Very small trees for the small garden

 Here are three trees suitable for patio containers or borders in a small garden.    

        

Acer palmatum 'Orange Dream', currently a light green colour, has wonderful spring and autumn foliage that gives it its name.  This tree has been growing in this pot since 2007 with an annual spring top-dress of fresh acidic compost and fertiliser and plenty of water in dry spells.  It thrives in semi-shade, its position in my garden, and occasionally needs light pruning to maintain its largely upright shape.    

Betula apoiensis 'Mount Apoi', still rare in the UK, is one of the two birches of choice for very small gardens (the other being the betula pendula fastigiata I described earlier in the year).  This is a young tree, planted in March, but it already has, in miniature, the multi-branched structure and white/tan bark of a large birch.  I bought this from Junker's Nursery for rare plants, www.junker.co.uk, where it is described as 'surprisingly dwarf ... with tremendous potential in a small garden'.  It is growing in enriched alkaline clay and I have tried hard to keep something of an exclusion zone around its roots to prevent it having to compete for water and nutrients (as I was advised to do by the nursery),  but for a gardener in a small garden bare earth is a wasted opportunity!  I compromised by planting a few small perennials and ornamental grasses beyond the root ball (like the primula and sedge to the left and right).  The other major plant in this border is the golden variegated dogwood to the back left of the picture, which is cut to the ground each spring to ensure there are bright young stems for winter interest (the subject of a winter blog, perhaps).              

 

Another acer, this one conspicuum 'Red Flamingo', a striking plant in summer and winter with its fascinating variegated pink, white and green foliage and bright red stems.  Housed, fed and placed like the 'Orange Dream', it has thrived thus far.   

An apple a day...

We have two apple trees in our garden and one of those has been established for over 5 years now. We have never had many apples from it but this year there has been a bumper crop. It's a Malus Discovery apple tree which was first introduced to this country in 1949 and it produces an early eating apple which doesn't keep very well once picked so needs to be consumed quickly. The apples turn a delicate red colour when ripe and have a crisp, juicy flavour with a slight hint of strawberry. We have enjoyed eating them straight from the tree but as there are so many I had to start thinking about cooking with our apples.

Here's a few of  those Discovery apples on our tree looking wonderfully red in the fading summer sunshine

 

 

They are ready to eat earlier than most other apples which is why commercial growers often favour them

This one tree easily produced 4 or 5 big crops like this and as they don't keep for long they need to be cooked and used in recipes

I hadn't realised that apples freeze very well in their 'raw' state. Just peel, core and dice, spritz with lemon juice to stop them going brown and 'open freeze' them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking tray. Once frozen transfer to freezer bags, seal well and label. I have several big batches of Discovery apples frozen in this way for use later in the autumn in an apple pie or crostata, no doubt.

I placed thin, peeled slices of the apples on squares of store-bought puff pastry, sprinkled with caster sugar and baked them to make a simple French apple tart. They were then glazed with warm apricot jam and served with clotted cream

I have made several batches of apple sauce to freeze and serve with pork. Just place peeled, cored and diced apples in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon juice and a splash of water. Cook, covered, over a moderate heat until the apples become a soft sauce to the consistency you prefer. I like some texture in my sauce. Add caster sugar to taste, cool and then freeze.

I then came across a recipe for a Sage Apple Cake in a weekend newspaper which looked very tempting indeed so I had to give it a go. As I have sage in the garden anyway I liked the idea of marrying two homegrown ingredients. I also froze this cake to serve to guests a week or so later and this worked very well indeed. It's utterly delicious with a mild almond flavour and the sugar-crusted sage leaves are tasty too. They go so well with the layer of juicy apples running through the middle. I shall certainly be making this again.

The Sage Apple Cake looks very pretty with the pattern of sugar-crusted sage leaves on the top

One final experiment was to make some pork burgers to barbecue so that they could be served piled with apple sauce. Looking on the internet I came across this recipe for pork, leek and apple burgers which gave me the opportunity to put apples in the burgers as well as on top of them. These burgers went down a treat and seemed very light and summery so that's another apple recipe to add to my collection!

A visit to the Geffrye Museum

Yesterday we made a long anticipated visit to the Geffrye Museum of the Home in London. This fascinating museum showcases how homes and gardens have changed to reflect changes in behaviour, society and tastes over the last 400 years. It is set in an 18th Century almshouse which is quite stunning considering it is surrounded by the urban sprawl of London, although of course it was built on open fields originally! If you are interested in interior design or gardening it is a must-see attraction when you are next in London. The restaurant and shop are also delightful.

A view of the front of the building which is set in quiet, relaxing gardens and grounds. Entry to everything is free.

A series of room sets show you how interior design has changed over the years. This room is from about 1800. Farrow and Ball have a range of heritage papers including some that look very similar to this one.

A typical Victorian parlour set for afternoon tea.

