Flowering brassicas & much, much more

The fields of oilseed rape around Gloucestershire are echoed with some of the flowers in the Annecy Gardens. Plants of the red curly kale, 'Redbor' are flowering now & the pale yellow flowers are very pretty:

Red curly kale 'Redbor'; you can also see potatoes emerging here & lettuce

Looking particularly striking at the moment is the variegated kale, 'Creme Chantilly', where the cream flowers tone in with the pale yellow leaf margins:

Brassica 'Creme Chantilly' in flower

The seakale, Crambe maritima, also has attractive leaves (no flowers on our plants) that look much like kale; although I believe exceedingly tough if eaten at this stage, it is generally recommended to eat the blanched young shoots in early spring. We've given it a little sign as last year it was being picked at this stage ~ which will only weaken the plant & provide the picker with something horrible to eat.

Crambe maritima

This year we're having a go at polyculture, sowing seeds of a number of different vegetables as a mixture; it is suggested that doing this might provide heavier crops through more intensive use of the ground; also help reduce pest damage ~ for instance, growing a mixture containing both onions & carrots may reduce carrot fly damage as the onions will mean the carrot flies cannot smell the carrots to lay their eggs on them. Well, that's the theory.

Seedlings germinating in the polyculture

The echiums are now in flower. Both blue Echium gentianoides & red Echium pininana x wildprettii, the bees in particular love this latter, when we were at the garden there were masses of bumble bees of a number of species visiting the plants; also honeybee visitors too.

Echium pininana x wildprettii closeup

Echium pininana x wildprettii, the whole flower spike; all the flowers open at once making it very striking; & a bee magnet

Echium gentianoides, detail

Echium gentianoides

Chervil

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) is a pretty little culinary herb, an annual with white lacy flowers ~ it is, after all an umbellifer. It looks like a small version of cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) & it is indeed a close relation of that beautiful hedgerow plant. Chervil is not much grown, but it is particularly nice with egg dishes.

Chervil, Anthriscus cerefolium

Also flowering now at the Annecy Garden is lamb's lettuce, Valerianella locusta. This has been growing all through the winter, forming little rosettes of leaves with a delicious nutty flavour, a fine addition to a winter salad. The plant is a winter-growing annual & the flowers are now here, very unspectacular, the pale blue of skimmed milk, but charming nonetheless.

Lamb's lettuce, Valerianella locusta

Another salad plant now flowering is land cress, Barbarea verna. This is recommended as a substitute for watercress in sites that are too dry for watercress to thrive & while the plant grows easily, the flavour of the leaves is rather strong & peppery. But the flowers are pretty now:

Land cress, Barbarea verna

Also looking pretty in the beds & an unexpected over-wintering survivor are the Virginian stocks, Malcolmia maritima. This plant comes from Greece & seems very happy in the warm, dry, sunny conditions of the Annecy Gardens & there are many self-sown seedlings:

Virginian stock, Malcolmia maritima

This is the third year of Transition Town Cheltenham's Growing Group working the Annecy Gardens & some of the perennials are now forming very substantial clumps, not least the globe artichokes, Cynara scolymus.

Lorraine standing next to monster clump of globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus

Plant sale

We had a plant sale on Saturday ~ one way of raising money for new seeds & equipment. One requirement in the next few weeks will be for more hazel rods to create wigwams for climbing beans. The sun shone on us for the sale & we raised over £100, so we shall be able to afford all the poles we need.

We did a steady trade, but there were enough of us that we were able to perform routine gardening tasks while keeping an eye on the sales table

Here also some pictures of the broad bean seedlings we planted a couple of weeks ago now establishing nicely:

The red & green oakleaf lettuces are also coming on:

The rhubarb is coming into flower, we should remove the flower spikes for stronger growth (I always leave the flowers on my allotment plants ~ they're rather magnificent):