Some "mundane" beauties

One of my favourite blogs is Lucy Corrander's Loose and Leafy. She has the knack of seeing the beauty and artistry in some things that people often consider too mundane to take notice of - paving-stones, steps, drain-covers, weeds, brambles etc. This post of mine is therefore a show of solidarity with Lucy, demonstrating that I am heading in the same direction.

Is this villain or hero, for instance? Those with manicured lawns will see it as an enemy, but the gourmets will recognise its food potential (have you tried blanched "Pissenlit" as the French call the Dandelion?). By any measure it is a very striking flower.

Talking of lawns, the other major threat to them is the humble Daisy. Here again a close look reveals a really beautiful flower.

This one is a bit more delicate - sometimes cultivated as a garden plant, though this particular specimen lives in the verge at the side of a public road. The diminutive but picturesque Violet.

Observed closely the flowers seem like a mix between the Iris and the Pansy.

Here's another photo from the same group:

Does anyone know what the little succulent plant in this picture is?

Just a few inches away is a clump of Anchusa (often confused with Borage). In some places round here it is a prolific "weed", but it looks great.

This one is Pulmonaria, aka Lungwort. It too grows all over the place, as a "weed". I think this plant must be one of only a few to have flowers of at least three different colours on the same plant simultaneously.

This is Groundsel. It looks as if it is related to the Dandelion...

This one is a type of Dead-Nettle...

And finally, lest we forget...

The Forget-Me-Not, of course!

All these are in their own right beautiful flowers, but because they are a bit "pushy" and dare to grow where you may not want them to, they have been deemed undesirable weeds. Is that fair?

Who needs Mung Beans?

When you buy "beansprouts" in the shops they are usually Mung Bean sprouts. They are lovely and crunchy served raw in a salad or lightly cooked in a Chinese-style stir-fry. But do you know what these are...?

I bet you didn't guess. They are the sprouts from the seeds of a Butternut Squash! About twice the size of Mung Bean sprouts.

I found them growing in one of my compost bins. Sorry about the poor quality of this photo, but I haven't had much practice taking photos inside a compost bin!

With the lid on, the inside of the bin would have been almost completely dark, so the germinating seeds have reached up towards what was probably only a tiny vestige of light. They are about 15cm / 6in tall and completely "blanched".

I was immediately reminded of a meal I once had when I was working in Sweden: It was an amazing salad and it included huge sprouts very like these. I never did find out exactly what they were, but in retrospect maybe they were indeed Pumpkin / Squash sprouts. There is no doubt about the identity of these ones - you can see that some of them still had the seed-casings attached.

Anyway, this was an opportunity for free food that was too good to miss, so I picked as many as I could find.

This where they ended up - as an ingredient in an Oriental-style soup:

In the soup was home-made chicken stock, some leftover chicken meat, mushrooms, broccoli, julienned fresh ginger, fresh chilli, Five-Spice powder, salt, pepper and of course the squash sprouts. Yummy!
"What were the Butternut Squash sprouts like?" you ask. Well, to be honest, a bit insipid, and Jane found that they left her with a slightly bitter after-taste. Probably not worth cultivating then, but you don't know till you've tried! I think we'll stick with Mung Bean sprouts...

The Birds and the Bees

Sorry to disappoint some of you, but this is not a lesson about reproduction...  Just some photos of wildlife in my garden.

The Bee is definitely a friend of the gardener, carrying pollen from flower to flower during its daily travels in search of nectar. Here is a sequence of photos showing a bee collecting nectar from a patch of Euphorbia:

Now at the other end of the scale of desirability - the Pigeon. This bird is the scourge of the Allotmenteer nationwide. It has a particular liking for young brassica seedlings, and will demolish many weeks' worth of careful nurturing in a couple of minutes.

Pigeons don't normally cause any damage in my garden, being content to feed on the bread I put out. There was however one year when they discovered my Purple Sprouting Broccoli and tucked into it, but that was before I started using nets. The pigeon is too ungainly (and too stupid?) to be able to take seeds from the hanging bird-feeder, but you can often see them trying to figure out how to do it - as here. Ummm...

Maybe if I just dive off and hope for the best...?

Actually it's a good job they haven't learned how to get at the seeds because their appetite is so huge they'd demolish the lot all in one go.

You know the expression "Billing and cooing"? Well, here's some of it going on, on the roof of my shed.

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P.S. This one is for my friends in Australia...

Tomato seedlings

My tomato seedlings are slowly getting bigger, and putting on some weight. I have been taking them out into the sunshine and fresh air during the day and bringing them indoors at night, so they have been well looked after.

I judged that the ones growing in the tall Elmlea pots were ready for "earthing-up". You may remember that I sowed the seeds in pots that were only half filled with compost.

I want the plants to develop a really strong root system, and I know that if you bury the plants deep in compost they will put out more roots from their stems, so I have filled the pots up to within about a centimetre of the tops now.

These seedlings will remain in their little pots for another couple of weeks, after which I will transfer them to larger (6-inch / 15cm) pots for a while, before going to their final destinations in May some time.

On a different theme....  This is the last of my over-wintered Endive. Nearly time to sow some more for picking in the Autmn.

This was served with a French dressing as an accompaniment to some roast lamb and Gratin Dauphinoise - a favourite combination of ours.

So the Endive is just finishing, but on the Plus side, the Asparagus is just starting:

Moss

One of things that Blogging teaches you is that when you look at something closely there is usually more to see than you would initially think. Here's an illustration of that thought.

Look at these. Pendulous bright green flower buds borne on tall slender stems. Lots of interest here.

Now look at them from a distance. This is the view you get when standing upright:

Yes, it's a little patch of moss growing on the weed-suppressing fabric on which the shingle in my garden is laid. The white bits are pieces of sawdust from when the Maple tree was trimmed just recently.

Those flower-stems are only a centimetre tall, and you have to get down on your hands and knees to appreciate them!

Here's a picture of the same patch of moss, taken in January, when the last batch of seed-heads was mature.

Looked at in this scale, you have a whole garden in one flower-pot!

Apples and Pears

My Minarette apple and pear trees are bursting into life again after their long sleep.

My first few photos are of the apple tree (Scrumptious), arranged in a sort of time-sequence.

 Notice the ants in this next photo..

Apple bud with spider, ant and aphids!


The next batch of photos are of the pear tree (Conference).

Remember this one, Sue? This is the twig you transformed into both a Traffic Cop and a Ballerina.

It's unfortunate that I recently made a public commitment to keep my fruit trees well watered this year, because we have a Drought Order coming into force on 5th April. This places some very severe restrictions on the use of water - you are not allowed to water your garden with a hosepipe, or even to use a hosepipe to fill a water-butt. The penalty for non-compliance is a fine of £1000 !  I suppose it's a good thing that my garden is small, and I will be able to water it with a watering can. Those people with big Allotments are really going to be in trouble.

Saying it with flowers

Just to prove that Mark's Veg Plot is not totally devoted to veg...

Daffodil

Daffodil

Daffodil

Cherry

Cherry

Muscari or Grape Hyacinth

Wallflower

Wallflower

Primrose

Blueberry

Despite all of the above, my favourite flower is probably this one...

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Oh, and guess what I saw in the garden this morning.... Cute but destructive. Raccoons!

In England these are very rare. They only show themselves on one day a year - April 1st.