Overwintering veg crop (and flowers)

Just before the big snow in February I managed to harvest of all these:

Winter veg: two types of kale, chard, onions and sprouts

Justo antes de las nieves de febrero tuve cosecha de berzas, coles de bruselas, cebollas y acelgas. Como el tiempo, antes de la nevada de febrero, era tan suave hasta la nemesia seguia en flor.

The weather was so mild at the beginning of the year that many plants carried over from the autumn.

This Nemesia has been in flower since last summer...

La nevada de Febrero 2012

Algunas fotos de la nevada que tuvimos a principios de febrero:

Radical changes ahead in 2012 - Purpleveg moves!

The purple veg blog has lain fallow for a few months, but with spring and other changes approaching... we’re back! The reason for this lack of activity is partly because of the autumn and winter weather, but there are also more subtle reasons. In the past 4 months my home life has been turned on its head, and it’s interesting how this has affected my relationship with my garden too.

After only 3 years in this house (and 4 years of marriage), my husband and I are splitting up (we have been discussing this since October). For financial reasons we have decided to sell the house, and my plan (fingers crossed!!) is to then buy a smaller place on my own. Needless to say, “sole use of the garden” is top of my list of requirements… Coming to terms with these lifestyle changes hasn’t been, and still isn’t, easy. I found it too heartbreaking at first to be investing emotionally in growing things in a garden that doesn’t have a future (with me). Also the garden was winding down towards the darker months, and I know that you have a lot more leeway in this period - you can almost always catch up later in spring. So gardening wasn’t very urgent.

Now, 4 months later, I find it less shocking to look at my garden and think “I’m not going to get to see it flower and fruit in the summer”, and so I can start to be practical about what needs to be done for my upcoming move. I plan to record the whole process in this blog , so if you’re reading this I hope you will find it interesting!

Despite the autumn neglect (fallen leaves didn’t get swept up, pots with summer crops such as basil didn’t get emptied and put away), winter flowers still did their thing so in January I had some very welcome flowers: in the first few weeks of the year, which coincided with very mild weather, the primroses and one of the irises flowered (it all got obliterated with the snow at the beginning of February). And the skimmia japonica and the sarcococca (Christmas box) also flowered, as they have been doing for the past 3 winters (I bought them on my first year).

Blue iris and yellow primrose, in flower 15 January

Christmas cactus flowered at last

Christmas cactus in flower

After two years, my christmas cactus has finally flowered again! Earlier this year I moved it from the living room to a place at the top of the stairs, and it seems to have done the trick. I read somewhere that the main factor that makes them flower is light: around Christmas time the days are shorter, so when the plant receives light fewer hours per day, it flowers. It was darkness that the plant needed. And where it is now we never have the lights on for a long time, unlike the living room. I know these plants are supposed to be very easy maintenance, but it has taken me two years and I'm very proud of these flowers!

Estas plantas, el cactus de navidad, se supone que son muy faciles de cuidar, pero a mi me ha llevado dos anos conseguir que volviese a florecer. Yo antes la tenia en el salon, pero lei que es la oscuridad lo que las hace florecer asi que la movi al hueco de las escaleras, donde nuca tenemos las luces encedidas durante mucho tiempo, y parece que funciono! En esta epoca del ano, hacia navidad, los dias son mas cortos y por eso la planta florece por ahora. Me ha costado dos anos conseguir flores, pero estoy muy orgullosa de ellas.

My first crop of tomatillos

My first crop of tomatillos, picked today

This is my first mini-crop of tomatillos.  I am almost certain that I was so keen to try them that I picked them way too soon.  It's the first time I harvest them (and the first year I grow the plants), and I must confess I didn't do any research about when and how to harvest them beforehand... I just happened to be the allotment, discover the fruits, and I was so excited to feel there was something inside the paper lanterns (they do look like paper lanterns a bit, don't they) that I just took a bunch of them home.  It's only now, reading a few blogs on google, that I realise they may not be quite ripe yet.  But it's OK, I found a couple of recipes for tomatillo salsa that say slightly unripe tomatillos are best, so I'm going to give it a go!  I thought I had lost the plants completely, so it was a great surprise to discover these today.  If they're tasty I will definitely grow them again next year - the plant is really pretty!

Estos son los frutos de una planta que aqui llaman tomatillo.  Yo he visto recetas de salsa mejicana con tomatillos, asi que supongo que el nombre habra llegado al ingles por ahi. Yo no los habia visto nunca, los sembre este ano por curiosidad pero como ya es finales de verano y no habian dado fruto ya me habia olvidado de ellos.  Y cual no seria mi sorpresa hoy al ir a la huerta muncipal y descubrir que habian dado frutos! El fruto esta dentro de esa especie de globo de papel. Me parece que, en mi euforia al descubrirlos, los he cosechado antes de tiempo. A traves de google he encontrado algunas recetas que dicen que para hacer salsa mejor que esten un poco verdes.  Esta noche los cocinare por primera vez, y si estan buenos los volvere a sembrar el ano que viene - la planta es muy vistosa!

Taking cuttings of lavender

Cuttings of phlox and lavender (right)

The lavender plant has been flowering since July, but the flowers are beginning to dry out and it's time to  tidy it up. I started cutting back the flower stems this morning: the stems are very long, and you cut them just at the point where there's a cluster of leaves (if you cut into old wood the plant won't produce new leaves; no hard pruning for lavenders!). You can keep the dry flowers for cooking and to make lavender bags (I'm keeping mine). But I also took some cuttings to reproduce the plant for next year, and these cuttings are different from pruning: for propagation, you're looking for a bit that has grown this year, so it's semi-soft, but hasn't produced flowers.

