Highlights From Gardeners' World 2012

Last week I visited Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC in Birmingham. This was my first visit to a garden show of this scale and so was unsure about what to expect.

The RHS Floral Marquee was packed full of ideas and inspiration. I have to say that I was really impressed by the scale of the stands put on by the various associations and nurseries.

Amazing Alliums

Just a small part of Birmingham City Councils award-winning display

Lilies in all their splendour

The show gardens outside were impressive and gave lots of design inspiration. The Water Wise Garden below shows how plants can adapt to dry conditions and how waste water can be collected and re-used, perfect if we are to face more hosepipe bans!

The Water Wise Garden by Brett Hardy

Coming Out To Play? by Adam Frost

The main highlight for me though was seeing my gardening hero Monty Don. The presenter of the BBC gardening programme Gardeners’ World and a self-taught gardener, gave a frank and insightful talk on the filming of Gardeners World which takes place in his own garden in Herefordshire. Having seen and heard him live I can only say that I admire him even more!

Monty Don

In all I had a great day out and spoke to some interesting people who are passionate about what they do and I left feeling inspired, ready to tackle my own garden - after I rested my aching feet!

If you feel inspired to get gardening Homes & Dreams sells a wonderful range of gardening accessories from Burgon & Ball, Sophie Conran, Hawes and Gardening Trading. You can find them at http://www.homesanddreams.co.uk/the-country-garden-8-c.asp 

The Great British Strawberry Season

Image: Garden Organic

It is that time of year again when British strawberries ripen and herald the start of Summer. June is the start of the British strawberry season, synonymous with Summer they are only in season for a brief time, from early June through to August.

By far the best strawberries to buy have to be from a local producer. A day out strawberry picking can be fun; supermarkets may sell the cotton wool impostors cheaply but the flavour is incomparable to home grown fruits.

Strawberries were originally called strewberries because when growing they appear to have been thrown about. After various name changes they ended up as strawberries after the straw that was used as a mulch to surround them when growing.

In medieval Great Britain newly weds enjoyed strawberries, borage and soured cream for their wedding breakfast believing them to be an aphrodisiac. The heart shaped fruit has long been a symbol of purity, passion, and healing. In the 18th century farmers would fill baskets with the berries and tie them to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves who, it was believed, could help them produce a good supply of milk.

5 Facts About Strawberries

1. 5 strawberries provide more vitamin C than an entire orange 

2. 100 grams of strawberries contain approx 30 calories

3. Strawberries were cultivated by the Romans as early as 200 BC

4. Roughly 27,000 kilos of strawberries are eaten during the Wimbledon Championships

5. On average there are 200 tiny seeds on each berry

So pour the Pimms, get set for Wimbledon and enjoy the British strawberry season! 

National Gardening Week

From the 16th to the 22nd of April 2012 National Gardening Week has been launched by the RHS to get the nation growing.

"Thousands of people across the country are coming together and getting involved to enjoy, share and celebrate everything about gardens and gardening.

Communities and organisations are pulling out all the stops to host garden open days, garden parties, quizzes, plant swaps and a wealth of other activities to share advice or lend helping hands to friends, neighbours and the local community."

 You can find out more at www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk and don't forget  - if you need any gardening tools and garden accessories we have a lovely range to get you started!

 Sophie Conran Gardening Trowel - £14.95

Seed Storage Box £10.00

Cream Wooden Garden Trug £21.50

Happy Gardening!

The Year of the Garden

It was inevitable that this year would be the year of the garden here at Homes & Dreams. When we bought our house 7 years ago the 1/2 acre plot that it stood in had been neglected for many, many years.

As the house was completed  at the end of last Summer our attention is now occupied by the garden. Over the past few years we have managed to eradicate most the of the brambles that had taken possession over the majority of the garden but other than keeping it relatively tidy the garden has not yet been utilised.

So this week has seen the start of our plans. 50 metres of mixed native hedgerow has been planted which will form the boundary between our new orchard (in which we are planning to grow a selection of Yorkshire heritage varieties) and the adjacent fields.

Sophie Conran Garden Trowel £14.95

So it follows that we would expand our gardening range over on the Homes & Dreams website. I'm really thrilled with our new line of gardening hand tools which are designed by Sophie Conran. The tools which include trowels, forks, dibbers and weeders are a joy to use - not only are they stylish but they are also manufactured by the UK's longest standing garden tool manufacturer and if that isn't enough they are beautifully presented in their own presentation box making them a perfect gardening gift!

Signs of Spring



Image via Pinterest

The arrival of March is always welcome here, as for me March heralds the start of things to come and the first signs of Spring make their appearance. Already the snowdrops and crocuses have begun to flower and it won't belong before they are closely followed by other signs of life in the garden.

If you have a garden that attracts birds then you may find that as this month's lighter mornings creep in you may have a tuneful start to the day with the dawn chorus.

