Digging & Dreaming

Spring Flowers

There are few things that I love at this time of year as much as beautiful spring flowers. I can't get enough of them and my garden is crammed to bursting with tulips, daffodils and cowslips to name but a few. I especially love pots jam packed with tulip bulbs until you can't fit another one in - ridiculously indulgent but so gorgeous when they flower. And isn't a bit of indulgence what you need as you drag yourself out of winter into the abundance of spring? That's what I tell myself anyway...

The Heritage of Hops

I have been growing hops in my garden for a couple of years now. It is a beautiful, vigorous plant that grows well and easily. It is also a plant with a fascinating heritage and history. The modern hop has been developed from a wild plant as ancient as history itself. As far back as the first Century A.D. they were described as a salad plant and are believed to originate from Egypt. It is also a plant surrounded in fascinating facts and legend - here are a few interesting things that we have learned about the plant:

1. Hops are often referred to as the ‘spice of beer’.
2. Hops have been in regular use as a beer-making ingredient for approximately 1,000 years. It gives beer its distinctive flavour and aroma, acts as a natural preservative, and is a key component in foam quality.
3. A climbing vine, Hops, like cannabis (marijuana), comes from the hemp family Cannabaceae but do not offer the same psychoactive effects as cannabis. Interestingly enough, the hop plant has both male and female forms: the cones on the female plant are used in the brewing process, while male hops are used for breeding the plant.
4. Hop cones contain resins including alpha acids, beta acids and essential oils. The acid components (primarily alpha acid) contribute to the bitterness of beer, while the oils contribute to flavour and aroma.
5. Aroma hops are generally lower in alpha acid content, and have essential oils that are associated with great aroma. Bittering hops have high levels of alpha acids in particular. There are also dual-purpose hops that play for both teams.
6. Hop varietals can impart widely different flavours and aromas, depending on where, and the conditions in which it is grown. Randy Mosher, in his book TASTING BEER, says German hops are generally considered to be herbal, English hops spicy, earthy and fruity, and American hops – while widely variable – are generally more citrus, piney and resiny.
7. The so-called noble hops, traditional varieties from Europe, are: Saaz, Hallertauer Mittlefrüh, Tettnanger and Spalt. These can often be found in traditional lager beers.
8. Breweries use hops in a variety of forms, depending on their needs. This can include pelletized, liquid, dried, or wet hops.
9. Hops are added into the brewing process during the boil where the alpha acids are isomerized. Bitterness is enhanced with a longer boil, while aroma is reduced. This governs the timing of the additions of various hops throughout the boil. Other hopping techniques require the addition of hops at later points in the brewing process (i.e. dry hopping).
10. Hops generally impart bitterness ranging from 5-7 International Bittering Units (IBUs or parts per million iso-acids) for  Light Lagers, and up to 100 IBUs for an Imperial IPA. However these days, some experimental brewers are exploring extreme hopping, creating beers with 1,000s of IBUs. This is a largely theoretical exercise, because the human palate can only perceive a maximum bitterness somewhere in the range of 120 IBUs. This maximum is also related to the solubility of iso-alpha acids in beer.

Salad Boxes for the Garden

Even though we grow lots and lots of food on the allotment we still like to grow some in the back garden too. In particular salad crops and herbs that are perishable so are best grown close to the kitchen so that they can be eaten fresh. In fact, one of the first things that I ever grew that started to get me hooked on growing was a trough of salad leaves in my backyard. You only need to grow them once to understand how easy they are and how much money you can save by growing your own.

This weekend Jo decided that he'd have a go of making some new planters for the garden to add to the old ones we've got that struggled to fit in all the salad we wanted to grow last year. This is the design that he came up with this time which I really like because of the multi-levels that he's created. I thinking of have lettuce leaves in the bottom layer and cascading beans and tomatoes coming down from the top layer - a really handsome combination I'm sure you'll agree? We just need to stain them now to protect the wood and add a plastic liner to plant into (we normally use old compost sacks and staple them inside). Then the only thing left to do is to plant them up and wait eagerly until they are providing gorgeous fresh salad all through the summer. I promise I'll share a picture when they're planted up to let you know how they get on.

By the way, if you look carefully you can see one of the first planters that Jo made for me propped up in the back of this picture. This one is nearly seven years old now showing how long they can last if you give them a little tlc and maintenance every winter.