This bit will be growing off an older branch of harder wood. I've seen Carol Klein do this on TV and rather than cutting she tears them gently so that there's a tiny bit of the bark in the older branch attached at the base of your cutting. This is called a heel. It's difficult to explain, but I guess that if you try taking your twig with your fingers instead of using scissors you'll end up with a bit of heel even if you don't try. Lavender cuttings are more likely to produce new roots if they've got a heel, apparently.

The only other trick is to get rid of the softer top of your twig, and most of the leaves (including all the lower leaves that would get buried anyway).  The reason you do this is because plants lose a lot of moisture through their leaves, especially the softer leaves, and you don't want your cutting to dry out before it produces roots. New roots first, and it'll produce new leaves later. Another thing I do to stop the compost from drying too much is cover the pot with a plastic bag or half-bottle of juice for the first month or so.  

If you look at the phlox cuttings that I took about a month ago, on the left of the photo, you can see that one of them has produced new leaves already. The other one only has the two leaves I left when I took the cutting, but they're still looking healthy so it looks like it's not dead (it would have rotted by now if it hadn't produced new roots).

Esta manana estuve podando la lavanda, que ya han empezado a secarse las flores.  Con la lavanda hay que tener cuidado de no podar demasiado, pues si llegas a la parte mas seca y mas vieja de la planta ya no produce ramas nuevas. Aproveche la ocasion para cortar esquejes tambien, para el ano que viene.  Los esquejes de lavanda que se cortan en esta epoca del ano son ramitas que crecieron en primavera, pero que ahora ya estan un poco mas maduras. Yo las corto de unos 8 cm de largo (mas o menos).  


Hay un truco que he visto en la tele para esquejes de lavanda que consiste en arrancar la ramita con cuidado y dejando en la base un pelin de corteza de la rama mas antigua. Es dificil de explicar, pero seguramente si arrancas la ramita en vez de cortarla con tijeras ya te sale con la base de corteza (es como un pie minusculo), aunque no lo intentes.


El otro truco es quitar todas las hojas, excepto tres o cuatro en la parte de arriba, y tambien arrancar la punta de la rama donde estan las hojas mas blandas.  Esto se hace para evitar que el esqueje se seque antes de tener tiempo de producir raices.  Las plantas pierden un monton de humedad a traves de las hojas, y cuanto mas blanda sea la hoja mas humedad necesita.  Para mantener el compost humedo yo tambien cubro la maceta con una bolsa de plastico transparente o una botella de refresco cortada durante 4-6 semanas.


En la foto a la izquierda veis unos esquejes de phlox (pincha para ver que planta es) que corte hace un mes o asi. Uno de ellos ya ha echado hojas nuevas!  El otro tiene buena pinta, las hojas parecen sanas, lo cual indica que tambien tiene raices nuevas (si no las hojas ya se hubieran muerto).

Tansy (Tanacetum Vulgaris)

Flowers of tansy (tanacetum vulgaris) and a butterfly/moth

I bought a tansy plant in spring, for the only reason that it was in the herbs section of my garden centre, it was cheap, and it was the only herb they had at the time that I didn't have already. And the label said it had yellow flowers, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I have since researched the plant, and I've learn a few more things about this super-plant: first of all, although the flowers may have been eaten in the past in small amounts (I suppose that's the reason they put it with other 'herbs'), the leaves are actually toxic if you eat too much.  So I don't think I'll be eating these - I have enough non-controversial vegetables growing.

The flowers, apart from pretty - and popular with the nectar-eating insect population, when dry can be used to make a spray that repels aphids, and it can also be used as companion planting for the same reason (I put mine next to the tomatoes, just in case). And finally, the leaves are apparently a very good fertiliser and rich in potasium (I think it was).

This plant is perennial and they recommend chopping it to the ground at the end of the summer, so I've just done that (apart from this branch that had the flowers) and put the chopped leaves at the base of my autumn-fruiting raspberries, which will hopefully appreciate the extra potassium and decide to produce some flowers.

Esta planta se llama tanacetum vulgaris. La compre porque estaba con las hierbas aromaticas en la tienda y todas las demas ya las tenia en casa. La vendian como comestible, pero despues de investigar en casa he descubierto varias cosas: para empezar, las hojas son comestibles solo en pequenas cantidades, porque son toxicas. Asi que ya esta fuera de mi lista de comestibles, pues tengo muchas mas plantas que no son toxicas y me sobran para comer. 


Las flores supuestamente repelen el pulgon: o bien por plantarlas al lado de las cosechas que quieres proteger, o tambien puedes secar las flores y hacer un espray casero. Y a las abejas y las polillas/mariposas (como la de la foto) les encanta. Por ultimo, las hojas dicen que tienen un monton de minerales y puedes hacer un "caldo" fertilizante o simplemente ponerlas al pie de las plantas. 


Es perenne y dicen que la puedes podar hasta el suelo al final del verano, que es justo lo que he hecho yo (excepto la rama de la foto con las flores, que las deje porque son muy bonitas), las hojas que pode las he puesto al pie de las frambuesas - a ver si me dan otra cosecha en otono.