GREENSHOOTS ALLOTMENT

Chamomile Herb

2011-11-21T14:50:00.001Z

How To Grow Chamomile

PLANT TYPE: Perennial (Chamaemelum nobile), Annual (Matricaria recutita)
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Perennial (Chamaemelum nobile), Annual (Matricaria recutita)
ZONE / HARDINESS: 3 to 5 for perennial
MATURE PLANT SIZE: 9 inches high x varied width due to spreading
LIGHT: N/A
FLOWERING PERIOD: June to August
SOIL TYPE: Light, dry soil
pH RANGE: 7.0
KNOWN PESTS: None
KNOWN DISEASES: None

OVERVIEW:
Chamomile is a small, bushy herb that grows flat along the ground. Chamomile species grow throughout Europe, North Africa and are often found growing wild.

Chamomile is used for its anti-inflammatory and sedative properties. It is excellent for childhood ailments. Chamomile is also used for allergies, burns, anaemia, fevers, insomnia, indigestion and tootaches.

Seeds should be planted first in small containers, 1/8 inch deep. When the plants are big enough to handle, transplant to 6 inches apart. Prefers light, dry soil. Keep plants moist until established. Although it is an annual, it will re-seed itself. Flowers should be harvested on a clear morning before the sun has drawn the valuable scent from the blossoms. Using scissors, pick the opened heads carefully. Spread on paper in a cool, dry, airy place. After the heads have become papery, store them in an airtight jar.

PROPAGATION / SOWING:
Division, seeds, or cuttings. Seeds should be planted first in small containers, 1/8 inch deep. When the plants are big enough to handle, transplant to 6 inches apart.

COMPANION PLANTING:
Grow chamomile near onions, cabbages, and wheat. It is said to repel flying insects and increase crop yield. It is grown with peppermint plants to intensify the oil of the peppermint.

CARE & GROWING:
The tiny seeds should be planted in small containers. Transplant seedlings 6 inches apart when big enough to handle. Keep them moist until they are established. For a lawn of English chamomile, plant the herb and keep it well watered until it is established. As the plantlets begin to creep, top-dress lightly with fertilizer to encourage spreading and matting.

USAGE:
Aromatic, cosmetic, culinary, decorative, and medicinal.Dried leaves and flowers are used to scent potpourris. Chamomile also is used for soothing baths and skin lotions. It adds golden highlights to blonde hair. Fresh flower heads can decorate and flavor fresh salads. Dried leaves are used in tea and mixed with half mineral water for a refreshing beverage. The plant also can be used to make dye (buff, yellow, or gold). Lawns can be created using the low-growing English variety (Chamaemelum nobile), which reaches about 12 inches in height and creeps until it flowers. The taller German variety (Matricaria chamomile) reaches 1 to 2 feet in height and can be used for accent in beds or gardens. The plant is said to have some medicinal qualities.

Land Cress..........superfood...!!

2011-08-04T20:34:00.002+01:00

Re seeding and random crops...

2011-05-26T10:58:00.002+01:00

Last years perpetual spinach has been pulled as they are going to seed, one or two plants are left so natural re seeding will occur. This has been a good method for the last few years, some seeds may be gathered for manual seeding next year. Lettuces are flourishing and about 30 other crops seem to be going well.

Update...2011 progress.

2011-05-17T13:39:00.004+01:00

Break off the immature elephant garlic flower heads today. This then increases the size of the bulbs, all the energy reserves are prevented from going into the flowering process, the same is true for all the Allium family. More than 7 different varieties of Lettuce are present in the garden now, many of these have been allowed to re-seed from last year. Rocket 2nd early potatoes are looking superb and should produce a bumper crop.

Living off the land

2010-07-19T23:19:00.002+01:00

Maybe around 30-40 veg and herbs to choose from in the garden...wow!!
Such a good growing year, the soil is in superb condition.....and I am feeling good!!!

Sowing seeds indooors...

2010-03-12T12:44:00.004Z

The potatoes that had chitted nicely have been planted in shallow drills, Sowed some Leeks in a seed tray and placed them near a windowsill , also sow chilli plants and brussel sprouts out in to separate trays. So a new season has begun, the plot already showing Onions, Garlic and elephant garlic in a healthy state of development, even with the harsh winter conditions to contend with. Two raspberry and two blueberry shrubs are budding nicely. the olive tree I planted is loving its position and is thriving.....Tis surely going to be a fine season in the garden!

2010 .....First day of sunshine ....

2010-01-17T19:09:00.003Z

Plenty of clearing ground and removal of any perennial weeds that linger in the allotment. Planted a couple of Raspberry bushes which are budding as are both the Blueberry bushes that have settled in well. The Olive tree is also looking good, as do the Elephant garlic bulbs that were planted last autumn also the overwintered onion sets are settled in with 4 inches of green growth showing. The spring cabbages are looking good and have survived the wood pigeons by netting, from now on all brassicas and kelp will also be permanently netted. So a new season is about to begin and the sun will shine through as the River Dart ambles on by....Happy Daze.....welcome to the future....

Pumpkin growing and general information

2009-10-19T16:54:00.004+01:00

PUMPKINS
by George Levenson

What kinds of pumpkins grow the best?
Where, when and how should the seeds be planted?
How much room do pumpkins need?
Should nutrients be added to the soil?
What about watering?
How do pumpkins develop and reproduce?
Should pumpkin plants be pruned?
What about danger and disease?
What should be done to take care for the developing fruit?
When should pumpkins be picked?

Pumpkin Seeds

There's an old saying: To be a successful gardener, grow pumpkins. With this truth, you only need one thing to produce pumpkins: seeds! Still, there are always questions. Surely there's more to it than just placing the seed in the ground ... What about the fine points? Herewith are a few questions and answers. They are designed to supplement the tiny print on the back of most pumpkin seed packets.

What kinds of pumpkins grow the best?

Almost any pumpkin seed ultimately will produce pumpkins. The important question is: what kind of pumpkins do you want to grow?
The traditional Jack O'Lantern is a particular variety officially known as the Connecticut Field Pumpkin. They are usually between 10 and 20 pounds each (though they can grow as big as 50 pounds) and have a bright orange color and the classic pumpkin shape. It is the picture-book pumpkin and the one produced by most commerical growers. Looks aside, the Connecticut Field variety is plain-tasting, not especially sweet, and somewhat watery for pie. Fortunately there is a vast and varied population in the pumpkin world. Some of their names bring to mind wrestlers or race horses: Baby Boo, Munchkin, Spooktacular, Big Max, Cinderella, Lumina, Atlantic Giant ... and there are many more. Pumpkin varieties come in a wide range of potential sizes (from a few ounces to over 500 pounds) and in several colors (ranging from white to pink to red to traditional orange). The big ones require more garden space, but the leaves and flowers of the different types look remarkably similar.
Which one to plant? Be my guest. They are all very willing to enjoy your nurturance. I like to grow several kinds in my United Pumpkin Nations Patch! They all seem to get along quite well.
It is exciting and satisfying to grow seeds that have been saved from last year's pumpkins. But there are a few uncertainties to be noted. First, be sure the seeds were dried in the air, not the oven. Also there is a possibility that the seed will produce a hybrid -- a cross between a pumpkin and another kind of squash. These are called Squmpkins and their color, size, and shape are unpredictable. Still, they are exotic, weird, and one of a kind.

Where, when, and how should the seeds be planted?

Pumpkins love a sunny spot -- the more sun the better. Choose a place that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight every day.
Seeds can be planted directly in the garden when the days consistently reach into the low 70's and the spring rains have tapered off. In colder climates, the seeds can be started indoors and transferred to the garden when the weather warms. Most pumpkins require 110 to 140 frost-free growing days. The amount of time depends mainly on the variety, the climate, and the number of daylight hours during the summer days.
Pumpkins seeds typically are planted in the middle of small hills or mounds that are about three feet in diameter. Surround each hill with a moat (about 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep) to help contain water around the roots. Plant 4 to 5 seeds in a circle in the middle of the hill, and space the seeds about 6 to 8 inches apart.
Thankfully, pumpkin seeds know which way is up, regardless of how they are set in the ground. Traditionally, the seed is laid on its side, narrow edge skyward. Soaking the seeds the night before planting will soften the outer shell and make sprouting easier and faster. But don't let this little step hold you up if you are suddenly ready to plant. Cover the seeds with about an inch of soil to block out light and hide them from hungry birds. The soil should be loosely packed and kept moist but not wet; think of it as a well-squeezed, damp sponge.
During the seed stage, water gently with a sprinkling can to avoid washing away the covering soil. Don't peek under the soil or you may disturb the delicate root hairs that are forming. After 7 to 14 days, the seed sprout cracks the soil, and within a day, two succulent oval baby leaves break through and unfold like a pair of opening hands which soon look like low flying butterflies.
If you are planting more than one hill of pumpkins, the hills should be 10 feet apart. Once the seedlings are established (two weeks after they have sprouted), thin to two or three of the strongest and largest young plants per hill. This may take some courage, and it may seem impossible to make the right choice. Take heart in the promise of abundance. In the pumpkin garden, it will surely be fulfilled

How much room do pumpkins need?

Pumpkin plants are vigorous vines and love to sprawl. A single vine can grow as long as 30 feet, sending out many vine shoots all along the way. Looking down from an airplane, it will appear as a carpet of lush green leaves.
Does this mean pumpkins can't get along with their neighbors? Absolutely not. The vine can be pruned, trained, and redirected to live harmoniously with other plants. Pumpkins are often planted at the edges of a corn and bean patch. The corn supports the climbing beans, and the pumpkin vines are trained to creep among the corn stalks, The huge leaves of the pumpkin plant serve as a floating mulch that holds down weeds and keeps the soil moist. This classic Native American combination -- sometimes called the three sisters -- not only grows well together, but their blended tastes and textures make a delicious main course.
While pumpkins usually keep low to the ground, they can be encouraged to grow where other plants might never venture. I've seen them climb over shrubs, up fences and onto roofs. They do this with the help of their tendrils -- curly grabbers that develop like a hand at every leaf node. Tendrils are touch sensitive and will tightly curl around any waiting objects in the path of the vine -- sticks, weeds, plants, anything that has a loose end. The tendrils keep the vine stable as it reaches out across the garden. If you train a pumpkin to grow up and onto a flat or slightly sloped shed roof, it is like adding another floor to your garden. Direct the growing vine to the side of a building and use 3" galvanized nails (drive them in about half an inch) as tendril handles. With your guidance, the tendrils will curl around the nails and ultimately the vine will reach and sprawl along the roof. When pumpkins develop on the vine as it climbs the building, tack up old nylon stockings as slings to support the swelling fruit. Or pinch off the baby pumpkins until the vine reaches the roof. Then let them flourish on their penthouse porch. Pumpkins on the roof! Your neighbors will drop their jaws as they scan the horizon.

Should nutrients be added to the soil?

All the pumpkin seeds packets say: "Plant in rich soil". But how do you know if your soil is rich enough? If the spot you've chosen for your pumpkin patch has traditionally grown lots of weeds, then it definitely has something to offer. But is it rich enough? Soil, like bank accounts, can always use at least a little bit more. The question then becomes: What to add? Compost and aged manure are often recommended. Check with a local garden center for packaged products. Pumpkins are considered "heavy feeders" and do well with a little extra nourishment. One nutrient source that works well and is reasonably priced has the dismaying name "fish emulsion". It is a concentrate of fishy by-products, rich in minerals, that smells a little like low tide. Add a few glug-glugs (about a quarter of a cup) to a gallon of water and sprinkle it on each pumpkin mound every three of four weeks. It is definitely a power booster. There are many "miracle" goods on the market. They promise a large supply of big pumpkins while posing the question of pushing versus encouraging the natural process.

