Courgette flowers are so beautiful, we often forget to eat them.

This Vegetable Soup is quick and easy to make. Use the Courgette Flowers as soon as they are picked.

Serves 4-6
30-40 courgette flowers
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp oil
2 large tomatoes (about 300g), peeled and chopped
salt and pepper
1.5 – 2 litres chicken stock
sour cream to serve

Method
Put 6 flowers aside for garnish
Split the courgette flowers lengthways in half and pick out the stamens. Remove the spiky bits from around the outside of the flower base and separate the flowers from the stalks
Chop the flowers roughly

Strip the stalks as if peeling celery and chop roughly
Soften the stalks with the onion in the oil then add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, till thick
Add the chopped flowers, and salt and pepper to taste
Pour in the stock and simmer for about 15 minutes

Blend the soup till smooth

Serve with a dot of sour cream & a courgette flower on top

Cockchafer or ‘Maybug’ (Melolontha melolontha)

Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera

Chafer Bug larvae can cause devastating damage to young vegetable plants. Chafer Grub larvae are white grubs with a brown head, and distinct pairs of legs at the front end.

The Chafer Grub are 2cm beetles which hatch into flying adults in mid-May. The adult beetle is a night-flier and often comes crashing into lighted windows on warm evenings in early summer, making a buzzing sound. Chafer Grub adults lay eggs in June which turn into more Chafer Grubs in July to eat roots until October. Then Chafer Grubs dig deeper into the soil to over winter until May before Chafer Grub surface to fly, mate and lay eggs. Chafer grubs may feed below ground for 3-4 years before changing into adult beetles.

Adult chafers eat the leaves and flowers of many plants, but rarely cause any serious damage in the UK.

The fat, white grubs (reaching 40-45 mm long when full grown) live in the soil and feed on plant roots, especially lawns, and are occasional pests in vegetable gardens. Read More »

Now is the time to think about preserving any superfluous herbs in the garden for use in the winter, when the fresh herbs are no longer available. Dried herbs keep for years but are better if used within a year.

Frozen herbs do loose their colour, but some flavour is retained.

• Woody herbs such as rosemary, sage and thyme can be dry-frozen. Place the leaves in a plastic freezer bag, squeeze the air out of the bag, tie and freeze. Parsley can be frozen in this way. When frozen, the bag can be rolled and squashed to ‘chop’ the parsley.
• Soft herbs like tarragon, chives, dill, fennel, lovage, parsley & basil can be frozen in ice. Chop the leaves finely and pack into ice-cube trays. Cover with water and freeze. When frozen, tip the cubes into a plastic bag and store in the freezer, using a cube as needed.
• Basil can be frozen as a puree. Wizz the basil in a blender with a little olive oil. Freeze in ice-cube trays, then store the cubes in a plastic bag in the freezer.

Now is the time to think about preserving any superfluous herbs in the garden for use in the winter, when the fresh herbs are no longer available. Dried herbs keep for years but are better if used within a year.

Preserving herbs:

• slightly woody, low-moisture herbs such as sage, thyme, summer savory, dill, bay leaves, oregano, rosemary and marjoram are easily dried in the air.
• herbs with a high moisture content such as basil, tarragon, lemon balm and the mints need to be dried quickly to prevent mould. Dehydrators can be used, but microwaves tend to destroy the oils in the herb.
• chives are best frozen.

To air dry herbs:

• Harvest the herbs just before flowering - this is when the leaves have the most oil, which gives the taste and smell. Herbs can still be cut & dried after flowering, but they will not be quite so tasty
• Cut the herbs in mid-morning - when the leaves are dry & before the sun is really hot.
• Cut large stems from mature plants using sharp scissors or knife. Shake the branch to remove insects and pick off any old, damaged or diseased leaves.
• Wash the herbs in cold water and pat dry with towels.
• Remove the lower leaves which are not as pungent as the top leaves nearest buds. Tie five or six stems together in a small bunch, use only two or three stems for high moisture herbs. Read More »

Gardener’s Delight Tomatoes, delivered� on Friday,� have been planted out.� Gardener’s Delight is a Cordon type suitable for the� greenhouse or outdoors.� It bears lots of� bite-size fruit, ideal for salads and sandwiches and full of vitamins.

There was room for two more growbags in the greenhouse.� But the gardening budget prompted a compromise on the growpots, and we adapted some plastic ventilation brackets to fit in the growbag to:

• lift the plant out of the bag and provide extra growing space for roots
• provide a reservoir for water
• allow feeding close to the roots

The remaining plants have been put outside against a southfacing wall.� The bricks absorb the heat and act like a night storage unit, keeping the temperature slightly up.

�

A stale seedbed is one that has been about for a bit, so that there has been plenty of time for weed seeds to germinate.

The seedbed is prepared so that the soil is in fine crumbs.� This is called a tilthe.
If the seedbed is left, weed seeds will germinate.

