This is the first year I've grown cabbage, and we enjoyed eating it for the first time last night. Here is my version of a classic - braised red cabbage - which I've jazzed up with a splash of Creme de Cassis.

Braised cabbage is traditionally served as a side dish for roast meat and game. However I find that it works well with smoked fish, too. The smoky, rich taste of smoked fish is hearty enough to handle the sharp, sweet crunch of the cabbage. 

Ingredients
1 medium purple cabbage
1/2 onion
1 Tbspn butter & 1 Tbspn oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup  red wine vinegar
1/4 cup  Creme de Cassis
3 Tbspns soft brown sugar
4-5 cloves & 2-3 peppercorns
A knob of unsalted butter
Salt & pepper to season

Method
Chop the cabbage, and finely slice the onion. 
Heat the butter and oil on medium heat, and gently fry the onion until softened.
Add the cabbage, stir for a minute or two to coat, then add the remaining ingredients.
Braise over a low to medium heat, stirring periodically, for about 20 minutes for cabbage with a slight crunch, or 25 minutes plus if you prefer your cabbage softer.
Finish with a little butter, and season as desired. 

I use vermiculite a lot when propagating, and have a large sack of it in the potting shed. One day recently I dipped my hand into the sack and came out with a handful of vermiculite that seemed to be covered in a fine web. I thought this a bit odd but used it anyway; ran out, dipped in my hand again, and brought up more webby material. The next time a huge spider ran over my hand and out of the sack and I screamed loud enough to bring Mr. P running.

Now, I grew up in Australia, so I fancy myself used to spiders, cockroaches, and flies. I once spent a rather uncomfortable night, when a student, sleeping in a friend's spider-infested room, and endured an entire summer house-sitting a flat that was so badly infested with cockroaches that they woke me in the night, scuttling over the sheets. And now, in an old house in the English countryside, I usually wack an average of one spider a night. 

But I'd rather not have them taking up residence in my potting shed. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that vermiculite is not just a sterile material for horticulture, it's also a sterile nesting material for arachnoids.  I've replaced it, and housed it in sealed containers instead.  

Rocket overload
During the summer I had a glut of rocket leaves several times, and used them to make a quick pesto. After the plants responded to successive chops and cooler conditions, they produce coarser and hotter leaves which are not as pleasant to eat in a salad. However they work nicely in this pesto recipe.
Ingredients
3 handfuls rocket leaves
3-5 sprigs aromatic basil
75g pine nuts
75g grated parmesan cheese
Good pinch of sea salt
75ml lightly flavoured olive oil

Method
Toast the pine nuts in a pre-heated hot oven (200 C, or 180 fan) for 4 minutes, keeping a close eye on them, until golden. Whip them and quickly remove from the tray to stop them browning and burning. In a food processor (or by hand, if you don't have one) whiz all the ingredients. Taste, and adjust seasoning as required. I don't add pepper to this, as these leaves are so peppery. 

Uses
Incorporate into freshly boiled pasta, or smear on a sheet of rolled puff pastry, top with tomatoes, pancetta, and chillies, and bake at 200 C (180 fan oven) for 20 minutes, for a quick supper. 
Blend in a food processor

A few days ago Mr. P raided the salad bags in the old ruined greenhouse, picked some of the tomatoes still ripening in our working greenhouse, and dipped into the veg patch, to create a quick 'risotto' with an unusual combination of flavours. I wondered whether I'd like it - and was happy to discover that I really did. I hope you enjoy it too.

Note: This recipe uses my Rocket Pesto. Timings are for an al dente texture, so cook for a few more minutes if you prefer a softer texture. It serves 4 for a main meal, or 3 hungry gardeners.

Ingredients
250g orzo 
1 Tbspn oil, 1 Tbspn butter
1 small onion
2 bay leaves
20g dried mushrooms 
Large bunch of silene
200g tomatoes
1 & 1/2 mushroom stockcubes, made into about 750ml stock
2 Tbspns Rocket Pesto
3 Tbspns ricotta
Grated parmesan

Method
1. Soak the mushrooms in hot stock for 10-20 minutes while you complete step #2. 
2. Dice then fry the onion in butter and oil over a medium heat until soft. 
3. Add the bay leaves and orzo, and stir for a minute to coat the orzo.
4. Add about half of the hot stock and all the mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 4 minutes.
6. Add the silene, stir several times to wilt, then add the pesto and ricotta.
7. Serve topped with grated parmesan and some salad leaves.

Last summer I noticed that the formal borders around the garden seemed oddly lacking in colour during June and July. Why was this?

Well, most of the formal borders face east, and were shaded by overgrown shrubs and perennials which hadn't been divided in many years. The south-facing border is unfortunately super-dry and in parts quite shady, thanks to the huge eucalyptus tree that sits in the middle of it. 

So - what to do? 

There was nothing I could do about the drying effects of the eucalyptus, so I edged the front of that border with drought-tolerant plants. 

We pruned back the shrubs to let in a bit more light , and I lifted and divided as many of the perennials as I could. I planted some Hydrangea aborescens 'Annabelle' along the east-facing borders, and these are now popping out in large white balls against the green background. Interestingly, the day lilies have flowered much better this summer, and with a much stronger peach colour, after I divided and replanted them last autumn.

Then I planted a lot of bulbs - tulips for spring, and alliums for summer - as well as plenty of penstemons, mainly the 'Garnet' cultivar, which is pretty hardy. I also grew from seed and planted on some purple and blue-coloured annuals like Delphinium grandiflora 'Gentian Blue,' Agastache 'Black Adder,' and Cosmos, as well as some Verbena bonariensis and a few green-globe Artichokes.

