Chamomile has taken over my garden – tea any one?

Last year I planted Chamomile, with no great success. I tried it in various places and had a little grow in one of my pallet planters. It produced one really good bunch of flowers, which were duly harvested and made into Chamomile tea.

But what I had forgotten, when I had been, with desperate conviction, trying to get my chamomile to grow, was that I had ‘lost’ almost half a packet of seeds that had spilled out of the envelope. Fast forward to a little over a year later and I now know where the seeds have gone.

Autumn Harvest – planting the unique

As this was my second year gardening vegetables, I put my hand to trying to grow more unusual vegetables.  As a Garden Virgin, I of course had varying success. However, I am very proud of having had a go with melons, various types of basil, sweet potatoes, and particularly Rond de Nice – round courgettes (or zucchini) to you and me.

Last year I planted straight courgettes, only 4 plants, but my oh my did I get a few courgettes. As did the neighbours, and the neighbours of the neighbours, the workmen, heck, anyone who dared come to our door. This year I planted Rond de Nice, mainly because I think they are prettier, but! and this is a big but, it turns out they also produce less and don’t (quiet) take over the garden.

It’s a little trickier figuring out what to do with them. The obvious is stuff them, and that is actually a delicious thing to do as they cook better than squashes this way, since they are softer and have a higher water content. But that can get a little boring after the 3rd time, particularly if you have quite a few of them. I did find you can actually cook them just as you would straight courgettes, cutting them up, ribboning them, whatever the needs are for a recipe.

One of my favourite recipes for courgettes is so very easy, takes about 5 minutes:

Ingredients:
courgette
olive oil
salt
sumac (substitute paprika if you don’t have sumac, though not quite as good)
sesame seeds

Using a potato peeler, peel your courgette (round or otherwise) into ribbons, skin and flesh, until you get to the seeds. Compost the seeded bit.

In a saucepan heat a tablespoon of olive oil on a medium heat. Toss in the courgette ribbons and stir around. Add a pinch of salt. Add a teaspoon of sumac, and stir into the courgette. Add the sesame seeds, and again stir. Stir loosely for about 2 minutes and serve.

What’s In Store – From Us To You

We have been travelling the world for the last few years, making wine. In 2014, we took a leap, to follow our dream and make our own wine in France. To assist in supporting this dream, and with true entrepreneurial spirit, we are also putting our creative juices (or should that be wine?) to the fore in making a variety of additional items, crafted from the world around us, to sell in our shop Pumpjack & Piddlewick.

How to – Vertical Garden Planting ~ using recycled milk bottles

Every time I tweet about our recycled milk bottle, wall garden I get lots of interest. And it kind of makes sense. After all, the cost is minimal, the space is minimal – could be done almost anywhere you have a vertical space, inside, outside – and looks rather cool (at least I think so).

Loosing My Garden Virginity

Last year this time I was a garden virgin.  In fact, I would have declared easily that I had a brown thumb. My mother has the most amazing green thumb, so I have always felt extremely disappointed that I didn’t inherit an iota of her talent ~ I managed to kill (mostly through kindness, I hasten to add) every plant she ever gave me, even the ones she said were impossible to kill.  However, that never meant I was willing to give up.