What about watering?

If pumpkins could speak, their first words would probably be: "Gimme a drink." Between 80 to 90% of every pumpkin is water; and water is an essential medium for bringing nourishment to the entire plant. Fortunately, the plant has a built-in water-gathering and water-conservation system: The huge leaves are a hovering mulch, mediating ground and sky, shading the soil, keeping it moist, and inhibiting competition from weeds. They also are exquisitely designed to draw nourishment from the sun and guide water to the base of the plant. The question is not whether to water pumpkins, but when and how much. A major factor is the kind of soil in the patch. Sandy soil needs more water than soil with high deposits of clay. In either case, the rule of thumb is: turn off the water when puddles appear; and wait till the soil is dry on top before watering again. It is best to water the plant at the roots rather than sprinkling from above. Drip systems and soaker hoses are efficient, reasonably priced, and easy to install. Check with any local garden shop or hardware store for supplies

Seedlings

About a week after the two baby leaves appear, the first "true" leaf, sporting jagged edges, starts to grow from the center of the young sprout, providing a glimpse of the plant to come. After three true leaves are established, the pumpkin plant moves into wild and crazy leaf and root development that lasts about eight weeks. At its peak, the vine can grow as much as 6" a day.
Ten weeks after planting, the first flowers suddenly appear between leaves and tendrils. Each flower blooms for only one day. They start to unfurl just before dawn, and during a four hour period, they open into luxurious velvet bowls. By mid-day, they are on a slow course of folding in on themselves; and by dusk, they are sealed forever.
Every pumpkin plant has two kinds of flowers -- male and female. Both are golden yellow, suggesting the color of the fruit to come. On the surface, males and females look quite similar. However, with a little observation you can begin to tell them apart. The male flowers, which appear first, sit on long thin stems and are more plentiful than females. The females sit closer to the vine and rest like queens on fuzzy round thrones -- baby pumpkins in waiting.
In pumpkin land, the bees are the matchmakers, gathering pollen from the center of the males and depositing it inside the female flower while glutting themselves on sweet nectar. The bees are so busy with their gathering and guzzling, they are oblivious to onlookers and very unlikely to sting. So, if you are inclined, arise early in the morning, get out your binoculars and have a close look. It is like watching the California gold rush: greedy miners discovering the motherlode. Between watching bee visits, take a deep breath, and the delicate fragrance of the flower will add a new reward to your careful peeking.
Some avid growers (and seed "manufacturers") imitate the bees and pollinate the pumpkins manually in order to control and develop certain traits. The process is quite simple: use a small artist's brush to gather pollen from the males; carefully carry it to a chosen female and deposit the pollen by "painting" the center of her flower. To keep out all other would-be pollinators, place a small paper bag over the female flower and secure it with a rubber band. Not nearly as exciting as watching the bees, but interesting in a scientific sort of way.

Should pumpkin plants be pruned?

Pumpkins plants are vigorous growers. Almost from the beginning, they are like adolescents -- bursting with energy, going places without permission, and displaying their amazing abilities over and over again.
Pumpkin vines withstand pruning quite well. Properly done, it strengthens the plant and helps it thrive. In most cases, the plants require some cutting if only to keep them from growing into your kitchen. Every pumpkin plant has a main and a secondary vine that usually grow in opposite directions. Each of these two vines produce shoots (or tertiary vines) which can be selectively pruned as the plant develops. It is best to clip when these new side shoots begin to develop. The plant will leak or bleed a little when it is clipped, but it seals over quickly. The amount of pruning usually depends on how much garden space is available. Trimming the plant is definitely necessary to train the vine to run in a long narrow line along the edge of a garden and to keep the plants from crawling over each other and their neighbors.
When pruning plants, wear long pants and gloves: the vines are prickly. As you walk through the garden to check on pumpkins or to tame runaway vines, remember that there are roots all along the vine that spread out like a fancy hairdo just beneath the top few inches of soil. It is best to walk on boards or tiles -- or at least to follow the same path each time. This will help the soil remain soft and loose and keep the roots "fluffy" so they can take in water and nutrients.
In addition to pruning the vines, some gardeners prune the fruit -- selecting a few for special attention and removing the rest. This population control concentrates the energy of the plant and yields larger but, of course, fewer pumpkins. Wait for the pumpkins to reach grapefruit size before pruning. Even without selective pruning, all baby pumpkins do not necessarily grow to maturity and may suddenly yellow and shrivel on the vine. Perhaps they were not fully pollinated or maybe they were poorly located on the vine, competing for nourishment with a more developed neighbor. The harsh truth is that not every tiny pumpkin is destined to make it to the end of the season.

What about danger and disease?

Pumpkin plants are hardy and strong, but like all living things, they are vulnerable to outside forces. In the early stages, the main danger is frost. If the young plants are in the ground and the nights threaten to become very cold, protect the seedlings with inverted clay flower pots or a small cold frame, removing the covering each morning. Strong wind is another threat to the sprawling plant. The tendrils help to hold the vine down, but sometimes it is necessary to add anchors: u-shaped stakes made from coat hangers work very well or criss-cross 18" bamboo sticks over the vine.
As the season progresses, many insects and critters will visit. Almost all are friendly and many are simply on their way to another land. Even snails seem to overlook pumpkins, preferring, instead, less fuzzy fare. In different regions, pumpkins are variously plagued by gophers and moles, vine borers and beetles, aphids and mildew and other unwelcome visitors and conditions that threaten their security. When these forces find their way into your patch, they will need to be discouraged. Garden books offer a wide range of "solutions" ranging from harmless but effective soaps to heavy duty poisons. Throughout the season, keep an eye out for any irregularities, especially in the leaves (both the top and bottom). To diagnose the problem, take a sample to the garden center, another Pumpkin Budknowledgeable gardener, or the library (where the best books have pictures of squash plants and their problems). As with your own health, early detection is the best way to prevent a major problem and usually requires the least intervention. My own preference is to keep the patch as organic as possible. A healthy well-fed plant, basking in sunlight, unburdened by competition from weeds, and properly watered has the best chance of successfully resisting danger as well as recovering from attack.

What should be done to take care for the developing fruit?

The basic rule for taking care of the developing pumpkin fruit is to handle it as little as possible. At the same time, there are a few widely practiced interventions. First, to encourage the classic pumpkin look (round as opposed to lop-sided), adjust the fruit so that it's bottom or flower-end is sitting squarely on the ground. This pumpkin "chiropractics" should be done after the fruit is well-established -- usually a month after its appearance and when the flower has dried and fallen off. Gently but firmly lift the stem and the vine together with one hand, the pumpkin with the other, and slowly rotate the position of the fruit without using undue force. You may have to cut or loosen a few surrounding tendrils before lifting. At this point, pumpkin "complexion" can be helped by slipping a shingle between the young pumpkin and the soil. This prevents scarring or bruising as the pumpkin grows and rotting if the soil becomes too soggy. Wear gloves; those vines are prickly; and take care not to crease or snap the vine.
Many people, especially kids, like to personalize their pumpkins -- inscribe their names or draw a picture or a face on one of their growing treasures. Perhaps it has something to do with the urge to establish ownership, engage in primitive tribal scarring, or simply to co-create with nature. Wait until the pumpkin is about 3 to 4 weeks old or developed enough to have smooth, slightly toughened skin (all fuzz long gone). Any blunt tool will do; a large nail works fine or even a ball point pen. Break the skin and don't penetrate more than 1/8 inch. There will be some "bleeding" for a few hours after surgery. Wipe the marking during the next few hours, and it should seal within a day. At first, it may be hard to see the results; but the scar will show in time and will grow in size along with the pumpkin.

When should pumpkins be picked?

By late August, the days and nights grow colder and the green pumpkins begin to change colors like the fall leaves. As the fruit ripens, the vine displays the inevitable signs of age: older leaves become tattered, fewer flowers bloom and the energy of the plant seems to turn more inward, focusing on the fruit filled with the seeds that hold the promise of the future. Eventually, the scraggly vines lie like skeletons through the garden while the pumpkins -- fiery skulls that have trapped the energy of summer -- are scattered throughout. At this point, it is always good to invite a friend over to marvel at the fruit and to help to adjust to the shifting mood of the garden.
Pumpkins are ready to harvest once the color of the fruit has deepened into one of the shades of the setting sun -- somewhere between deep yellow and fiery red, depending on the variety. Leave several inches of stem -- it helps them stay fresh -- and let them cure in the sun for 10 days. Cover them at night if there is danger of frost. Then, store the harvest in a dry cool place. With proper care, you may just have pumpkins until Spring.

There may be more questions. There are always more questions. Rest assured that pumpkins do not require answers. All through the growing season, these gregarious, lush plants display extraordinary vitality. As natives to the American continent, they reflect the American spirit -- generous, innovative, filled with energy, drawing resources and nourishment from every possible corner, and imposing their presence wherever they grow. And the fruit, the largest in the vegetable kingdom, has inspired cooks to prepare delicious food and kids to carve horrific faces. Hail to pumpkins -- nurturing body and arousing spirit. We are honored to witness your glory!

Onions for salads

2009-10-07T20:30:00.003+01:00

How to grow organic Salad onions

Add a bit of bite to your salads

Organic salad onions are easy to grow. Although they are not popular with everyone, there's an amazing selection of types, from chives, garlic chives and spring onions, through Japanese bunching onions and Welsh onions to everlasting onions and tree onions. There is even a type called the potato onion (apparently so called because the bulb forms underground), but I have not been able to find either a supplier or very much information on this variety.

Spring onions Allium cepa
Chives Allium schoenoprasum
Garlic chives Allium tuberosum
Japanese bunching onion Allium fistulosum
Welsh onion or Ciboule
Egyptian or Tree onion Allium cepa Proliferum group
Everlasting onion Allium perutile

All but Allium cepa, the Spring onion, are perennial or treated as such.

Onions grow best on a well-drained, open, sunny site which has been well manured the previous autumn. If the soil is acid, add lime when digging over in the spring. Mix in a handful of blood, fish and bone (wear gloves) per square metre/yard.

Spring onions are grown from seed sown successionally from February to June every 2-3 weeks. Hardy varieties can also be sown from August (July in the North) to early September to overwinter for use in Spring. The highest yields are obtained by sowing in rows 10cm (4") apart, aiming for 300 plants per square metre/30 plants per square foot.

On a day when the soil is not too wet, dig it over with a fork and take out all the weeds, grass and any stones you come across. Break up the lumps of soil and try and get what gardeners call a good tilth, which is when it's broken up into crumbs of roughly even size. If the soil is poor, sprinkle on a handful of blood, fish and bone (wear gloves) per square yard/metre and mix it evenly into the soil. Rake the soil flat, then put the straight edge across the bed from one long side to the other near one end of the bed and draw out a seed drill about 12-15mm (½-¾") deep. Unless the soil is already wet, fill the drill with water and let it drain away before sowing. If you prefer, you can sow them in a biggish pot: make the drill a couple of inches from the edge of the pot, in a circle.