Did it work? Well, this summer has certainly been an explosion of colour. Now, if we can only tackle that eucalyptus... 

Mr. P questions my sanity. Somehow or another, despite me planning to tackle the pond in a few years time, I have begun tackling the pond... now. No idea how that happened! 

I am being more sensible than the first winter we lived here, when I hand dug and cleared nettles from several large chunks of land, and knackered my back repeatedly. This time, I've had some help. Tom valiantly removed rushes from the pond and dug out the remains of the diseased bamboo. Jan, too, helped removed the ground elder, while I've tackled the bind weed. But it's a big project, nonetheless, especially without using contractors or chemicals. So I'm tackling it bit by bit.

How then?
Step 1: Clear overhanging shrubs and trees and mow nettles and acanthus so that we can actually access the pond! Getting there.

Step 2: Carry out repeated "weed removal" exercises, over the growing season. One round down, but since these are all repulsive perennial weeds, I'll be at it again later this summer, and autumn, and next year...

Step 3: Clear pond of built-up muck and decayed rushes. Done for this year.

Step 4: Replant banks. Work in progress!

Step 5: Monitor, weed, replant, and weed... repeating often, over the next few years. 

Nothing like a challenge! 

Kitchen Garden Kicks Off
This year's crops are in full swing in the new Kitchen Garden. Even the sweet peas are flowering, thanks to May's warm weather. 

Rocket rules... 
I began to harvest lettuce and rocket from mid March. Good crop but a mixed bag in terms of flavour. As ever, the rocket was great - hot, peppery, fierce, fantastic when compared to shop-bought. But lettuce was another matter. 


... but lettuce does not...
I don't think I'd sow "winter salad" mixes again - they contain too many brassicas for my liking. Nor would I sow Romaine lettuce "Bionda Lentissima a Montaire" again - it was too bitter for my taste. "All year round butterhead" lettuce cropped well from seed, and was tender, but pretty bland. Once I've cleared the ground of these crops, I'll sow red lettuces and chicory instead, and hope for better results. 

... so eat chard instead.
Chard has been a real success, though. I've grown several types, both Swiss Chard "Lucullus" and "Verde a Costa Bianca," and I'm already harvesting  young chard leaves. They're delicious braised in salty butter. These I would definitely grow again and again. 

Autumn sown broad beans 
I've been harvesting autumn-sown broad beans Aquadulce Claudia since mid May. This was the "final" year I was going to grow broad beans: I was so fed up with them being devoured by aphids. For the first time I tried the autumn sowing approach. From now on I'll always grow broad beans this way. 

(Sow them into individual pots under cover in the autumn; transplant late winter/early spring into the soil; chop off new growth in early May, once they've flowered and begun fruiting, to avoid attracting aphids; keep weed free throughout.)

Agretti
Now I'm harvesting Agretti (Salsola soda). All of my veg, this was the one I was most excited about growing this year. I first ate it last summer, at Worton Organic Garden, and loved it. It looks like floppy samphire, but tastes less salty.

Huge anticipation, bit of a let-down
My experimental attempt to sow it under cover last autumn failed completely. This spring I tried to sow it under cover and then plant out, and also to plant out direct. Of the two approaches, only the direct sowing worked. My harvest is good, but the flavour is hugely disappointing - it needs jazzing up with lemon and olive oil, but is still akin to crunchy grass.  Let's just say that Mr. P will not partake, and I'm not sure I'll bother growing it again. 

Next on the radar - the first strawberries (Frigaria ) - for which my mouth is already watering. Fingers crossed I manage to eat them before the pigeons, rabbits, chickens and slugs find them.

In the meantime, the sweet peas are coming on nicely, and the Oca, Yacon, Salsify, and Cardoons are in the ground. I've planted several squash on a heaving compost pile. Now I just need to find  some space for all of those Globe Artichokes... 

I love salad, rocket and watercress especially; but it's expensive to buy, and has usually been highly processed before purchase. Last season, though, my big success was rocket. I direct sowed it in succession, and we enjoyed lots of hot, firy rocket well into autumn.

This season I sowed winter lettuce, cress, and rocket under glass, in both seed trays and guttering, and then planted them out in March. They stayed in semi-stasis for a good few weeks, before suddenly bursting into growth in April. We've been eating all these leaves for 3-4 weeks now. 

But I rather over-estimated our capacity for salad consumption, and this past fortnight, I've certainly been feeling like I have to dutifully scoff large buckets of leaves at lunch and dinner. I've been giving it away to neighbours... but I finally accepted that enough was enough. The flea beetles have been beginning to make inroads, and, believe it or not, the rocket and the brassicas included in the winter lettuce mix have already begun bolting.

So I chopped down and thinned most of it, and am hoping for a second batch in a few weeks. Next time, though, I'll be a little less generous when I sprinkle the seed. After all, a girl cannot live on cress alone. 

Early spring bounty
Last autumn I planted several thousand bulbs in the garden - mainly tulips, but also some hyacinths, alliums, and crocuses. Spring was mild this year, and I had an unusual treat - I was able to enjoy snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths and even some early tulips, in March. 

Tulip Gala
Then the tulips arrived in late March / early April - full month earlier than expected. They have been the real treat, and were definitely worth planting Here is a snap of the "hot" border, planted with oranges and pinks. Watch out for my update, shortly, on which ones I'd recommend for planting again.