Category: Feature

A seed raising table

Stephen Carlin

Building a dedicated seed raising table has proven very worth while. Just being up and away from pests has hugely increased my success rate in germinating seedlings. It’s not at all fancy, constructed from salvaged bits and pieces, but it’s very effective. I decided to build a seed raising table after getting seemingly diminishing returns from my sowings, and after trying several formats for seed raising. When we first moved in I was keen to get started in the garden, so just put my punnets and seed trays on a…

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Salvia Harmony

Stephen Carlin

This is a lovely low growing salvia with masses of deep blue flowers from late Summer, and attractive foliage the rest of the time. Salvia ‘Harmony’ is also called Salvia scordifolia by some, but as ‘scordifolia’ means ‘garlic leaf’, I am inclined to follow the opinion that it’s not a real name. Robin Middleton writes that it is reported to have been found in Ecuador, then grown and sold for a while under the wrong name. He also writes that it is particularly difficult to grow in the UK due to…

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Kimchi making season returns

Stephen Carlin

Wom Bok, chinese cabbage, napa cabbage; whatever you call it, it’s a great vegetable to grow. It’s super quick and trouble free if you can keep the caterpillars off it. And on top of providing delicious greens for stir fries, soups or steaming, you can keep it and transform the flavour by making kimchi. Autumn is a good time to sow wom bok here in the subtropics. The plants reach picking size very quickly. I don’t leave them too long, as they will flower in the warm weather before they…

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