Snapdragon's garden

Foraging for flowers

Foraging for food is now very fashionable - people have realised that there is something life enhancing about returning to our roots, finding free food in the hedgerows.
Foraging for flowers is a quite different matter - it comes under the category of picking wild flowers which is not a good thing at all.
It is an interesting distinction.  I find foraging for both food and flowers equally acceptable as long as you stick to sensible guidelines.  I am not advocating picking scarce or endangered flowers from the wild or for diminishing the pleasure of walkers that come after you - I just find it an interesting distinction.
Anyway, as many wild flowers don't work well as cut flowers I thought it would be useful to mention a couple that do, which are very plentiful weeds and which you might even have (and be cursing) in wilder parts of your own garden.  These are the flower equivalent of the food forager's nettles and sorrel, invasive, thuggish and beautiful.
The first is creeping buttercup, the lacquered bright yellow flowers that can easily take over damp grassland - these look fantastic higgledly piggledly in a jam jar and will last a week; in the past I have used them in more formal table arrangements mixed with garden flowers and they more than held their own.  They are ideal on a table outside for an informal lunch as they don't wilt.
The second is flowering pignut - again a meadow flower that foragers dig up for the tubers - hazelnutty nuggets that taste great with a salad of sorel and oranges.  I can't quite see why it would be socially acceptable to dig up the tuber but not to cut the flower . . .but it seems to be.
Anyway - if you want them to last, pick them into water, let them rest somewhere cool for an hour before arranging and then position away from fruit bowls and direct sun.
Remember there is a notebook giveaway on the next post down - I'm a bit worried - yesterday 648 people looked at this and only 5 people seemed to want a notebook enough to post a comment  . . .

Notebook dilemma and give-away

Working from home there is something so thrilling about the arrival of the parcel delivery man.  Sometimes I wonder whether I run my own business simply so I can order boxes of things to be delivered.
Today a new selection of sketchbooks arrived from Seawhites of Brighton - fantastic swift service which was just as well as I had a number of orders awaiting their inners before I could send off.  I have been overwhelmed by how fast these embroidered sketchbooks have been whizzing out the door - and it has been lovely to hear what they are being used for.  One is destined as a visitor book for a French holiday cottage,  several have been bought by botanical artists and another person bought some as presents for each person in her storytelling group.
I have also really enjoyed embroidering them - each is slightly different because they are individually embroidered on the machine, so I don't get bored with it all.
The ones that I have been making so far have all been A5 size landscape and I am now thinking that I should try some other sizes.
But which sizes would be most popular?  That is the question - the books available in this range go from A3 to A6  and are all landscape or portrait format - there is also a chunky square version about 15 cm square.
 So my question is - which size of notebook would be most useful and what would you use it for?  - leave a comment with your choice before the end of next week and I shall randomly pick one and make a notebook of your favoured size.  Please, please be honest and don't just say the biggest one as it is a bigger free prize, that won't help me at all!

Should you fancy getting your hands on one in the A5 size, the notebooks are available in fritillary, poppy and fennel designs here

 

The last tulips

These are the last tulips in the garden - the last fabulous swansong, swooping and swooning amongst the euphorbia.
Usually people come to my garden and are amazed by the lack of flowers - it is difficult to explain that if the flowers are still in the beds something is wrong as they haven't sold . . .
These voluptuous grande dames have lived out their lives in the cutting garden as they have dodgy stems - the outer coating has a flaw and they can't be picked without their heads falling off.
They seem to stay intact in the garden though - and there they are one of my favourite flowers - Orange favourite indeed - late flowering, long lasting, sweetly scented.
I'll be sad when the petals fall.

A warning (or 2)

If you let chickens free range in a veg patch . . .










This is what happens to your salad.

On a more sinister note - checking my stats and referrers on Typepad I found a google images request with the search string "My little girl" - we appeared on page 12 of the results so, whoever the searcher was, he was persistent.  I have been trying to convince myself that there could be an innocent reason for such a search.  I have failed. I write this here as I know that I am not alone in mentioning my daughters from time to time, and though I have always been careful not to do it too much and not to give too much information, I now feel sick.

