Drivebank revisited

Drivebank in August

Well, I’m back safely.  The drivebank planting is now approaching the end of it’s first season growth, so I thought I’d do an update on how it is getting on.  Generally I’m pretty pleased.  I think most of the perennial plants have at least established OK.  I lost the Philadelphus, thanks to Dougie (bless him!) using it as a toy and pulling it out and chewing it, but the other shrubs seem OK.  The Elaeagnus look a bit bare – I think they lost a few leaves in the wind, which is a bit disappointing.  I thought they would be reasonably wind resistant.  The Escallonia of course is looking lush, and the Gaultheria is also doing well – just flowering and with small berries at the moment.  I have quite a few babies of this that came from cuttings I took back in the spring which are doing quite well too.    The variegated laurel, like the Elaeagnus, has lost a few leaves, but otherwise seems OK.  I’ve poked in a few cuttings from one of my murtillo (Myrtus Ugni)  in the hope that a slightly warmer spot may incline it to ripen fruit.  The bushes in the tea garden grow and flower well, but the fruit never seems to come to much, and I’d really like to try making jelly with this!  The fruit smell divine and taste like sherbert strawberries, incredible!  They are quite small and pippy though, so I think jelly will be more successful than jam.

Developing murtillo berries

At least one of the broom are doing very well, having put on quite a bit of growth this year.  Fingers crossed it survives the damp winter ahead.  I’m wondering whether to plant some of this down the hill in the patch with ash trees that don’t seem to be doing very well.  It is a native plant (I’ve seen it growing on the island), the bees love the flowers, it is a nitrogen fixer and tolerates dry soil, so should be OK where the soil is a bit shallow there.  Broom does in fact need it well drained, so won’t grow happily just anywhere here.

All

different

Calendula

from same seed

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of germination from the seeds I broadcast.  I was hoping to get a bit more coverage and blooms from the Calendula, but there were only a few came up early on and then some stragglers at the tail end of the season.  These are still blooming now, but rather sparse.  They all seemed to be different colours and forms too, whereas I thought I was expecting just single orange flowers from the packet.  There was more coverage from the unknown buckwheat, but these aren’t particularly colourful examples; I will leave the debris overwinter to protect the soil a little bit.  There seem to be one or two of the other herby things I broadcast, I’m not sure whether they are chervil or caraway or coriander, a bit tiny to pick the leaves from.   Maybe more will come up next year.

Initially I got quite a good coverage from the bittercress weed plants, which I just left to get on with it – they are too tiny to be a problem in my opinion.  I do try and take out the buttercup, docken and nettle seedlings and the various grasses that seem to have come back either through missed roots, or seeds.  The buttercups and docken are the worst, because the leaves come off, leaving the roots intact.  Sometimes I left them, but generally I tried to lever them out, because chances are they will regrow.  I pulled the leaves off the weeds and scattered them on the soil to create a bit of mulch, although this was pretty ineffective – actually the weeds were much less prolific than I was expecting, although I don’t suppose I have seen the last of them!  In fact, the bittercress seem to be making a second coming now in the cool of the autumn.

Looking a bit bare in October

A few things I planted to climb and/or spread, all of which are pretty tiny still.  I seem to have mixed up the Lathyrus linifolius and Lathyrus tuberosa when planting them.  I don’t expect this will matter too much, although the L. tuberosa should become a much taller plant, so may (hopefully?) be a bit much where I was expecting the smaller L. linifolius to be growing.  The Akebia again is very tiny, but is alive and looks healthy enough.  Hopefully it will survive the winter and do better year on year, to climb the sycamore.  The wild strawberry I planted at the top under the tree, is spreading enthusiastically.  I think this is supposed to be a better fruiting form that I bought from someone (I can’t remember where now).  No fruit yet, but maybe next year….