Sow the seed quite thinly. The thinner you sow the seed, the less competition between the onions as they grow. Spring onions are not usually thinned unless they are very overcrowded, so the number of seeds you sow should be fairly close to the number of onions that come up. Just sow the one row (unless you are a very big fan of spring onions). Cover it over and firm the soil. You could sow a row of radishes next to it, about 10cm (4") away, if you like them, as another addition to the salad bowl. Two or three weeks after the first sowing, sow another row of onions (and maybe another row of radishes), and do the same throughout the season up till about mid-June.

Keep the weeds down by checking over the area every few days and pulling up or nipping off any weeds you see at ground level. You can get better results by watering once a week with seaweed fertiliser. If you think the onions are competing too much, dig them up, divide them up and replant a couple of centimeters apart. Harvest as soon as they are big enough.

Chives and Garlic chives may be sown in seed trays indoors in Spring and planted out in groups of three or four seedlings about 23cm (9") apart. Once established, clumps can be divided every few years in Spring or Autumn. Cut back to ground level several times a year to encourage vigorous growth (you can snip them up and freeze them for use in cooking in the winter months). See separate entries for chives and garlic chives in herb section.

Japanese bunching onions are perennial, but are usually grown as annuals or biennials. Either sow indoors in January for transplanting, or direct outdoors in Spring and early Summer, thinning to 8cm x 30cm (3"x12"). Use thinnings as spring onions. Japanese onions can be used at any stage, from spring onion size to the thick stem stage, but are mainly grown for use in the Autumn and Winter months.

Welsh onions are sown in Spring or in August, thinning to 20cm x 23cm (8"x9"), and will reach a usable stage within 6 months. Established clumps should be lifted every 2-3 years in Spring or Autumn, divided up and replanted. To use, either cut single leaves or lift single plants or a whole clump. They are especially useful in winter for seasoning or salads. See separate entry for Welsh onions in herb section.

Egyptian onions are raised from single bulbs or clusters planted 27cm (10") apart in Spring or Autumn. Clusters of small aerial bulbs are produced, which can be picked whenever required, even in mid-Winter. Yields are very low.

Everlasting onions are a perennial onion which not set seed, so must be propagated by division. Treat as Welsh onions.

Allotment History - The First Allotments by Lesley Acton

2009-10-06T13:01:00.002+01:00

Allotments were conceived as a way to alleviate the distress of the rural poor. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, many rural labourers lost their land and jobs. The misfortunes of those workers had been largely blamed on the process of enclosure.

The Enclosures

The enclosure of the English countryside was a means by which many small-scattered landholdings were consolidated into a lesser number of larger holdings. This process eventually removed food production from the hands of numerous small producers and placed it in the hands of a few, wealthy landowners. In addition to losing their land, peasants, cottagers and yeoman farmers also lost many of their common rights, which had allowed them to use the commons for grazing animals and forage for fuel and food.

The loss of land, combined with the poor harvests of 1794-6 and 1799-1801, the Napoleonic Wars, a decline in real wages, and a severe lack of alternative employment opportunities, caused such great economic hardship that by the end of the eighteenth century, there was a large underclass of hungry, downtrodden and disaffected people that needed help. Help in those days came in the form of Poor Law relief—the eighteenth century equivalent of a welfare system. In reality, being the recipient of Poor Law charity usually meant ending up in the workhouse.

A few souls eventually began to feel sorry for the poor and hungry workers. This enlightened attitude was unusual in those days. In fact, prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, hunger was very much seen to be part of God’s divine plan. If you were hungry, it was because you deserved it. Eventually, however, social reformers (such as William Cobbett) recognized that hunger was not actually the fault of the hungry. Instead, the situation these people found themselves in was the result of a failing socio-economic and political climate.

The ruling classes began to realise that the hunger of the poor hurt not just themselves, but endangered society in general. With poverty came unrest, crime and a breakdown of the social order. Those who had become rich through enclosure now had to pay an evermore-burdensome Poor Law tax. Suddenly, the solution put forward by reformers, of land grants to the poor, seemed like a good idea. It was seen as a way to restore the old social order, reduce the Poor Law tax and help the hungry to help themselves: a sort of, grow-their-own charity.

By 1793, there was an extensive movement to provide the labouring classes with a portion of land. However, in the beginning, things did not go too smoothly. By 1805, the interest in land provision for labourers had receded because of improved harvests and more stable food prices. Consequently, the movement failed, and although lobbying continued, by 1829, there were only a total of fifty-four allotment sites recorded.

The Allotment Movement Grows

By the summer of 1830, the position of the farm labourer had again deteriorated to the point where unemployment was rife and many workers were on the brink of starvation. A series of riots ensued, with the farmers and their new threshing machines the main targets of the rioters. It was no surprise, therefore, that at this time, the movement really took off. Over the next forty years, the allotment movement grew to 242,542 sites covering 58,966 acres.

The success of the nineteenth century allotment scheme was due in no small part to the establishment of the high profile, active and effective Labourer’s Friend Society (LFS). This Society was established in 1815, and was a field leader in promoting and raising awareness of allotment grounds, and, most importantly, helping labourers to acquire land. The voice of the LFS was the Labourer’s Friend Magazine, which gave useful practical information on, for example, setting out allotments and tenancy agreements and rules.

The First Allotment

The location of the first allotment site is an interesting and much debated question. Professor Jeremy Burchardt believes the first site was at Long Newnton, Shipton Moyne (on the Gloucester/Wiltshire border) and dates circa 1795. Burchardt believes that this confusion exists because of the ambiguity between a true allotment and a potato ground.

Potato Grounds

Potato grounds were quite different from allotments and only used for growing potatoes and not other crops. Usually, they were sited in uncultivated areas of fallow land, sometimes at the edge of fields. Farmers let potato grounds to employees at a market rent, or as part of a labour contract, in lieu of wages. They were commonly offered on a temporary or seasonal basis, and often during a subsistence crisis. Tied labour ensured the farmer had an affordable and guaranteed labour pool at harvest time, which was particularly important during the Napoleonic Wars because of the rise in wages due to the shortage of manpower. With the return of the men from the Napoleonic Wars, there was a glut of labourers, and farmers no longer needed tied workers. Eventually potato grounds became more important for the income they generated than as a labour pool. Later still, they fell out of favour altogether and disappeared.

Land Cress

2009-10-05T20:22:00.003+01:00

David gave me some land cress plants today, these have a delicious flavour, add to salads in the future. Spring cabbages are in and doing well, netted to stop wood pigeons eating them.

Description

Tasty water cress substitute, Land Cress is ready in 7-8 weeks. Sow seeds from early spring onwards, over-winters too. Vitamin, iron and calcium rich cress which tastes almost like watercress but has a smaller leaf providing a continuous supply over a long period. Salad Leaves Land Cress is easy to grow and does best in a cool moist soil and part shade.
Sowing Instructions

Sow seeds thinly in late summer and autumn broadcast or in drills 1cm (½in) deep spaced 30cm(12in) apart. Sowings can be made also in the spring but the plants will need to be watered regularly.
Growing Instructions

Thin out to 10cm (4in) apart and keep weed free.
Aftercare

Cut the cress regularly while it is still fresh and young and this will encourage more growth. It is very hardy and if covered with a cloche will provide pickings through the winter.

Elephant Garlic description and cultivation

2009-09-11T20:39:00.004+01:00

Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum) is a plant belonging to the onion genus. It is not a true garlic, but actually a variant of the species to which the garden leek belongs. It has a tall, solid, flowering stalk and broad, flat leaves much like those of the leek, but forms a bulb consisting of very large, garlic-like cloves. The flavor of these, while not exactly like garlic, is much more similar to garlic than to leeks. The flavor is milder than garlic, and much more palatable to some people than garlic when used raw as in salads.

Cultivation

The mature bulb is broken up into cloves which are quite large and with papery skins and these are used for both culinary purposes and propagation. There are also much smaller cloves with a hard shell that occur on the outside of the bulb. These are often ignored, but if they are planted, they will the first year produce a non-flowering plant which has a solid bulb, essentially a single large clove. In their second year, this single clove will break up into many separate cloves. Elephant garlic is not generally propagated by seeds.

The plant, if left alone, will spread into a clump with many flowering heads. These are often left in flower gardens as an ornamental and to discourage pests.

Autumn in the Garden

2009-09-03T22:18:00.003+01:00

The twilight zone is setting in , the reds,purples and yellow of autumn are around us,
Soon the leaves will fall from the trees and the dormant season will be here so swiftly it seems. So the seasons relentlessly move on, harvesting has been good this year, many herbs added to the garden are thriving. A few weeks ago i sowed some parsley, beetroot and lettuce, all of which should survive the cold months ahead and mature early next year. I have stored potatoes,garlic and onions for the winter.
Some of the elephant garlic is magnificent and around 8cm in diameter. The chard and spinach plants are looking good and should give a good supply of green leaves for months to come. Red cabbage and brussel sprouts should be ready to harvest in the coming months.This year i have added edging to the allotment and divided into four distinct areas, one for permanent herbs and vegetables and the other three for crop rotation. The beds are raised a bit more with the addition of new soil, their is more light in the garden since the row of 40 foot Leylandii have been chopped back to their stumps.

Lovage Herb - cultivation, culinary, medicinal

2009-07-23T22:17:00.002+01:00

Lovage
Botanical: Levisticum officinale (KOCH.)
Family: N.O. Umbelliferae

* Description
* Cultivation
* Parts Used
* Constituents
* Medicinal Action and Uses

---Synonyms---Ligusticum Levisticum (Linn.). Old English Lovage. Italian Lovage. Cornish Lovage.
---Parts Used---Root, leaves, seeds, young stems.
---Habitat---It is not considered to be indigenous to Great Britain, and when occasionally found growing apparently wild, it is probably a garden escape. It is a native of the Mediterranean region, growing wild in the mountainous districts of the south of France, in northern Greece and in the Balkans.

The Garden Lovage is one of the old English herbs that was formerly very generally cultivated, and is still occasionally cultivated as a sweet herb, and for the use in herbal medicine of its root, and to a less degree, the leaves and seeds.

It is a true perennial and hence is very easy to keep in garden cultivation; it can be propagated by offsets like Rhubarb, and it is very hardy. Its old-time repute has suffered by the substitution of the medicinally more powerful Milfoil and Tansy, just as was the case when 'Elecampane' superseded Angelica in medical use. The public-house cordial named 'Lovage,' formerly much in vogue, however, owed such virtue as it may have possessed to Tansy. Freshly-gathered leafstalks of Lovage (for flavouring purposes) should be employed in long split lengths.

---Description---This stout, umbelliferous plant has been thought to resemble to some degree our Garden Angelica, and it does very closely resemble the Spanish Angelica heterocarpa in foliage and perennial habit of growth. It has a thick and fleshy root, 5 or 6 inches long, shaped like a carrot, of a greyish-brown colour on the outside and whitish within. It has a strong aromatic smell and taste. The thick, erect hollow and channelled stems grow 3 or 4 feet or even more in height. The large, dark green radical leaves, on erect stalks, are divided into narrow wedge-like segments, and are not unlike those of a coarse-growing celery; their surface is shining, and when bruised they give out an aromatic odour, somewhat reminiscent both of Angelica and Celery. The stems divide towards the top to form opposite whorled branches, which in June and July bear umbels of yellow flowers, similar to those of Fennel or Parsnip, followed by small, extremely aromatic fruits, yellowish-brown in colour, elliptical in shape and curved, with three prominent winged ribs. The odour of the whole plant is very strong. Its taste is warm and aromatic, and it abounds with a yellowish, gummy, resinous juice.

