This week’s recipe from Garden News Magazine. So lovely to have sunny weather at the weekend to sit outdoors and eat with the family. Food seems to taste better in the sunshine.
Herbs are grown in shallow terracotta pans and window boxes. These are still in the greenhouse, but will go outdoors the first week of June when all the cold winds should have disappeared.
Here’s a mini-windowbox full of basil, parsley, chives and coriander. The kit comes with small packets of seeds and just enough compost for four individual pots.
I recommend Johnson’s seeds for herbs. Dwarf dill can be grown in containers.
I also recommend Jekka’s Herbs produced by Johnson’s Seeds.
A very useful book to dip into, especially if you’d like to try different herbs.
Hope you are having a good gardening week. It’s been a cold spring so far and very wet. We are behind with most vegetables, but the spring flowers have enjoyed the cool conditions and lasted longer than usual. Bluebells are just starting to fade, but bright blue geraniums have started to flower to take their place and all the wild flowers, ragged robin, pink campion and oxeye daisies are starting to bloom. Thank you for reading the blog and, if you have time, leave a comment in the box below, letting me know what herbs you are growing for your summer cooking. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to write for Garden News Magazine. Each week I share a different recipe featuring something harvested from the garden. Sometimes I only have a handful of herbs, or a dish of berries. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount, just whatever I can find to put into my cooking.
Review and book giveaway. Please leave a comment at the end of this review to take part in a prize draw for one copy.
When I look at my dismal collection of much-loved but slowly-dying houseplants, I just want to jump on the phone and ring horticultural expert Jane Perrone. We would be talking for hours! Overwatering and lack of knowledge are the two reasons my sorry subjects look so poorly. Now, luckily, Jane has saved the day by publishing an entertaining and easy to read book, Legends of the Leaf.
Jane focuses on 25 popular houseplants, unearthing the hidden histories and journeys they’ve taken to becoming prized possessions in our homes.
Kentia Palm
My favourite story relates to the Kentia Palms which stood on either side of Queen Victoria’s coffin as she lay in state. Jane writes: “When Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, her staff enacted a twelve-page set of funeral instructions she had compiled ready for the occasion. Many of her requests broke with traditions of the time, and some certainly seem peculiar to modern readers. The British monarch had been wearing black mourning dress for four decades since the death of her husband Prince Albert, but she insisted on being buried in a white dress, with the white lace veil she last wore at her wedding over her face as a shroud, and she stipulated that mourners at her funeral should not wear black. Tucked around her body were many surprising items, including a plaster cast of her late husband’s hand and his dressing gown. But the Kentia palms which stood at either end of the coffin would have been a surprise to no one.
“These large palms dominate the photographs of Queen Victoria’s coffin lying in state in the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. Their fronds arch over the bearskins of four Grenadier Guards who stood on duty, heads bowed, but they are not noted in many newspaper reports of the scene. I suspect this was because palms in general were such a fixture of upper class life at the turn of the twentieth century that they did not warrant a mention. As professor of design history Penny Sparke noted, palms acted as a frame for the cluttered interior of Victorian homes. ‘They introduced an exoticism of the tropics, as well as memories of empire and of an untamed world in which nature held sway over culture,’ she wrote. Queen Victoria grew Kentias at her royal residences, Society weddings were held underneath living arches made of two Kentia palms, and Kentias filled the lobbies of luxury hotels.”
There were Kentia palms on the Titanic when it sank in April 1912, Kentias in the palm court at the Ritz hotel in London when it opened in 1906, and potted Kentias for sale in the famous Harrods department store. This was a worldwide phenomenon rather than just a British penchant: a report on Kentia palms in the Los Angeles Times in 1929 noted: “They are used in hotel corridors, on banquet tables and for gala occasions – in Tokio (sic), Manila, Singapore, Suez, Cairo, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, london, New York, and Los Angeles.”
I shall have a new respect for my slow-growing and small Kentia palm. I had never heard of the royal connection before or the fact it was held in such high esteem all over the globe. I might not be having any banquets or gala events, but my palm will be moved to a more prominent position than in it’s former corner in the dark spare room.
Care instructions How to care for Kentia palms
Jane’s beautifully written and entertaining histories are accompanied by a care guide outlining the amount of light plants require, temperatures they prefer, watering, humidity, substrate and a section on pest and diseases, propagation, feeding, ideas for display, and most usefully, ‘danger signs’ to look out for when things are starting to go wrong. In my case, blackened leaves are a sign of overwatering and leaves turning straw-like can be a sign of sunburn. You can put plants outdoors in summer, but start them in deepest shade and gradually increase the amount of light. I probably go from one extreme to the other, from indoors in a dark place, to straight outdoors in full sun.
The other plants I have in my collection include the quirky-looking Lithops, or living stones. I also have the Ceropegia woodii, or string of hearts, the jade plant, Begonia and Monstera. And there’s an Aloe vera, for burns, on the kitchen windowsill.
My pot of Lithops or ‘living stones’ in the greenhouse Lithops
Jane’s book is beaufully-illustrated by Helen Entwistle. And a word must be said about the quality of the publishing. The cover is glorious, and the silky paper is a beautiful thickness. I’ve never thought to consider these things until this year, when I received several books which were not well put together. A well-made book, as well as a well-written book, is a joy to read.
Back cover Illustrations from the book
Jane Perrone is host of the popular podcast, On the Ledge. She also writes for the Guardian, the Financial Times, and Garden Illustrated. Over the years, I’ve looked to Jane for good, sensible advice and always found her writing to be a level above others. I can highly recommend her latest book, Legends of the Leaf. I found it an exciting read, discovering how my favourite houseplants made a leap from the wild to the windowsill. I literally couldn’t put it down once I’d started reading it, and now I know the background stories to my houseplants, they are receiving the care they richly deserve.
Please leave a comment in the box below and a name will be randomly selected for the prize draw. Thank you for reading my blog. You are amongst the 200 people who take a look each day and I’m very grateful for all your support and comments.
Bramble Garden 