Bee on oregano

All the perennial herbs have established well.  The little oregano plant was a mass of blooms which the bees really appreciated earlier in the year.  Again, it seems to be having a second wind with another batch of flowers now. The marjorum (unknown) from the polytunnel has been fine.  The lavender bloomed quite late.  This is a pity in a way, because it leaves it too late to take cuttings after it has bloomed.  I will have to take a few in the spring, and hope that I still get the flowers.  These are on tall stems, and I think the plant has the potential to get a bit big.  It doesn’t matter too much if it overhangs the steps a bit.  The sage also seems fine.  I left the main plant in a pot, which I have brought in to the polytunnel to keep it drier over the winter.  There were several smaller plants that I had grown from cuttings which I tucked in at the top of the main wall.  These I hope will be well enough drained to overwinter outside OK.   The chives as expected have been fine, they went in a bit late for flowers, but should look good next year.  I may get some other clumping alliums to go with them, as they generally seem to do OK here.  The little rosemary seems to be fine, and again at the top of the wall should be OK to overwinter.

Yellow Daylily, White lily and red dahlia

I have been quite pleased with most of the perennials I planted out.  The daylillies, which had never a flower in three years in the shop planters, have bloomed quite happily on and off this summer.  Indeed they still seem to have buds coming now!  The dahlia have bloomed quite well, with simple red daisies and dark foliage.  Also from the shop planters are the tall lillies.  These all seem to have white flowers, whereas the shorter ones left in the shop planters are yellow.  This is not quite the mix I was expecting, but the shop flowers match my icecream flag nicely.  The various campanula seem to be growing bigger now than they did in the summer, which is a bit unexpected.  Maybe they would prefer somewhere a bit more shady.  I did tuck some in by the pea wigwam in the front garden (which turned out too shady for peas) so they may do better there.  All I can say for the asparagus and artichoke is that they seem to be alive still.  Hopefully they are established enough to come back next year.  There is no sign of the nerines, which should be in flower just now, so I may have lost those.

Slightly tender plants include the salt bush, Atriplex canescens, which I grew from seed.  It still looks a bit small, but reasonably OK.  The leaves make quite a nice salad leaf with a salty juicy crunch.  The bush needs to get quite a bit bigger before it is useful for eating though!  The little Trachycarpus is forming new leaves.  This will be a slow growing plant I expect.  There is one I donated to Glendale Estate house, Hamera lodge, when I didn’t realise the uses of it, which is still only about eighteen inches tall after 8 years or so.  Admitedly they planted it in a rather shady spot I think, so it could have done better.  I’ve just agreed to look after the gardens there as well (excepting the lawn mowing) which should be fun!  It has a large walled garden, which has been virtually unmanaged for several decades, but has a few apple trees and a lot of potential.

Strawberry steps catching the late afternoon sun

I have been very pleased with my “strawberry steps”.  I planted out some white alpine strawberry plants, which I had grown from saved seed (originally a James Wong seed grown plant).  The white strawberries are supposed to be less likely to be taken by birds, but still have a lovely sweet strawberry taste when properly ripe – they go suddenly bigger and paler, but it can be a subtle change.  These have bulked out nicely and ripened some fruit.  Next year they should do even better, and give a nice coverage to the steps.  Since the steps are a bit narrow, being made of curb stones I had dug up from the pedestrian gate path, it is a bit difficult not to step on the strawberries when ascending the steps.  Some of the sedum seeds I sowed there have also germinated.  I’ll have to decide whether to transplant those, or to leave them in situ.

All in all a pretty good first season.  My task next year is to finish off the wall around the corner by the barn, with more steps or a ramp for access there, and maybe continue above the steps to the pathway by the willow fedge.

 

 

 

 

Drivebank planting

Since I started the retaining wall down the drive I have become quite excited about what I can plant here.  It’s not quite what I envisaged when I was playing fantasy gardens in my head.  Indeed it has turned out in many ways to be a far better ‘microclimate’ than I was thinking.  Because the wall gives a possibility for a well drained, south facing slope I am able to plant some of the more tender plants that would otherwise struggle to survive a wet winter here.

