A garden for all weathers

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

Given the weather we’ve had recently, which seems to have been everything from summer to winter in a matter of days, sharing this garden seems appropriate!

Lyn’s Garden: a garden for all weathers was designed and built by August Ponds Ltd and won a Silver Award at the show, and it looks at how we can continue to have a garden that can be enjoyed with year-round interest in light of changes to our climate, while also being mindful of the environment.

There’s much I like in this garden, but there’s also a couple of things that I’m unsure about.

To me that very much looks like a front door on the house at the back, and it’s great to have a good looking front garden, as well as a back garden but I can’t get my head around having a table and chairs in a front garden. And yes, I know this isn’t a real garden and is demonstrating what we could have.

The main feature of the garden is a pondless waterfall that is fed by rainwater collected from the house roof, which I could get on board with as given the amount of rain we have at times it would be good for us to manage the rainwater in our gardens. The waterfall means the water is aerated and therefore allows the water in the main harvesting unit to remain fresh for use for irrigation.

I loved the planting which was chosen for their hardiness and ability to withstand winter rains and summer drought conditions, and I love how densely it’s planted. That’s definitely something I could use and learn from, but I’m unsure about the plants dotted in between the pavers.

I just don’t think they work on a practical level. I know that I’d be tripping over the plants, or kicking them, as I wandered up the path with my shopping etc - though of course that would be comedy gold for anyone watching!

Don’t get me wrong, as a show garden it looks great - and that table is definitely swoon worthy, but as a front garden this one doesn’t work for me. Which is fine, especially as I don’t actually have a front garden!

But the planting, that’s definitely something I can get onboard with.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.

Making chilli jelly

With lots of ripening crab apples on our little crab apple tree this year I was keen that they didn’t all go to waste. One sunny afternoon in October I picked just over two kilograms of crab apples, and still the tree looked fully laden.

Then I read the recipe properly - I mostly followed Sarah Raven’s Chilli Jelly Recipe - and realised that straining the jelly through muslin was essential for it to be clear and jewel-like. I had muslin, but I wasn’t sure that I could rig anything up that would be secure enough to hold the 2kg of fruity mush. And if I did, then I didn’t want to have a collapsing accident part way through and need to clear up the mess it made.

A rethink was needed, and that was the Lakeland jelly strainer, which I now highly recommend, but of course it was out of stock with more stock expected soon - so I got my order in quick, and waited for it to arrive. Thankfully that was only a week, but it was a long wait for my little apples.

Now armed with all the kit I needed I set about prepping my apples. Sorting through those that I’d stored while waiting for the jelly strainer to arrive, giving them a good wash and then weighing and chopping them before chucking them my big preserving pan.

Thankfully the majority of the crab apples were as patient as me, and it turned out I’d overpicked a little - but even so I did need to nip out to the garden and pick about ten more apples to make up the numbers. Which wasn’t bad really.

I brought the apples and water up to the boil, then added the cider vinegar and boiled until it was at the jam setting temperature on my jam thermometer (another piece of kit that makes preserving so much easier, and takes the guess work out of is it set or not, and without a cold saucer in sight).

Onto the straining

I’d read that I must avoid the urge to squeeze the bag if I wanted to have a clear jelly, so I did and MOH was under strict instructions not to dabble with it either. And we did good, but the set-up was much taller than I’d expected so there was no way that I’d be lifting the large preserving pan and pouring the hot apple mixture into my strainer.

Well some creative thinking was needed, and out came the kitchen steps, the ladle and a jug. And it worked. Phew.

Then I realised that my large bowl was already filling up and I’d not even added all the apple mixture yet.

I’m so glad that I’d put some table mats under the jelly strainer as this helped me switch out the almost full bowl for its replacement, while the liquid happily continued to drip (well stream) through.

And so I left it to strain overnight, fairly confident that this bowl wouldn’t fill or overflow - and thankfully it didn’t. The jelly strainer didn’t collapse either, so that was double good news the next morning.

Adding chilli flakes

I’d originally bought fresh chillies but in the wait for the jelly strainer we’d used those but I’d seen in other recipes some used chilli flakes so that became my plan. The apples were supposed to yield about a litre of liquid, but I had double that - so then my dilemma was how much chilli flakes to add.

In the end I added a couple of tablespoons along with the sugar and hoped for the best taste-wise.

The pulp

I was curious to see what was left from the overnight straining - and it was a soft but shape holding mush of apples. I’m sure this could be composted, but mine went into the green bin (which is actually brown).

Jewelled jars

My next decision was to gauge how many jars I’d need, and given that I had more liquid I realised I’d need more than I first thought. So I got what I thought I’d need and a couple extra - in the end I used all nine jars (of various sizes) filling them with the jewelled hot and sticky jelly.