Growing Food in Small Spaces

As Spring is now just around the corner lots of people's minds turn to the possibility of growing their own food. Drawn to the ever appealing notion of allotments and smallholdings, and fired onwards by the programmes that are now all over the television and radio about growing your own, people dream of getting out there, getting their hands dirty and having the pleasure of eating delicious food that they have grown themselves. The problem for lots of people, a number of whom have contacted me on this blog, is that they don't actually have a great deal of space to grow in. They aren't lucky enough to have an allotment to call their own so may be grappling with the teeniest of spaces within which to grow.

Does this sound familiar to you? Are you an aspiring smallholder but only have access to a miniscule fourth floor window box? Well don't despair because I am a great believer that it is possible to grow a decent amount of food even in a seemingly impossible spaces. So, on that basis, this is the first of my guides to Growing Food in Small Spaces. I'll start by giving you some tips on how to plan your space, no matter how humble, and in the coming weeks will follow with specific tips about crops you may be able to grow successfully and fun planting styles you can use to get the best out of your space.

With regards planning how you want to use your space, this is even more important when you don't have so much to play around with. On a big allotment you may be able to throw in a bad of this or that willy nilly but if you've only got a small back yard to deal with you need to make sure you're making the most productive use of every inch as is possible. Bearing that in mind here are some hints to get you started with making a plan for your own mini-farm.

• Start by thinking of what wants and needs you have from your space. These aspirations and necessities should form the basis of the design that you go on to create. For example, you may want to produce salad crops and also to have an area to sit outdoors and eat, but alongside that you may need an area to store your bike. At this point think big about what you want to achieve - your space may not be able to deliver all of these wishes but it is important to give even the wildest fantasy some consideration in your thought process!
• Next think about the features of the site that you are working with. Which direction does it face, what already exists there, how does it work in relation to your neighbours...? Try and think of every detail that you can at this stage and add it.
• Then take some time to think about all the potential yields from your site. Some of them will be physical things like edible crops, herbs, flowers...etc... But some may also be more abstract ideas such as relaxation, tranquility, privacy...
• It is also worth considereing the potential risks on your site as these could be a hinderance in getting what you want out of it. For example the soil fertility may be low, or noise from a busy road nearby could be audible in your green haven. If you list these things and acknowledge their existence it makes it easier to consider how you may deal with them in your design.
• Finally, make a list of plants that are already in the space that you would like to stay in your new design. Alongside this create a list of the plants that you are intending to grow.

There you have it. You should now have five different lists encompassing - wants / needs, site features, potential yields, potential risks, and plants. The next stage is to draw up a plan of your space using this information as the starting point.  And I'll tell you more about how you can start to do that next time.

Worth The Weight

When we first moved to our house nearly five years ago the thing that we really loved was the garden. We only live in a little terraced house but the garden was remarkably generous for a property of its size. The only problem was that the whole thing was covered in horrible concrete tiles that needed to be moved - quite a job I can tell you! What we didn't know was that the concrete was hiding a real surprise... When we moved it we discovered that it had been laid on top of loads of lovely old York Stone tiles! What good luck?

As soon as we saw the stone we knew that it would be perfect to make the paths that we wanted to make in our new garden, so we stacked it all up ready to be laid down when we needed it. The only problem with York Stone is that it is very, very heavy - we actually worked out that one of the really big stones must weigh close to a quarter of a ton! The other problem that we had was that the stone has often got in the way as we made our garden so we have had to move it several times in the process of creation. That's why today was such a special day because we finally got to lay the stones in their final resting place and (hopefully...) that means we should never have to move them again.

Now, looking out on our lovely garden it's hard to imagine that it was ever covered in concrete and that it hasn't always been the haven for plants and wildlife that it is now. I'll post a picture as soon as we've made the finishing touches next week. But in the meantime, here's a picture of Jo laying the very last stone, in its very last resting place. Phew! It's been a long time getting here but now that the garden looks so lovely it all feels worth it. And I can still hardly believe our luck that the last residents in our house were lazy enough to leave behind all the stone that is now such a feature in our garden instead of moving. It just goes to show that it's amazing what unexpected delights you can come across digging around in your garden.