Try new things in your garden

If you have lots of fruit or vegetables to harvest, have you tried looking for a recipe to use them in? Lavender can be used to flavour biscuits; tomatoes can be made into a simple fresh sauce if you’re getting a bit over whelmed. Courgettes too can be never ending, but have you tried harvesting them when they are tiny? They add a bit of fun to a stir fry or a tray of roasted veg and are tastier than larger ones.

Summer herbs can be cut into small amounts, added with a drop of water and frozen in ice cubes to use in the winter. It’s odd to think about winter now, but with gardening planning is key.

Another pleasure of the winter season is being able to have the scent and colour of hyacinths around the house, which will feel like a small miracle when everything else is bare; and now is the time to plant them in pretty containers.

Once they have grown a shoot about 2.5cm, they need a cool room to wait for the right time. Why not prepare several for gifts?

Going back to the here and now, on warm days keep an eye on greenhouses and make sure they are ventilated. It is amazing how hot they can get and how quickly plants will dry out. Outside too, even overcast days can suck moisture out of plants and a windy day can be worse for this than anything else.

If you want more ideas of how to develop the use of herbs in your garden and kitchen, there are Herbal Workshops on Tuesday mornings throughout August. Contact details are below.

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