Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers2 Comments

Red and purple

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve just had another week away from the garden and returned to all sorts of joys. The bees are very happy on the buddleia and the lavender in the front garden. The rowan berries and the wild roses have beautiful red berries. There’s not a huge amount to harvest – mainly peas, lettuces and some frighteningly early autumn raspberries. However, the French and runner beans are coming along nicely and there was a pile of windfall Howgate Wonders on the grass – don’t worry there are plenty still left on the tree. Most excitingly, a tomato has appeared on the … Continue reading Red and purple

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden10 Comments

The joys of home – six on Saturday

Reclaiming Paradise

Earlier in the week I blogged about the joys of tomatoes and my envy at my friends’ ability to grow them so easily in the south of France. Today’s #SixOnSaturday celebrates what’s growing in my Scottish garden today. Peas – these are Prussian Blue – or at least I think they are. They are from saved seed and I seem to have got the varieties mixed up a bit. Anyway, they taste great. 2. Overwintered broad beans – Aquadulce Claudia I think . They’ve been superb this year. These are the last of a massive crop. I’ve also had a … Continue reading The joys of home – six on Saturday

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden4 Comments

Tomato heaven

Reclaiming Paradise

I’ve been away from my garden for a week or so, visiting friends in London and France and doing some work stuff. It was lovely to catch up with some very good friends who I hadn’t seen for a while, what with lockdowns and such. I also caught up with some good weather, a wee bit of swimming (see my swimming blog) and some fantastic tomatoes. The ones in the picture above were on sale at a train station in Provence, making up for my delayed train in a way that British stations really can’t compete with. I couldn’t resist … Continue reading Tomato heaven

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers13 Comments

A handful of beans

Reclaiming Paradise

My runner beans have been really rubbish at germinating this year. Every year I grow them in in small pots or cardboard tubes in the grow house and then plant out once they are past the slug vulnerability stage. But this year only about half of them have germinated. I don’t know whether it’s been the very up and down weather – cold at night, hot during the day, or the beans themselves, or the compost I’ve been using. Whatever the cause, the effect is that I have much fewer plants than usual, either in the garden or in the … Continue reading A handful of beans

Cooking and eating from the garden, Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers6 Comments

Summer harvest begins

Reclaiming Paradise

As we pass midsummer the harvest in the garden and allotment is really getting into full flow. The soft fruits are appearing: raspberries, redcurrants, strawberries and even some cherries this year, rescued from the tree before the blackbirds got to them. All this bounty is helping me towards my target of sixty different harvestable fruits, vegetables, herbs and weeds to celebrate my sixtieth birthday. I’ve now passed the half way point and am reasonably optimistic that I’ll meet my target – for an update see here As well as all the summer fruits, the overwintered broad beans are producing great … Continue reading Summer harvest begins

Why I garden, Wildlife13 Comments

Why flowers are better than car parks

Reclaiming Paradise

I was out in the front garden looking for joys for #SixonSaturday and was overcome by all the beauty of the flowers and bees. Time for my annual ‘why do people cover their front gardens in paving when they can have all this instead?’ blog post. Here are six pictures which I hope will explain why flowers are better than car parks Osteospermum with self-seeded Canterbury bells and a Small White butterfly 2. Wild roses with more self-seeded Canterbury Bells 3. Bee on self-seeded lavender 4. Cherries – almost ripe – need to pick them before the blackbirds get them … Continue reading Why flowers are better than car parks

Why I garden, Wildlife2 Comments

Friday night delight

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s been a bit of a week (a bit of a month actually) but it was a lovely evening so we had our tea in the garden – we had ‘leftover delight’, which is basically ‘what’s in the fridge? Let’s just heat it up’. Tonight that meant leftover vegetable curry with some rather aged microwaveable rice. It all tasted fine. What was really delightful though was the complete mess of self-seeded and other flowers, waving around in the wind, and Bella walking purposefully past on her way to check out any leftovers under the garden table. The garden has gone … Continue reading Friday night delight

Why I garden7 Comments

Changing seasons

Reclaiming Paradise

Everyone does #SixonSaturday differently. My usual approach is to have a quick look around the garden and see what strikes me as new, special or a useful pattern of six. Today I did a quick tour of the front and back gardens to see what was going on. It was raining a bit but what struck me most was the signs of the changing seasons. Early spring changing to late spring, but with signs of summer and autumn too. So in one bed there were late daffodils, with forget-me-nots in the background 2. In another, the roses are beginning to … Continue reading Changing seasons