Monday 29 October 2012

La Buena Vida: Apple Picking & Pie Making

La Buena Vida: Apple Picking & Pie Making:

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Monty Don's gardening diaries: Me and my wife built our life around our home and garden | Mail Online

When gardening expert Monty Don and his wife, Sarah, bought a ruined house in Herefordshire in 1991, they were at a low ebb after the failure of their jewellery business. With great determination and energy, they threw themselves into restoring the house and creating a magnificent garden. In the first of our exclusive extracts from Monty's inspiring new book, The Ivington Diaries, which is based on the journals he has kept for the past 18 years, he looks back at those early days and how the garden helped him get back on his feet again. Monty Don's gardening diaries: Me and my wife built our life around our home and garden | Mail Online:

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My country memories: Monty Don

Smashing pumpkins: Monty Don.

Smashing pumpkins: Monty Don passes on his hard-learned lessons for growing the plumpest pumpkin | Mail Online: "Let's clear up the difference between a pumpkin and a squash. Most of what we group under the cucurbit family, which includes, cucumbers, marrows, courgettes, squashes, gourds and pumpkins, are squashes."

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Friday 26 October 2012

Top cooking apples (all AGM winners)

'Arthur Turner’ Raised by Charles Turner. Good flower display, excellent garden tree. Partially self-fertile. Pick Aug/Sept. Cooks to well-flavoured, yellow purée, brisk, hardly needs sugar. Good for pies and sauces or baked.
'Belle de Boskoop’ Good, spreading, flowering garden tree. Needs a pollinator. Pick early Oct. Firm, juicy, sharp flesh, keeps shape when cooked, thick golden purée.
'Blenheim Orange’ Dual-purpose, dessert/culinary. Needs a pollinator. Pick Sept/Oct. Good flavour, sweet, crumbly texture. Good for cheese. Cooks to stiff purée or keeps shape.
'Bramley’s Seedling’ Good in flower, needs a pollinator, heavy crops. Pick early Oct. Cooks to pale purée with strong acidity. For garden use plant the more compact clone 20.
'Edward VII’ Good flowers, good disease resistance. Pick mid-Oct. Acceptable as dessert apple, cooks to creamy purée.
'Charles Ross’ Raised by Charles Ross. Dual-purpose, dessert/culinary. Pick mid-Sept. Juicy, firm flesh. Cooked, slightly sweet, keeps shape.
'Dummellor’s Seedling’ Late 18C, Leics. Raised by Richard Dummellor. Premier Victorian variety. Pick Oct. Cooks to sharp, strongly flavoured creamy purée. Good when baked.
'Emneth Early’ Some disease resistance. Good flowers. Premier Edwardian variety, but biennial bearing. Pick Aug. Codlin type, cooking to flavoursome fluff.
'George Neal’ Named after a London nurseryman. Good flowers. Pick Aug. Dual dessert/cooker. Refreshing flavour as dessert. Delicately flavoured and keeps shape when cooked.
'Golden Noble’ Late 18C, Norfolk. Prized Victorian/Edwardian variety. Good disease resistance. Good flowers. Pick early Oct. Use as dessert when young. Cooks to well-flavoured purée.
'Grenadier’ Good disease resistance. Heavy cropper. Pick mid Aug. Early commercial variety. Cooks to creamy, sharp purée.
Top cooking apples

Monday 22 October 2012

Lush Life: A Townhouse Garden in Manhattan Gardenista

Lush Life: A Townhouse Garden in Manhattan Gardenista: Типичный двор особняка в Нью-Йорке представляет собой прямоугольник 6 метров шириной и 11 футов глубиной.

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