My personal favourite, this is an art-deco living room from the 1930s.

And on to the 1950s - I remember my grandparents having some of this furniture!

Outside are a range of gardens also reflecting different time periods.

Gardening has always been a British fascination!

This is a very Victorian arrangement of bedding plants.

Walking back to the railway station later that evening the moonlight behind Big Ben was quite atmospheric.

And I have never seen this new addition to the South Bank - a rather terrifying merry-go-round style ride that towers above the buildings! I bet the views are amazing if you are brave enough to open your eyes!

Antiquing in Newbury

We spent a very enjoyable day today at the Newbury Antiques and Collector's Fair which only happens once a year and was held at Newbury racecourse in Berkshire. There were hundreds of stalls both inside and out and the sun shone on us for most of the day. It is one of the biggest fairs in Europe and the largest in England. It took several hours to see as much as we could, with a pause for a picnic, and surprisingly the only item purchased was a champagne cooler! I am sure this will appear on a future blog gracing the dining table for dinner.

 

A link to their website can be found here. Look out for the date for 2014 - it is well worth a visit!

The outdoor stalls stretch as far as the eye can see with a good range of antique and vintage items

These vintage and salvage items were quite appealing. I thought these coat stands would be good for hanging baskets in the garden!

The grandstand is a 70 stall venue space

The more expensive items were housed in the grandstand

There were some beautiful silver, china and glass items here

More stalls outside under the gathering grey clouds!

My favourite vanilla sponge recipe

I love this recipe for a vanilla loaf or tea cake as it is very simple, I always have the ingredients and it is delicious and versatile. It's great with a cup of tea, it can be glazed to make it more impressive or it can be served with fruit and whipped cream to make a very acceptable dessert.

 

Begin by preheating the oven to 170 Celsius (conventional ovens) or 150 for fan ovens like mine. I prepare my loaf pan by spaying it with cake release spray and nothing else. This works wonders!

227g grams of soft butter or in this case baking spread are needed. I weigh this in the mixing bowl using digital scales.

I have said before how much I prefer baking spread to butter. Try it and taste the difference yourself.

Baking spread does not need to be brought to room temperature so it is always ready to go! I like the little rolling pin recipe card holder that was a present from a relative in Canada.

To the butter/spread add 1 1/2 cups of caster sugar.

Here is my homemade vanilla caster sugar which I prefer for all baking. Just keep adding your dry, used vanilla pods to the tub and fill with sugar. Simple!

Prepare the only wet ingredients in a mixing jug. Here are 5 eggs with 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract. Don't whisk them together.

Having the wet ingredients in a jug makes it easy to add them to the batter.

Cream the butter and sugar together either by hand or in your stand mixer. You want to mix them on high for a good 4-5 minutes until you have a pale golden texture like this:

You can't overbeat your cake at this stage so don't worry!

With the mixer on slow, add the egg/vanilla mixture one egg at a time, increasing the speed after each addition to blend well. Reduce the speed to slow again before adding the next one.

The dry ingredients are simply 2 cups of plain flour, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of baking powder which you can sift but I just whisk them together

With the mixture on slow add the dry ingredients gradually to the rest of the mixture. You can overwork the batter at this stage so mix slowly so you don't develop the gluten in the flour and end up with bread, not cake!

This is the velvety consistency you want from the final batter. Use a spatula to give it all one final mix and incorporate any bits the mixer has missed.

Put the mixture in your prepared tin, level and then tap it on the worktop to release any trapped air pockets. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan for an hour, release and then cool completely on a rack.

When cool, the cake is ready to eat but if you wrap it in clingfilm and leave it for 24 hours it seems to get even more delicious and the flavours really develop. This makes it a great 'bake ahead' cake and it can be frozen.

I glazed the cake with icing sugar, some milk and a little vanilla whisked together until quite thick. I like the drizzle effect down the sides. Place the cooling rack over a sheet pan lined with foil to collect any excess. Allow icing to set, slice and enjoy!

A proper cuppa!

We Brits love tea and I am especially fond of brewing up a proper pot of tea with tea leaves. As a surprsie gift on my birthday back in June I received this brass tea caddy which was a souvenir from the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, made by Liptons.

The design is very art deco with the stylised lion

You can see the inscription and date more clearly here

Finding Liptons loose leaf tea is not easy so we had to resort to Ebay and have it sent from Sri Lanka!

I wonder how long it has been since this caddy had real Liptons leaf tea in it?

I also love the other accoutrements that go with making tea. I recently discovered these saucer crackers which contain little talking points when pulled for an afternoon tea party.

I keep the saucer crackers in this Coalport tea cup and saucer from about 1890. I think it's very elegant.

This art deco tea service is silver plated and has recently been polished. The tea strainers are also art deco.