Doesn’t it look fab?

As a fair few chilli flakes were left behind or removed when I skimmed off the froth I decided to add a whole dried chilli into the jars. This wasn’t as successful as I hoped as it floated to the top and isn’t visible from the outside - but it will be a surprise for the recipients, and will hopefully build a depth of flavour as the jelly stores.

It tastes pretty good too, as well as the nine jars I had enough for a small plastic tub which is in the fridge and very much in the 'eat now’ category. We’ve had it with cheese, cold meats and in sandwiches - but I think you could use it alongside sausages, and anywhere you’d use condiments such as redcurrant jelly, and I’m looking forward to adding some to gravy too.

We had enough crab apples to make even more, but my jar situation so far is severely lacking and in that time our apples have gone over - the tree has shed its leaves, and the apples are riper than I’d want to use. But there’s still a chance I may make a slightly different variant using some local Bramleys instead - watch this space…

My garden in October

Last month I teased you and said we had plenty of crab apples but didn’t have a photo to share - this month then, let’s start with them. It’s only a small tree, but it has definitely been fully laden this year - unbelievably I took this photo after I’d picked two kilograms of fruit (and in case you’re wondering that’s a large washing up bowl full).

Those first apples have been made into the most gorgeous coloured chilli jelly, and I’m still hoping to get another picking in to make some plum, apple and chilli jelly before it’s too late to harvest the fruit. I’ve still to share more on that jelly making episode, but look out for that soon.

I’m surprised that our pepper plant still has peppers, there’s at least another ten on there though some are very tiny. They’re not ripening however much I hope they will, so I might have to bite the bullet and bring them in to see if that helps to sweeten them any. If not, we’ll be trying them green even though green peppers are my least favourite pepper.

We didn’t have any peaches on the small potted tree this year, there were a couple of fruits early on but they didn’t make it. It’s continued to earn its spot in our garden though with the colour changing leaves as the year’s gone on. Such gorgeous colours.

This month we had some more unusual looking mushrooms appear in the grass overnight. First there was one, which was joined by a couple of others - then a few days later, they were all looking decidedly less attractive. We’ve had smaller, flatter mushrooms appear in the grass before, but nothing quite like these - and none of which I’m even tempted to try to eat!

We’ve also had some fog this month, though thankfully that didn’t hang around for too long either.

The few olives we have on the potted olive tree have started to turn from green to an almost berry red, I assume this is normal as despite having another olive tree for many years I don’t think I’ve ever seen fruit as large on this on that, but then again it could be a completely different type and variety. Either way, I don’t think we’ll be going into Olive Oil production anytime soon.

It’s a year or so since I shared my herbs by the back door, and they’ve really established themselves - both the plants, and the practice of having herbs growing close to the kitchen. Since it was first planted up I’ve added two varieties of thyme, and some chives as well as refreshing the flat leaf parsley plant. The mint, is of course taking over, but that’s what it does - and it means we use a lot more mint than we ever have before - it’s been a great addition, and it looks great too.

We’ve a small flowered rose bush further down the garden and it’s been flowering prolifically this year and it’s still going strong - I think October has been its strongest month. It’s growing into a fairly substantial bush and I’m not unhappy about that.

The mahonias are getting ready to put on their show too - we have three in the garden - the photo above is early in October, and below is later in the month, and while this one is near our wheelie bins it really does brighten up emptying the bins!

The fuchsia bushes which I was so worried about earlier in the year (when I decided to cut them almost back to the ground) are thriving - and it’s hard to believe that they were giving me so much garden grief. They are definitely a case of ‘isn’t nature wonderful’!?

The rowan tree is also putting on a show and it’s been great to watch through the window - though the weather has hardly been cold here. There was a threat of a cold snap, but that was only brief - we do have our heating on downstairs, and it takes the chill off, but so far we don’t have the upstairs radiators on (and it’s early November!)

I said last month that the succulents had been the stars and real discovery in the garden this year, so I could hardly do a monthly update without them could I? These two plants which overwintered in the garage last year in individual pots, have really thrived and I’m sure doubled in size now they’re in a bigger shared pot and have enjoyed the summer outside. They’re still outside, though I have plans to put them and all the other succulents (I think it’s six larger pots this year - last year it was only two and these two in their small pots) away for the winter, but I’m leaving it as long as I can…

The wallflowers look as if they’ve really established themselves this year, and with many more stems than last year I’m hoping for even more of the pastel ‘Chelsea Jackets’ flowers when they’re ready, which I think will be a while yet. That’s ok though, as I can wait as there’s still plenty else to see (and do) around the garden - and I really should add sorting out my bulbs to that mental list, especially while the weather is mild.