Friday 29 January 2016

Lord Woolton pie

This was considered to be a sad substitute for Shepherd's Pie during WWII in the UK, but it's a great way to get veggies into reluctant veggie eaters. Serve with a roast of some variety for a very decadent meal. It's also a great way to use leftover vegetables. All these BBC Wartime productions have gotten me thinking.


Wednesday 20 January 2016

Planning for the spring

All the seed catalogs have started coming in already, but there's still a month and a half before I can start planting anything. This is the long, dark teatime of the gardener's soul.

But, on the up-side, my horehound and marshmallow are surviving in their pots, and my Meyer lemon tree is getting leaves again. It looked quite strange for a while with three green lemons and no leaves. It needs a better location, but that's the best window in the house. It also needs to be re-potted. Maybe in the spring when I can do that all outside. Our living room is much too small to deal with all that dirt. I'll have to wait until we get our new house to plant out the horehound. Or, maybe I could start a new plant and give this one away. It's a perennial, so it would make a pretty, low shrub in someone's garden. I don't want to leave it here, as the people who buy the place are 99.99999% unlikely to appreciate it.

I've found a whole new genre of YouTube channels- British people who vlog about their allotments. It's adorable, and makes me yearn for a milder climate. Putting in potatoes on the first of April? That would be insanity in Southern Ontario. I also learned a better method for growing leeks- use a dibber to make a 6" hole and place the small plant inside with the first leaves poking out the top. Don't fill it in, just water it. The hole will gradually fill in on its own and leave room for the stem to get nice and big. I'll have to try that this year.