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Having built the wall and the main steps from the house direction, I spent a bit of time getting two minor retaining walls and some further steps from the drive in the best place.  I hope I have put the paths where the dogs are most likely to want to run, since they can be a bit heavy footed at times.  The plants that I had collected were laid out in their pots to decide a planting arrangement.  I bought a few sacks of multipurpose peat free compost to try and improve the soil a bit, that was forked in before planting the plants.  The final stage was to sprinkle over various plant seeds that will hopefully provide some infill until the plants grow big enough to cover the soil.  I still have to finish off the north east corner back to the bank behind the barn (behind the lower Land Rover in the slideshow above), with some more steps, and I have the last few plants to go in at the bottom corner and at the far side of the path at the top of the bank.

As well as the Mediterranean herbs, rosemary and sage, that I bought in Portree, I also have a number of plants that I have been propagating over the past couple of years.  The plan is to have a windbreak at the top of the bank that will provide forward shelter a bit for the plants.  Although they will still get the driving salt rain onto them on occasion, hopefully this will provide a modicum of protection.  I have some Escallonia cuttings which are pretty well grown.  I am hoping that some of these have pale coloured flowers and some the standard dark pink that is more common around here.  The Escallonia has lovely flowers in the early spring, glossy green evergreen leaves and it seems to enjoy Skye’s bracing weather.  It can get a bit big for itself, but stands cutting back if necessary also.  I have also grown from seed this year some Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica) which I have seen in flower around here and am hopeful it will fruit for me.  The fruit makes very nice jelly – like a lemony flavoured apple and the flowers are lovely.  Since these have been grown from seed I won’t know what the flowers and fruit are like until they happen.  Anyway, they should also make a tough wind resistant shrub at the top of the bank.  I’ve got a couple of shrubs that my mum gave me that were looking for a home – a variegated philadelphus (which should have lovely scented flowers if I’m lucky) and a variegated cherry laurel.  Hopefully these will be tough enough to cope with the wind there.

Since I haven’t finished clearing the orchard area of couchgrass, I have made the decision to plant some of my asparagus plants on the drive bank.  It isn’t ideal, the asparagus has a reputation for not liking root competition, and I also haven’t really improved the soil much for it.  It is probably a bit too exposed also, but that should improve as the Escallonia grows (competing at the roots as it does so!)  I just don’t think that leaving the asparagus in pots for many more years will do it much good either.  It should like the well drained sunny aspect anyhow.

I’ll put the planting plans in below although I suspect that the labels won’t be legible online.

Planting by steps

Planting under tree

Planting at lower end

The seeds that I have surface sown include a sedum mix for roofs and walls, birdsfoot trefoil, bush vetch (vicia sepium), mexican marigold (tagetes minuta – old seed that never germinated well when it was fresh!), pot marigold (calendula sp.), Broom (cytisus scoparius), Licorice (glycyrrhiza glabra), Some sort of buckwheat that was supposed to be Fagopyrus dibotrys but has turned out to be a variety of annual buckwheat, Caraway, Crithmum maritimum (rock samphire).   I’m hoping that the bank will act as a nursery for some of these plants that can then be transplanted elsewhere; particularly the broom, which seems to struggle in pots for me.

I have also sown, mainly in with the asparagus, some milk vetch saved from the polytunnel.  I have been growing it amongst my asparagus there in the hope that it will make a non-competitive ground cover.  So far it doesn’t seem to be doing any harm anyhow.  It has fairly inconspicuous flowers, and lovely curled seedpods.  Hopefully it will provide a beneficial groundcover here on the drivebank also.

At present the planting looks a bit bare.  Soon the weeds will start growing as well as the groundcover seeds and the rest of the plants.  I hope I can keep this bit of the garden looking like someone cares, so will have to try and keep on top of the weeds in the early stages.  At least I don’t think I have couch grass on this bank, although there is the very fine red tipped grass that is almost as bad!

Peas and Oca

For the first time in a few years, I have planted peas outside this year.  In the past they have done pretty well for me, and it was more that I didn’t really have anywhere to put them that put me off growing them.   I have grown them in the polytunnel, and they do grow well in there also.  They don’t generally make it as far as the kitchen however!  With the tea garden extension, I have a fair amount of space.  So this year I have used some longish side branches cut from the alders that I felled, and some side branches from the alder grove just below the hump at the south side, for pea sticks.

