Cooking and eating from the garden8 Comments

Start of the preserving season

Reclaiming Paradise

The jam making season has started here at Reclaiming Paradise. I’ve got a glut of green tomatoes, plums, runner beans, courgettes, a couple of marrows, apples on their way and one giant cucumber Where to to start? Some of the tomatoes are ripening but a few of the others have blight so I reckoned I need to pick some and start the preserving season. Whether to make plum jam and green tomato chutney, or green tomato marmalade and plum chutney? I decided on the marmalade first – it’s simmering away as I write: See here for the recipe – green … Continue reading Start of the preserving season

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden10 Comments

Bursting with colour

Reclaiming Paradise

I was taking photos in the garden for a couple of Twitter hashtags: #SixonSaturday and #GardensHour. I had far too many photos for these, so decided to upload them here instead. So, just to cheer you up in case you have the Monday blues, here is burst of colourful flowers, fruit and vegetables from my garden. First of all here are some flowers in the rain And here are some multi-coloured vegetables: rainbow chard, purple peas, nasturtium flowers, tomatoes beginning to ripen, plums, multi-coloured lettuces, broccoli, more almost ripe tomatoes And finally, some glorious autumn berries. The rosehips and rowans … Continue reading Bursting with colour

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden5 Comments

Weighed down with apples

Reclaiming Paradise

The apple trees in the garden are collapsing with the weight of fruit – it looks like it’s going to be a good apple year. Well most years are but this one looks exceptional. The Howgate Wonder is looking particularly impressive. I had to prop it up with some sticks and remove a few apples to prevent the whole thing collapsing. The Red Falstaff is also looking quite prolific though not very red yet. And the Sunsets are having a good year too. The plums are coming along rather nicely, though not so overladen as the apple trees. I harvested … Continue reading Weighed down with apples

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers5 Comments

Raindrops on roses

Reclaiming Paradise

I set out to do this morning’s #SixonSaturday and everything was covered with raindrops. So Raindrops on Roses it has to be. I’ll start with the wild roses, Rosa Rugosa, which have been blooming their hearts out all summer: These came from a cutting from the caravan site by the beach where my parents used to have a caravan and I used to take my sons in the summer. They bring happy memories of those summers, often also in the rain. Now they rampage all over my front garden, sending their roots under the paving stones and appearing in unexpected … Continue reading Raindrops on roses

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden14 Comments

In praise of peas

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s time for the annual pea admiration festival. For this week’s #SixonSaturday I’ll tell you about my six (so far) favourite peas. This undervalued vegetable is nice enough though a little boring when it comes out of packet in the freezer. When you grow your own in the garden though, it grows fast, climbs quickly, produces magnificent flowers and tastes devine – almost a different vegetable. I discovered growing peas almost by accident. I had always grown mange tout and thought they were pretty ok – usually I grow ‘Norli’ which provides a sturdy if unexciting little pea Until I … Continue reading In praise of peas

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden3 Comments

Welcome harvest

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve been away for a little while, catching up with family, swimming in lakes and stretching my legs rather more than I intended. It was nice to get away from some of the everyday stresses but it was also nice to get home to see what was happening in the garden. Here are some of the joys I came back to: peas – green and purple, broad beans, raspberries and a few strawberries, lettuce and the last of the redcurrants. Quite a feast. The red currants have been a bit of a disappointment this year as the best of them … Continue reading Welcome harvest

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden, Wildlife4 Comments

July garden: foxes and thunderstorms

Reclaiming Paradise

Falling behind with blogging again but here’s some of what’s been going on in the garden: Lots of flowers all coming out just now. Strawberries and raspberries at their best – and good enough to make some rather yummy strawberry scones to share with my sons who managed to be here at the same time for the first time in many months. Vegetables coming along slowly. Here are some of the peas and the first cucumber: We had an impressive thunderstorm and extensive flooding at the weekend. All fine in my garden but the roads round about turned into rivers. … Continue reading July garden: foxes and thunderstorms

Wildlife2 Comments

A wild month

Reclaiming Paradise

And so we come to the end of June and the end of the #30DaysWild Challenge. Some people set out to do something wild every day, taking them on all sorts of adventures. My wildness has been rather urban and rather garden based. I just look for something wild every day. Here’s a summary of what I’ve seen in June. That wasn’t everything but there were a lot of bees, a lot of wildflowers and quite a lot of the cygnets and herons on Inverleith Pond. I’ve been watching these swan fluffballs since they were tiny. They’re quite big now … Continue reading A wild month

Cooking and eating from the garden, Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden5 Comments

Midsummer colours

Reclaiming Paradise

Today has been hot and sunny and everything was full of colour. I stopped to admire this glorious climbing rose ‘Shropshire Lad’, which has established well along my hedge at the back of the garden. It smells of Turkish Delight and has beautiful flowers: The first nasturtium flowers of the season went in a salad, along with my red tinged lettuce At the allotment today, I planted out the last of my rainbow chard seedlings and spotted their glorious pink roots: It was almost too difficult to plant these in the soil they were so lovely. It was a good … Continue reading Midsummer colours

Cooking and eating from the garden, Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I gardenLeave a comment

Six foxgloves, six peas and a lettuce glut

Reclaiming Paradise

Once again I failed to do a #SixonSaturday post but I did submit these rather lovely foxgloves via twitter. These are all growing along the back hedge and the new fence at the side of the garden, some transplanted from the raspberry bed during a weeding session back in January – for more see here – they have come out rather well, I think. I had wondered about doing a six for my six varieties of peas, but didn’t quite get round to it. So here they are for you, rather late on Sunday instead: I’ve already forgotten which one … Continue reading Six foxgloves, six peas and a lettuce glut