The heady scent of jasmine

The weather at the moment is reminiscent of holiday weather isn't it? And for us that's not the only thing, with the warmer days our garden is full of the scent of jasmine by the early evening which is fantastic. 

Wandering around the garden earlier in the week I realised that our jasmine plants have somehow expanded. There's plants along either side the patio, underneath the non-fruiting cherry tree and at the end of the garden too.  

It "cascades" well and I think looks best with this waterfall effect.  Over winter some of the ends and under branches become twig-like and need snipping off.  Often I do this by hand and the effect is to flatten it more against the fence in the waterfall way that I've mentioned.

This year we've a new "instance" of jasmine flower for the first time.  The jasmine, which thrives in our garden has climbed through the back of the fatsia and into, and beyond, the elderflower, and that's added to our garden's fragrace.

The flowers do at times float down and can be found where you least expect them.

But it's not just the jasmine which surrounds the patio that is scenting our garden.  At the end there's also the mock orange, of philadelphus.  Our tree is full of scented flowers, which looks pretty too.

I'd forgotten quite how fragrant our garden can be.

Made to Last, and stylish too

Hot on the heels of my recent post - What a load of rubbish - comes another sustainable option, this time for furniture.  It's a company, Made to Last, which sets out to do things differently; not only are its products sustainable, they're also crafted here in Britain.

And what's more the products really do look great, and as the company name suggests, made to last.  Each product has clear guarantees displayed on the site, so you really can judge the true cost and value of a product.

No doubt like me you'll know that often items only last a short time and discover that no one seems to fix anything these days, so often the most economic solution is to buy more.  But that leaves items to get rid of more often, and more for landfill contributing to our throwaway society.

My top picks

1. Sofas by Wesley-Barrell

As you know we've recently been on the hunt for new sofas. We saw many and managed to choose two grey sofas (which arrived last week, more on those another day), but we quickly discovered that it's never just as easy as choosing a new sofa.  There are many shapes and sizes, prices and quality, but I do believe there's a sofa out there for everyone.

We saw many velvet sofas in our quest to replace ours, and we were very nearly tempted, but in truth the velvet sofas we saw weren't quite right.  As soon as I visited the Made to Last site the sofa below, by Oxfordshire-based Wesley-Barrell called out to me, and I wished the email inviting me to collaborate had arrived a few weeks earlier.

ONE OF THE WESLEY-BARRELL SOFAS ON THE MADE TO LAST SITE
Photo Credit: Made to Last

Each sofa is hand-built to order, which means as well as choosing the leg style and colour you can make alterations to the seat depth, so if you've little legs like MOH or I or longer legs then you can purchase a sofa that works for you.  While out sofa shopping we sat on quite a few we liked, but would have liked more if we could have reached the floor.

It struck me that they don't just claim to be eco-friendly but give clear examples of what they do everyday to demonstrate this in a practical way, such as using FSC accredited timber, using natural materials including a polymer fibre made from recycled plastic bottles.  It doesn't sound overly comfortable, but I'm sure it's much better than it sounds.

2. Black iron loaf tins by the Netherton Foundry

CAST IRON LOAF TINS ON THE MADE TO LAST SITE
Photo Credit: Made to Last

Yes, quite a change from my first item I know, but one that could make it into my bakeware cupboard.  Last year we tinkered with cooking bread in our pizza oven without a huge amount of success as the oven was still too hot.  However I'm a try-er so we're not giving up just yet.

These iron loaf tins are made of durable 99.1% pure iron with a sturdy brass rivet and are suitable for high temperatures and all ovens, including wood fired.  So with these I'd really have no excuse would I?

They're guaranteed for two years and it's recommended that you re-season it with a coating of flax oil, but full instructions are included.

If we didn't already have a long handled pizza peel, I might be tempted by one to match.  If loaf tins and pizza peels aren't for you, there's plenty more Netherton Foundry items to tempt you.  

3. Royal Sussex traditional garden trugs

Despite my modern tendencies, I also like some traditional items and the Royal Sussex trugs are very much in that category.  I've seen them at shows and spoken to the craftsmen that make them, completely by hand.  It's an item that can't be rushed and one that comes in several sizes, and even though we no longer have the allotment, actually especially now we don't have the plot I can see one in the garden to save me juggling the produce I pick in the months to come as I had back towards the house.  Although I'll admit that can be quite entertaining...

ROYAL SUSSEX TRADITIONAL GARDEN TRUG
Photo Credit: Made to Last

My top three is quite eclectic, but I'm sure you're not surprised by that by now - what would you choose?

* This is a collaborative post but all views are my own.

Towering vegetables

After yesterday’s plot update, I’m staying with veg for today’s post and I’ll freely admit to a little bit of veg envy, but buckets of admiration for this fantastic display of vegetables at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. Not only are they expertly displayed, they look fantastic, don’t they?

 I was as mesmerised by the display as ever, along with the uniformity of the produce too. While I might be able to grow veg on the allotment, with more success than others in some of our choices, I’m not sure I’ll ever rival these, or display my beans like this!

And like all good displays there’s plenty to keep your eye entertained, the more I look at these photos the more I see. Like the vine tomatoes grown on the left of the picture above, the round yellow cucumbers that really do look like lemons (also the photo above, centre bottom) and the contrasting unruliness of the rebel red peppers (top right)

But there was veg in pots too, and pots really are a viable option for veg - in fact I’m contemplating keeping some tomatoes in pots, and in the greenhouse this year, rather than on the plot in an attempt to avoid blight. 

Everything just looked so vibrant, and well, edible. I hadn’t realised that this stall was the nursery that is “home to to the mammoth onion” or else I might have paid them more attention. 

Talking of tomatoes I was pleased to see a mix of known and new-to-me varieties, the naming of the variety “big green” did make me smile, because they were big and they were green - there was no hype in that name, was there?

Actually I do have a shot of some large onions. Compare those at the bottom of the pyramid to the tomatoes alongside them, and they are pretty large.

We’ve had success with beans on our plot, and long may that continue. This year we didn’t manage any broad beans, but seeing them at the bottom of the shot below, reminds me I should add some to my shopping list soon.

So, it’s not just flowers at the Chelsea Flower Show, there’s expertly displayed veg too providing a both a smile and the inspiration to get back over to our plot and start on that digging...