Bright pallets for fencing

The pallets in the tea garden don’t quite overlap enough to give brilliant wind reduction at the moment.  I have enough pallets to finish the job, thanks to the delivery driver arranging a few spare pallets to be  dropped over.   But I still need to dig out the couch and nettles along the edge by the trackway, so the ground levels still aren’t right there to complete the fences.  Anyhow, I planted out the bare root hazels that had been ‘heeled in’ in one of the sections and cleared it in preparation.  The peas went in a row parallel to the windbreak, and the pea sticks leant up at an angle just past them.  These were carlin peas that I had saved from peas grown in the front garden in 2011.  They had been put in water to soak a couple of days prior.  There were lots of them, so I just sowed them really thickly.  Between the peas and the pallet I transplanted some good king henry and sweet cicely seedlings that had self sown near my plants in the tea garden.

Finished pea bed in tea garden

Along the edge by the access path I have planted the colourful oca tubers that I bought from real seeds.  I have tried to put colours not too similar next to one another so that I can keep the resulting tubers separate when it comes to harvest.  There did appear to be some duplication of tubers (as expected) so some will bulk up numbers more quickly than others.  One tuber also does look like the variety I have grown before.

Multicoloured oca

Also planted at the edge are a few heath pea (lathyrus linifolius) plants that I grew from seed last year.  They have been neglected in modules, but most seem remarkably to have survived no watering and little compost, they are tough little plants it seems!  Also planted in here were the last perennial kale plants.  The ones that I had planted out as soon as they rooted grew far bigger than the ones left in pots.  I also planted out an angelica plant that I had bought from Pointzfield herbs this spring.

Bicolour bloom on the purple mangetout (last year in polytunnel)

I had three varieties of peas I wanted to grow this year.  As well as the carlin peas, I wanted to try the tall purple mangetout, that I have grown only in the polytunnel till now.  Because I want to try and save fresh seed from these, I have planted up a wigwam of alder peasticks in the front garden.  This is the other side of the barn from the tea garden, so there is little chance of the plants cross-pollinating.  I have also planted out in this area some of the plants that have been (mal)lingering in pots.  I put a few of my new sweet violet plants against the sycamore trunks, a little honeysuckle to grow up them, a few campanula latifolia along by the path and some rather small martagon lily seedlings that I grew from my HPS seed last year.  I’m currently debating with myself as to whether to plant one of my new mint plants in there too, or whether to confine it to a pot to keep it in restraint.

Pea wigwam in front garden (still with junk guarding dog tooth violets from dogs)

The third variety of peas that I have planted are some Heritage Seed Library seeds that I didn’t grow last year.  Champion of England is a tall (could be up to 10 feet!) marrowfat pea.  Since I only have a few seeds I decided to grow these in the polytunnel.  I have planted then in the bed below the apricot (which I must read up about pruning!).  When preparing the bed I inadvertently dug up some Apios americana tubers that I had forgotten were there.  They have only just started into growth.  Hopefully I haven’t damaged the growing tips too much.

First apricots?

It all looks great before the weeds start to grow!

Orchard, Autumn and Tomatoes

I managed to just about finish clearing the section of orchard I was aiming to.  The weather has turned a bit damp now – so I’ve lost this years’ window for weeding.  The soil just gets too claggy when it’s wet.  I’ve left a nice sorrel plant there, and I may transplant some more in there.  I have found some with lovely large leaves in various places round the field.

