This Garden

Mmm, I made a floral focaccia again. And this time it was actually like focaccia rather than a big flat biscuit!

Reading back on when I made it before, I think it didn't have the right texture because I didn’t bake it in a high-sided tin so it just spread out - it was definitely more like a pizza base… This time, contrary to the instructions on the Tesco Focaccia mix, I proved it a second time after spreading it out in the tin. Here’s the pre-baked garden.

You can see that there is plenty of olive oil! Only chives and parsley from the plot. We had a little picnic on the plot in the Sun yesterday and had some red wine with this lovely snack. Mmm, the focaccia is so tasty dipped in that balsamic dressing. Perfecto!

I could have done with a lie down afterwards but we kept on with our weeding and tidying. The recent wet/dry weather has been ideal for the weeds. Ivan taught me how to use a hoe for the edging rather than a spade - aah so that’s how to do it.

Plot3 is looking much better now the PSB has been removed, chopped and composted. The Spring onions and lettuce (Dark Roden) seeds have germinated after 1 week -  the cage is having a year off from brassica this year - and the lettuces will be planted out when they’re big enough. It looks like most of the pre-germinated parsnip seeds have sprouted; the other row hasn’t yet.

We're having a bit of trouble germinating our courgettes but we'll give them another week. Other seedlings continue to appear in the inner polytunnel, including florence fennel, but none are large enough to transplant yet. Some of the annual flowers will eventually be part of the flower patch in front of our bench which has expanded a bit on last year.

The flower patch has more perennials this year, including Geum, Jacobs Ladder, Leucanthemum and Scabiosa plus a few verbascum which Ivan gave us today and this lovely delphinium that Aimee gave us last year when she gave up her plot.

The HAHA Wildlife plot is fit to bursting with so much growth but is still mostly green at the moment, apart from some pretty Red Campion. I pulled some of the plantain and dandelions to make way for less invasive plants and whilst rummaging found lots of shield bugs and other insects.

We feel a bit in limbo with the waiting, waiting … but cold nights are threatened this week so it’s definitely worth waiting a bit longer - or at least having the fleece on standby… The Levellers provide this excellent song title.