These weed seedlings can be removed when they are tiny, by raking the soil. The roots will be pulled out of the soil, and if left on top they will die.

The seedbed should be raked whenever the weeds emerge.� The longer this goes on, the more weed numbers will be reduced, and the better the stale seedbed will be. It is much easier to produce a stale seedbed in the garden if the bed can be covered with some sort of polythene to keep it dry - such as a polytunnel.

The soil needs to be dry:

• to allow the rake to be pulled easily through the soil
• for the rake to pull the seedlings out
• to allow the roots of the weed seedlings to dry out & die

This stale seedbed will make a perfect environment for� carrot seeds to be sown in.
�

The cabbage plants grown from seed sown a month ago are large enough to plant out into their growing site. They have 2 cotyledons (seed leaves) and 2-3 true leaves.

Before starting, the plant-bed is watered to make the soil crumbs stick together and adhere to the plant roots. The strongest plants in the bed are selected, and dug up with a trowel. The summer cabbage are replanted in rows 45cm apart, and 30 cm between plants within the row. Summer cabbage can be closer together because they are cut with smaller heads.

There are now three different stages of plants in the cabbage patch. They are all covered with mesh to protect them from aphids and cabbage white butterflies.

The combination of strong winds and heavy rain causes havoc in the vegetable garden.� Potatoes and onions look terrible, with leaves on the ground in a tangled mess.

The same thing happened a couple of weeks ago when the new potatoes were bashed down.� But five days later, the potato leaves were upright and looking well.� They had recovered with no ill effects.

So, hopefully, last night’s weather will not have any harmful consequences.

Plants will keep growing if the water and food channels (the xylem and phloem)� still function.� A long time ago I was playing with a friend in their orchard and we broke a� branch on a young apple tree, so that it was just hanging off.� Luckily it was a medical family, and the doctor used a twig to form a splint, and tightly bandaged the twig back into place.� After a few weeks, the bandage was replaced with loose elastoplast, and the twig healed.

If sunflowers have blown over and the stem has kinked, the water and food may not be able to flow through the stem.� But if the stem is lifted and supported, with something like a cane, it will probably recover.� It is worth giving the plant a chance to recover from the injuries caused by the wind and rain.

Onion Rust is caused by a fungus Puccinia allii. It is uncommon & rarely causes significant damage to onions in the UK, unless it is being grown next to an infected garlic crop.
SYMPTOMS
Small, reddish to dull orange, yellowy, oval-shaped spots and blotches (pustules) develop on the leaves. They produce reddish airborne spores in a powdery mass. These turn black later in the season. The pustules enlarge to form a girdle around the leaves or seed heads. All plant tissue above the girdle turns yellow and dies. If the infection is severe, the size and quality of the onion will be reduced.
PREVENTION

• Destroy volunteer onion, garlic and leek plants - that is any not planted in the garden that have grown on waste ground etc..
• Do not grow onions on land affected by rust in the previous season, because onion rust overwinters on garlic and volunteer Allium crops
• Grow varieties resistant to onion rust

TREATMENT

• Remove and burn diseased leaves
• Apply fungicides if a lot of pustules develop on the plants.� Follow the instructions on the label.

We should aim to eat seven portions of fruit and veg a day, for the sake of our heart, says Joanna’s food blog.

This is a very tall order, but she has been helpful and listed the good things to eat. The list includes so many vegetables that it may inspire vegetable gardeners who are still debating what to plant.

The complete list is shown below. This includes a few non-veg items, but it is helpful to know what can be mixed with the vegetables, and may affect what is chosen for the kitchen garden.

GOOD THINGS TO EAT

* Legumes: all kinds – green beans, baked beans, chickpeas, lentils etc
* Cabbage family – not just broccoli, but also Brussels sprouts, chard, rocket, cauliflower, watercress, kale, turnips, all kinds of greens
* Cereals: oats, wheatgerm, ground flaxseed, brown/wild rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, rye, millet, bulgur wheat, spelt, couscous, etc
* Oranges, lemons, tangerines, limes, and grapefruit, unless you’re on statins, in which case never. It shouldn’t all be in the form of juice, as part of the goodness is in the fibre. The zest is good, too
* Pumpkin: also carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and orange peppers
* Salmon, also halibut, tinned tuna, sardines, herring, trout, sea bass, oysters, clams
* Spinach: also kale, spring greens, pak choi, Romaine lettuce
* Tea: black tea is fine
* Tomatoes: also watermelon, papaya, guava
* Skinless chicken/turkey breast
* Nuts: walnuts, almonds, pistachios, sesame seeds, peanuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews. NB not roasted/salted
* Yoghurt, fat free and unsweetened
* Blueberries, red grapes, cranberries, loganberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, blackberries, cherries
* Onions, garlic, shallots