The earliest to start the melody are the song thrushes, blackbirds and robins, these sing out to attract a mate and warn off other males. They are soon followed by the wrens, chaffinches and tits and after two or three hours when the sun is fully risen the birds get down to the business of feeding. 



Bird & Insect boxes from £14.95

  With this in mind we have just introduced a beautiful range of bird boxes and feeders. Designed by Sophie Conran they not only look good in the garden but are practical too with removable nest boxes and trays to make them easy to clean.

So if like me you love to awake to the sound of the dawn chorus then why not encourage a larger choir into your garden this Spring.

Apple Chilli Jelly

There's a chill in the air and even though we are just clinging on to August it feels decidedly like Autumn.
In the garden everything is coming to a head and we have a veritable feast available to us in the vegetable garden.

Down in the orchard the plums have finished but the apples and pears are now almost ready for picking. After we've had our fill of pies and crumbles my favourite thing to make with our surplus of apples is this........

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Recipe For Apple Chilli Jelly
Ingredients:

• 1.5 kilos of cooking apples (windfalls are fine for this recipe). Washed, chopped roughly - no need to peel or core

• 2 pts/1140ml of water to cover the apples

• Grated rind and juice of one small lemon

• White granulated sugar (the amount depends on the volume of juice extracted from the simmered, drained fruit. Ipt/570ml of juice to 1lb/454gms of sugar

• 2 medium hot red chillies and one Bird’s Eye hot red chilli. Chopped with seeds left in.

Method:

1. Put the chopped apples into a large saucepan with the 2 medium hot red chillies and the Bird’s eye chilli.

2. Carefully grate the lemon zest from the lemon. Add to saucepan.

3. Add the water and bring gently to the boil and simmer very gently until all the fruit is soft and mushy (roughly 25 minutes, depending upon how ripe the fruit is).

4. Pour the cooked fruit through sterilised muslin or a jelly bag. The bag is covered with a clean tea cloth to protect against flies, as the jelly bag generally drips overnight.

5. Measure the apple and chilli juice the next day and pour it into a deep heavy bottomed saucepan. Add 454g/1lb of white granulated sugar for each 570ml/1 pt of juice.

6. Add the juice of the lemon.

7. Heat the juice and sugar gently, stirring from time to time. Make sure that that all the sugar has dissolved before bringing the liquid slowly to the boil. Continue to boil for about five minutes before testing for a set. Toss in a nugget of butter towards the end to reduce the frothing that often occurs.

8. When jelly has reached setting point pour into warm sterilised jars using a funnel and ladle.

9. Cover immediately with plastic lined screw top lids or cellophane tops secured with a rubber band. If you want extra heat stir in some finally chopped red birds eye chillies into each jar (no seeds).

Label when cold and store in a cool, dark place. Away from damp.

3.5 pints of juice makes approx 7 pound jars of jelly.


It is absolutely delicious with oatcakes and cheese, especially my favourite - Wensleydale!

I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sweet Peas

In the garden at the moment there is an abundance of sweet peas. They were grown from seed and this is the first year that I have had the chance to grow them.........

 ......each day there appears to be more and more of these wonderfully scented delicate flowers.........

.....and I'm very happy with the results!

Summer Strawberries

Just outside our office is a raised bed. A couple of years ago we were wondering what to do with it and we thought it would be a good idea to plant it with strawberries and boy are we glad we did!

This year we have had a bumper crop of the most delicious strawberries.

I can't remember all the varieties that we planted as they were picked up here and there, however I bought a couple of 'Emily' strawberry plants from a plant stall at a village fete and they have rewarded us with the best fruit this year.

The only problem is that its only too tempting to sneak outside and snack on a few while nobody is looking!

Blooming Lovely

At last a little bit of sunshine after all that rain and a chance to assess what needs doing in the garden.

The weeds have grown like crazy but luckily so have the things that have been planted.






I think we will be eating salad leaves for a while!

Love Is In The Air

We've been busy here working for the past couple of weeks as we've been ordering, processing and photographing the new Spring ranges for the Homes & Dreams shop. There has been a definite theme to the new ranges as hearts and love feature quite a lot - must be something to do with Valentines Day.

I have to admit that a few of the new things like this wooden 'Love' Sign and the 'Love' Letters have found their way into my house. One of the signs now graces the shelf in my kitchen and a set of the 'Love' letters stand on the window sill in my bedroom.

As the house is nearing completion my thoughts are now on the garden. We have approximately 1/2 acre here and for over 15 years before we moved in no one had set foot in it.

It is a very long thin plot - over 500ft long. All of the houses along our road originally had gardens like this however one by one they have all been built on and ours is the only one left with its original size garden. We are lucky to be the last house in the village as to one side of us is open countryside.

When we moved in we were faced with 8ft of brambles, great for jam making but not for my hands - ouch! Most of these have now been kept in check however at the top end of the garden we have done very little else than keep these thugs at bay


As the weather was fine on Sunday we decided to make a start on clearing the ground. Eventually this will be where we grow our veggies however I think it may be some time before that happens!