Garden Update

Our Tuesday gardening group is often blessed with sunshine and yesterday was no different. This was particularly welcome after the wind and rain of the weekend.

Time then to getting planting! After a spot of weeding we lightly dug in some worm compost to feed the soil then we sowed  broad beans, a good overwintering variety known as Super Aquadulce which we buy from Garden Organic. This was followed by garlic which we had saved from this year’s crop and finally, making the most of the day, we planted our onion sets.  The soil was then covered with a good layer of leaf mulch which we also put round our brassicas.

Terry and Will sowing our broad beans

A few years ago a supporter kindly gave me a root of horseradish which I planted in a stack of tyres, figuring it would be easier to get at the roots to harvest them if I just lifted the tyres off.  Yesterday we were able to do just that and our chef Barney now has some horseradish to make a sauce to compliment the roast beef he serves on a Sunday here in Arthur’s Restaurant, which if you haven’t already been, I would recommend you treat yourself to a visit.  Happy gardening, Bex

Its Halloween this weekend and I know there will be some fun and frights at Fordhall on Sunday from 5.30 till 8.30 pm for children and families to enjoy.
We had harvested a pumpkin in the garden a few weeks a go and yesterday we thought it would be a good idea to make some delicious pumpkin soup to serve up for lunch to the volunteers in the garden and staff in the office. Here you can see Will and Terry, regulars to the community garden preparing the soup. The good folk in the office thought it was delicious.
Dont get too spooked by the ghosts and spirits that you might bump into over the weekend!!! Bex

What I enjoy about gardening is thinking about the future! We gardeners look forward to buying seeds ready for the spring and we plan what to plant in order to dream about the produce and what can be done with it, what delicious meal can be conjured up to eat after a day out in the garden! Here at Fordhall we recently harvested some big hazel nuts from the Hazel Butler trees growing outside the tea room. I wanted to plant these nuts to ensure an even greater harvest in the years to come. Now the way to know if the nuts will produce strong healthy trees, is to float them in a bucket of water and if they sink, they will be good. We did this but they all floated! Hey ho I think we will plant them anyway!