A cornucopia of tomato diseases

I'm not surprised to find whole books on tomato diseases and suspect mine have them all.

There are some green tomatoes ripening and I am ready to try out the tomato glowing experiment as soon as I can get my hands on a hypodermic needle.

Borage

Borage is growing wild in Bodenham's river meadows. According to Dioscorides, borage can 'cheer the heart and lift the depressed spirits', while Gerard wrote that its flowers were used in salads 'to exhilarate and make the minde glad'.

I think some has self seeded in the Veg plot and intend to try it out tonight...

Reed Bunting

Spouse and I went for a walk this evening and spotted a Reed Bunting. During the breeding season, which lasts from April to mid-July, males try to attract a female to their territory by singing.

Let's hope he pulls.

Blight

I hope it's magnesium deficiency but have chopped off all the potato foliage incase it's blight.

Bet it's blight.

Am doomed.

Trout

Mr Forge came over with a trout that his lodger caught in the river. It is a much bigger trout than the ones caught by Spouse.

Spouse is not happy.

The Way to a Man's Heart

One homemade loaf with homemade strawberry jam and Spouse is putty in my hands.

I wish I'd known this in 1987.

Baked Trout

Last night Spouse baked one of his trout stuffed with lemon and thyme from the garden. I provided new potatoes and salad from the veg plot.

It all went jolly well with a cocktail of elderflower champagne mixed with vodka.

Very Hugh F-W.

Strawberry Jam

We have been gorging on strawberries all month and Spouse has been puffing himself up all week to declare a glut. In order to foil him, I picked 3kg, boiled them with the juice of 2 lemons for an hour, added 2kg sugar and made 5 jars of jam.

"I 'aint giving any of that away" said Spouse after tasting it.

Result!

Toasting Trout

The first bottle of elderflower champagne was cracked open on the riverbank this evening to celebrate Spouse's catch!

I'm going to make a lot more next year...

BBC recipe for elderflower cordial

Ingredients

30 elderflower heads
6 pints of boiling water
2lb caster sugar
1 packet of citric acid
2 unwaxed oranges
3 unwaxed lemons

Method
1. Gently rinse over the elderflowers.
2. Pour the boiling water over the sugar in a very large mixing bowl. Stir well and leave to cool.
3. Add the citric acid, the oranges and lemons sliced, and then the flowers.
4. Leave in a cool place for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.
5. Strain through some muslin and bottle.

International Kidney

Late evening, the sun is shining and Spouse has dug up our first new potatoes of the season. I might take one round to Sister and tell her it's a turnip.

Mayhem

Sister, was very concerned about an unidentified vegetable that she'd grown. I suspected an unusual variety of courgette. The suspect vegetable was presented in evidence and turned out to be... a broad bean.

I hope this is because we were both camping at Mountain Mayhem on the weekend (no sleep for 24 hours) and exhaustion has affected her brain.

Samples

The champagne has been bottled to carry on fermenting in strong bottles as there is a risk of explosion. To minimise the potential damage, Spouse suggested they are stored in the wc .

They look like a row of very large urine samples.

Pythagoreans followed a strict diet which prohibited the consumption or even touching of any sort of bean. Their enemies set fire to Pythagoras' house, forcing him to flee through a field of beans. Pythagora declared that he would rather die than enter the field - whereupon his pursuers slit his throat.

Pythagora didn't know what he was missing. I'm now on my third basket of Aquadulce broad beans planted last October.

Strawberries

Madame Tallien, a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, bathed in the juice of fresh strawberries. She used 22 pounds per basin.

I've not got quite enough for a bath.

Elderflower Champagne

I have dissolved 2kg sugar in 4 litres hot water topped it up with 2 litres of cold water, added the juice and zest of 4 lemons, 2 tbsp white wine vinegar and 24-30 flower heads and stirred gently. It is covered with muslin and is fermenting in a cool place.

I am hoping to drink home-made elderflower champagne on Spouse's birthday.

Noxious Weeds

Mel & I visited Ivy Croft Garden & Nursery in Ivington yesterday, just up the lane from a well known gardening NIMBY. Mel was more interested in this Elaeagnus 'Quicksilver' which she has wanted ever since a visit to Bryan's Ground.

Apparently it is classified as a 'noxious weed' in Colorado and New Mexico. Good job Mel doesn't live there then.

Red Lily Beetle

I have found (and squashed) 4 Red Lily Beetles today. According to the RHS, "the adults and larvae can devour a lily plant in a matter of days. "

It's War.

Buckland

As if by careful design, the Astrantia major 'Buckland' is flowering through Allium schubertii.

I wonder if it's named after Toby?

Mrs Forge

Last night Mrs Forge got very excited to see the wisteria arch in full flower at Hampton Court.

My kind of gardener.

Hay Confession

We didn't get to Hay on Monday.

Spouse feels that as we stood behind Adam Nicholson in a Sissinghurst queue, listening as he expounded on his books (to a rapt audience of possible lesbians), we do not need to know anything else about him.

And it would have meant getting up early on the bank holiday!