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):

A beheading!

While there've not been any blog posts for a while, the Annecy Gardeners have not been idle. Over the past few weeks we've been tidying up the beds after a winter break in our work sessions, we've also been sowing seeds & planting seedlings. We've also been spreading well-rotted manure on the beds, the manure a gift from kindly Cheltenham Borough Council.

The dark areas on the beds are where we've been spreading well-rotted manure

We've been fortunate at the Annecy Gardens not to suffer much from vandalism, we've been pleased with how people have engaged with the plantings while treating them with respect. So a little saddening to see that one of our Echiums by the front gate had been beheaded.

Here's the intact one:

Echium pininana x wildprettii ~ the flowers should be opening within a week or two

Here's its unfortunate sibling:

However, aside from this warm weather & adequate moisture means plants have been growing at quite a rate. There are also many spring flowers, including Brassica 'Red Frills', apple blossom (even on our newly planted 'Hunt's Duke of Gloucester' maiden tree) & Wisteria on the pergolas surrounding the garden.

Ribes odoratum 'Crandall', a selection of buffalo currant & apparently this will produce a crop even in a very shaded spot (such as it enjoys at the Annecy Gardens)

Wisteria, just coming into flower

Apple 'Hunt's Duke of Gloucester', the tree was only planted in February

Brassica 'Red Frills' in flower



Finally, a date for your diaries: we'll be having a plant sale at the Annecy Gardens from 10am till 1pm, this coming Saturday 3rd May 2014. All kinds of plants including veg & bee-friendly, all very modestly priced.

Visitors from Sweden

At the end of March 2014, we had a group of visitors come from four different Transition Town projects running in villages in central Sweden. They were doing some very interesting things, such as sharing a cow between 7 families, with each family being responsible for ministering to the cow & milking it one day a week; another project involved restoring a derelict flour mill & growing the grain to provide raw material. While in Gloucestershire the group visited a number of Transition initiatives, including the Sedgeberrow Energy Project, and also the Annecy Garden. Our visitors were very enthusiastic participants & required no encouragement before they were setting to on the weeding. They were also amazed at how advanced the season was (about 7 weeks ahead of their area in Sweden); growing conditions in Cheltenham are certainly a lot easier, our visitors were relating that they expect their last frosts on the year on about the 21st of June & their first on about the 18th of August ~ so that's a 2-month growing season (here I'd expect to have to have the 6 months May to October more or less frost-free).

Into September

A while since the last post, but the Annecy Gardeners have been active & the plants have been growing. The month of September started warm & dry, so watering was an important part of our activities.

Watering the beans; not the bean wigwam with the most luxuriant growth

Here's Cherry watering one of the more vigorous groups of beans

The Annecy Garden in the evening sunshine

As the month of September progressed, the rain began to fall which has meant less watering but more weeding:

Lorraine weeding

Here's a couple of more general views of the garden:

Beds, with variegated maize nearest; also in the same bed, orange calendulas

The gourds & pumpkins have been setting fruit quite well, but eager hands have been picking the fruits before they are ready, however the luxuriant growth of the plants means that one or two have escaped so far...

'Anna Swartz Hubbard' squash, growing nicely

Another squash, not sure which variety

Aztec broccoli & The Gloucestershire Echo

We had a visitor during our last session at the Annecy Garden, Mikel a photographer from The Gloucestershire Echo, the Cheltenham newspaper. He asked us about the Annecy Gardens & took lots of photos ~ look out for them, they're bound to be better than any I'd take.

Mikel, the Gloucestershire Echo photographer interviews Annecy Gardener, Lorraine.

Taking note, while Anne weeds the Zea mays 'Quadricolor'

We're still getting a lot of flowers on the allotment. One interesting plant is Allium hookeri 'Zorami', a primitive onion grown in remote areas of the Himalayas. It comes into flower late in the season & like may Allium species is very attractive to pollinating insects:

Allium hookeri 'Zorami', now flowering at the Annecy Garden

The beans climbing on the wigwams are doing well, they particularly seem to benefit from our watering them heavily each Monday evening.

Borlotto bean, pretty lavender flowers & interestingly coloured pods

Tagetes 'Paprika', this is pretty but rather small & has only just come into flower, six weeks after Tagetes 'Linnaeus', an altogether larger & more striking plant

Another interesting crop is just coming into production now. This is huauzontle also known as Aztec broccoli, or botanically as Chenopodium berlandieri.

Chenopodium berlandieri, also known as huauzontle or Aztec broccoli

The plant is in the spinach family, but in this case it is the immature flower spikes (pictured above) that one eats. It's a pleasant tasting vegetable with an interesting texture, in fact, I've just enjoyed some of this lightly sauteed with oil & a little chopped tomato & seasoned with salt & freshly ground black pepper ~ made a nice vegetable accompaniment to supper this evening.

August luxuriance

The warm weather combined with a reasonable amount of rain means that the Annecy Garden is filled with luxuriant plant growth.

In the new beds by the park gates, squashes, sunflowers & tomatoes have been growing particularly vigorously.

Sunflowers & calendulas in the background, fronted by potatoes, 'Red Leaf Deer Tongue' lettuce & Tagetes 'Linnaeus', with courgette leaves bottom right

The tomatoes have been growing very well, particularly productive are the 'Jaune Flamme':

Tomato 'Jaune Flamme', very productive. I'd like to've shown the ripe fruit which are orange in colour, but there are some very assiduous tomato harvesters. Which is good.

The self sown seedlings of Tomato 'Yellow Currant' are doing very well:

We've also been harvesting the 'Anya' potatoes. This is a lovely variety, a cross between 'Desiree' & 'Pink Fir Apple'. The tubers are pink & are very tasty boiled or incorporated in a potato salad.

'Anya' potatoes

Lorraine digging the 'Anya' potatoes; in the foreground are 'Yellow Currant' tomatoes & yacon.

In order to prolong their flowering we have been deadheading the calendulas:

In spaces where we have cleared crops or flowers that have gone over, we have sown some quick growing crops such as lettuce:

Lettuce seedlings, the feathery leaves on the lower right are of Phacelia tanacetifolia seedlings

We are still getting plenty of flowers:

Crepis rubra, an annual from Greece; a pink dandelion

Salvia blepharophylla 'Painted Lady', the wild species is pollinated by hummingbirds in Mexico. They've yet to make the journey to the Annecy Gardens.

Allium tuberosum, garlic chives is widely used in oriental cookery; the flowers are very attractive to pollinators, especially hoverflies

Madia elegans, the seeds of this were used for food in precolonial California. Their small size & the effort required to extract them makes one think it wasn't all fun being a native American in the Pacific States in past eras.