Gardening
in France 2008
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Gardens 2007 Plant Details Book Reviews Woodland Expat Gardens April to June 2008 |
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2007 was not a spectacular year in our French garden either in terms of the weather or the amount of food we produced. In our defence it was our first year of gardening in France and our first year of trying to grow our own food. Hope springs eternal so now Spring 2008 we are ready to get going in the garden again. |
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I am registered to provide garden
maintenance services in the Limousin Garden Maintenance Service |
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Some plants we will not be attempting to grow from seed either because we are totally discouraged from last year or we just don't want loads. Leeks are one I spent ages trying to get them going only to find I could of bought a punnet of 50 little plants for under 5 euros. To add insult to injury just as mine looked like they might grow something came along and ate them. |
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You will no doubt be noticing by now that these seeds have been purchased in the UK not in France. February and March saw us going back to the UK for work and as in 2007 buying seeds was a way to keep our dreams alive |
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So many peas never made it out of the garden there just being enough for a quick snack for us and the chooks. I've gone for pea Kelvedon Wonder which is a dwarf variety and can be sown in the Summer too. I'm hoping for a lot of bang for my buck because again it's a bargain pack. |
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These Hooligan Pumpkins seemed ideal at three inches in diameter doing something with them isn't a huge commitment of time and energy for gallons of soup in the freezer. Plus they are supposed to store well. At the worst we'll have interesting Halloween decorations |
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Salsify This root vegetable I've never tried but who could resist a name like that. Kind of the Beverley Hill Billies and medieval apothecary all rolled into one. In my head anyway |
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I'm sure we had seeds for this last year that never got planted. |
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This then was one of the first packets of seeds I bought when we came back to the UK
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Aubergines
are something that I always feel looks really nice but I'm not really
sure I like it. A sucker for a good marketing ploy though I couldn't
resist this Chinese Ancestors mix of aubergine seed. All shapes and
sizes of aubergine to hopefully make an interesting display of plants as
well as interesting eating.
These
seeds for Beetroot Boltardy came from Aldi. At 29p per packet you can't
really go wrong can you? In addition to the beetroot they have a
smallish range of vegetable and flower seeds. We never got any beets
last year never mind suffered bolting. Here's hoping . . .
Butternut
Squash - Harrier. I am very fond of butternut squash soup so these seeds
had to be included in our collection. Apparently this "British bred
early ripening" seed will give us squash in 95 days of sowing. Let's
hope it works well there are only 10 seeds in a packet at a cost of
£1.99.
The
thing about bargain hunting is that you sometimes forget what you've
got. At least these two varieties of carrot seed are different. On the
left another Aldi bargain Carrot Autumn King 2 on the right another
cheapie though not quite so cheap at 79p Chantenay Red Cored 2
Chilli
seeds were one of our disasters last year and never did a thing. We just
didn't get enough warmth inside or outside the house for them to
germinate. I finished up buying plants but there really wasn't much
choice plus the French palate doesn't really go for hot flavours. So
another cheapie pack and we'll try again.
The
new found skill at creating curries makes loads of fresh coriander an
essential crop. On the left organic Cilantro seeds. On the right an un
named bargain packet. It will be interesting to see if double the price
makes double the plant
Marketmore
is a "heavy cropping outdoor variety". We were on the look out for
Wautoma which did really well last year. Even when most of their leaves
had been eaten by slugs they were still producing fruits. But in the end
this was one of the few varieties of outdoor cucumber available in the
garden centre.
Lemon
grass is supposed to make a good container plant as well as being an
essential cooking ingredient. We are going to try some in containers and
some in the ground and see if any lasts through the Limousin winter
In
search of more bargains this mushroom spawn was from Wilkinson's. We
have not got into the French mushroom hunting yet so in the mean time
we'll have a go at growing our own. At least there won't be any
identification problems.
We
planted parsley last year and it was really going quite well until
Lawrence mistook it for a weed. Nothing at all to do with the fact that
he doesn't like parsley honest. Hopefully there should be no mistaking
this Moss Curled variety
We
just didn't get enough peas last year. We had no idea how many plants we
needed to get a pan full all ready at the same time for eating. Still
don't but it's definitely more than half a dozen.
I
am ashamed to say that twice last year I had a pumpkin given and twice
it turned into a soggy mess before I got round to doing anything with
it.
Easy
peasey or easy radishy quick and easy seeds to grow just remember to
keep sowing them and hope the slugs don't get to them first. 
We
mainly had French beans last year which we were very happy with. We
thought the place to buy French beans though was France. So in lieu we
bought runner bean seeds. Another bargain pack from Aldi although only
ten seeds! Having said that if they germinate well I'm sure ten plants
will produce more than enough runner beans for anyone.
In
the hopes of a Summer worthy of lots of salad we have bought two lots of
salad leaf seeds mixes. The herby with green lettuce, mizuna, rocket,
greek cress, red mustard and chicory. The oriental with mizuna, giant
red mustard, golden mustard, pak choi, rocket and komatsuna torasan. The
oriental salad we had last year and it was a tasty mix and easy to grow.
More
leaves for salad with spinach plus Saag Aloo to go with curries.
I
tasted this for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. Chard
keeps going for ages into the winter too. I couldn't find any seeds in
France though we did see the colourful stems used in lots of village
flower beds.