It is sometimes grown in gardens for its ornamental foliage, as well as for its pleasant odour, but it is not a striking enough plant to have claimed the attention of poets and painters, and no myths or legends are connected with it. The name of the genus, Ligusticum, is said to be derived from Liguria, where this species abounds.

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---Cultivation---Lovage is of easy culture. Propagation is by division of roots or by seeds. Rich moist, but well-drained soil is required and a sunny situation. In late summer, when the seed ripens, it should be sown and the seedlings transplanted, either in the autumn or as early in spring as possible, to their permanent quarters, setting 12 inches apart each way. The seeds may also be sown in spring, but it is preferable to sow when just ripe. Root division is performed in early spring.

The plants should last for several years, if the ground be kept well cultivated, and where the seeds are permitted to scatter the plants will come up without care.

---Parts Used---The root, leaves and seeds for medicinal purposes.

The young stems, treated like Angelica, for flavouring and confectionery.

---Constituents---Lovage contains a volatile oil, angelic acid, a bitter extractive, resins, etc. The colouring principle has been isolated by M. Niklis, who gives it the name of Ligulin, and suggests an important application of it that may be made in testing drinking water. If a drop of its alcoholic or aqueous solution is allowed to fall into distilled water, it imparts to the liquid its own fine crimson-red colour, which undergoes no change; but if limestone water be substituted, the red colour disappears in a few seconds and is followed by a beautiful blue, due to the alkalinity of the latter.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Formerly Lovage was used for a variety of culinary purposes, but now its use is restricted almost wholly to confectionery, the young stems being treated like those of Angelica, to which, however, it is inferior, as its stems are not so stout nor so succulent.

The leafstalks and stem bases were formerly blanched like celery, but as a vegetable it has fallen into disuse.

A herbal tea is made of the leaves, when previously dried, the decoction having a very agreeable odour.

Lovage was much used as a drug plant in the fourteenth century, its medicinal reputation probably being greatly founded on its pleasing aromatic odour. It was never an official remedy, nor were any extravagant claims made, as with Angelica, for its efficacy in numberless complaints.

The roots and fruit are aromatic and stimulant, and have diuretic and carminative action. In herbal medicine they are used in disorders of the stomach and feverish attacks, especially for cases of colic and flatulence in children, its qualities being similar to those of Angelica in expelling flatulence, exciting perspiration and opening obstructions. The leaves eaten as salad, or infused dry as a tea, used to be accounted a good emmenagogue.

An infusion of the root was recommended by old writers for gravel, jaundice and urinary troubles, and the cordial, sudorific nature of the roots and seeds caused their use to be extolled in 'pestilential disorders.' In the opinion of Culpepper, the working of the seeds was more powerful than that of the root; he tells us that an infusion 'being dropped into the eyes taketh away their redness or dimness.... It is highly recommended to drink the decoction of the herb for agues.... The distilled water is good for quinsy if the mouth and throat be gargled and washed therewith.... The decoction drunk three or four times a day is effectual in pleurisy.... The leaves bruised and fried with a little hog's lard and laid hot to any blotch or boil will quickly break it.'

Several species of this umbelliferous genus are employed as domestic medicines. The root of LIGUSTICUM SINENSE, under the name of KAO-PÂU, is largely used by the Chinese, and in the north-western United States the large, aromatic roots of LIGUSTICUM FILICINUM (OSHA COLORADO COUGH-ROOT) are used to a considerable extent as stimulating expectorants.

The old-fashioned cordial, 'Lovage,' now not much in vogue, though still occasionally to be found in public-houses, is brewed not only from the Garden Lovage, Ligusticum levisticum, but mainly from a species of Milfoil or Yarrow, Achillea ligustica, and from Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, and probably owes its merit more to these herbs than to Lovage itself. From its use in this cordial, Milfoil has often been mistakenly called Lovage, though it is in no way related to the Umbellifer family.

Several other plants have been termed Lovage besides the true Lovage, and this has frequently caused confusion. Thus we have the SCOTCH LOVAGE, known also as Sea Lovage, or Scotch Parsley, and botanically as Ligusticum scoticum; the BLACK LOVAGE, or Alexanders, Smyrnium Olusatrum; BASTARD LOVAGE, a species of the allied genus, Laserpitum, and WATER LOVAGE, a species of the genus Cenanthe.

Laserpitum may be distinguished from its allies by the fruit having eight prominent, wing-like appendages. The species are perennial herbs, chiefly found in south-eastern Europe. Some of them are employed as domestic remedies, on account of their aroma.

The scent of the root of MEUM ATHAMANTICUM (Jacq.), SPIGNEL (also called Spikenel or Spiknel), MEU or BALD-MONEY, has much in common with that of both Lovage and Angelica, and the root has been eaten by the Scotch Highlanders as a vegetable. It is a perennial, smooth and very aromatic herb. The elongated root is crowned with fibres, the leaves, mostly springing from the root, are divided into leaflets which are further cut into numerous thread-like segments, which gives them a feathery appearance. The stem is about 6 or 8 inches high, and bears umbels of white or purplish flowers. The aromatic flavour of the leaves is somewhat like Melilot, and is communicated to milk and butter when cows feed on the herbage in the spring. The peculiar name of this plant, 'Baldmoney,' is said to be a corruption of Balder, the Apollo of the northern nations, to whom the plant was dedicated.

Garlic harvesting

2009-07-16T10:13:00.003+01:00

Harvested about 120 garlic heads, fair size and most have developed 6 or 7 separate cloves. They were dried by the sun for one day then brought indoors to dry down on newspaper for several weeks, i will then string the bulbs together and hang in an airy room for the final drying process. There will be no need to purchase garlic now for the following 9 months hopefully, happy days!

Leeks and Folklore

2009-05-06T18:38:00.002+01:00

Harvested the last of the Leeks, parsley bushes growing well more on parsley and its uses and importance as a multi vitamin and super food.
The Folklore. Leeks have been cultivated for thousands of years—they’re even mentioned in the Bible. The Emperor Nero ate them in great quantity, believing they improved his singing voice, earning him the nickname Porophagus ("leek eater"). The Facts. The lowly leek looks like a scallion on steroids. Indeed, it’s in the same family, along with garlic, onions and shallots. However, its flavor is more subtle than any of its cousins. Wild leeks, called ramps, are related, though they are more strongly flavored than the cultivated leeks you find in the supermarket. As a member of the Allium family, leeks contain the same healthful sulfur compounds found in garlic and onions, but in smaller amounts; you’ll need to eat more of leeks to reap the same benefits. Leeks also bring benefits like manganese, vitamin C, folate, vitamin B6 and iron.

Both Greeks and Romans favored this mild-tasting vegetable from the onion family for its curative properties in aiding the sore throat. Aristotle claimed that a diet of leeks contributed to the clear voice of the partridge. But it was in Wales—a country known as the Land Of Song—where this vegetable was elevated to a national emblem, and is even found on some British one pound coins today.

History and folklore pertaining to the leek yield a variety of anecdotes. The vegetable is believed to have been around for about 4,000 years. St. David—who founded many monasteries—is said to have survived on a limited diet of bread, water, watercress and leeks. About sixty years after his death, some say seventh century Welsh warriors adorned their helmets with leeks to identify which side of the battle they were on as Saxons invaded, fighting in leek fields. The Welsh won, and today St. David’s Day, the national holiday of Wales, is celebrated every March 1 with leeks (and daffodils, the national flower) decorating caps and worn as corsages. Curiously, the word for leek and daffodil is the same in the Welsh language (spoken by about one in six of the country’s three million residents).

In Wales, the peninsula of the western part of Britain, some holiday traditions include a drummer, fifer, (and sometimes a goat) parading around the table while a drum major carries a silver platter filled with leeks.

Plated some Lovage in The herb garden

2009-04-22T23:05:00.002+01:00

Herbs > Lovage Herb

Information on, uses of and how to grow lovage:

Name
Levisticum officinale.

Family
Apaceae.

History
Lovage was used in early times as a bath herb. It cleans and deodorizes the skin.

Growing pattern
Perennial.

How to grow
Sow Lovage seeds in the spring if in its permanent position or in summer if you want to transplant the plants in the autumn. Only a few plants are needed. The roots can be divided in the spring just as the leaves appear. Make sure that the roots have a shoot and replant them 60 cm apart.

Soil condition/position
Lovage requires a moist, sunny position. Plant them at the back of the herb garden as they grow very tall.

Appearance
Grows to 150cm plus.

Uses
Lovage leaves are used in soups and gravies. The leaves have a celery like taste and so it can be used to good effect in vegetable soup. The young stalks and leaves are tasty cooked as a vegetable. Peel or scrape the stalks, chop them and boil in salted water until tender. Serve with a white sauce. The crushed seeds and chopped leaves can be added to omelettes, the seeds having the stronger flavour. The young stems of Lovage can be candied like Angelica and a good cordial can be made from this. Lovage broth made from the seeds is traditionally a diuretic and appetite stimulant.

Early signs of Food to come

2009-04-03T16:32:00.004+01:00

The sun is shining, the temperature is rising in the valley, all around the greenery is returning. So in the garden the perpetual spinach is breaking through and last years planting is harvesting again. The onion, shallot and garlic are all poking through the soil. The Garlic is purple and looking very strong, also the Elephant garlic looks promising. Harvested some large Rhubarb shoots today.Plenty of lettuce seedlings coming through. Planted lemon grass and Fennel to add to the herb collection.

Wild Garlic - Ramsons

2009-03-23T20:41:00.005Z

If you go down to the woods today , there you will find a plentiful supply of Wild Garlic. This is true also of the surrounding areas of the river Dart.

Wild garlic (also known as ramsons) is one of the first signs of spring, the leaves poking through the soil in brilliant green blades as early as mid-January.

This year it was a bit late but certainly in the south of England whole patches of woodland are now carpeted in lush growth. The leaves are slender and spear-shaped and the giveaway is the strong, garlicky smell that hits you before you notice the plant. Garlic is a bit like coffee – the smell can often be much more pleasant than the taste – but the joy of wild garlic is that the leaves are much milder than the bulbs.

Wild garlic is a species native to the UK and an indicator of an ancient woodland. The plant blooms between April and June and is one of my favourite sights of the year – each beautiful cluster of star-shaped white flowers forms, en masse, a shimmering vision of snow in summer that smells as if you're in a top-class Italian. The flowers are also edible and make an arresting garnish. Once the flowers appear though, the leaves can lose their pungency and become tough so search for younger, fresher specimens.

Garlic is incredibly healthy as it contains allicin, which is thought to be anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. Other compounds found in garlic are reportedly good for circulation and keep the cardiovascular and immune systems functioning efficiently.
wild garlic chopped Finely chopped wild garlic can freshen up a salad or soup.

• Brush extra virgin olive oil across a slice of bread, preferably sour dough
• Toast on a hot griddle on each side
• Sprinkle with finely chopped garlic leaves, sea salt crystals and pepper and add a splash of extra virgin olive oil.

You can also tear up the leaves or add small ones whole to a green salad, scrunch them over a pizza as it comes out of the oven, use finely chopped as a garnish for soup, or add to an omelette. They also work well in a tomato sauce for pasta: fry thin slices of garlic with a bunch of chopped wild garlic leaves in olive oil and add a can of tomatoes; simmer gently to reduce and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with extra wild garlic.

Normally, you'll find a plentiful supply of wild garlic but please don't dig up the bulbs. Commercial garlic has been bred to be fatter and more tender in any case but removing the bulbs depletes the numbers of plants that would otherwise appear next year.

Take back the Land!!!!!