Large leaved Rumex acetosa – common sorrel

I have also planted a few of my seedling heath pea plants along the border which I plan to keep digging up, and a marsh woundwort plant as well.  I haven’t got round to tasting the roots of this yet.  It is related to crosnes (stachys affinis) and like crosnes the roots are edible.  This plant was rather pot bound.  It had been sitting in a puddle next to the polytunnel all year – an offset from the bought in plant.  I’m hoping it will be damp enough for it at the side of the orchard there.  We can get quite a bit of water coming down the track at times, as well as being generally damp climate wise.  The roots certainly look like they could be quite productive – long and tender.  I did snap a few bits off and popped them in the fridge, but forgot they were there when I cooked dinner yesterday.  I also put a couple of seedling lathyrus tuberosa (earthnut pea) seedlings.  These are from seed that I was sent (thanks Anni).  Unfortunately with one thing and another (weather and neglect!) I only have four seedlings and one of these looks a bit poorly.  I’ve put plant pot collars on them, since I have read that slugs really like these plants.  I’m thinking that they can climb up the apple tree.  Not the ideal spot for a root crop, but if they grow and like it there I can maybe propagate more plants from these.

Orchard view to North

I also spread around loads of seed: firstly some of the green manure seeds I obtained recently.  I spread field beans and fodder radish fairly generally over the whole area and red clover selectively around the bases of the honeyberries and apple tree.  It may be a bit late for the fodder radish, but I’m hoping that it will stay mild for long enough for them to put on a bit of growth before the winter (I can already see shoots coming on the field beans just a couple of days later!).  I also sowed some other legume seeds that I collected:  birds foot trefoil and bush vetch (vicia sepium).  I have been enjoying the odd nibble on the latter as it has reappeared around the tree field (see here for a little foraging guide).  The birds foot trefoil makes a nice low growing ground cover – it should be nitrogen fixing, but I’m not sure how well it will keep down the weeds.  This is the first time I’ve tried sowing it direct.  I did sow some in the spring in pots, but didn’t get a good success rate (again weather and neglect…): one plant.  I also spread some sweet cicely seed and good king henry which both have done well for me in the tea garden a little up the hill.  They both seeded themselves a bit up there, but I want to transplant those seedlings elsewhere.

How bird’s foot trefoil gets it’s name

I started trying to dig out couch grass and docken from the rest of the orchard on the north side of the track.  There is a fair amount of both and I haven’t quite finished that.  It’s only a rough going over.  I will mulch it with newspaper and card and try and give it another go during next summer depending on priorities.  I did get out some of the silver weed I planted there in the spring this year.  It is still a bit early – they are in full leaf, and the roots look very white.  Generally they are up to 6 inches long and up to one quarter inch diameter.  I’m going to transfer some to the track border.  I may see if I can use them for pathways in the orchard area.  They have made a reasonable coverage after a bit of editing in the tea garden and certainly spread like mad!

It’s starting to feel a little autumnal now.  The first trees to lose their leaves are the Wych elm, but some of the rowans are turning colour, and one of the beech is rather a nice yellow.  I’m a bit worried by how red this apple tree is.  Last year it was the best for growth, this year it looks a bit strained – the others are all still quite green.  We don’t tend to get much autumn colour here – the winds strip the leaves off the trees before they can put on much of a show.  It looks like it will be a bumper year for hazelnuts – I spotted the first nuts on our own trees (planted 2010), but the ones along the river bank seem quite laden.  I did go along and pick up a fair few from underneath the trees, but they all seem to be empty (either shed by the tree or discarded in disgust by hopeful birds!).  It’s still a bit early.  Usually the birds get the nuts, which is fair enough.  I would quite like to get a harvest off our own trees in due time.  Although they weren’t bought as nutting cultivars, the seeds they apparently came from seemed a fair size.

bumper crop on hazels by river

The local outside brambles are starting to ripen.  Funnily enough these don’t seem to be bothered by those horrid flies!  There was a new bush that has seeded in at the corner of the river  above the pond, which seems to have quite nice quality berries.

tasty self sown bramble

Saving the best till last – in the polytunnel this week!

First ripe tomatoes – (super sweet 100)

There was a little mildew or possibly blight on some of the leaves so I’ve pulled a few off the tomato plants.  I’m hoping that I will get more tomatoes ripening over the next month or so before I have to rescue them.  Some comfrey leaves are soaking in a bucket of water at the moment to add some extra tomato feed to try and give them a late boost.

