Planting a bulb lasagne for Spring colour

A few weeks back on Gardeners World Monty planted up his pots for spring colour, and he explained the layering approach he takes.  The rule of thumb seems to be to put the largest bulbs deeper, and to leave at least a bulbs width in between the bulbs. Below I've sketched out Monty's plan - he says the pots should be finished by the middle of May when they can be cleared out and the pot re-used for a summer display. Well I've managed the first step anyway!

While reading more on layering bulbs I saw on Sarah Raven's site there's lots of information on the bulb lasagne approach.   And after seeing plenty of tulips earlier in the year at Biddulph Grange, I was ready with my tulips, the Venetian Tulip Collection from Sarah Raven with three varieties and 45 bulbs plus some miniature daffodils and pansies I'd bought on my trip to the garden centre during the week. 

So armed with all this knowledge, the bulbs, pansies and my new pots last Sunday on what was a damp and miserable afternoon I set about planting some pots for Spring colour.  And the wetter it got I seriously began to question why...

I always seem to be collecting crocks for use at the bottom of pots - usually that includes pots that didn't quite survive the frosts, broken pots as well as chipped, cracked or broken crockery and ceramics. With the crockery and ceramics especially it means that occasionally I'll catch a glimpse of a cup or mug that will make me smile.  

He doesn't look too happy!

So crocks in pots, and a layer of my own lovely compost I added the first layer of four tulips, some more lovely compost and a second layer of five tulip bulbs. 

Then in three of the pots - 1, 3 and 5 below - I planted the mini daffodils. I would have done all the pots but I didn't have enough bulbs and I'd bought the last two packets the garden centre had. So as I had some anemone blanda bulbs for another part of the garden, pots 2 and 4 have some of those instead. I cunningly labelled 2 and 4 so I don't have to switch them into sequence later on, and I hope that later on it'll be obvious which two are different...

Then I added the pansies on top - with five to a pot and a pack of twenty-four, I was one short but fortuitously (I hope) I'd spotted a random pansy plant growing quite happily of it's own accord in the greenhouse. Well guess what, not now it isn't - it's in one of these pots beautifully making up the numbers! 

So before moving them into place and stabilising them with some pot feet that we'd bought in the summer but hadn't used yet, I added a layer of grit to the top. Once they were in place I gave them a drenching along with the now muddy patio before standing back to admire them. And wait for them to grow and deliver some colour!

Despite the damp conditions it was good to get this done. Now I've just some Alliums to plant behind these pots and some Anemones for under the cherry tree, but I think I'll wait and see if there's a break in the weather first...

What bulbs have you planted this autumn?

52 Cookbooks 44: Cod in red wine sauce

This week I was looking for a quick and easy fish dish. I had some skin-on cod pieces in the freezer and after a few meat eating nights fancied some fish, so when I saw this Rick Stein recipe and did a quick skim down the ingredients list I was sold. I had everything bar the fish stock which could easily be substituted so I was all set. The book I turned to was this Rick Stein's Seafood which I bought ages ago in an attempt to cook (and eat) more fish. I have used the book before but I'm still not a massively big fish eater. 

When I skim-read the ingredients list I should have known - it really should have set alarm bells ringing looking back. But it didn't, so off I went.  I started with the puy lentils adding vegetable stock (instead of fish stock), a clove and a bay leaf, some salt and a couple of slices of peeled onion. The recipe serves four and calls for 50g of puy lentils, which isn't very much at all. Still no alarm bells. But I wasn't cooking 25g of puy lentils - it didn't seem worthwhile, so as 50g wasn't very much I stuck with that. This at least was easy with everything simmering until the lentils were soft. Rick says to keep these warm, ok...

Next up was the sauce.  I was starting to question things as Rick only wanted 50g each of carrot, celery and onion and that was to serve four, so 25g of each for the two of us. And they needed to be finely chopped. Oh well, I was started now - it's not often in recipes I weigh onion but for this I did and I chopped them finely.  My lovely and finely chopped veg was sautéed in butter along with some spices - allspice, nutmeg and curry powder -after I'd brushed some of the melted butter onto the fish and seasoned it ready for grilling later on. 

