Thoughts on the Winter Garden

I have to share a wonderful quote I heard today that expresses perfectly how a gardener feels during the long winter season:


From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens - the garden outdoors, the garden of pots and bowls in the house, and the garden of the mind's eye.

Katherine S. White


If only I could get real life to reflect the lavish creation of my mind's eye.

Photographs of the Stages of a Tomato Plant

I haven't planted a single seed yet this year and I need to get cracking. This time last year, my tomato seedlings were thirteen days old. The only suitable place I have indoors is one little south facing bedroom window sill (my kitchen window is covered in herbs, cacti and succulents) so I can't afford to lose my seedlings.

Thinking about tomato seeds has made me nostalgic for last years journey from leggy seedlings to scraggly plants, building up to lavish foliage, blossoming into sweet yellow flowers, exploding into firm greenness and finally bursting into rosy red sweetness. I've compiled a photo diary of the progression of my old reliable Moneymaker tomatoes, which were grown outside. I put them out a little early and they took a battering from the wind (I am missing a photo of the plants just before they were put outside - they were healthy and starting to fill out). Some of the stems even cracked, as you can see in the third photo, but they all recovered. The fourth photo shows the cracked stem has grown back some leaves.

The stem cracked on this plant so I bound it together with insulating tape - worked perfectly.

I love when the plant is at this stage with its mix of red, yellow, orange and green. You'll notice that I have removed most of the leaves - this is so more of the plant's energy can go into fruit production.

Most of the tomatoes were eaten straight off the plant, while we enjoyed the gorgeous weather that lasted for months. This batch went towards making delicious, rich, sticky relish that the party goers ate the day of my son's first birthday. You can see the recipe here. I had made the relish countless times before with cheap supermarket tomatoes but the result when I used my own organic home grown tomatoes was not like anything I had made before. The relish was darker, more intense and far superior. If I ever found it hard to justify spending extra on local, organic produce when the supermarket offers the same products for much cheaper, this relish made the difference in quality so obvious.

My Garden: 11th February 2015

It's been a while since I've posted an photo diary of my garden. The last month has been cold and uninviting and my trips to the end of the garden have been fleeting and only when necessary. Now the first flashes of spring colour are erupting and suddenly the garden is a comforting place to be, once again.

These delicate crocuses will be my first flower of the new year:

Hyacinths are another bloom I am looking forward to witnessing in full flower:

My daffodils and narcissuses have multiplied over the last few years developing into little bunches of flowers where originally only one flower stood. As you can see, I am not lawn proud although the grass has yet to be cut this year:

Now to the back garden where the good stuff stands. Even though I haven't been very productive outdoors over winter, I still have quite a bit going on from plants that are producing food for us to eat at the moment, to plants that won't be mature for another few months.

One lonely leek remains:

Back in the Autumn I covered the neighbouring onions (Senshyu sets) in a layer of seaweed that had washed up on shore after a storm:

As you can see, the seaweed has completely decomposed into the soil:

My garlic is coming up strong. I bought four seed bulbs for planting last autumn (Provence Wight, Iberian Wight, Early Purple and Solent) along with one bulb of Iberian saved from my own harvest. By planting that amount I was hoping for a harvest of one bulb per week for the following year, plus some left over for planting next season. Finally, I would be self sufficient in one crop!  I planted my own bulb and the Solent, keeping the others for later planting....and I lost the damn things. I've searched the house with no luck. I couldn't bring myself to pay for more bulbs and resigned myself to the hope that they would turn up in time for late winter planting. Well it's February now so I think that ship has sailed.

Finally after almost a year after sowing the seeds, my purple sprouting broccoli is starting to produce a beautiful colourful head:

I have eight plants, far too much for one family, but they are not all looking quite so healthy. Fat pigeons have been perching on top and dining to their hearts content. It's time to pull out the netting again:

Finally, my broad beans have been coming along under cover.  I took them out for a breath of fresh air today. I have only two plants out of about six seeds planted. I should have planted more.