August progress in tree field

Common knapweed (centaurea nigra) and small bee

After a week of rain we have a sunny Sunday to leisurely wander and assess the growth this year in the tree field.  The late summer flowers are giving the busy bumblebees a help towards winter supplies.  I’ve been gathering various vetch seeds again, which I’m hoping to swap for favours.  The heath pea are just about over; the warm early summer meant I had quite a crop, and managed to harvest over an ounce of seed, with plenty that I missed to further spread into the field.  I have noticed it this year even in what I consider quite damp areas.  I think the reason it was mainly in the thinner drier areas at first was simply that these had been less well ploughed and the tubers were able to survive better.

Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris) flowers in tree field

One of the plants I got from the ART last year was Stachys palustris – marsh woundwort.  It is related to Stachys affinis – crosnes or chinese artichoke.  A native plant, it likes damp meadows and spreads by thick (edible) tubers.  As this grew, I realised it did bear a strong resemblance to a plant I have seen growing on the river bank.  A second opinion on the odour (it has a strong pungant smell, but my sense of smell is pretty poor) confirmed that I already have lots of this growing round the field.  I’m happy about this, and not sad I bought a plant I already had.  For one thing, the imported plant may be better for tubers, for another it confirmed something that might otherwise always be just suspicion.  There seems to be much more of it this year than I remember in previous years, so I may try and dig a little up this autumn and see what it tastes like (watch this space).

Knot grass moth – acronicta rumicis on willow

I remembered seeing a particulary colourful hairy caterpillar down beside the pond.  As it turned out there were a few of the same variety there.  When going for a closer look at some aspen I thought had mildew (just downy leaves catching the sun), I found another one of these pebble prominent (Notodonta ziczac) which look like a cross between a caterpillar and a rhinocerous.

Notodonta ziczac on Aspen

The willow cuttings that I put in this spring all seem to have taken despite the dry spring.  There is still plenty of space up near the hump at the top which is damp and relatively sheltered.  I’ll try and put some more in there since it does seem to do pretty well.

S. points out this years’ growth point on a particularly fine ash tree

This year we have seen some incredible growth on some of the ash trees.  Literally some have actually doubled in height.  Hopefully they won’t break off or die back too much.  They do seem to have a tendency to die back a few years growth in one go sometimes.  It’s not the ash dieback – that hasn’t reached us (yet).  Whether it is another fungal disease or something else I don’t know, but it is a bit frustrating.  I am hoping that by the time chalara does make it here the ash will be big enough to be useful firewood.  Certainly if they can maintain this rate of growth there is a fair chance!

We’ve started to make little pedestrian paths through the trees, just picking routes like the dog’s cut through to the pond.  This means we will be able to get up close and personal with the trees, and appreciate some different viewpoints without getting our feet too wet (assuming that we bring the mower round them at some point).  My challenge to come will be getting S. to appreciate that the seedheads are just as important as the flower stems when it comes to mowing the tracks.  I have marked the orchids with bits of stick, but these have tended to get lost over time.  Douglas does have a habit of stealing them on his way past!

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Saving and giving away

This week I’ve been sorting my seeds out. This includes the various seed packets that I have accumulated over the years, and also seeds that I have saved from some interesting plants around the holding.

I no longer grow much in the way of annual vegetables, so have put to one side quite a few seed packets that are in date (or not much out of date) to swap or give away. I’ll put a list at the end of this post for anyone that may be interested. There are a few flower seed packets as well that I have accumulated somehow – probably on the front of gardening magazines from the shop, that haven’t sold.

I also have quite a few seed packets that are so old that I doubt that there will be a very good germination rate. Sometimes these can surprise (I had good germination from rather old courgette seed this year) but more often even rather new seed fails, and I’m sure it’s not always me (i.e. dry compost, too cold etc.). The oldest seed I have is some chinese bean sprouts or mung beans that were supposed to be sown by 2001! I always meant to get round to that stir fry, but I just can’t think three days ahead when it comes to cooking! I also have a pack of “rose de berne” tomato seed, and some late purple sprouting broccoli to be sown by 2004. These and others that are less ancient, but still well out of date I have put to be used as a green manure / ground cover next spring. Probably most won’t germinate, but where I did the same around my blackcurrant bushes in the fruit area this year, I have some recognisable cabbages, rocket (going to seed, because I don’t like the taste), and leaf beet. These have grown amongst the existing seed bank of nettles, docken, chickweed and other ‘weeds’ that have been edited as I feel like. Before I mix the seed packs together, I will give my friend who is coming for a visit next week, a chance to grab any that she fancies (along with the newer seed for swaps). Actually, I gather the technique for sowing a mixture of plants is to sow each seed separately, then you get a more even distribution of each seed.

