Belfast Garden Tour Garden
Luckily, I’ve been able to make most of the garden tours on the local garden club tour this summer. Our club has one open garden every Friday. On the 4th of August, three gardens were on the tour; they were the homes of neighbors. This is one of the gardens on the tour, most of the garden was in the back yard.
From the look of the front foundation garden, you wouldn’t imagine what was behind the fence in the back yard. You were greeted by a lovely dappled willow right inside the gate and pathways leading to the small back deck with lounge chairs and a small lawn.
This beautiful large leaved tree was growing beside the deck, I’m not sure what it is, but I’m definitely going to look it up. Belfast is on the coast, and thus enjoys a little more warmth than we do because of the ocean.
The back yard was a sloping garden, with steps and terracing to make the most of the space. There were rock steps, lots of evergreen plants and a big stand of heather.
This garden was small but mighty, the majority of the space was taken up with gardens. It’s always lovely to see what people do with the challenges in their spaces. The terracing of this garden gave me inspiration for some sloping garden areas I have behind the house.
Have you visited any interesting gardens lately?
Share this:
Pickled Nasturtium Pods
I’ve heard of pickled nasturtium pods (which are the seeds) before, but I’ve never had them. Since I have quite a large crop of nasturtiums this year, I decided it was the perfect time to make a batch to see if I like them.
PICKLED NASTURTIUM PODS
(from The Joy of Pickling)
4 1/2 Tablespoons pickling salt
3 cups water
1 pint fresh, green, plump nasturtium pods
4 whole cloves
1 inch blade of mace (unground)
1/4 nutmeg kernel
1 slice horseradish (about 1 1/2 inches in diameter x 3/16th inch), cut into strips
1 shallot
about 1 cup white wine vinegar
Dissolve 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt in 1 cup of water, and pour this bring over the nasturtium pods. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.
Drain the nasturtium pods, make fresh brine the same way as before, and pour over pods again. Again, let them stand overnight and do the same on the third day.
On the fourth day, drain the pods, put them into a jar with the cloves, mace, nutmeg, horseradish, and shallot, and cover all well with vinegar. Cover jar tightly and let it stand at room temperature for at least 1 week. After opening the jar, store it in the refrigerator.
I hear they are like capers, we shall see. I’ll let you know in a few weeks when they are ready.
What interesting things are you making this week?
Share this:
Friday Favorite: Garlic Chives
A few years ago I heard about garlic chives and purchased a small plant at a local nursery and planted it in the garden. It wasn’t happy in that spot and languished for the next few years, my guess is that the quack grass in the area was providing too much competition. Last summer, I finally decided it needed moved to the main vegetable garden to see if it would perk up and look better. If it continued to languish it would head to the compost pile. After a year in this new spot it is thriving and is stunning!
It has probably quadrupled in size and it is blooming profusely. The golf ball sized white blooms are a favorite for the honeybees. Garlic chives make a great addition to the mid/late season garden. So often this is the time when things are starting to wane and fall flowers haven’t picked up yet. This plant would be great in a mixed border or a mass planting. Now that this beauty has taken off, I’m going to propagate it to add it around the garden. The potager could definitely use some shorter, round flowers this time of year. I’m thinking this will pair beautifully with my Russian tarragon.
What plants are you loving in the garden right now?
Share this:
Pickling up a Storm (or at least lots of veggies)
Over the past week or two I’ve been pickling all sorts of things from the garden. At the moment, I have six different things in various stages in the pickling process. So far all the recipes are from the book, The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich. I’m making a few favorites and trying a few new and interesting things, like pickling nasturtium seeds and Iranian pickled onions with mint.
So far I’ve made:
Lower East Side Full Sour Dills (page 45)
Dutch Lunch Spears (page 91)
Cornichons a Cru (page 97)
Olive Oil Pickles (page 98)
Pickled Nasturtium Pods (page 165)
Sweet Gherkin Pickles (page 230)
Shallots or Onions Pickled with Mint (page 291)
Still on my list to make this summer:
Zucchini Relish (page 314)
Short Brined Pickled Peppers (page 136)
Pickled Fennel with Orange (page 274)
Pickled Jerusalem Artichoke (page 131)
This is a great book to have in your cookbook library if you have a garden and are interested in pickling/preserving. Pretty much anything you can think of pickling is in this book. I purchased this book years ago and it’s always on my kitchen table this time of year. I’ve made loads of recipes from it and have so many more I’d like to try.
What are you pickling this summer?
Share this:
Harvesting Onions
I finally got my internet back up and running, the technician said that pretty much every modem in our town was zapped by the big storm. After furiously catching up on work, I’m back to being able to post to the blog. The good thing about having minimal internet, is that it gave me time to get my onions harvested, which needed done…..last week. Storage onions should be given minimal water in the weeks leading up the harvest, this will help them store longer and better. I always try to harvest them early if a lot of rain is in the forecast. We had rain last weekend, a half an inch. So not tons given the dryness of the soil, but still more than I like for them to get. Ideally I prefer to harvest them after a long, hot dry week (which we had last week).
Even though the conditions weren’t ideal for harvest, they will store fine enough. Most likely they won’t last until next April, but they will last long enough to be used up. I should weigh my storage onions one of these years. It always seems like there are way too many of them to weigh. It would be nice to know how much I end up growing each year.
What are you harvesting in the garden this week?
