Guilty Pleasures

It's just too tempting...

Every supermarket you go into, they're stacked up almost immediately inside the door.

Your conscience says, "Walk on by.  You've come in for Fair Trade bananas, milk and the usual yellow label bargain hunting expedition.  Don't fall for the marketing ploy!"

"Everyone else is buying them," says the little demon on your other shoulder. 

"It isn't something you need.  You'd be letting yourself down."

"You know you want to!"

"But it's totally against your principles.  You'll die of shame if you run into someone you know at the checkout."

"They're on a multibuy special offer.  You know you can't resist a bargain!"

"You won't enjoy them.  You'll be anticipating something really tasty and you'll be bitterly disappointed.  Shop-bought new potatoes are never as tasty as your own home grown ones..." 

You did know this moral dilemma was about potatoes, didn't you?

Our trusty Sarpo Miras from last year actually lasted until just a couple of weeks ago when we roasted and ate the last few.  If the first earlies had developed properly, we shouldn't even have been contemplating buying taters. 

But there's only so long I can get by getting my carbs from pasta and rice; by mid June I crave new potatoes.  Usually, I can dig my own from the back garden and have them on the plate within half an hour.  Delicious!

Much as it pains me to admit it, I have had a complete disaster with first early potatoes this year.  I've never had a total 'fail' like this before.  I don't know whether the weird weather is to blame, or buying 'bargain shop' seed potatoes rather than sourcing them from a reliable supplier, but none are anything like ready to dig and in fact they appear to be giving it up as a bad job and just fading away.  You can't entirely blame them.

In short, we had dud spuds.

'Highland Burgundy Red' and 'Ratte' (this year's trial variety) second early seeds spuds

I'd be lying if I said that this year has been anything other than disappointing generally on the fruit and veg front so far.  The weird weather has been taking its toll on everything except the slugs.  It appears that no plums have set.  Carrots, swedes and parsnips have been sown twice and either not germinated or vanished completely on two occasions now.  There were five spindly spears of asparagus, fewer than last year when I had hoped we'd actually have a usable crop this year.

Who ya gonna call?  Blightbusters!  'Sarpo Mira', 'Sarpo Axona' and 'Blue Danube'

Fortunately, down on the allotment, the second earlies and main crop are still looking good (all from reputable suppliers) although the weather conditions suggest it'll be time to mix the Bordeaux Mixture soon and that even the 'blight busters' will be put through their paces this year.  The onions and garlic look fine too.  The broad beans are a bit 'could do better', but at least they've formed pods.  The peas are a lost cause.

Jon at the allotment - 2nd early and main crop spuds, plus onions and garlic all doing well.

Meanwhile, back in the garden, blackbirds are decimating the redcurrants before they are even ripe. Ironically I think this is because last year they finally worked out that whitecurrants weren't unripe redcurrants after all; they had previously assumed they were and left them alone. Now it seems they think the unripe redcurrants are ripe whitecurrants! 

That's blackbirds for you; they sing beautifully but they aren't all that bright really.

I made the mistake of planting out some courgettes on one of the dry days last week, thinking they would get off to a good start with the forecast of some warm, wet weather.  They were clinging to life rather precariously yesterday, before the horrendously heavy rain this afternoon.  I don't know if I can't bear to look...

Still, at least no-one's worrying about a drought any more!

Happy Memories

Classic Dutch landscape near Appletern Gardens

There is no good news from the garden this week.  The early summer perennials that were making a brave show in the front garden have been battered virtually horizontal by several days of heavy rain and some winds with more than a hint of October about them, which is a great shame as the oriental poppes were looking particularly fantastic. 

It is tempting to give the whole lot a slightly belated 'Chelsey Chop' and see what comes back later...

I fear for the later summer perennials too, as the foul weather has made short-lived blue goo of my eco-friendly slug pellets, allowing the massed mollusc armies to feed mercilessly on Helenniums and Rudbeckias alike.  They have also done for the second sowings of carrots, parsnips and swedes in the veg patch, the slimy little scumbags.

So let us turn our eyes from the catalogue of disasters on the home front and instead consider some gardens at the peak of perfection, returning to the Netherlands trip at the beginning of May and some pictures from glorious Appeltern.

Wonderful water feature

Unlike the foul and filthy weather that battered us at the Floriade, we were blessed with warm sunshine for our visit to these fabulous show gardens.  It was a shame, therefore, that after being frozen the day before I had erred on the side of caution and put on two pairs of socks!

Pergola and interesting shadow effect

The various gardens at Appeltern showcased both innovative and traditional design styles and were beautifully planted, a contrast to several of the Floriade gardens.

Sculpture and simple design

They are continually maintained and improved by the companies who use them to show off their hard landscaping materials, sculpture products or plants, so there were some areas under reconstruction, as well as an entire section of very avant garde schemes.

Great combination of black and blue

There were also plenty of examples of the dense, naturalistic planting that characterises Dutch New Wave garden design, with the last spring bulbs dotted amongst emerging summer perennials.

Landscape in minature

Many gardens made interesting use of water, sometimes mirroring the dykes that criss-cross the Dutch landscape.

The islands and pond are both slightly offset, giving this garden a more dynamic feel

Ponds came in all shapes and sizes, but almost all had been colonised by noisy brilliant green frogs!

Amphibian residents

There were some intriguing uses of certain plants as well.  Bamboo, generally used as a tall, architectural plant for impact or screening appeared in several gardens as a low hedge or clipped into boxes.

Bamboo boxes

 Interesting effects using structurs and shadows were also visible thanks to the sunlight, that we would have missed on a dull day.

Sculpture and shadows

It was easy to spend the six or so hours that we had exploring the many gorgeous gardens, but luckily there was also a superb self-service restaurant where a particularly delicious apple cake was available, so we could rest weary feet and discuss our favourite plants and gardens.

This beautiful Cornus was a star of the show

So, we've got the inspiration - we just need the weather to get out there and make it all happen!

It's a jungle out there!

Nothing like good gardening weather to put a halt to the blogging, and at last there was a smattering of such at the end of May.  So we went narrowboating...

I'm sure any gardeners reading this will be entirely familiar with that strange way that being away from your garden effectively messes with space-time.  While you're at home, plants grow in normal time, with little change from one day to the next.  When you're away, even if you don't travel faster than light speed, back home 'garden time' speeds up.

We left home about two weeks ago with the garden very much in mid-spring mode, with tulips and forget-me-nots the stars of the show.

Tulips - and not from Amsterdam....

On our return there was not a tulip to be seen, the forget-me-nots had run to seed and the aquilegias had made a concerted bit for world domination, taking over the front and back gardens and making aggressive forays into the vegetable patch.  Needless to say, there is not a trace of germinating carrots to be seen down there and the cats have decided that the cabbage bed provides excellent WC facilities.

Cottage garden chaos in the front garden

The arches and pergolas are festooned with long dreadlocks of disorderly new Clematis montana growth and the 'Sealing wax' climbing rose has sent up great long spiney shoots as if on a mission to keep Sleeping Beauty and her prince apart.

Overgrown arch and seedy forget-me-nots

So it's all in need of a serious hair cut.  Unfortunately, the weather has turned autumnal now; initial pruning was curtailed when it occured to me that up a metal step ladder wielding metal secateurs was a bad place to be with "thundery showers" as the weather forecast, but I'm glad I've managed to take some of the excess off with high winds now the forecast.

At least if it's rubbish weather for a few days, I should get chance to update the blog and put some more photos from Holland on.