Backwards In High Heels

Vegetable Porn

I am not having great success with my courgettes this year. I used to be able to turn out crop after crop of superb courgettes (zucchinis for friends over the pond) but this year they just get to a few inches and then disappoint. I feel the last part of that sentence has probably appeared in a lot of blogs but not to do with courgettes.

So I’ve been wondering about helping the male and female flowers along, much as you do when wanting marrows. This will effectively make me a courgette pimp. I feel slightly uneasy about partaking in what is little more than vegetable porn (enjoy that google searchers).

Here’s a picture (non-graphic, but if you click it gets bigger *titter*) of part of my courgette plant. Yes, it has black fly too so I’m partaking in dirty vegetable porn. I have no shame.

I also can’t help but giggle when I look at these houseleeks.

Elsewhere in the garden it is more serene and positively prudish. You can’t get more wholesome than an English rose and here is a photo of one of mine.

This is a photo (which I’m rather chuffed with if truth be known) of a new plant to my garden, a stargazer dahlia. It is thriving and so bright and pretty without being gaudy.

And the penstemons are in full bloom now. This plant was actually a competition win three years ago.

Also won from a competition, this year I got a twig through the post. It turned out to be a blackcurrant bush from Ribena. ‘Yeah right’ I thought, ‘Like that will grow into anything’. Well it has – in just a few months the twig has transformed into this:

Oh heck, let’s get back to the Carry On smut. Oh missus, look at what a lovely pear I’ve got!

Tech Tags: gardening, vegetables, fruit, gardens, courgette, zucchini, rose, penstemon, dahlia, houseleek, pear, Carry+On, blackcurrant, ribena,

Gardeners World Live 2006

One of my favourite days out of the year is Gardeners World Live, a kind of Chelsea Flower Show for us common folk!

This year we were even luckier as Mum won tickets, a free day out at my favourite show, hurrah!

The show is held at Birmingham NEC and covers a vast expanse of the exhibition halls inside, outside exhibits and the RHS Marquee.

First stop, whilst the feet were still fresh, was to look at many of the stalls in the inside halls. I felt like a child in a sweetie shop. Stalls with everything for the gardener but so much more – craft stalls, food stalls, tourism stalls.

And you know what I like – competitions, and this place was full of them! Many of the regional tourist boards had stalls tempting the visitors to their corner of the world to visit gardens. And to tempt me to the stall there were no end of weekend breaks to give away. The best tourist board stall was without doubt Tourism Ireland. Having visited Ireland for the first time last year, I feel in love with the Emerald Isle so I would happily welcome the prize of a weekend in the west of Eire! Fingers crossed.

After putting in a few miles around the shopping we stopped for lunch and what a treat that was. A fantastic array of salads which I am going to try and copy at home. Lime chicken with sundried tomato and penne pasta. Turmeric rice with prawns and pineapple. Minted couscous. Yum.

Suitably fuelled we headed to the outside section and were wowed by the amount of show gardens. Last year there were only a handful and I was very disappointed, not so this year. There were over 20 and all of a very high standard. We also saw Monty Don walk by, a fine strapping man!

The heat was restrictive, it was blistering sun so I didn’t have time to take in who designed what or make notes to go with my photo album. But you can find further details of the show gardens here. Hope you enjoy the photo album – it is very much ‘holiday snaps’ with a few of my thoughts but I think they have come out quite well. There were some very inspiring show gardens and I think they made this year’s show the best I have been to.

As it was so hot I didn’t do the RHS Marquee this year as it is always packed. We did look around some of the outdoor shopping and I spent a lot of time oohing and ahhing. There were so many interesting and innovative pieces of garden furniture that I have never seen anywhere else. All sadly out of my price range but as soon as I win the lottery….

Also on the outside was the ‘Compost Charter’ display, attended by the lovely Charlie Dimmock. A very colourful and inspiring display – it was great to see children taking an interest in the display. I’m putting in my order for a low cost compost bin today, why not check here to see if you are eligible for one?

Then it was back inside for the stalls we hadn’t done before lunch. Once again we managed to come away from Gardeners World without buying a plant! I am lucky in having some great nurseries close to home but at Gardeners World Live it is the crafts that I never see anywhere else that turn my head. I did treat myself to a hammock, a video clip of me getting in and out of that could prove comic!

Tech Tags: Gardeners+World+Live, gardens, gardening, flowers, Charlie+Dimmock, Monty+Don, Sophie+Grigson, show+gardens, planting, herbs, vegetables, RHS,

Power to the Pansies

A morning post for a change. Before I face the terror of my to-do list I thought I'd warm up with a post containing some photos I took in the  garden last night. Sadly my photography skills mirror many governments foreign policy - point, shoot and hope for the best - so don't expect great works of art but the colours are pretty!

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  Some people are frightful garden snobs when it comes to pansies. They are deemed old fashioned and twee, positively common by some. Well I don't agree with that sentiment at all, I mean look at them. How can you not smile when presented with their happy faces. And the pansy on the right, this photo doesn't do it justice, but it is the most beautiful colour.

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Talking of beautiful colours, I am a sucker for maroons an purples, this peony never lets me down. Year after year it produces prolific blooms which look so showy and fragile yet stand up to anything and everything.

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I was so pleased to see my old friend the alium come through for another year. In 2000 I won a box of Dutch bulbs and in that goodie box was a single alium bulb. This year it has produced four heads but this one is the strongest and largest. Other bulbs from that prize are still going strong.

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My plan to keep all my herbs in hanging baskets, away from the cats who may treat them to their own irrigation system, is paying dividends. Between the two baskets are ten herbs plants and all of them are thriving. Now I just need plenty of recipes to make sure I make good use of them. Beki 1, Cats 0

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And finally, these photos are especially for Admiral Pooper who wrote yesterday that like me, he is a lilac freak. Our lilacs are past their best now but the scent is still heavenly hence my old and trusted garden seat is perched next to the lilac tree. We are very fortunate that at the end of our garden is a (protected) line of hawthorn trees - a much nicer barrier to the neighbours than the usual fence panelling. The hawthorns are in full flower and look like a snowfall or bridal spray. I believe some people pray to hawthorns and tie ribbons on them, perhaps I should try that!

Tech Tags: gardening, pansy, pansies, peony, alium, herbs, hanging+baskets, lilac, hawthorn