Gardening

ACQUIRED TASTES

Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

Coming from a big family I wouldn’t have survived if I was fussy about food. In fact, I’ll eat just about anything. But, there are some foods that make me wonder how they became part of our diet because frankly, they taste awful.

I’ll start with horseradish. If it was discovered today, made into a sauce, and taken as a wonderful product to supermarket buyers, it would be laughed out of the store. It is also poisonous if eaten in enough quantity. But eaten with beef or on cheese on toast, it is rather good.

Bay leaves get used in cooking a lot, especially in stews and, so I was told recently, can be added to boiling cauliflower to stop the cabbage-like smell. But when taken from the bush, the smell is awful and you daren’t taste it!

I’ve also read that celery uses more energy to eat it than you get back, and it just doesn’t do anything for me. I’ve tried spreading cheese on it, but even then, I can’t pretend that I like it.

So how do these ingredients get into our diet in the first place? Here’s my theory; it’s by accident of course because they came to be in close proximity to foods that we already had as staples. Their proximity is probably because of their ability as companion plants to provide protection for the crops that we grow. Horseradish provides a boost to the health of potatoes and may even give some protection against fungal diseases such as blight. Maybe it was dug up with the spuds by accident or in time of food shortages was cooked with the Sunday roast.

A single bay leaf can keep flour weevil out of a half hundredweight bag of flour making it quite a potent natural insecticide. I suspect that perhaps when making pastry or dumplings a leaf inadvertently fell into the stew and was found to add flavour.

And celery is planted next to cauliflower to deter aphids – not even greenfly likes the flavour – and again perhaps in times of food shortages, it started to be used as a vegetable in its own right. I may be wrong of course…

I discovered when reading a John Grisham novel that the bark of the cinnamon tree was used by rainforest dwellers in Brazil to protect their food at mealtimes from attack by ants. At the time of reading this, I was being plagued by a ruthless gang of ants who were using a route through my kitchen to get to the other side of the house. I’m a fan of ants but no amount of persuading them would get them to use another path. I puffed some cinnamon powder on their track, and they stopped immediately… only to return two hours later with a diversion around the cinnamon! But I had them on the run and puffing the cinnamon in the hole where they were coming in stopped them. I’ve learned since that some beekeepers use cinnamon powder to stop ants from getting into their beehives.

Now, I don’t dislike the taste of cinnamon but I’m not sure that children immediately like it. I think that we get used to the flavour and associate it with the good times of biscuits and cakes around Christmas and of course in Asian cuisine. And so, I wonder if it was used originally to prevent attack by insects and then in time, we started to like the flavour. My son tells me that cinnamon also gets used by diabetics as a natural method of stopping sugar spikes, which may also be the reason.

Other flavours that I don’t get, include the taste of radish. It twists my tongue around when I eat it! In surveys carried out with garden clubs, about half of the audience like radishes, but when asked further it’s because they are easy to grow, they are nice when roasted, pickled, or used with some other treatment! I haven’t found a companion planting use for them yet but maybe there is.

Nevertheless, I will keep eating these foul-tasting foods as I’ve got to quite like them really, and as I’m always hungry I don’t have much choice!

thegardensgroup.co.uk

WILD IDEAS

Simon Ford, Land and Nature Adviser

Larisa Shpineva/iStock

Well, the good news is that it is getting lighter - just! It may not feel it, but we are moving towards spring and in no time the bulbs will emerge and the leaves will be budding.

I wanted to turn to New Year’s resolutions – not ‘Dry January’ and losing a few pounds after overindulgence during the recent festivities, but things you can do to make the world a better place. They don’t need to be massive changes or cost a lot of money, but each of these ideas will make a difference to nature and the environment.

Plant a tree It can be any species you like, but if it can be a native tree, then our wildlife will be happier. Try to get one which will fit your space and aim for one with flowers and fruit if you can. Maybe a rowan, crab apple, hawthorn, spindle or guelder rose?

Choose flowers that will attract bees and other insects These will often have labels, saying ‘bee-friendly’ at a garden centre. Usually a simple flower is better

than a double flower because the insects can reach the nectar. Many insects are not so concerned about whether it is a native species or an introduced one but try to plant a mixture.

Put up a nest box or two There are nest boxes available for many species of birds, from swifts to owls and blue tits to sparrows. You can also get boxes for bats and even dormice. If you are handy, you can make one yourself and it is a lovely project to involve children with. Place them high enough that predators such as cats cannot get to them and ideally shelter them from full sun or prevailing winds.

Get a bird feeder Particularly in the winter, birds have a tough time finding food and are drawn to gardens. Putting out mixed seeds, niger, sunflowers, peanuts and fat balls will bring in many birds from sparrows and tits to great spotted woodpeckers. Make sure you also provide a fresh bowl of water for them. It will be very rewarding and lovely to watch.

Stop buying peat or plants grown in peat Peat extraction is one of the most destructive activities we can do for wildlife and also releases thousands of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. There are loads of good alternative composts and organisations such as the National Trust stopped using peat over 25 years ago and look at their gardens!

Put away the chemicals Weedkillers, pesticides and slug-killer are harmful to wildlife and humans. They kill beneficial insects and hedgehogs and thrushes and can enter streams and rivers. Revert to age-old methods of a hoe and manual control of pests.

Keep one area of your garden for wildlife This does not have to look scruffy and hopefully will add to your garden, rather than detract. Leave one area unmown until July or August and allow the grasses and flowers to grow, or you could sow a wildflower meadow mix. (Don’t get confused with arable or annual flowers like poppies and cornflowers which need different conditions and regular cultivation- although of course, you can do that as well!)

