I'm not sure where the last weeks have gone since we re-opened. Its a bit of a busy blur, and once home I've eaten dinner and collapsed on the sofa to do admin and try and relax! I've not even managed a walk along our wee river! As time goes on it's harder to not see my boys and friends, it's been 4 months since I last saw them and it's far too long. Things need to return to normal soon and we need to be able to be with our families without keeping two metres apart.
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| Viola 'Desdemona' |
Work continues a pace in the nursery, I'm still working through the stock beds, tidying, potting and propagating. I've had to spend a couple of days propagating plants as we have had amazing sales since we re-opened and were getting low is quite a few batches of plants. It's been really lovely to see and catch up with our customers who have been enjoying their visits to the nursery and enjoying a walk around the gardens in the peaceful surroundings. The gardens are looking the best ever and I am so happy with how they are all coming together. The weeds are growing madly with all the warm, rainy weather we have had. I swear they grow overnight!
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| Lupin 'The Governor' |
New in the sales area this week and flowering their wee selves silly in the scented garden are Viola 'Ivory Queen', Viola 'Desdemona' and Viola cornuta 'Alba'', all are scented and flower for weeks.
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| Viola 'Ivory Queen' |
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| Viola cornuta 'Alba' |
Fragrant Friday - Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' - The taller classic catmint with silvery, scented foliage and lavender-blue flowers all summer. Cut back spent flower stems for a second show of flowers. Full sun and free-draining soil. Great with the lime yellow of Alchemilla or the silver of Stachys byzantina. See it growing the borders in the nursery. H 1m, S 60cm.
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| Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' |
Thank you every one who has visited since we opened up again. It is lovely to see our customers and good to see the sun come out at last. I've done lots more propagation so the tunnel is full to bursting again with lots of cuttings and new plants to replace all the plants you've all been buying 
:) I managed to get photos of over 20 damsel flies on the wild life pond and the newts.
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Valerian officinalis which I have decided is the Scottish
equivalent of Verbena bonarienses, similar colour and growth habit and
so much hardier, and scented! What more could you want |
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| Sweet William in the butterfly border |
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| Wild Flowers from the garden |
In the greenhouse this week:
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| Pelargonium 'Artic Star' |
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| Pelargonium 'Chocolate Peppermint' |
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| Pelargonium 'Fir Tree Nan' |
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| Pelargonium 'Frank headly' |
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| Pelargonium 'Rookly' |
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| Pelargonium 'Tornado' |
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| Pelargonium ardens |
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| Pelargonium trifidum |
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| Pelargonium triste |
Useful plants from the Garden -
Allium cepa proliferum
“Tree Onion” is a hardy perennial
and typical of the Allium family with thick hollow cylindrical stems. Small
green-white flowers appear in the second summer of growth, and these are
followed by small bulbs which form at the top of the stem and are quite
fascinating to look at followed by small white flowers. The whole plant is
edible but also looks good in flower borders The Tree Onion is also known as
the Egyptian or walking onion. Grow in sun and most soils. H 1.5m, S 30cm.
Chicken Galantine with tree onions
Serves 4
8 to 10 bacon
rashers
500g sausage
meat
2 chicken
breasts
salt and pepper
1 tsp Thyme
leaves and bulbs
of tree onion, chopped
This recipe is
for a Remoska, but you could easily do it in a conventional oven, placing the
roll of meat on a metal tray to cook.
~ Lay the bacon
down the centre of a piece of non-stick baking paper. Put half the sausage meat
down the centre, flattening it out to cover the bacon. Flatten the chicken
breasts with a rolling pin and lay on top of the sausage meat. Sprinkle with
the chopped tree onion and thyme. Place the rest of the sausage meat, flattened
out on top.
~ Wrap around
into a roll with the bacon all the way round, still in the baking paper. Seal
the ends and place in the remoska for 30 minutes.
~ Open the paper
and finish cooking for another 30 minutes until the meat is cooked and the
bacon is browned. Leave to cool for 15 minutes, slice and serve or leave until
completely cool and serve sliced cold.
~ Serve with new
potatoes and a green vegetable.
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| Allium cepa proliferum |
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| Using the leaves and bulbs from the top of the plant |
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| Chopping up the tree onion |
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| Rolled and ready to cook |
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| chopped onion leaves on the new potatoes too |
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| A lovely summer dinner |
Tuesday and my day off, I am so exhausted I really didn't have the energy for anything! Still, I got the house cleaned and we decided to go for a fairly local walk. Lets go for a walk and take a picnic we said, as we left the sunshine behind and drove into torrential rain as we arrived at our destination! Picnic in the car until the downpour passed and then a lovely walk up Gameshope to the Bothy. I love this walk, having walked all the surrounding hills, the walk up the valley is equally great, past the river and waterfalls, rocky outcrops and steep hillsides. There were masses of wild flowers in bloom and the weather stayed dry for the rest of the afternoon thankfully.
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| Butterwort |
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| Wild thyme |
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| Cryptogramma crispa |
Its been a mad busy time, I cant believe we are over half way through June already! Hope your week is going ok.
Take care, stay safe
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So glad to hear that customers have returned and the business is doing well. I hope you get to see your family soon too.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Its been the craziest, exhausting of times and then I got to see my youngest on Sunday and seeing the eldest next week. Hope you are well and your garden is doing ok this year.
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