2009-03-13T20:22:00.001Z

Seeds are a sowing.......spring

2009-03-11T19:10:00.003Z

Sowed perpetual spinach, spicy lettuce, purple lettuce and lemon balm. Also some basil and the pumpkin seeds were sown under cover.
Removed some more perennial weeds from the root and above, all seems well and the growing season has begun under the spring full moon!

Spring is in the air......

2009-02-26T17:35:00.005Z

The last few days have been spent hoeing and digging over the allotment, carefully removing perennial weeds remembering to remove every trace of the root system or else up it will pop again. Working in the previous autumn's manure and edging the sides of the allotment to prevent grass roots penetrating.
I have planted about 150 white onion sets, 20 red onion and about 20 shallots, in a different place to last year as to avoid any disease setting in by always planting the same crops in the same area of the garden (crop rotation).
Also today i planted the chitted early potatoes in three rows about 12 inches apart.
The rhubarb is coming along well as are the lamb's lettuce planted under a cloche just before winter.
I have had to cover the kale plants with netting to prevent the wood pigeons descimating them, so should be able to harvest some more soon. The composting bin is doing its job well and is full of worms, working a way at the waste therein.

Devon , good for cats and humans!!!

2009-02-09T18:06:00.002Z

The Oldest Domestic Cat

The average life expectancy for a neutered, well looked after cat is now 15 - 17 years for a male and 17 - 19 years for a female. However, Ma, a female tabby owned by Alice St. George Moore of Drewsteignton, Devon, UK was 24 years old when she died in 1957. This record was actually beaten by another tabby - Puss, owned by Mrs Holway of Clayhidon, Devon, UK. He was 36 years old when he died in 1939. So if you're a cat and you want to live a long life, it might be worth moving to Devon. I wonder whether humans fare as well there ?

Winter Harvesting - Preparation times.....

2009-01-28T20:12:00.004Z

Got the garden sussed this winter as i am harvesting still enough vegetables for the table. Today i gathered Two sorts of Kale both purple and green, Red Chard,spinach,Leeks and brussel tops. The Snowdrops were popping up, sweet perfumed flowers , the earth bursts forth and life starts to create it's woven fabric over the land.
Collected Pentland javelin (new potato) seed potatoes, these have been placed near a bright window, but, out of direct sunlight to chit. The name for the method of obtaining short green shoots, takes about a month, they are then ready for planting.
Also collected white onion sets for planting soon, last year, they were very successful unlike the red onions which due to the constant rain tended to bolt early before fully maturing.
The Broad beans have overwintered well and the Many Garlic bulbs planted on the winter solstice are peeping out of the earth.
Here's hoping for a sunny warm spring and summer this year.....dream on!

IMBOLG a new beginning

2009-01-25T22:18:00.001Z

Mother Earth stirs from her Winter's sleep

The thaw has begun and her mountains weep

With musical notes the water runs down

As I glimpse our Mother's fertile new gown

The snowdrops nod gently in the evening's hush

Their dark green leaves, silky and lush

I wend my way through the forest of rebirth

Seeing visions of the life force and feeling new mirth

In the snow that remains, small feet leave their mark

A trail of a fox, hurrying home before dark

My eyes are now drawn towards the hill

Where the end of Winter is celebrated still

I stride to the East, making haste to this rite

Under the Moon, the Queen of the night

Happy voices call friendly greetings to me

Flames illuminate the faces I see

Embraces and kisses are eagerly claimed

The Winter is over as the Wheel turns again

I am cleansed and prepared for the months ahead

As my feet crunch the leaves, my worries are dead

I ask of the Goddess that she empower me

And bring hope, fun and laughter with clarity

Cooking Cabbage back in the day....

2009-01-18T17:12:00.003Z

Survival gardening

2009-01-01T12:47:00.001Z

Back in the 1930s before the creation of the welfare state, Britain went through a recession, well a slump actually, the mother of all recessions. Those workers who had jobs found their wages cut and those who didn’t have work got precious little dole. When the workers weren’t being paid enough to live on, there’s no way that the dole provided an easy life so these people had to supplement their incomes.

Their gardens became food production areas, a few chickens fed on scraps and what the garden provided, made the difference between malnutrition and health. In those days, ill health was pretty serious. No welfare state, no NHS to provide healthcare free to all according to need.

There’s no way that you could describe those as the ‘good old days’ - rickets, a softening of the bones in children short of Vitamin D and calcium, was common as were ringworm, head and body lice.

Yet many of those people, despite appalling deprivation by today’s standards, managed to provide much of the basic foods from their back gardens and allotments. A farm worker would return home after a long hard day of manual labour and tend his cottage garden. Not for some attractive flowers but to ensure his family had food enough to eat that his meagre wages could not provide.

If a farm worker turned his garden all over to potatoes then he was known to be looking at moving on to a new job and was cashing in the fertility he had built up in his tied cottage’s garden before moving to the next. That was truly gardening for survival

Survival Gardening Today - Why?

Nowadays we face a totally different set of problems in our lives. We have a National Health Service that, for all its well publicised faults, looks after us when we are ill. Yet as a nation, along with other nations of the developed world, we’re suffering an epidemic of obesity.

For every advert on our televisions extolling the virtues of some food there’s another offering help in losing weight if not miracle cures. The semi-erotic voiceover of Marks & Spencer’s ‘This is not just food, this is Marks & Spencer food’ distracts from one simple fact, these are factory made ready meals. Meanwhile, ‘Mums go to Iceland’ implying they know a secret way, going to that shop, to provide decent food for a family at an affordable price. A hidden message of empowerment and freedom from drudgery.

After eating these factory made foods, what better than yoghurt with special bacteria and fibre drinks or pills to relieve bowel problems? Cereals that promise to drop a jean size and schools to teach you how to lose weight.

Yet when all is said and done, generally our weight is a simple equation. The calories in should equal calories out to maintain our weight. Reduce ‘calories in‘ or increase ‘calories out‘ and weight will be lost.

There’s no doubt that growing your own vegetables takes hard work. Digging over is just the start, weeding and planting, re-building a compost heap all use energy and increase our ‘calories out‘.

When you grow your own you find vegetables taste wonderful. It’s quite simple, they’re as fresh as possible and the varieties are grown for flavour not for shelf-life, appearance and ability to travel. So your diet hopefully becomes healthier with more vegetables providing bulk with fibre, to relieve those bowel problems, vitamins and reducing the amounts of fats and processed sugars that add so many calories to our diet. Reducing the ‘calories in‘

Our finances nowadays are different, even those living on benefits can get enough to eat and although you can argue their time would be better spent earning money than gardening, there’s no doubt gardening and especially allotment gardening with its social interaction is good for our mental health. It teaches planning, patience and how life interacts.

The financial savings are not to be ignored though. There are few hobbies that actually pay you. My best estimate is that an allotment can save the average family around £800 a year off their food bill. Surely growing your own and being ‘paid’ is a better use of time than sitting watching rubbish on the television.

So I contend that growing your own is, if no longer a matter of survival, beneficial to our personal health.

Global Survival Gardening

There’s more to it than our personal health though. Our farming industry is mainly in thrall to the supermarket chains that provide the vast majority of our food. Yes you can buy organic foods and food from farmer’s markets etc but they’re not cheap. For someone trying to live on the breadline, there is no choice. For many of our elderly the choice is between heating and eating not organic and conventional.

This pressure on the farming industry means they have to be efficient to make a living. This drive for efficiency means the farmer is often forced to choose between animal husbandry standards they would like to follow and cutting corners to keep the price down.

This results in the obscenity of battery hens and staff so divorced from the stock that they played baseball with live turkeys as the ball. Although there are strict controls on pesticide and herbicide use, you have to speculate if these are adhered to in practice by all. Tests carried out by the Soil Association would cast doubt on that obedience to the rules.

Growing your own sends a message to the supermarkets that effectively control our food. We have a choice.

Food Miles & Exploitation

The last thing I would mention is food miles and exploitation. Our desire to eat what we want regardless of the season means that much of our food is imported from poor countries across the globe.

The irony is that we buy food from countries where the exporters don’t have enough to eat for themselves. It’s not just food, either. Guess where many of those cut flowers come from?

I know some people don’t agree that global warming is a serious problem caused by our actions as a species. That’s their prerogative, they can believe the earth is flat if they want. I believe the damage to our environment we have caused threatens our civilisation if not our very existence as a species in the long run.

Growing your own is not the total solution to the climate change problem but, as the dominant supermarket chain in the UK likes to tell us, ‘Every little helps‘

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.....

2008-12-30T15:18:00.003Z

The first green shoots of the young Rhubarb plant are visible in the garden, broadbeans are 2 inches high and looking strong. Still harvesting Red Cabbage, Kale, Brussels, spinach, chard and some mustard lettuce leaves. Many leeks are awaiting harvest soon.

Rhubarb is an wonderful plant, with many uses and application. Since June 1994 these web pages have been available to anyone interested in gaining an understanding and appreciation of this fine vegetable. This compendium is a collection of rhubarb information from many sources. Some of the information is from world wide web pages or postings to various news groups (rec.gardens, rec.food.cooking, rec.food.recipes), some is from my own personal rhubarb growing experience, and some has been directly contributed by friends, associates, and visitors to The Rhubarb Compendium.

This compendium is divided into a series of short chapters to make reading easy and downloading the many (conveniently sized) images faster.

Transition Town Totnes

2008-12-29T20:54:00.001Z

WAKE UP!! IT'S YER LOCAL ENERGY DISSENT PLAN...

SCHNEWS FAILS TO UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE OF CLIMATE GROUP

As global capitalism and its failing markets threaten to fall around our ears, it must be worth imagining what a different way of doing things might look like. And working towards it.

That’s what the Transition Towns (TT) supporters want to do. TT's are a 'think global act local' strategy for fighting climate change first put forward by an permaculture academic, Rob Hopkins, in 2005/6 in Kinsale, Ireland. It was first exported to the UK in Totnes, Devon - and converts have been eagerly promoting the idea ever since.

And the message seems to be getting through. In the past couple of years the concept (and the leafleting) has been spreading around the country, nay, the world, with over a 100 communities signed up from all over the UK as well as Australia, New Zealand, Chile, the US and most recently, Japan.

The movement has also been hitting the headlines here in the UK recently, with just the other week a small town a few miles down the road from SchNEWS towers, Lewes, proudly launching it’s own currency to much media fanfare.

With such an emergent new force for social change, you’d think we might have mentioned it in SchNEWS before – it’s obviously long overdue for us to put the boot in, er we mean, provide an unbiased and dispassionate rational analysis of the whole shebang.

So what’s the big idea? Transition Towns (TT) make a good case for the need to change. They recognise the pressing threats of climate change and peak oil (OK, well, the end of super-abundant cheap oil we can agree on, at least - see SchNEWS 644). This means that the globalised, air-mile, oil-driven nonsense needs to stop and more locally based, lower carbon living solutions are needed. The question is, how are we going to get there? But they are not calling for major reform or revolution – the clue is in the name, folks! - they are looking for an ordered gradual switch over – a transition. The way they propose this should come about is a somewhat tortuous affair, with the resultant danger that the eco-system or global economic system (or both) may collapse in the meantime.

To start the process of your whole town, or city, being designated a ‘TT’, all that is needed is a small group of well-meaning committed do-gooders, usually PR friendly middle-class types, to form a Transition Group. This group then works on publicising themselves, arranging film showings, printing leaflets and networking.