Parsley – gone to seed in polytunnel

I have managed to save quite a few seeds from various plants this year. Mainly from local native plants which I hope will also prove desirable as swaps. This year I have tried something slightly different. As well as drying as best I could in a warmish dry place for a few days (usually on a windowsill, although I gather too hot and light is not a good idea), I have sealed the dry seeds in a foil ziplock packet together with some rice grains that have been oven dried. The rice is supposed to act as a non toxic dessicant (like silica gel – which is now considered a baddie I gather) which will hopefully give the seeds a longer shelf life. The advantage of the foil bags is that they keep the seeds dark as well as dry. The disadvantage is that you can’t see the contents without opening the bag. I’ve run out of the foil bags now anyway, so the some of my saved seeds will go into normal polythene ziplock bags.

I’ve crossed out the seed which has already been spoken for.

Seed for swaps:

Various commercial packets. Some opened. I haven’t put details against them, since with the power of the internet, you should be able to find out what the makers say:

Asparagus “argenteuil early”

Asparagus “connovers collossal”

Beta vulgaris – “sea beet”. British native, seems to grow OK for me, but I think I have enough seedlings now

Carrot “nantes 5”

Radish “kulata cema”

Rocket “wild rocket”

Lettuce “little gem”

Swiss chard “bright lights” – pretty colours, but I get loads of self sown perpetual spinach, and I don’t like the stems of chard.

Tomatillo – I wasn’t that keen on them to be honest, and I don’t think I’ll get round to trying them before the seed gets old again

Physalis peruviana: cape gooseberry “golden berry” I seem to have two packs, so one spare.

   

Coriander “cilantro” for leaf production

Kale “curly scarlet”

Kale “nero di toscana”

Celeriac “monarch”

Broccoli “autumn green calabrese”

Mustard spinach “komatsuna tarasan”

Cauliflower “all the year round”

Cauliflower “romanesco natalino”

Turnip “petrowski”

Saved seed from Skye:

 

bluebell

pignut

chickweed

bramble

Plain leaved parsley – went to seed in polytunnel.

Leaf beet / perpetual spinach – sows itself everywhere now!

Good king henry – british native perennial. I only have one plant, but it appear to have set seed. Now it is established it appears to be thriving on neglect – wet, windy, acid soil. I love it!

Hyacintha non scripta – british bluebell. Native perennial – seed from the tree field.

Myrrhis odorata – sweet cicely. Lovely anise scented foliage perennial.

Conopodium majus – pignut. Native forage food – grows happily here in grass like a miniature cow parsley.

Rumex acetosa subsp. acetosa – common sorrel. Native forage food, acid refreshing leaves. Beware can be a nuisance weed, but I love it. Seed gathered from the holding.

Lathyrus pratensis – meadow vetchling. Yellow flowered perennial vetch. Seed gathered from the holding.

Vicia cracca – tufted vetch. Vetch with plumes of blue flowers. Seed gathered from the holding.

Lathyrus linifolius – heath pea see previous post here. Seed gathered from the holding.

Rubus fructicosus – bramble: polytunnel blackberry. I don’t know what variety this is. Probably a seedling off a Solihull plant, but it appears to be an early fruiter since it also will crop outside in a good year. Seed may not come true, but there is no other bramble close, so it must be a self cross. Prickly and vigorous and delicious!

Stellaria media – chickweed. We eat it raw in salads, or sometimes wilted as a hot vegetable. It is often quite large and lush in leaf, I’m not sure whether this is unusual, but if you fancy some weed seeds let me know.

