Rocket - easy to grow, delicious to eat

The warm, slightly peppery taste of rocket, or arugula, enhances salads.  It doesn't add crunch, like a crisp cos lettuce leaf, nor bright colour, like tomatoes or radishes, but it makes its presence felt in that subtle flavour and delightful heat that is quite unique.


The good news is that it's very easy to grow - it doesn't need especially good soil, nor even full sun.  And once you've grown it once, you should never need to buy seeds again, because it's so easy to save your own:)


Allow one plant to flower, the white, star like flowers aren't particularly stunning, but they aren't unpleasing either.  As the flowers die back, you'll see tiny green pods developing.  By all means snip a few off and add to your salad plate - they also have that delicious warmth of the rocket leaves.


The pods will grow to about an inch or so in length, and as the summer progresses, they will turn brown and dry.  This is when you go out with your paper bag, and harvest the crisp seed pods.

Bring them indoors and carefully split the pods.  I say carefully because if you're rough with them the seeds will catapault all over the floor - such a waste!  I put a sheet of paper down and collect them on that, then pour them into an envelope to store them.

You'll see that some of the pods develop speckly black marks, this doesn't affect the seeds, don't worry.  You'll get more than enough seeds from one plant to see you through next year - unless you've a large family, in which case, allow a couple of plants, or even more, to set seed - keep picking the leaves on the others so that they'll continue to grow.


Successional sowing, every few weeks, will ensure that you have young, vigorous plants to enjoy.

Grow your own garlic - it's easy:)

I love garlic.  Those lovely bulbs of fantastic flavour which enhance so many dishes.  I eat garlic raw in dips, chew a whole raw clove if I'm getting a cold (and not planning to visit anyone!), I love to roast a whole head of garlic, then squidge out the soft, rich clove centres, and, of course, it adds so much to curries, casseroles, soups, scones (biscuits) etc.


So ... last year I planted some cloves which had started to sprout, and this autumn I harvested the results.

They're drying off in the greenhouse, but I'm really pleased with the result.


Apparently I did it all wrong, though!  I'd assumed that the bulbs should be planted their own depth down, sort of like flowering bulbs often are.  However, I've just been looking into it, ready to plant some more this year, and apparently they only need to be just below the surface of the soil, like onion sets.  Which makes sense, I suppose.  It will certainly make them easier to dig up, these were quite reluctant to leave the soil!!!!!


However, I got a harvest, and they taste good, so it was a worthwhile experiment.  And, as a bonus, I had lovely globe flowers during the summer, too.


So, if you fancy growing your own garlic, now is the time to plant out your cloves, just a few inches apart, and just below the soil's surface.  Then forget about them until they've flowered next summer, and the stems have started to go brown.  Then dig them up, dry them off and store them ready for use.

Is summer over? Sprouting kale - yummy:)

For the last couple of weeks we've had some wonderful, sunny days.  So much so, I've been searching out things to wash and hang out on the line - I know, it's sad, please don't tell anyone!

I've also been sowing seeds like it's going out of fashion.  So far, the only ones to germinate are the kale seeds, but hey, that's a start, and kale is one of my very favourite vegetables.  I suppose that's quite tautological really, I wouldn't be growing it if I didn't like it, would I?  Doh!

However, it's turned cold again now, and I'm very glad I laid some horticultural fleece over my peas, runner and broad bean seeds - their very own little duvets :)

By the way, did you know that if you leave kale in the ground over winter, it then acts like sprouting broccoli?  No, neither did I, but it does! 

The flower heads are absolutely delicious and tender when steamed or boiled briefly, so I have green sprouts along with my purple sprouting broccoli - aren't I lucky?

The herb border is establishing nicely

At the edge of what will, sometime relatively soon, be the patio, David has built a double retaining wall, which we have filled with a mixture of sieved soil and compost to create a herb garden.  Here you can see the onion sets just starting to come through.

This seems a much more attractive idea than putting a fence up to stop anyone falling off the patio down into the garden!  It's also highly practical, as I can then access my herbs without going down into the main garden, which, at the moment still retains the vestiges of the original lawn.  No more wet feet after collecting herbs when it's been raining!

I've transplanted coriander, chives, thyme and marjoram from the pots they were growing in into the bed.  Also rocket and nasturtiums from where they had self-seeded in the vegetable beds.  Bordering the steps down into the garden David created square planting areas, for larger herbs.

I have transplanted the purple sage and rosemary into the two squares by the steps nearest to the patio doors. 

Bay went into one of those over by the greenhouse.  I was going to transplant my lavender into the other one, but it's too leggy, so I'll take some cuttings and with any luck I can put some in next year.  Until then a Skimmia is looking after the site - keeping it warm, so to speak.

I'm delighted with how well the herbs have settled down, I took the opportunity to split the plants up whilst I was disturbing them, and in a year or two the border will be full.  I've sown some mixed salad seeds in to fill it up for now, no point in wasting the space, is there?

A (Mostly) Vegetable-Free Edible Garden by Gem – ooffoo.com

I thought you might be interested to read that I'm not the only one out there who regularly eats flowers in her salads - Gem's mum eats more than I do:-)

I, too, have Jerusalem artichokes, lovely and nutty flavour.  They grow five or six feet tall, so only plant at the back of borders, unless you actually want them to provide shade!  Mine are behind the potatoes, but Gem's mum is really not into vegetables, so I won't talk about them.

I regularly eat nasturtium flowers and leaves, chives flowers and leaves, fennel leaves and seeds, rocket leaves, flowers and seed pods, beautiful purple spinach, grown for beauty as well as flavour, bay, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, lavender flowers, marigolds flowers, land cress leaves and so on ...

A (Mostly) Vegetable-Free Edible Garden by Gem – ooffoo.com