Once momentum has been sufficiently built, the group can then hold a great ‘public unleashing’ where the plan goes ‘live’. As well as a wave of talks, trades and skills workshops and green-inspired local projects such as tree planting and small permaculture schemes, the main plank of the plan involves gradually formulating a Local Energy Descent Plan’ (LEDP), to map out how the local community might one day become more self sufficient, less oil dependant and much greener. If enough local businesses, people and councillors go along with it, or palatable parts of it, the town can officially adopt the mantle of a ‘Transition Town’ and brand itself accordingly.

Measures suggested include the laudable aims of reducing the reliance on multinational corporations for food and goods production, improving energy use and efficiency, increasing recycling, reducing car dependency and a host of other lefty-green objectives. It’s a ‘big tent’ which allows it to scoop up the efforts of a range of social change groups under one large banner.

So what’s the problem? Whilst it’s hard to be too disparaging – these are all people with the best intentions, attempting to actually take some sort of action as opposed to sitting idly by and waiting for the big collapse - and some change for the good is obviously better than none, there are some flaws in the thinking.

Firstly, TT acknowledge that they have no desire to do away with all the trappings of capitalist society – merely reduce local dependence on it, gradually. They avoid taking on the political roots of all the problems and concentrate on symptoms. A key aim is to get the local council on board. Which many have been surprisingly willing to do...up to a point. Local government itself is charged by central government with working out how to roll out various greenish initiatives, such as to minimise energy needs and increase recycling levels for example, and the LEDP overlaps to some degree with many of their own blueprints for the future – as long as it’s controlled and the results leave the status quo as little changed as possible, with power flowing upwards, private money still in charge of all those recycling facilities and a capitalistic model still underpinning the local economy.

So the council can now use the TT brand wagon to increase uptake of these plans on a wave of public enthusiasm, whilst simultaneously seeming uber green and championing the local over the national. Put this way, its easy to see why many a town hall bigwig are talking up the scheme.

Which explains why Lewes council are so behind the latest big venture in the TT vision of the future – launching local currencies. As people previously used to get hanged for such impertinence as starting yer own money, there must be a catch. And there is.

The Lewes Pound (LP) was unveiled last week with a windfall of media coverage. As global financial markets have been taking a beating, perhaps this was a model for the brave new world? Er, not really. Because it isn’t actually a currency at all. It’s actually an ingenious scheme using existing book token legislation. It involves effectively buying a certain amount of sterling (in Lewes’ case, £10,000) and then issuing vouchers to the equivalent value, accepted in local shops signing up the scheme.

Which many local shops in Lewes were of course only too happy to do – a welcome free boost to trade as consumers voluntarily pledge to spend their cash with them. Who wouldn’t?
The idea is that the LP will increase interest in spending more cash locally, which in theory keeps more of the profit generated circulating locally, as opposed to being syphoned out of the community and into the pockets of global institutions (like Tesco, for example) and their shareholders.

Which is great, surely. Well yes, except that the vouchers are redeemable back into cash any time you, or a business-owner wishes - presumably for going shopping at Tesco or making more import deals with third-world tat suppliers.

And one of the stated aims of the year long test project is to get national chains accepting them – which seems a rather strange measure of success and contradicts the whole stated purpose.
Money already spent in local shops will continue circulating with little effect on the outside world. While OK for PR and raising public awareness of the explotation by global corporations, it's not achieving more than affecting a few better-off people’s spending habits.

In any event, in Lewes, the big launch has not really gone as planned. Whilst there was massive interest and local flag-waving parochial support for the LP, the well-meaning urging of the TT organisers to keep circulating the vouchers and not change them back into cash has not exactly been heeded.

All the LP notes ‘sold out’ in hours... only to be hoarded and swiftly offered on Ebay for up to £40 for one Lewes Pound as the local populace immediately capitalised on the opportunity to indulge in some rampant currency speculation!

They reasoned that as there is a limited supply of individually numbered LP’s, they will in the future be highly collectable - and there have been no shortage of over-the-odds buyers, leaving the whole scheme looking somewhat farcical.

The TT group – having considered but eventually rejected the idea of selling LPs itself for £10 each in order to lesson the black marketeering, have now pledged to print up some more stock - although whether they’ll ever be able to afford to devalue the LP enough to out-bankroll the speculators remains to be seen!

As does the overall effect of the Transition Towns movement itself. Whilst we broadly support many of its stated objectives, we cannot see how failing to plan for the much more radical reform of society needs will really work. Attempting to push the existing power structures into implementing some of the required measures will only ever lead to partial change and speaks mainly to people who want things more or less as they are, only slightly greener.

...But we could be wrong! To judge for yourself (and don’t let us put you off working for more localisation and all things green!)

See www.transitiontowns.org

* The Trapese collective’s in depth critique of the Transition Movement is available at www.sparror.cubecinema.com/stuffit/trapese

Hyssop Herb

2008-12-27T17:08:00.005Z

The Herb is An ingredient in absinthe.........

www.mazatecgarden.com/products/mazatec_garden_esoteric_herbs.htm

Herbs > Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

Historically, lepers were required cleanse themselves with hyssop before they were allowed to receive visits from healthier relatives. Even then, it was known that hyssop was an excellent cleansing herb. More recently, it has been discovered that hyssop leaves can sometimes grow the type of mould which produces penicillin, making it an effective antibiotic.

Healing uses:
Hyssop is used in the treatment of lung inflammation, sore throats and laryngitis. It can be particularly beneficial to individuals who are required to use their voice, such as lecturers, public speakers or singers, as it also soothes tired vocal cords. For this purpose, it should be taken as a tea. Add 2 tablespoons of hyssop leaves to 500ml of boiling water, and allow to stand for 30 minutes. Reheat, if necessary, so that the liquid is very warm.
This tea can also be used to alleviate bruising. Apply the liquid with a cotton ball until the swelling and discolouration have subsided.
For a black eye, place a small bunch of hyssop into a muslin bag and soak the bag in boiling water for a minute. When it has cooled to a temperature which is just bearable to the touch, apply to the eye. Reheat the bag as it cools, and continue to apply until the bruising diminishes.
Hyssop boiled with vinegar makes a rinse which relieves the pain of toothache. Gently simmer 2 teaspoons of hyssop leaves in 1/2 cup of vinegar for about 5 minutes. Strain and swill about the mouth, then spit out the mixture.

Cautions:
Diabetics should not take hyssop internally.

Other Uses:
The small white butterflies which eat cabbages in the garden can be lured away by a few hyssop plants growing nearby. The butterflies will always choose the hyssop over the cabbages, particularly if the hyssop is in flower. In addition, hyssop flowers will coax bees into the garden, and its roots cleanse the soil and discourage soil pests. It should not be planted near radishes, however, as the two are incompatible and the hyssop will cause the radishes to have little flavour.

Growing Hyssop:
Hyssop grows from seed, which should be planted in spring. It grows very quickly, and requires very few special conditions. Its only real requirement is plenty of sunshine, without which it will not flower.

Growing salvia Divinorum

2008-12-25T14:45:00.003Z

Well She is in the window, with the right care i should be able to cultivate this cutting, there are already many Peyote buttons placed in every window of the house, some grown from seed that are 3 years old, still , more on that at a later date, simply follow the instuctions....

Salvia divinorum is the queen of magical mysterious plants. She requires patience, understanding, and acceptance of her often terrifying lessons. She won’t tolerate being just a curiosity, or used for thrill seeking behavior. She desires that you create a relationship with her. Even if you have never seen a live Salvia divinorum plant and have only used the dried leaves, that relationship must still be cultivated. Those who choose to not do this are usually scared shitless when they finally do force a breakthrough. But by growing this magical teacher she learns about you and what your intentions are.

Growing her in itself is a magical experience. Yet there is probably no other plant that instills such an utter fear in beginner cultivators. When I went to bring her home from the greenhouse I bought her at, I almost expected to see her in some specially controlled atmospheric chamber with tubes and misting nozzles everywhere, and the dull whine of compressors and life support systems. Instead I was handed this tough looking little plant with a thick stem and yellowish green leaves that was sitting on the table by the door of the greenhouse. In awe of this little plant I brought her home and started to grow her.

One thing to this day has always amazed me about this plant though, its amazing characteristic for adaptability. With the right setup it can not only survive any climate, but you can even go on vacation for two weeks and still see her alive when you come back. Yet not just alive but thriving! In this article I hope to dispel the myths about this wonderful plant and give you some tips on making Salvia divinorum wonderfully easy to grow and care for.

So to start off, I’m going to give you my secret setup that will keep your plant healthy even if you forget to water, mist, or even if you go on vacation for 2 weeks.

First thing you will need is a very large clay pot. At least one foot in diameter for one plant and the larger pots for 2 or more plants. Remember that salvia like lots of room to spread her roots and doesn’t take well to transplanting too often. Take your rooted cutting or small plant and get it ready for transplanting. Take ¼" polyester rope (must be polyester, nylon or anything else probably won’t work) and put it in a pan of water for 10 minutes. Then feed it through the hole in the bottom of the pot so you only have 1-2 feet of rope hanging out the bottom. Then start spiraling it through the soil in the clay pot.

The easiest way to do this is to put a couple of inches of soil down and circle the rope around a couple inches from the sides and each time it nears itself put another layer of soil in. Remember it’s very important to leave about 1-2 feet of rope hanging out the bottom of the pot when you begin. As you approach the top with layers of soil and circling rope its time to put your rooted cutting or small plant in now. Once its in, keep spiraling the rope up to the top of the soil. Once the soil is level with the soil you transplanted in with the plant take the rope and circle it around the stem of the plant so it is flat with the top of the soil. If you look from the top it should look like a spiral. It should not look like you wrapped your plant in rope.

Then cover with soil until you cannot see the rope anymore. Next find yourself a milk crate or other platform with a hole in it to let the rope go through. Find an empty container around the house and put it under the platform and let the rope hang into it. The closer the water level is to the bottom of the pot the more efficient the wicking will work. Water your plant thoroughly to start the system. There you have it, you have just created a wicking system that will water your plants continuously at a rate they choose. A soil mix that works well with this system is ½ rich dark potting soil, (without vermiculite or perlite added) ¼ vermiculite, and ¼ or a bit more perlite. The richer the potting soil the better, which is much like the soil in Salvia’s native region. The vermiculite holds moisture and the perlite promotes aeration of the soil and along with the clay pot will make sure enough air gets to the roots.

With the wicking system outlined above you should never have to water the plant ever again, kind of. You do have to fill up the container of water when it gets low. And if the top of the soil dries out you should mist it until it moistens again. But depending on the size of your container you may not have to add water for weeks at a time. But do keep in mind as the water level gets lower, more rope is exposed to the air, and the less efficient the system becomes. But it can easily sustain a plant for weeks. You can even add your fertilizer right to the water container.

Now that you have watering under control the last thing to do is build a humidity tent. This is important especially if you just received your plant from a greenhouse or made a cutting. At this stage the plant is very used to high humidity and if you don’t keep it in a humidity tent at this point it will die. What I do, is get a bunch of 3 foot plastic rods/dowels (wood will work but be careful of mold and rot). I put about 5 in the pot along the sides at the very edge. This will hold up the plastic. Now the best size plastic I have found is the plastic window insulation kits. They are kind of expensive and substituting plastic drop cloths work just as well. The thing I like is that really good double stick tape comes with it. Put a layer of double stick tape to the outside of the clay pot a couple inches from the top. Stick the plastic to the tape and wrap it around the dowels. Take the extra plastic sticking up above the dowels and twist it into a knot.

