April is well under way and has been busier than ever with the good weather. We have had lots of new customers already this year which is amazing and we are kept busy helping customers and with producing all those extra plants to sell. The weather will eventually break so we are enjoying those sunny days and blue skies.
Useful plants from the garden - Allium ursinum (Common names - wild garlic, ramson, buckram, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, bear’s garlic)
Growing under the hedge in the back garden, while pretty in flower and useful for cooking it is also very invasive, seeding through from under the hedge. But I used some for this recipe when we had friends over for lunch this week, as well as a lemon from our tree, flowers, thyme and parsley from the garden it was a relaxing and tasty lunch. 4 eggs 60ml olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
2 tsp Dijion mustard 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
pinch of sugar 1/2 garlic clove
5 wild garlic leaves, chopped sprigs of thyme
Tbsp chopped parsley 4 slices of sourdough bread
350g asparagus spears trimmed
Place the eggs in a large saucepan and cover with boiling water. Simmer for 7 mins, then refresh in cold water until the eggs are cold. Peel, then halve the eggs and place the yolks in a bowl. Add the olive oil, mustard, white wine vinegar, sugar and garlic. Whisk together for 1-2 mins until smooth.
Chop the egg white and add it to the bowl, then stir in the wild garlic, parsley and thyme. Season with black pepper.
Preheat a griddle pan to hot and griddle the sourdough slices on each side for 1-2 mins until charred. Place the asparagus spears on a plate to garnish and drizzle with olive oil. Add the asparagus to the griddle and cook, turning occasionally until the asparagus is charred and just cooked.
Place a slice of toast on each plate and top with equal amounts of the egg mix and top with the asparagus and black pepper.
Foraging ingredients for lunch from the garden
using one of the lemons off my tree
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| Asparagus on toast |
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| Frozen berry cake |
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| Wild garlic in the hedge |
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| I've found where robin is nesting |
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| Plants in the garden at home |
We have been doing a roaring trade in water plants this week since they came in and I thought it would be interesting and useful to anyone constructing a pond to see how we built the wildlife pond in the nursery gardens back in 2019 and to see how it has matured to its summer glory. You can also read my blog on water features I have created over the years, you can find it here:
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| Creating the wildlife pond in the nursery |
I was full of good intentions to do a video of the sales area today but with 3 orders to sort out, lots of lovely customers, and all the other nursery jobs to get done it never happened. So here is a photo of one of my favourite Daffodils - Narcissus 'St Patricks Day' can you spot Madam Maisie sneaking off? lol
Anyhoo the sales area is full of fabulous hardy plants. Herbs are out at last woo hoo, now its to be a wee bit warmer at night, along with alpines, climbers, grasses, shrubs, shade plants, fruit, trees, potted bulbs heathers and of course pond plants there is plenty choice for all types of gardens, soil and growing conditions.
We have lots of lovely pots, composts, gifts, cards, garden sundries and good advice from our friendly wonderful staff.
Last but not least the gardens are coming to life with all the daffodils and spring bulbs giving their all and lots of other lovelies to spot as you wander around. We are working through the stock beds giving it its spring clean, so bear with us as we do this and get everything labelled.
Whitmuir cafe and farm Whitmuir Farm Shop are open 9 to 4pm every day with great food, coffee, cakes and lots of fabulous food and gifts in the farm shop. Add in a walk around the woodland walk on the farm and you have a perfect day out in the country just 16 miles from the centre of Edinburgh. See you soon, Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm 
There is indeed a rather large hole in my bucket 
Amongst many jobs today, sorting out display plants from the tunnel to the exotic corner
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| Ink and wash sunset and silhouetted trees |
Just like that we’re nearly half way through April already, Easter is on the horizon and after nine weeks of no rain the glorious weather has finally broken. Much as we love the sunny weather a gardener and their plants do need that all soaking rain that watering can or an irrigation system just can’t replicate 
I realised as I was putting the photos together for this post they really are quite eclectic this week! Well that’s reasonable as I like to think we are too. Its been a joy to see the nursery full of visitors every day, enjoying the weather, garden, nursery and buying plants. We’ve had lots of new visitors discovering us already this season, which is lovely. Thank you 
Robin is still busy building that nest in the shop and giving us abuse for being in the way as only a small opinionated robin can. The black birds are still in the pile of crates behind the office and the bluetits as usual are in the bat box 
The garden continue to green up with explosions of spring colour everywhere, from blue and purples of early primula and pulmonaria to the whites of wood anemones, bloodroot and white daffodils. Yellow of course is claimed by all the varieties of daffodil we have and the fresh green of the leaves softens even the hardest of branches 
~ the grass got its first cut, not much to take off, but gotta start sometime
~ Isabel started the shade stock beds, tidying and top dressing, looking better already and hopefully at some point in the next couple of months we’ll meet in the middle, tho I have got behind in P’s as I’ve had lots of other tasks to do and of course help our lovely customers. There’s been orders to get ready for collection and delivery, enquiries and lots of watering! I’m still working on bringing plants over from the old farm tunnel to our new tunnel and tunnel 2 that doesn’t have its cover yet, lol 
~ David has started putting mypex down infront of the new tunnels and working out where the paths will go, exciting to see these long talked about projects coming to life 
~ Fiona continues with her Saturday propagation and is now on potting up the cuttings taken at the end of summer into autumn last year 
~ We’ve been in the Peebleshire news and the Peeblian this week 
~ Our volunteers Erin and Karen have been tidying plants and potting up seedlings and propagation, which is a great help at this busy time of year.
~ Lastly but not least, we have a new canine member of the team. Fiona’s new puppy Hamish joined us on Saturday and was a hit with customers (just don’t tell Maisie!) she was away flying with David and hasn’t met Hamish yet 
So there we go, another busy week in the life of Quercus. Hopefully we will see you soon, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
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| Uncovering and cutting the rhubarb in
the forcer. |
A bonus hour in the garden
too when I got home, love seeing all the plants coming back to life after
winter and my wee garden coming together. Love love loving the tulips
A walk along the river
enjoying the spring colour before the rain came in.
A great walk today, one of my favourite types of walk, through woods and along rivers and somewhere we know by road but seeing it from a completely different perspective on a walk. We parked at Leaderfoot in the layby leading to the old road bridge where you get great views of the Leaderfoot Viaduct.
Crossing the river and under the A68 road bridge we picked up the river Leader pathway. Its marked all the way to Earleston with yellow arrows, but the path is very clear. The spring wild flowers were lovely along with the fresh green of the emerging tree leaves and the birds singing away. We saw bluebells, wild garlic, primroses, common toothwort, forget me nots, ferns and dogs mercury. A welcome distraction to the awful toothache, dosed up on antibiotics and painkillers that this week has brought. Maisie had a great walk, she loves somewhere different and paddling in a river.
We walked through woods, along the river, high up above and along side. Past an old walled garden and large country houses, across numerous bridges until we finally arrived in Earleston where we picked up some food for a picnic lunch on the way back. Sitting on one of many benches along the walk, we enjoyed the views while eating before walking back. An easy 8 mile walk in warm weather with the sun breaking out occasionally.
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| Leaderfoot viaduct |
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| Wild garlic lining the path |
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| Oxalis in the moss |
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| A derelict walled garden |
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| Bluebells and Maisie |
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| Toothwart |
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| Primroses |
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| Forget me nots |
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| Our route |
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