We’re getting all romantic this week – Wine, chocolate and bunches of flowers are pretty common fare for Valentines but I always think it’s a shame when they only last five minutes. A rose plant is less expensive than a bunch and will last a lot longer many have been named appropriately too, ‘Romance’, ‘Perpetually Yours’, ‘Temptress’ and even ‘Hanky Panky’ to name just a few. I often wonder who thinks up these names! The thought is the most important thing and the Garden centre is a great place to find something that bit more special for the Garden lover in your life.
I’ve been looking at veggie seeds over the past week and I think I’m going to start with some essentials that I like to eat. Cut and come again Salad leaves, they’re quick to grow, you can harvest what you want when you want them and they look great – I want my vegetable garden to look ornamental too.
French and Runner Beans are easy, reliable and good for the freezer. They’ll also make a good centrepiece grown up cane wigwams in the centre of each bed.
Swiss chard (or Leaf Beet), the bright lights type look good as well being tasty; I steam the leaves and flavour with butter and a twist of salt and pepper.
Carrots should be easy as we’re going to build raised beds which should deter carrot fly I also inter-crop carrots with spring onions which look and taste good and again may deter the carrot fly by disguising the smell (which is said to attract the flies) when I thin out the seedlings. I’ll buy courgettes as ready started plants as I only want to grow a couple – I have a great recipe for courgette and dolcelatte cheese soup. Yum!
I’ll leave plenty of space for other bits that I can choose as I fancy, after all the garden should be fun and I want enough space left to play and experiment with.
