Alstroemeria Planet

Not much to report from the garden this weekend. I planted out a few new dogwood and my Alstroemeria Planet tubers that recently arrived in the post but that's pretty much it.

We were also lucky enough to get a few new houseplants through freecycle this weekend, we went and picked up a Cheese plant (it's enormous) and a Jasmine in full flower. We also took pity on a palm that looks like it's had better days but with a bit of tlc I have high hopes for it.

Bit of a weird post this

I recently found out that there are about 194 countries in the world at the time I am writing this and it got me to thinking - what's the average number of plant species in a private garden. Any ideas? I'm going to do a bit of reseach into this but would be interested in any input.

Bulb Bargain

Whilst looking for new bathroom tiles in our local hardware store I came accross a bin of cut price bulbs. After a quick rummage I was taken by the colours of the Allium sphaerocephalon and as they were going for half price I decided to give them a try (it's slightly late to plant them now but what the heck). When the cashier rang the bulbs through the till it turned out they were on sale at 10 pence! Bargain. If I had have known I'd have got a load more but instead I wasn't greedy and just took my packet of 35 bulbs.

They're in the ground now and i'm looking forward to seeing them flower in May/June. Alliums are one of my favourite kinds of bulb, always architectural and always stunning.

(picture source)

A little bit of fun

Julia gave me a present today - how cool is this? My own branded garden wear! I'll be wearing this in the garden at the weekend.

Chicken Out

Hugh, I'm your number one fan. Or at least I thought I was until I watched Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's latest Chicken Out series on Channel 4. For those of you who don't know Hugh is the writer, broadcaster and cook behind the River Cottage series, a series that he has expertly turned into an ever growing business empire. Unlike many others who accuse him of double standards over his growing business and his portrayal as a lowly small holder I actually admire him for what he has managed to archive. To be honest I think a lot of people are harbouring many a sour grape.

The Chicken Out campaign started by Hugh (and probably his advisers/Channel 4) was designed to highlight the plight of the intensively farmed Chicken by trying to get his local town of Axminister to become the first free-range town in the UK. Now I'm not denying that free range Chickens live a better life than their intensively reared friends but I did have a bit of a problem trying to understand what Hugh was trying to achieve through the program. So it seems did the residents of Axminster. The series started well enough Hugh set up an experiment to compare the two methods of Chicken production side by side along with some interesting facts about the Chicken Industry. An industry that seems to be a very paranoid and secretive which just adds to the assertion that their methods are dodgy, inhumane and wasteful.

In my opionion it was at this point the programme lost track. It became clear that Hugh hadn't a clue about the average family income and the pressure that income is under to put food on the table. The inclusion of footage of his new shop in the town just added to the growing feeling that he was doing this as a piece of self promotion or a publicity stunt. One of the funniest parts of the programme was when a rumour started going around that Hugh was selling Chickens at £22 pounds each from his shop. He declared this vastly inflated but declined to reveal the actual price (which was probably high).

My biggest quibble with the show however was with the final result. I think 60 ish percent of all chickens bought that week from the participating outlets were free range and therefore Axminster was declared free-range and the campaign a success. Even Hugh admitted that this was massivly missleading as the sample size was so small and didn't include breaded chicken, ready meals etc. I'd also have been interested to find out the total cost of the project. It would have been interesting to have seen the financial figures behind both methods of production.

I do applaud Hugh for at least making a stance but in this instance I don't think he succeeded in getting his point accross. And also what was with all the swearing. It was like he'd developed tourettes. If you missed it you can probably check it out on 4OD but I haven't checked to see if it's on there and the Chicken Out site can be found here.

Fat Birds

I've always tried to attract birds into the garden during the winter months by hanging up tasty treats for them to eat in the trees and bushes. I've seen this as me adding a supplement to their normal diet of things they find themselves, in other words I help them though the winter months if they help themselves. Historically, it's pretty much been an amicable agreement... until this year. This winter they're eating me out of house and home! Seriously. They're getting through a bag of seed a every few days and seed isn't cheap (geddit?). I initially thought that it might be something else eating the food, maybe a squirrel or something but having watched over the last couple of days it's just hungry garden birds. I've had problems before, I used to have a bit of a problem with fat pigeons eating the seed, scaring off the other birds then pooping it out again all over the decking but solved this by showing them the sharp end of an air rifle. This time though it's just the volume of birds that's causing the food to go. Apart from making me ration the amount of seed I'm putting into the bird feeders it's also made me wonder why this is happening. Are there more birds this year, is something like global warming affecting the amount of food they can find on their own? Has the word got out that I'm a soft touch? Are they just getting lazy and depending on me for their food?

I would have thought that climate change would be increasing the amount of food available to birds. Surely warmer temperatures wouldn't kill off as many bugs and the wetter weather we're having should bring worms to the surface? God knows. All I know is that the birds of Lavendon are taking advantage of my hospitality and as much as I like seeing them, for financial reasons the kitchen's going to close, when the seed's gone, it's gone.

Chitting Parsnip Seeds

I came across an interesting tid-bit this morning about how to give Parsnips the best possible start in life. I can't remember the name of the person giving this advice (i'll find it out though) but it was recommended to chit the seeds by putting them in a bowl, lightly sprinkling them with compost, watering well and then covering with cling-film until they begin to sprout. Once sprouted then plant out. I know it sounds straight forward but after my disastrous attempts this year at growing parsnips I'm happy for any advice.

Lavendon Garden Sloe Gin

About 14 months ago - before I started this blog. I mixed up some Sloe Berries from the fields where I walk the dogs along with some Sugar and Gin in a Demi-John, corked it and put it on top of the fridge to infuse. All year I've been waiting, shaking it occasionally and wiping the dust from the top. A couple of days ago I uncorked the Demi-John and ran the purple liquid through some muslin to separate it from the berries along with any other floating bits and bottled it up into sterilised bottles (old Tip-Tree ketchup bottles are great for this). After 14 months I had 3 and a half bottles of Lavendon Garden Sloe Gin (My wife Julia even made labels). I've never made Sloe Gin before and in truth I've never drunk it either so I popped round to my parents house to give it it's first try out (Julia was too chicken to give it a go). A few sips later all seemed fine Mum hadn't gone blind and nobody was being sick so I hailed it a success. What better way to see in the new year!