Create a log pile Place some old logs or lengths of wood in a pile in a shady undisturbed spot. Alternatively, you could use rocks or old clay tiles or pots. These are fantastic places for a variety of species such as frogs, toads, newts and hedgehogs as well as beneficial insects. Leave some spaces for them to get inside.

Create a pond If you have the space, you can dig a large pond or even a lake, but it doesn’t need to be big and expensive. Even a bowl sunk into the ground will attract amphibians and dragonflies. If you want wildlife, forget adding fish as they will eat the tadpoles and newtlets, but if you really want fish, leave a separate area solely for nature if possible. A more natural pond is best, with shelving sides to allow access and exit, but anything is better than nothing. Remember to add a ramp though if you have vertical sides to ensure if a hedgehog falls in, it can climb out.

Pick up litter when out Take a bag with you and maybe some gloves or a litter stick. Litter not only looks unsightly it can also cause the death of animals such as mice dying inside bottles and micro-plastics entering water courses and ultimately the sea. Fires can start when glass bottles are discarded. There is a great initiative called Litter Lotto, where you can log each bit of litter you pick up and win prizes!

Adopt the area outside your house In many countries such as Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, residents ensure their frontage is kept clean and even clear snow and leaves to ensure people do not slip over. Make sure that brambles, hedges and trees are not obstructing paths, particularly for disabled people and for those with prams. The Town Council do not have the resources to do this any longer, but it takes little effort for most people to do their bit and not expect someone else to maintain it.

Wishing all readers of Sherborne Times a Happy New Year and while it may not be a prosperous one, let it be rich in wildlife!

LIVING THE GOODDEN LIFE

Nico and Chrystall Goodden

We have been saving seeds for four years from various plants that we grow – tomatoes, chillies, peas, runner beans, radishes, kale, pumpkin, gherkin, bok choy, wildflowers and many more. It gives a sense of self-sufficiency, removing the need to buy new seeds every year.

Poppies and foxgloves are plants with some of the smallest seeds – the size of a grain of sand. It is incredible to think that everything needed for it to grow to its full potential and produce the many organic compounds that will help it fight off insect attacks and attract pollinators is in that tiny seed.

The whole exercise of seed-saving for the next year is pointless unless you start with the best seeds possible. It’s hard to know online who’s a reputable seed seller or not and, from experience, the big names aren’t always the most reliable. The best way to guarantee what your saved seeds will grow into is, in my opinion, to grow heirlooms and heritage varieties.

If you grow perhaps five tomato plants of the same variety, let’s say a San Marzano, then only save seeds from the best plant. Make sure it is the one that looks and tastes the most like what a San Marzano should be like. That way you won’t gradually drift away from the variety’s characteristics. Selecting the healthiest plant also means it is the one that has best adapted to your climate.

The timing of collecting seed differs from plant to plant but generally, go with ripeness. For example, a green chilli isn’t ripe and will yield no germination at all the next year.

Seed storage is crucial and I take it very seriously. Seeds should be kept in a dry, cool and dark environment away from temperature fluctuations. It isn’t as much the high temperatures or low temperatures which harm seeds but a regular shift from one to another. Of course, if you keep your seeds in a box in your potting shed which gets really warm in the summer and very cold in the winter, you may still have success, but it’s likely you’ll not have full germination – perhaps only 20% or less.

I like to store my most precious seeds, such as the ones for the many chilli varieties we grow, in brown paper envelopes within a glass Tupperware or mason jars – I prefer glass over plastic. I even have VIP seeds in the fridge to guarantee they’ll sprout for many years, and they do. Desiccant packets can be good to avoid moisture build-up.

Sow your seeds and keep them moist and warm. With some care, the seeds will germinate and make it through to harvest. As an expecting mother, a plant grown for seeds should be fed all key nutrients until harvest. This will increase the longevity of the seeds in storage as well as the vigour of the seedlings they’ll sprout.

Beware of F1 hybrid seeds, aka Filial 1 – a cross of two pure and stable lines. The unique heirlooms used in the cross originate from a very specific area or region and their desired traits have been carefully selected over

many years. An example would be the San Marzano tomato which originates from Italy. Selective breeding has led it to be what it is today – tasty, red, elongated instead of tiny, yellow and round.

F1 hybrid seeds combine the most desirable traits from both heirloom parents to create something often better in the progeny. They also benefit from something called hybrid vigour or heterosis – they grow better, faster and stronger than either of the two parents. Scientists have long known about heterosis yet still struggle to fully explain this phenomenon.

F1 plants do have a downside, however. Plants grown from their seeds (F2) won’t resemble the original – they won’t breed true to type. Random recessive genes and less desirable traits which had been bred out will reappear – these could be poor taste, poor resistance to pests, stunted growth, bad texture etc. This is great for seed producers as it pushes us to buy again, but it’s not good for our wallets.

You can try your hand at crossing seeds yourself and create your own hybrid. It’s fun and educational, but you shouldn’t save the resulting plant’s seeds.

By following these tips I assure you that you will produce seeds that have a near 100% germination rate, are better than most you can buy and will germinate fast and grow with vigour. Eating fruit and vegetables that you have grown from seed is a unique reward for your months of nurturing them – a gift from nature.

Happy seed-saving!

Nico: @nicholasgoodden Chrystall: @thegooddenlife creativebritishgarden.com

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