Vegetable/Edible Garden Competition
Google informs us that a tomato is both a fruit and a vegetable and who are we to put it definitively into an either/or category. Botanically, a tomato is a fruit because it develops from the flower of the tomato plant and contains seeds. However, in culinary terms they are often considered to be a vegetable due to their use in savoury dishes. So based on the fluidity of tastes from sweet to savoury our “vegetable garden” contains anything and everything that can be grown and eaten or even dried or pickled for later use.
We started sewing our vegetable seeds in late February early March and depending on the weather and night time temperatures we aimed to start hardening off the tomatoes in early May with a view to planting out later in May. We chose radishes, turnips and spring onions and in the green house, we popped in our tomato seeds. On the 1st April we eagerly sowed our seeds into the trugs ! This year has been the best Springtime any of our residents can remember and as a result, by the 5th May, we noticed that everything was way ahead of last years timings. On the 19th May we had to quickly harvest the first of our radishes so that they thinned out and kept cropping !!
This is the fourth year of our vegetable garden and we are learning all the time – initially we went for variety which is not always the spice of life. Now we have gone for less variety and have focused on quantity so that all of our residents can eat of the produce! Tomatoes and runner beans grow profusely in our garden (judging from last year’s crop) and our Chef will be picking in the morning for lunch the same day. Our tomato harvest last year yielded approximately 70-80lbs of tomatoes and our runner bean yield was approximately 100lbs in weight. We are hoping to have an even better crop this year.
“Waste not, Want not” is out motto so if we have any green tomatoes left at the end of the season the residents have already planned to make green tomato chutney which they will enjoy with their ploughman’s or sandwiches at tea time or maybe some will be bottled and sold at our Christmas Bazaar on the 22nd November.
Our produce grows so well because they are protected from most pests being in raised beds. Furthermore, we have been encouraging birds into the garden by feeding them throughout the colder months. Our resident Richard has a stock of bird food and he ensures the bird feeders and bird tables are continuously stocked ! We also have natural tree and shrub cover and have bird boxes and bug habitats dotted throughout the garden and the birds do a very good job of eating most of the bugs and caterpillars. We also have several voracious hedgehogs who visit and eat nearly all the slugs and snails. The hedgehogs are busier than our hive of bees as they travel between 1 and 2 miles per night foraging and visiting various nests on the way as they don’t just have one nest.
Our herb garden is its own success story and we are growing chives, which can be picked again and again. Our herb garden is a sensory paradise and in addition to the chives we grow Purple and Green Sage, Curry Plant, Oregano and Thyme not to mention the profusion of lavender that is spread throughout our garden. We also have several different types of mint, one being “after eight mint” but we keep them in separate pots so that they will not spread.
On the 3rd May our residents wanted to make their own lavender bags and dishes of pot pourri for their rooms. Pot pourri can consist of virtually any herbs that smell nice, rosemary, mint, sage, lemon verbena, oregano, lavender - the list is endless – and our residents were able to personalise their pot pourri according to the favourite scents. The lavender bags are a great hit and for many of our residents, the smell is a familiar and comforting one where they remember these fragranced sachets hanging in their wardrobes to ward off moths. On the 7th June, continuing on our culinary herb adventure, our residents made Bouquet Garnis consisting of parsley, thyme and a bay leaf, some of which will be given to our Chef to use in casseroles etc. Two types were made, the old-fashioned bunch tied together and the modern version in the muslin bag. We are drying our herbs for use later in the year for both culinary purposes and decoration and all of our homemade produce will be on sale at our Christmas Fayre later in the year.
Our lovely Foard family donated two Espalier Pear Trees to us last year, in memory of their beloved mum Joyce Pickford who had been a resident at Brackley Care Home for three years. These pear trees are now in their second year and on the 13th April we photographed their amazing progress as they have pride of place in a sheltered spot in our courtyard garden. We are very excited to see if they will bear any fruit this year.
On a fruitful note, our orchard is expanding and earlier this year, our then Mayor of Brackley, Cllr Elaine Wiltshire, donated two apple trees to us as a small token of her appreciation for all that we had done for her and her chosen charity. She selected two of her personal favorites, Golden Delicious and Cox’s Orange Pippin which were planted but it was only on the 7th April that we saw the first signs of life springing forth from our apple trees.
Creating a natural garden is not difficult if you return to the old values that gardeners and farmers used to adhere to. Rotation of crops, no pesticides and good soil management are the three pillars of a successful produce producing garden. The raised beds and trugs are topped up with new homemade compost at least once a year. All our raw fruit and veg kitchen waste is composted and turned regularly by Paul our gardener who very kindly installed an automatic watering system for us, which has ensured that our plants get a good watering in the early evening.
Our garden is an "oasis" of flowers, fruit, veg and herbs and is a huge attraction of beauty, calmness and relaxation for our residents, their families and our visitors to the home and one that we all incredibly proud of.
Gertrude Jekyll was a British horticulturist and garden designer who famously said: “A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.”