There you go, you now have a very large pot, a large humidity tent and a teeny weenie little plant. Don’t worry, that’s exactly how it should be. If the humidity tent is too small mold will grow too quickly and not enough carbon dioxide will get to the plant. Once the plant starts growing at a good steady rate you can untie the tent and just leave it draped closed. Let that sit for about 2 weeks. Then start leaving it draped more and more open over the space of another 2 weeks. Finally let the top be completely open and let it grow like that for another 2 weeks. After that take out the dowels and roll the plastic down. You can either take the plastic off completely or leave it attached for when you go on vacation. When the plant no longer has a humidity tent on it make sure you mist it 1-2 times a day for a week. Then you can start to not mist quite as often. Once a day is still the best but even if its only once every 3 days it will be O.K., you may just have slight browning of the tips of the leaves. Nothing major though. Depending on where you live and your relative humidity you may need to go slower adapting it or mist more often.

So there it is, the no-brainer Salvia divinorum setup. If you need to go on vacation just put the humidity tent back up, seal it and fill up your container of water that feeds the wicking system. When you get back adapt her back to regular humidity. It won’t take as long as that first time but it still may take a bit of time. You also may want to give it a good watering at least once a month to refresh the system and wash out any accumulating salts.

The next part of this article will deal with common problems and solutions for growing Salvia divinorum, and a bit of extra info on growing it efficiently. Most of these are my approaches to problems I have experienced and have worked for me. They aren’t guaranteed to work for everyone but they should, very well in fact.

Humidity

One thing about Salvia divinorum is that it is readily adaptable to many different growing conditions. Everyone seems to think this plant will just keel over if the humidity is any lower then 50%. This is just not true. Salvia divinorum does like humidity, I’ll admit that, but she doesn’t NEED it. She will adapt to very low humidity situations if given time to adapt. The amazing part is that she makes a magical transformation in the way she looks when grown without high humidity. The picture of one of my plants below is a good example of this.

Notice the difference in the upper and lower leaves. The lower ones have a silvery haze around the main vein and are much darker green. They also seem to droop a bit more. Then there are the upper leaves that stand out flat and have a distinct shape and visible texture. Also they tend to be a bit lighter shade of green. These are not leaves from two different plant. They show the difference in leaves when grown in high and low humidity. The upper leaves were grown with low humidity and the lower leaves were grown with very high humidity. It’s absolutely amazing to me that a plant can completely change appearance with different growing conditions.

One interesting thing is that once a leaf has changed its appearance to a high humidity leaf like in the picture It doesn’t go back very easily. When adapting your plant to a new humidity or growing condition it actually needs to grow a whole new set of leaves. That’s why we adapted it in our system above so slowly. Those high humidity leaves will ALWAYS brown at the edges and tips, some more then others. There’s nothing you can do about it. Pick them off once you get a set of adapted leaves about medium size. These new leaves will be much more resilient to lower humidity conditions. Yet if you want them to go back to being high humidity leaves put them back in a humidity tent and they will slowly become much like the high humidity leaves. They just don’t go back… I’ve always wondered if the potency is different between the two types of leaves. Maybe I’ll find out in a future experiment.

So if your leaves are browning at the edges and tips you are either adapting it too quickly or you are looking at high humidity leaves. Are your newer low humidity leaves doing the same? If they are then you need to think about re-adjusting it slower or misting more often. Remember with each new leaf grown it will adapt better and better to the current growing conditions.

Another problem I have encountered and still don’t quite know why, is that in the evening my plants inside of the humidity tent will wilt. I just cut it back and made a cutting of it and it stopped. I think harvesting a few large leaves would also help. I think the reason this happens is that a high rate of water uptake by the roots is happening when the sun is beating on the leaves. When the light levels go down there isn’t as much transpiration going on pulling up water so the cells lose some of their turgidity and it wilts a bit. It always seems to perk back up in the morning though..

Watering

This is assuming you did not opt to go with the system I outlined above. If you are watering too much you may be starving the roots for air. A clay pot and perlite in the soil will help avoid this VERY common mistake with Salvia. A sure indication that you are over watering is the appearance of thin fuzzy roots criss-crossing the top of the soil. Salvia likes moist soil but needs a lot of air in the soil also. If you are watering too much, or have your pot sitting in a saucer that collects the draining water you will suffocate the roots and will soon have a problem with rot also. Never keep your plant in a saucer to catch draining water. It will wick up through the soil and not let air get to the roots. If you’ve caught the situation before rot sets in just let the soil start drying out.. Don’t water until the soil starts drying at the very top. Then water until its moist. This is always a bit tricky to know how much and when to water. That’s why the wicking system works so well. The plant and soil decides when it needs to bring up more water. The dryer the soil gets the more water will be wicked up, to a point. If the soil is saturated no more water will be brought up.

If you’ve watered too much for too long or let it sit in a pan of water, rot will eventually occur. There is no saving your original plant now.. It starts at the very bottom of the stem turning it brown and eventually mushy. The only way to save it now is to make as many cuttings as possible. Put them in little containers with moist soil in a plastic bag out of direct sunlight. Let them root and try again. You can root cuttings in various ways so I won’t go over that, especially since I haven’t found a perfect method myself.

Sunlight

Your Salvia divinorum needs light, but not a huge amount. If you adapt her slowly you can get her used to 4-5 hours of direct sunlight a day. But beware of sunburn. Sunburn at least on my plants appears as though a brown dye is injected from the stem into the leaves and moves toward the tip. It is a deep brown and is a bit mushy similar to what rotted leaves or stems look like. You will have to cut the sunburned portion off if it is too bad or it won’t regain its usual growth rate. Currently I have my plants next to a window that gets a ton of indirect sunlight but no direct sun. I think she is doing better now then when she got 2 hours of direct sun a day and shade the rest. I’ll have to wait and see if she actually is growing faster and better. But what I still recommend is at least 1-2 hours of direct morning or afternoon sun, and as much indirect sun as she can soak up. You can adjust her to more if you do it slowly though.

Growth and Development

Keep in mind that salvia will start off growing very slowly. Also every time you transplant it will take her a while to adjust and it will take time before she starts growing quickly again. I have found the larger she grows the faster she grows until she reaches her optimum growth rate. So just be patient and if you’ve already waited a month or two and she hasn’t sped up try a little fertilizer. Miracid or Miracle Gro work pretty well. The last thing that will inhibit Salvia growth is too small a pot. When I want to grow another plant for myself I usually root the cutting and then put that cutting directly into the pot it will have for a very long time. I may only have a 2 inch tall plant in a foot and a half diameter pot. This will ensure plenty of room for the roots to grow and also so I won’t have to transplant it. If the pot is too small it will become root bound or just slow down growth. Then when you re-pot it will take it time to get back to its regular growth rate.

Lastly when I first got my plant the leaves seemed to be yellow and thick and I prefer greener, more succulent leaves. So I started with a bit more fertilizer and gave it less light. I find the more shaded and humid it is the darker the leaves are.

Maximizing Leaf Output

Christmas tree growers do it. Shrubbery growers do it. Even YOU do it every time you cut your hedges. Its called pinching by some, but what is it and how does it work? Its very simple. At the very tip of a branch, stem, etc., there is a region called the apical meristem at the apical bud. This region is where all the cell division happens and new growth occurs. It also makes a chemical called Indole acetic acid (IAA). This chemical inhibits all the buds at the leaf nodes (where the leaf attaches to the stem) from growing. If the apical meristem creates a lot of IAA it has a high apical dominance and it usually only has one stem and no branches. Sunflowers are like this. If it has medium apical dominance and creates lower levels of IAA it has fewer branches at the top where the concentration of IAA is high and at the bottom it has many more branches where IAA concentration is lower. Christmas trees are like this. And finally plants with low apical dominance are very bushy and branch often. So how does all this botanical crap help you? Well very simply, if you remove the apical meristem you cut off the production of IAA from that bud. It then branches from that point and depending on how much IAA the lateral buds (lower buds at each node) make, your plant may branch at each node. So every time you take a cutting off Salvia divinorum it will branch at the highest intact node.
Even if you don’t want to take a cutting you can pinch that bud off and it will branch there. So instead of having a tall straight plant with only 4-8 large leaves near the top, it becomes more bushy and creates many more leaves. Just remember though that if you start too high it will get too heavy and break off. So start when it is only 6-8 inches or smaller so the stem can support the bushy growth. This is the very thing you do when you cut your hedges. Your cutting off the apical meristems and causing it to branch and fill out. By doing this to a Salvia divinorum plant you will also get a fuller leafier plant.

Salvia divinorum is a powerful regal plant that requires a special relationship from the people who grow her. It seems so weak and fragile yet so powerful. Although evolutionarily speaking it seems Salvia has not done as well as other plants, in fact the very substance that makes her so powerful may be her key to survival. Did she in fact create Salvinorin to attract humans to care for her? I would guess so, but either way we are now one being with separate realities. She joins mine when I care for and grow her and I join hers when I partake of her flesh. To truly know what Salvia divinorum is all about one must cultivate her. There are as many lessons in growing her as there are in the visions she uses to communicate to us. Hopefully by sharing information about her more people can enjoy having this wonderful plant ally in their homes.

Garlic folklore and Winter Solstice

2008-12-21T14:50:00.002Z

Today as is traditional i planted my Garlic bulbs today, being the shortest day of the year .
Happy solstice to everyone, have a peaceful and productive New Year.
This year i am going to try some Elephant (Ganesh) Garlic, and some selected French Garlic bulbs, remember it is important to note , supermarket and high street shops rarely have the quality Garlic needed to plant out. Often it is weak and will not produce Quality Bulbs in the summer.
Harvesting time is around the Summer solstice (21st June), though it is best to harvest later allowing all of the foliage to die down. It is worthy of note that the fresh leaves may be harvested in spring sparingly and are delicious in salads.

Stories, Myths and Legends

In the modern western world the most well known garlic lore is probably its use against vampires.

European folklore also gives garlic the ability to ward off the "evil eye".

Dreaming that there is "garlic in the house" is supposedly lucky; to dream about eating garlic means you will discover hidden secrets.

The herbalist Culpepper linked garlic with the planet Mars, a fiery planet also connected with blood.

Roman soldiers ate garlic to inspire them and give them courage; Egyptian slaves were fed garlic to keep their strength up.

Homer reported that Ulysses owed his escape from Circe to "yellow garlic".

There is a Mohammedan story that when Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic appeared where his left foot rested and onion under his right. The Christian Bible also mentions garlic - [Numbers 11: 4-6] and the Talmud recommends it to be eaten on a Friday night.

Indian legends tell of battles between the devas and the asuras with garlic being a source of argument. The Laws of Manu forbade eating garlic - along with leeks, onions and mushrooms - as unclean. Garlic was forbidden from certain sacred places.

Tibetan monks were forbidden from entering the monastries if they had eaten garlic.

These prohibitions against garlic are possibly connected with its long- standing reputation as an aphrodisiac. This is presumably a result of its tendancy to "inflame" rather than its smell!

Garlic thus occupies an ambiguous place in world lore. It is generally recognised as healthy - but often apparently considered too healthy for polite society.