You can email me at nancy at p6resthome dot co dot uk. First come first served, no guarantees, but I’ve done my best at identification and cleaning.  I’ll try and update this list as the seed goes. UK enquiries only at this stage (unless you have some astragalus crassicarpus – ground plum seeds for my perennial poytunnel project, in which case we might come to an agreement…).

Bitter vetch = Heath pea = cairmeal = Lathyrus Linifolius

Heath pea and bluebells

As I was looking up the growth habits of the various legumes that grow wild on the holding here I came across some interesting information about bitter vetch: Lathyrus linifolius. It is a perennial also known as heath pea, and in the gaelic: cairmeal, or corra-meille. As I said before, it’s one of the earliest vetch to flower, coming into bloom during May, but still with flowers to come now in early July. The little bright pink pea flowers fade to blue or beige. As the tiny pea pods ripen, they first swell then shrink a little and turn black before splitting and spiralling the tiny seeds away. The seeds are very tiny, and probably mildly poisonous – a paralysis disease can result from eating significant quantities of other lathyrus seeds unless properly treated, for example leached in water, so I wouldn’t try them.

In bloom and mature pods

As a legume, the Heath pea should form relationships with nitrogen fixing bacteria in the soil, so adding to the soil fertility as the plant grows and dies. I was thinking of saving the seed from this and the other native vetches to see whether they would be any use as nitrogen fixing ground covers. Winter tares (Vicia sativa) is sold as an overwintering green manure crop, although it is suggested that it doesn’t like acid soil. Well as I know these vetch grow locally, logically they would make a possible alternative. Anyway, interest seems to have been sparked in Heath pea when the tubers were found by Brian Moffat during an archaeological dig of a twelfth century monastery at Soutra Aisle. His research paper proposed that the monks were using the tubers medicinally. Apparently before potatoes the cairmeal tubers were dug and dried against famine in the Highlands. The tiny tubers were alleged to save people from hunger and enable great feats of endurance, possibly being used by Roman soldiers during battle. I found various online references to this including PFAF, and my Scots Herbal book by Tess Darwin also refers to this. The tubers are said to be sweet like licorice (which is also a legume of course) and were also used to make a drink that prevented hangovers! There were several articles in the mainstream press, including the Mail and the Telegraph, although none caught my eye at the time, the possibility of a Scottish slimming aid being pretty newsworthy. It seems that there has been a bit of research going on in Scotland since. The only paper I could subsequently find online however, found no significant difference in weight change between rats fed the vetch tubers and various controls (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/59217/). I only could read the summary, so there may be more significant information in the rest of the article. There is also an entrepreneurial chap in Reading, who appears to be growing and selling seeds and tubers online (under the bitter-vetch tag). He (I think I’m assuming that!) gives a little information about the growing habit of the vetch: a single tuber grows the first year, if left, it bulbs up in subsequent years, and more tubers grow. The plant can be propagated from these secondary tubers as well as from the seed. Weight loss apart, I would be interested in trying the tubers. I’d come across Lathyrus tuberosa, which has larger tubers, but was put off by the fact it is described by several people as being ‘attractive to slugs’. It also prefers more alkaline soils so wouldn’t do so well here presumably. However, I know that Heath pea likes it here, although I would say it appears to prefer the slightly drier soils, possibly because it is slightly small so has less competition from more vigorous plants. I haven’t noticed slugs eating it particularly. It happily grows in grass, but presumably would grow better with less competition.

Heath pea tuber dug up in July

I couldn’t resist digging this tuber and have planted it in the fruit area amongst my root crops which are due for digging in autumn.  There appear to be little tubers (or possibly bacteria nodules I suppose?) on the roots close to the main tuber already.  I’ve collected some seed from various plants around the holding, and will try sowing some as green manures (and in pots -why not?) this autumn. If it’s edible, palatable, feeds the soil and grows well, what’s not to like? There may be some scope to increase tuber size to make it more worthwhile as a crop, but as a gourmet snack it is still interesting!