Monthly Archives: August 2012

August memories

26 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Fruit, Garden visits, Gardening

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Herb bed 2012

August in the garden in previous years

I love looking back in my garden journal and reading about how the garden performed in previous years. It is amazing how easy it is to misremember and think that last year’s crops were better than they were. In fact now that I have started this blog I am not writing in my journal as much, which is a pity, and I must get going again.

I notice that in August 2011 the weather was rather wet after quite a dry summer. Generally speaking the vegetables were good, although I recorded the runner beans as being affected by black fly and only growing slowly. The apple crops last year were fantastic and so were the plums, a green variety which is ready in early August.

Most of my entry for that month was about gardens we had visited and one in particular stands out for me –  Stone House Cottage Garden near Kidderminster. This is an unexpected little treasure and very quirky. The owner bought a cottage and then built follies and castellated towers around, which have created wonderful warm walls for all manner of climbing plants. It is very much a plantsman’s garden and much of the planting was lost on me but it is very charming and shows what can be done to create different planting situations. The garden is in the RHS members handbook, the website is www.shcn.co.uk, it has a small nursery and is well worth a visit.

At the end of August 2010 I recorded that ‘the drought is well and truly over’. The apple trees had not done well with only two in fruit – the Bramley and another that might be a Discovery. We had hardly any plums. So the fruit situation was similar to now, although the apples we do have this year look poor specimens.

I am noticing that most years the runner beans take ages to get going and are usually afflicted by blackfly, slugs or something else but that by October they are cropping well. Plenty of time for them to improve then. We had our first 4 beans today. I just love them.

Get growing beans!

Selling herbs

09 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in Herb gardening, Herbs

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Last week after much prevarication I finally put out in the front garden a small selection of herbs for sale. I meant to do it before but finally plucked up the courage.

Herb sales from the front garden

I was amazed to find that on the first afternoon I actually sold one and then several on each of the following days. Admittedly sales have slowed in the last couple of days but I hope they will pick up again. I don’t expect to sell them every day but perhaps a few every week during the summer.

I have learned a lot from buying in a small number of plug plants and growing them on this year.

  1. The fact that they grow faster the later you buy them. I bought my first lot in mid-April but the next batch, bought in mid-May, grew considerably faster.
  2. Most common herbs can go into their final pots in the garden quite early and will grow happily.
  3. Once they were out in the garden they came under severe attack from the slugs and I had to watch what was happening carefully and replace badly damaged plants, so keeping them under cover for longer does enable you to protect them from predators better.
  4. It is important to keep their growth under control and not let them get too leggy before you cut them back. You need to try and create a good, bushy shape.
  5. Some plants like mint really do look past their best about August time and need to be sold by then.
  6. It is best to put herbs requiring the same conditions in pots together. Having said which there doesn’t seem to have been a significant problem when I haven’t done this.

Herb garden

I am planning on having a herb sale in the garden in a few weeks. So providing I manage to sell a good number of the plants I will feel that this year has been successful and a very good learning experience. Also, when you really love what you are doing it is simply wonderful when people want to buy what you are selling.

Herb pots ready to sell

 

The joys of marjoram

02 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in Flower garden, Herbs

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Marjoram ‘Acorn Bank’

Marjoram’s Latin name Origanum means ‘joy of the mountains’. There are at least 7 different species of marjoram and many cultivars.

Marjoram is a great value plant for many reasons. Bees and butterflies love it and it flowers prolifically. The flowers are not the most showy but they provide good pale pinks and whites in the border for long periods. Although it is generally recommended for dryish and sandy soils it grows like a weed on my heavy clay.

In the kitchen marjoram provides good flavour in soups, stews and salads and it can be drunk as a tisane. All marjorams, but sweet, knotted marjoram in particular, are great in cheese (especially cream cheese) sandwiches. Marjoram is heavily used in Mediterranean cookery. Sweet marjoram has the best flavour in my view and Greek marjoram is also noted for its flavour. Owing to the strength of the herb all marjorams should be used judiciously in cooking to begin with.

Gerard’s herbal of 1597 prescribes marjoram for those subject to ‘overmuch sighing’. Juliette de Bairacli Levy in her ‘Herbal handbook for everyone’ recommends its use for digestive complaints, sore throats and coughs.

Pot marjoram (Origanum onites) seeds itself freely and will cover any gap in your border.

Golden marjoram is similarly useful and has beautiful yellow/green foliage making a beautiful tight clump early in the year. When it flowers it grows more leggy, as you can see above.

Golden marjoram before it flowers

Two particularly attractive cultivars include ‘Acorn Bank’ illustrated above and ‘Country Cream’ with its variegated leaves.

Marjoram ‘Country Cream’