Sunny garden day

A couple of people e-mailed me last week asking for wider photos of the garden.
I suspect that they had their reservations about the details photos of single flowers - what kind of chaos do they bloom within.
And yes, to be honest I am never as on top of the weeds as I would like and the long borders are unbalanced this year to say the least.  Some things died off in the miserable winter, other things flourished to the point of thuggishness.
Anyway here are some photos - taken in todays bright sunshine (though I notice the BBC has us under cloud again) so they are a bit glarey.
First a view towards the airstream - where Euan is busy building a deck out of reclaimed joists so I don't traipse mud into it all the time.
Second a view the other way towards the house and the shed that Euan built from a corrugated barn we bought on E-bay.  The sweet pea structure, the polytunnel and the raised beds are all his handywork too.
The business really couldn't work without him!  Its such a pity that he has to go into work on weekdays . . . .

Extra workshop in Perthshire and Craft Fair in Gartacharn

Two things.
First there were so many people contacting Caroline about the cut flower workshop in June that we have decided to do an extra day - the 19th.  More details available here.

Secondly there is a coffee morning/craft fair this Saturday in Gartacharn - 10-30-3.  It is in aid of Help the Aged and I shall be there along with others.
I shall have some of these gorgeous allium"purple sensation" and my new range of embroidered notebooks, brooches and cushions.
Thirdly - I shall be with Stirling Enterprise in Killin on 28th talking about blogging as part of a business.  Anyone who is interested in coming along (its free) get in touch with STEP

J
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Getting on with plant dyes

Yesterday my potassium alum arrived through the post so I now have everything that I need to try dying some raw silk.
The alum is a mordant - it acts as a chemical bridge between the silk and the dye so that it won't just wash off.
The idea is that this morning I shall make up the mordant and simmer the silk with it and then this afternoon I shall cut some wallflowers and  have a go at dying with them.
It is good timing as the wallflowers are getting past their best - the last long stems went with me to Drymen Brownies yesterday where they all had a go at making up posies.
The dying will all be a bit of an experiment as all the quantities that I have noted in various books refer to dried plant material and I shall be using fresh.  I suppose that I shall just have to chuck it all in and see what happens.  There must be quite a lot of dye in wallflowers as they turn water pink when you cut them.
After wallflowers I have my eye on allium leaves as they do the same.  Watch this space as they say!

Birthdays and bluebells

It is my birthday today.
Exactly five years ago Euan and I viewed a house in Balfron - it looked perfect in the schedule.
There was a lot riding on it - we had been looking for ages, a friend had thought about and then decided against selling us a barn to convert and nothing else suitable seemed to come on the market.   
This property was old (bonus), had  a big garden and an outbuilding that could be converted into a workshop/ studio/shop just off the main street.
Mum looked after the children and we made a day of it - we needn't have bothered.  The house that looked so promising in the schedule was just all wrong, irreparably and bizarrely connected into its neighbour in a way that guaranteed a complete lack of privacy.
The ensuing rather bad silent pub meal is the worst birthday meal I have ever had.

Three days later Euan phoned me to tell me to get the paper, that there was a property he thought would be ideal.  I looked it up - a squat, brown pebble dashed, aluminium windowed bungalow. Hmmm.

And then we came and viewed - we spent 10 minutes in the house - we spent a lot longer in the gardens - this bluebell wood is why we live here - it flowers every year for my birthday (and anyone who knows me knows what a big deal I make about my birthday).

The house is still pretty awful - to be honest it is in a worse state that when we bought it as we wait for a building warrant - but the wood is magnificent.

Photos all by Jane Robertson.

Taking shape

We have fantastic friends.
Yesterday evening Callum came round with his shiny new pick-up and gamely towed the airstream from our back lawn (where it looked as though an aeroplane had crashed into the greenhouse) over the flowerbeds to the top field where it is to stay, looking down through the bluebell wood along the glen.
Jane R took this photo of the airstream before it moved - you can see all the light covers that we need to replace.
Then we barbecued sausages and halloumi and raised a glass  to Callum and Jo (who had omitted to tell us that it was their wedding anniversary when we asked the favour- as I say great friends) and their new baby while relaxing in the sun.
A great evening.
Moving the airstream has made an enormous difference.
You can now begin to see what the gardens will look like - I haven't been able to plant up some of the beds this year as we knew they would be squashed by the airstream so they can now be filled which will help.  But it is more than that - now the hedges start to make sense, the paths lead somewhere.
It is all very exciting - now I just need to make the plans a reality. 
A garden photographer called this morning to see whether it would be a good time to take shots for a guidebook.  Gulp. I said to call by in August . . .so now that I have a deadline, I better do something about it.

Newsletter out

The new Snapdragon's News newsletter is out - e-mail me snapdragonjane@googlemail.com if you want a copy.
There's a special offer on my new notebooks and a recipe for nettle & mint soup.
J
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