And they're off!

St Patrick's day saw me down at the plot harvesting the last of the Jerusalem artichokes - 4.88kg of them to be precise. This is where all my recipe books will come in handy I hope.

To start within made a Jerusalem gratin from Sarah Raven's book 'Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook'. I used what looked like a sweet potato but it was white in the middle so have assumed it was a yam. We have a kilo of prosciutto we brought back from Sicily so I was a little more generous with that. It tasted nicer than it looks here, I promise (we started eating before preserving it for posterity!)

I have also been busy on the seed sowing side.
3 types of tomato - black, moneymaker, mixed cherry
Purple sprouting broccoli
Chili

There are also now four large potato tubs on the patio with Charlotte x 2, British Queen x 1 and Ratte in. Plus a mixed lot in the old bean planter.

Last year, the planters were an unexpected success so fingers crossed for this year. The dry weather won't have helped the potatoes and garlic that need lots of water in the early growing stages. Annoyingly, having ignored potatoes most of the year they are the one thing I really want to eat but have no more in store.

The broad beans sowed on 20 February have come through. The experiment is inconclusive. I can see no difference between those exposed to the mild weather and those protected by a cloche.

Spring has sprung

The blossom has just opened up on the plum tree in the garden and the blueberries are coming into leaf.

Temperatures are averaging 15 degrees and the weeds (sadly) are springing back to life. (Note to self: hoe between garlic, onions, shallots etc. which are looking a touch jungle like).

Though the saying goes "ne'er cast a clout till May be out" (see the excellent phrases.org.uk to learn more about the phase) implies we shouldn't discard our winter clothes till May (or indeed till Hawthorn (also called May) is in bloom) weeds actually start back into life from 7 degrees so keep a vigilant eye open and a hoe ready.
With the joys of spring growing within me and limited chances to sow seed, I made a mad dash before a flight on the 10th to plant some of the potatoes I have had chitting in the kitchen.  In went the first earlies and a couple of Shetland Blacks.  I had dug 4 trenches and I filled 3 of them (30cm or a foot's length separating them and in the pit not top of the piles and gently firmed up the soil above them) in this order:
- trench nearest plank pile: Sharp's Express PLUS Shetland Black x 2
- middle trench: Swift
- 3rd trench from plank pile: Pentland Javelin

That leaves one more one more trench which I shall save for the rest of the Shetland Black x 4 and the British Queen. Though I also have Ratte chitting madly so they will need a home.  I have 3 patio potato planters which I think I will use for Charlotte and Ratte. The compost is already waiting by the kitchen steps though I plan to stagger the planting of these to see if I can spread the inundation of spuds.

Delicious magazine (April edition) have got 6 lovely sounding recipes for use with Jersey Royals so I might use the last of the stored potatoes for chips, tartiflette and sauteed but paired with Chorizo rather than black pudding.
Jersey Royal chips with Saffron Aioli - 500g potatoes sliced lengthways in quarters, cook in boiling water 3-4 minutes, toss with 2tbsp olive oil, roast 30-40 minutes till crispy + cheat's aioli (thanks to Donal Skehan) 3tbsp mayonnaise, 1tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 chopped garlic clove
Jersey Royals with anchovy gremolata - finely mince 1 garlic clove, zest of 1 lemon, parsley, toss with potatoes, 25g butter, 2 sanchovy fillets finely chopped.
Jersey Royal and fontina frittata
Jersey Royal salad with hot-smoked salmon, dill and mustard creme fraiche - 4 tbsp creme fraiche, 2 tbsp olive oil, squeeze lemon, 1tsp Dijon mustard
Tartiflette
Sauteed Jersey Royals with black pudding and fried egg

According to the books this si the time to be planting jerusalem artichokes so it is also time to harvest the last of them (leaving a few behind int he ground for next year).

I intend to use another recipe from Delicious magazine for Mother's Day: Jerusalem artichoke and potato bake with welsh rarebit topping. Considering that the last 2 plants I dug up yielded 1.9kg I may need to consider making a Jerusalem Artichoke Flan too (from the excellent BBC website).

Potato dilemma

My potatoes I already planted are doing ok. In fact they are up before Bernie's. However I think his system of mounds and trenches means they are planted deeper and so will be more protected from frosts and blight.

It seems odd to think of frosts when the thermometer has consistently hit 20 degrees over the last fortnight but it is important to remember that frost hit as late as early may last year.

I still have two more sets of seed potatoes to plant. The rattes and some free charlottes that came as part of a patio growing set. Not wanting to muddy my lovely new patio I will experiment with the set on the plot and I will plant the rattes using Bernie's method too. I looked this up to make sure I do it right but, oddly, there isn't much information on it in books or online.

I consulted a number of books and websites all with limited success. The best I found was http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html which provided the following great drawing:

There seems to be a difference of opinion on how to do it and both make sense. Plant the seed potatoes at the bottom of the trench and use the mounds to earth up OR to plant the potatoes into the mound to allow them the mound to grow in and when watering allow the water to get to the roots.

As it was I did neither and just found some spare patches by the other potatoes...

Sources of great advice

Top tip: Never be afraid to ask. There is generally an expert out there to help.


On Tuesday I visited the RHS. Not Wisley, its gardens in Surrey, nor one of its major shows like Chelsea or Hampton court but the spring plant fair at its headquarters near Victoria. The RHS has 2 large halls there that are swamped on a regular basis by gardening fans.

I was hoping to find a bamboo expert as our new phyllostachis nigra (that's a black bamboo to you and me) is turning crispy. Now, a crispy bamboo might be something you'd like on a Chinese menu but is not a good thing in the garden. Especially not at £20 per plant and you have 6 all gradually crisping up. And yes, I did water them.

Later. But apparently I didn't water them enough. The thinking is that a combination of the stress of being repotted, wind and a very dry February and march have meant that I should have watered them LOADS. They recommended 10 litres per pot and then when that has drained to water them again and to do that weekly. No surprise that the bamboos I saw on someone's roof terrace will only be good for plant supports. Hopefully I have caught it in time.

I also struck gold on the veg front (something that was tougher to find in past years). Finally I found my banana shallots and also picked up 5 tubers of potato ratte which is also elongated but less knobbly and larger than pink fir. I have decided to try to grow horseradish in a pot (a bit of a thug apparently so need to contain it) and bought two replacement wild garlics for the back garden where the shady woodland should suit them.