Last week Landford Garden Centre played host to the Morgan’s Vale and Woodfalls CE VA Primary School and David, Landfords Manager and I gave them a guided tour. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we were inundated with thank-you letters! When they returned to School they had a project to design a poster for us and this is our favorite. We love it!!

Well its full steam ahead in the veggie garden, I’m still giving away strawberries and salad leaves and I’ve found some delicious new salad recipes to try – green salad can get a bit boring. I’ve tried adding a sprinkle of freshly chopped oregano to mixed salad leaves which really pepped them up and for some colour I’m enjoying the petals from the flowers of my nasturtiums which I planted to attract aphids away from the main veg beds. Many garden flower petals are edible and really make a salad look pretty. I like Nasturtiums,

violas (in moderation, they can cause a tummy upset in large quantities) marigolds and calendula and borage flowers. These also look really pretty frozen in your ice cubes, easy to do and very effective when entertaining. Just be sure to check that the flowers you use are safe to eat before you go ahead!

At this time of year it’s easy to assume that our feathered friends have plenty of food about so many people stop feeding them. However with babies about and this year’s insect shortage caused by the long cold winter all is not as good for them as it may seem. In towns birds often get quite dependent on the food that we leave for them too so don’t forget to give them a helping hand and keep feeding them.

Our boys from Badger completed their cycle ride from the centre in Mappleborough Green (Warwickshire) to our West Parley centre in Ferndown (Dorset) over two days this week-end. Powering through in temperatures exceeding thirty degrees they have raised over £1600 for Acorns Children’s Hospice and are already talking about doing it again next year! We would like to thank all the support they were given by staff, suppliers and the very kind Cholderton youth hostel near Stonehenge who were kind enough to give them dinner on Saturday evening and a huge cooked breakfast to set them off again on Sunday morning.

The garden is doing really well at the moment – My strawberries are delicious and I have so many salad leaves I’m giving them away to anyone that will have them!

The sweet peas I bought from our nursery are flowering away now too – I bought a pot of a mix called ‘The Blues’ and they are beautiful. The way to keep them going is to keep them well fed and to keep picking them – Once they are allowed to set seed they’ll stop. Our flat smells wonderful with vases of them around.