quote was along the lines of “Hoe when there are no weeds and there won’t be any weeds”. Bonkers, sound like what they’d say in Taiji but what he is saying is very true. Big up Bob (and his King Tubby’s vest)!
Handmade plant label made out of a long plastic spoon from my short-lived wine making days. I was getting sick of wasting time collecting fruit to put in a bucket, straining the stuff, bottling it and the year or so’s wait just to get a load of vinegar tasting liquid that would send you mad/or send you to bed with “the whirling pits” and feeling rough as anything the next day. Not good!
Big up to Paul W (the man who originally prompted me to write this blog!) who popped over yesterday and took a shine to this cabbage and even took a photo! To me this is an overwintered cabbage which didn’t go to seed like the other ones and I have just left it going for no particular reason. Any recipes for cabbage leaves like this and as this is nearly a year on, will those big leaves be bitter? Any ideas?
As you know I’m well impatient and I just HAD to pull up one of me early spud plants today (the tops had died down so they must be ready I thought) and do you know what, I could have waited a bit longer but this ain’t too bad a haul from one plant! Spuds for dinner tomorrow I reckon!
Weeds up to me knees 