For special occasions this art deco, silver plated tea service is perfect. I love the style and shape and the tea pot does make an exceptionally good brew!

And if you like loose leaf tea you need a tea caddy spoon. This is one I picked up from Fortnum and Masons but you can find antique ones at a very reasonable price too. If you are in Fortnum's their loose leaf tea is wonderful and I always stock up on some when I'm there.

Tea caddy spoons add a touch of luxury to making a pot of tea

Summer garden colour

Here are some of the flowering plants in bloom in my garden in June and July. 

A six-year-old honeysuckle (Lonicera copper beauty) growing over a 7' garden arch, very happy in the alkaline clay soil of this border.  It's alive with bees all day long at this time of year.    

Clematis viticella Black Prince, now a fluttering mass of these beautiful dark purple hanging flowers which are draped over a boundary fence.  Cut back hard to approx 60cm every February, this plant bursts back with renewed vigour every spring. The viticella clematis group is said to be resistant to the dreaded clematis wilt and in the five years or so I've been growing viticella plants I've not seen this problem.  This clematis is growing in a large, deep container and has thrived with an annual spring feed and compost top dress and regular watering in dry spells.       

 

Astrantia maxima, a beautiful woodland perennial which thrives in the cool, moist shade of a border overhung with bamboo and other much taller plants.  Its delicate white flowers glow in its dark green surroundings.      

 

I love summer bedding plants and the bursts of vibrant colour these annuals bring to the garden.  Here a fancy-leaved pelargonium (or bedding geranium) 'Chocolate Twist' and petunia surfinia 'pink star' tumble down a jardiniere-style basket stand.  Pelargoiums and petunias need full sun to thrive and flower and these are baked in afternoon and evening sunlight.       

Another pelargonium and surfinia arrangement in the same sunny spot, this time featuring the Victorian geranium Frank Headley, which I love for its decorative cream and white foliage as much as for its salmon-pink flowers.     

 

This is a lovely rambling rose called Super Fairy, a welcome present from my parents upon a visit to the truly amazing (and free to enter!) David Austin rose gardens near Wolverhampton last summer.  This plant has been thriving in a position of bright shade (and of course heavy alkaline clay!) for a year now, and has reached the top of a 6' fence.  As a result I'm hoping to be able to start to train it over an arched walkway very soon, where it will get morning and early afternoon sun.  It's healthy and free-flowering on a regimen of regular feeding, watering and spraying with organic pesticide and fungicide (which I started at the first hints of blackspot and aphid infestation!).              

Here is a very welcome insect visitor to the rose.  The bees seem to love its flowers as much as I do! 

Another clematis viticella, this one 'alba luxurians', which sports unusual white and green-tipped flowers.  It scrambles through the branches of a large apple tree ('Discovery' - hopefully more on this in the autumn when those apples should have ripened for harvest!).   

The curious little flowers of the houseleek sempervivum, probing their way out of a terracotta pot.   

Another sweet little flower stalk, this time on the very curious Ophiopogon nigrescens, the evergreen grass-like lily with black leaves.  It is an invaluable plant and though unassuming definitely one of my favourites in the garden.  In fact it's a star performer in dark, difficult places, where its spreading rhizomes slowly create dense black carpets topped with purple flowers in summer (you can see this process in action in the picture, as several pioneers march down a very shady and tucked away patch of border.           

A welcome burst of vibrant yellow from another star performer in my garden, sedum reflexum 'blue spruce', which began life as a tiny single specimen and now thrives in the various sunny locations I've simply pushed fragments of it into!  Here it cascades, appropriately, over an antique lead drain hopper given a new lease of life as a planter supported on bricks.    

Sometimes maligned as dull but in my view invaluable is the fibrous-rooted bedding begonia.  It thrives in sun or shade, does not need as much watering as other bedding plants and will flower its socks off until the first frosts cut it down.  Its colour range comprises white, pinks and reds, and its foliage can be light green to chocolate brown.  I love the contrast between the variegated ivy and dark begonia foliage in this urn, which sits in permanent shade.    

The other type of bedding begonia, the tuberous begonia, can be seen here, catching the sun's early rays along with two celosia plumosa plants, one purple and one yellow, to create another colour contrast.  The tuberous begonia has a much wider flower colour range and more complex flowers than the fibrous-rooted form, but it is more expensive, usually being sold in single pots.           

As I have said, I like to complement my garden plants with interesting objects and containers.  Here an inscribed foundation stone from a long-demolished Victorian building supports a pleasingly in keeping vintage planter.  A lovely blue-leaved hosta, sieboldii halcyon, with its purple blooms completes the picture, echoing the blue tones of the fescue (ornamental grass) behind.           

And finally on this mid-summer tour, another set of bedding in another vintage item pressed into service as a planter, this time upright pelargoniums and mildew-resistant New Guinea impatiens, united in shades of pink, in an old Belfast sink.