Transition town Totnes

2008-12-04T13:38:00.000Z

Fingers Crossed…. A Major Transition Project in Totnes Unveiled…

Robert Perez filming an interview outside the site during his recent visit to Totnes

(Here is a press release issued to the local media today…)

New Initiative Places Food at the Centre of Healthcare Revolution

A new initiative which would offer a groundbreaking approach to health promotion and food growing in the town’s back gardens has been unveiled. The initiative, Totnes Healthy Futures, is proposed for a site in central Totnes which Devon County Council will be selling this week. It is the result of an innovative partnership between Transition Town Totnes, the Totnes Development Trust, University of Plymouth and the Leatside Surgery.

With obesity and preventable illness top of the Government’s list of health priorities, it is widely agreed that new approaches are needed for promoting exercise, healthy eating and for reconnecting people with good, locally grown affordable food. The Totnes Health Futures centre will combine an low carbon building built using mainly local materials, which incorporates a public cafe, a large space for various events, as well as smaller rooms and a covered greenhouse/growing area. The rest of the site will be dedicated to a model urban food garden, featuring raised beds, soft fruit and medicinal herbs, designed so as to be a powerful educational resource, showing in varied ways the potential productivity of urban spaces.

Following the recent appearance of the Transition Town Totnes Garden Share scheme on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘River Cottage’ programme, a feature which inspired River Cottage’s ‘Landshare’ campaign, the Healthy Futures initiative aims to keep the town at the forefront of the idea of encouraging more people to grow and cook their own food, something being promoted by a spectrum as diverse as the Mayor of London (who is striving to get 2012 food-producing gardens in London in time for the Olympics), and Blue Peter, who recently dug out the famous Blue Peter garden to replace it with vegetable beds.

The project has identified a number of potential sites, but has formally applied to Devon County Council for the former lorry depot on Babbage Road, which directly adjoins the Leatside Surgery and which goes for sale by formal tender on December 3rd. The coalition of organisations behind the proposal is adamant that a site of such strategic importance to the community ought not merely be sold to the highest bidder. Rather, it is asking that Devon County Council use its powers to choose lower bids in the case of proposals with a demonstrable community benefit.

“The exciting thing about this site”, says Rob Hopkins, TTT founder, “is that it is somewhere many people pass by on a daily basis, yet often don’t notice. We feel that one of the great challenges of the next 10 years will be the art of turning the vast expanses of land we have surrendered to concrete back to more productive uses. The precedent created by this initiative will be very important, transforming a barren concrete wasteland into an oasis of abundance and diversity where one least expects it”.

TV gardening guru Monty Don has been very supportive of the initiative. He writes “I enthusiastically endorse the proposal for the Totnes Healthy Futures Centre and believe it to be a profound inspiration that will set a standard for the rest of the country. All my experience shows that a close connection with the soil, particularly through growing and eating organic fruit and vegetables improves personal physical and mental health as well as the health of the community. This is an inspired and important scheme that will have profound and lasting benefits to the community and I sincerely hope that it will be supported and encouraged by all, and if invited I look forward to attending the opening!”

The project is designed so as to act as a tremendous catalyst. Doctors and nurses working in Totnes are excited by the possibilities of the project, which will bring benefits to the community by encouraging healthier diets and increased exercise. The project will complement the work already taking place in GP surgeries by providing resources for peopel with long term health problems as well as promoting healthy living to families with young children. The £¾m project will be funded through a mixture of grants and private funding, and is designed to be self financing from the start. The deadline for bids for the site is December 3rd, with a decision expected from the Council by the following week.

Transition Town Totnes
43 Fore Street
Totnes
Devon
TQ9 5HN
www.totnes.transitionnetwork.org
Tel:01803 867358

The Toad in my garden and folklore......

2008-11-27T14:41:00.002Z

Sometimes a friendly toad is found on the allotment sheltering under a fossilised shell in part of magic circle. A sure sign of the powers that be in Nature.

'Dear, dear friendly old toad. If you have never kept one or been on friendly terms with one in your garden, then you have missed out on one of the joys of the good Lord' s creations. For under their ugly rough exterior there beats a heart full of affection for anyone who cares to treat and talk to them with love and respect. The witches discovered this fact of nature centuries ago. What is more, showing kindness to ugly and repellent human beings and animals brings rich rewards to the givers of affection. Example the befriended ugly old woman in Cinderella, picking up sticks in the forest -who turns out to be the fairy queen with magical powers of benefaction, and so on in a thousand tales of legends gathered from around the world. Little wonder that the witches of Devon and Cornwall cosset, pampered and befriended these strange loveable magical creatures who have the fairy power to bring rich rewards. So be warned - be kind to toads.

Brussel Sprouts Harvesting

2008-11-12T21:37:00.002Z

Fore-runners to modern Brussels sprouts were likely cultivated in ancient Rome. Brussels sprouts as we now know them were grown possibly as early as the 1200s in what is now Belgium. The first written reference dates to 1587. During the sixteenth century they enjoyed a popularity in the southern Netherlands that eventually spread throughout the cooler parts of Northern Europe.

Brussels sprouts grow in temperature ranges of 7 to 24°C (45 to 75°F), with highest yields at 15 to 18°C (60 to 65°F).Plants grow from seeds in seed beds or greenhouses, and are transplanted to growing fields.. Fields are ready for harvest 90-180 days after planting.[1] The edible sprouts grow like buds in a spiral array on the side of long thick stalks of approximately 2-4 feet in height, maturing over several weeks from the lower to the upper part of the stalk. Sprouts may be picked by hand into baskets, in which case several harvests are made of 5-15 sprouts at a time, by cutting the entire stalk at once for processing, or by mechanical harvester, depending on variety. Each stalk can produce 1.1 to 1.4 kg (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), although the commercial yield is approximately 0.9kg (2 pounds) per stalk..

Brussels sprouts are among the same family that includes cabbage, collard greens, broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi. They contain good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fibre. Moreover, they are believed to protect against colon cancer, due to their containing sinigrin. Brussels sprouts are cruciferous.

Parsley Folklore

2008-11-03T18:16:00.002Z

P A R S L E Y
FOLKLORE

One of the oldest dreams of men was to find a remedy to secure heavy consumption of spirits without being unpleasantly drunk. The old Greeks had some sort of blind belief in the power of the tiny parsley. During their blowouts the ancient men put parsley wreaths on their heads. But the esteem is also seen from the tradition of decorating the champions of Isthmian Games. Those games represented an event nearly as esteemed as the Olympic Games.

Parsley was among the plants, which Charlemagne claimed for his estates, and it was found in the Monastery Garden of St. Gallen about 820 AD. Charlemagne was taken by a cheese flavored with parsley seeds and ordered two cases of it to be sent to him each year.

In England there is a saying that parsley seed goes seven times to the Devil and back before it germinates, and claim that only witches can grow it. As well, it is traditionally a curative, a property captured by Beatrix Potter in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She says about that naughty rabbit, "First he ate some lettuce and some broad beans, then some radishes, and then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley."

Planting Broad Beans by the Moon in November

2008-11-03T13:35:00.002Z

03 November 2008 - Waxing crescent

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent Moon in Sagittarius: This is a Fire sign. This is a good time to sow Fruiting plants like Broad Beans (Fava), Peas, but it would not be a good time to sow Leaf plants like Cabbages, Lettuce.

Hoe over the soil which already had seaweed and manure dug in, i have sowed the beans in a different place to last year further down the patch.

Picked some Red chard and parsley for the kitchen.

Totnes Transition Town / Landshare

2008-10-30T21:02:00.000Z

Welcome to Transition Town Totnes

Totnes is the UK’s first Transition Initiative, that is, a community in a process of imagining and creating a future that addresses the twin challenges of diminishing oil and gas supplies and climate change, and creates the kind of community that we would all want to be part of.

The challenges presented to us today by global warming and peak oil (and gas) are perhaps the greatest that humanity has faced. This time brings a great opportunity for rethinking the way we live and making conscious choices about what kind of community and world we would like to live in. Change is coming whether we like it or not – and a planned response to the change will leave us in a much stronger position than if we wait until change is upon us.

Transition Town Totnes (TTT) believes that only by involving all of us - residents, businesses, public bodies, community organisations and schools - will we come up with the most innovative, effective and practical ideas, and have the energy and skills to carry them out. Our future has the potential to be more rewarding, abundant and enjoyable than today, and by working together we can unleash the collective enthusiasm and genius of our community (that means you!) to make this transition.

With this in mind, our mission is two-fold:

1.
To explore and then follow pathways of practical actions that will reduce our carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.
2.
To build the town's resilience, that is, its ability to withstand shocks from the outside, through being more self reliant in areas such as food, energy, health care, jobs and economics.

How will this be achieved? We don't exactly know yet (although we have some good ideas). Our approach is to support you, the community, in exploring the practicalities of this challenge. The main aim of TTT over the next 12-24 months is to create an Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP). We'll create a collective vision of how Totnes could be in say, 2030, then we'll figure out which pathways will best take us there. Click here to see what we most want to achieve in 2008/9.

Meanwhile there's plenty already going on in TTT, and lots of different ways for you to get involved - for example you can start to use Totnes Pounds for your weekly shopping or take a look at our list of things we would love to get some help with.
At the moment we have 10 groups and about 20 projects on the go, plus a wide range of events and workshops. If you have time, skills, resources or cash to spare there are lots of other ways to support us. To stay informed, please register on our website so you can receive our monthly bulletin. This is packed full with news, updates and more ways to participate.

All of our groups are listed in the menu box on the left of the page, just click on one to find out more about what they do and how to get involved. If you want more information or to discuss any ideas then contact us directly, or pop in and see us on Fore Street. We hope to see you soon...

We also have a FAQ page that answers common queries, and a press room where you can see all the media attention we have been getting.... keep an ear on the Archers for the current transition storyline! Check out our newsfeeds for the latest external news about the environment, climate change and peak oil.

Finally, and most important of all, we recognise that lots of people have helped TTT become what it is today and we want to give thanks to everyone for their fantastic efforts so far. In addition to the huge amount of voluntary time that has been freely given, we wouldn't have gotten very far without some hard cash and we want to also thank our benefactors. See here for information about our funding process, and how we are spending current grants.

If you are interested in starting up your own Transition Initiative where you live, then see the Transition Network for advice and support. Already there are over 100 other communities that have been inspired by TTT to become an official Transition Town, City, Village or area... with another 1,000+ mulling it over around the world.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete". Buckminster Fuller

If you have any comments, suggestions or feedback on this website please do contact us with them. This is just the first release and we are already working on a simpler, easier to navigate structure and a shorter, more readable homepage!

October rain.........Corn Salad.

2008-10-30T17:33:00.000Z

Planted some sprouted Lamb's Lettuce (Corn Salad) , this is a hardy winter vegetable
Corn salad (Valerianella locusta) is a small dicot annual plant of the family Valerianaceae. It is also called Lewiston cornsalad, fetticus, mache, mâche, doucette, rampon, rampien, lamb's lettuce, field salad , nüssli, nüsslisalat, canonigos, and rapunzel.

Corn salad grows in a low rosette with spatulate leaves up to 15.2cm long. It is a hardy plant , and in mild climates it is grown as a winter green. In warm conditions it tends to bolt to seed.

Corn salad grows wild in parts of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia. In Europe and Asia it is a common weed in cultivated land and waste spaces. In North America it has escaped cultivation and become naturalized on both the eastern and western seaboards.

HISTORY

Corn salad was originally foraged by European peasants until the royal gardener of King Louis XIV, de la Quintinie, introduced it to the world.

NUTRITION

Like other formerly foraged greens, corn salad has many nutrients, including three times as much Vitamin C as lettuce, beta-carotene, B6, B9, Vitamin E, and omega-3 fatty acids.