Into the sauce went the red wine, some chicken stock and a pinch of sugar and salt, then this was boiled until the sauce was reduced. The recipe says it should reduce to about 65 ml - which seemed very precise to me. I started with 600ml of liquid so that's quite a lot of reduction. After a fair while boiling my sauce was nowhere near as reduced as it should be and yet I was still keeping those lentils warm. I was questioning Rick by this stage and I'm sure his ears must have been burning!

My sauce got to about 150ml - I only knew how much when I'd poured it into a jug! And I stuck with it at that, mainly because we were getting hungry! As I was reducing my sauce, I read ahead in the recipe to learn that those finely chopped veg needed to be strained out of the sauce. Well I had words with Rick right then, but strain the sauce I did.  Rick wanted me to strain it into a clean pan and keep it warm, well it went into a jug as I was still keeping those lentils warm remember? 

Only now could I turn my attention to the fish, the grill went on and the fish went under it for 8 minutes, until as the recipe said the skin was well browned. At this point MOH appeared in the kitchen looking hungry, and no doubt wondering who on earth I was talking to. Rick, I was talking to Rick and getting close to falling out with him (Rick, not MOH). 

While the fish was grilling I was supposed to be making a beurre manié to thicken the sauce - it's melted butter and flour. Infact I'd made it a bit before in readiness for the sauce reducing as it should. By the time I wanted to use it, it was more set than soft. So I thought I'd pop it into the microwave to soften it up. Although in my haste I caught the bowl on the door and it skidded across the kitchen floor.  MOH beat a hasty retreat from the kitchen to ground far safer. Once he knew I'd not thrown the beurre manié at him he came back and offered to help. 

Well as the sauce had been giving me all sorts of trouble I delegated it to him, here's an action shot of the beurre manié being whisked into the sauce. While he did that and the sauce started behaving and thickening I was still keeping those lentils warm, checking on the fish, finding some plates to warm and preparing some kale to accompany this. 

With everything (almost) back under control it was time to serve up, and it does look a bit fancy. Rick - we were back talking again - said to put the lentils in the middle of the plate, place the fish on top and serve the sauce around the side. Well it did look pretty good, I'll give him that!

The verdict

- I should have read the recipe more carefully, as that would most likely have given me some clues as to how involved this dish was. It wasn't the quick and easy fish dish I hoped for... I think from start to end this took about two hours. 

- I don't know why the sauce took so much longer to reduce and still didn't get to the reduction Rick said. It was though, a great tasting sauce and it'd be good with steak too.

- despite falling out with Rick along the way (not that he knew!) this was a very good dish and very tasty. And one I very much enjoyed eating, so Rick is forgiven! 

- I'd eat this again, but next time I think I'll let Rick cook, I think he owes me!

A November update on "my" Paulownia Tomentosa

For this month's update on "my" tree I decided to take it by surprise and approach it from the opposite direction, deciding to visit it on my walk back from the station. As I walked along the path I couldn't see if the tree was still there or not. My footsteps quickened as I hurried along until I could see that it was still there. Phew.  

But how it had changed. The tree that once dominated this corner of the path now looked very different to my  previous updates, and if I hadn't already noticed it, I'm not sure I'd pay it a second glance. Clearly I gave it more than a couple of glances as otherwise it'd be tricky to do this update!

That's it there, just to the left of the lamppost 

The main body and structure of the tree remained, but now all the leaves have gone. Completely gone. The ground staff of the college (in which the tree stands) have been doing a good job tidying around the tree. 

Sadly my visit was on a grey afternoon, which too was another change to my previous visits.  The silhouette shot below shows off the shape of the tree well I think. 

Sadly, there really isn't much to say about my poor tree this month.  Thankfully though there is still some interest - and colour - along the path, so I thought I'd share more of that instead this month. 

A climbing rose

A burst of red over the Yew hedge

Heading back towards home I was struck by the structure and the uniformity of these railings. 

And in a sure sign of how the seasons have changed, I couldn't help but spot the berry-clad holly branches tumbling over the fence.

I'm linking this post with Lucy and other Tree Followers over at Loose and Leafy and with Annie's How Does Your Garden Grow at simplewanderlust.com