Shining and black, tightly packed and full of flavour. Each segment a tiny drupe, like a miniature stone fruit, they line the lanes and roadsides of the Irish countryside. Blackberries are abundant, their prickled stems arch over the hedgerows and back to the soil where each stem can take root at its tip and continueContinue reading “Picking Blackberries and Blackberry Jam Recipe”
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A Saturday Night with Black Sabbath Making Rose Hip Jam…
Its coming to that time of year again, blackberries are ripe, elder berries are ripening and the rose hips are nearly there. I “look forward” to some Saturday nights making jam. During the summer I made some rose hip jam from fruits that were in the freezer, it is a delicious jam but it doesContinue reading “A Saturday Night with Black Sabbath Making Rose Hip Jam…”
Eating hogweed shoots- Heracleum sphodylium, collecting and cooking.
Hogweed, not the giant one grows in our garden, close to where the spruce trees tower and cast shade over the dwarf rhododendrons, dwarf Podocarpus and assorted conifers in what we refer to as the office garden. My view from the computer desk looks out on to this area, well part of it, the hogweedsContinue reading “Eating hogweed shoots- Heracleum sphodylium, collecting and cooking.”
How to make a newspaper plant pot
One sheet of newspaper, one empty smoothie bottle… easy and quick!
Rose Petal Cordial – Recipe
Roses, there is no other plant with so much symbolism attached to it, war of the roses, symbol of love and Shakespeare quotes… Roses in the garden can be a pain, not just the literal ache when a prickle, not a thorn,gets stuck in your flesh. Roses have prickles not thorns, thorns are modified shoots whileContinue reading “Rose Petal Cordial – Recipe”
Respect Your Elders – Elderflower Cordial Recipe
It’s wild. Its everywhere. Its elder flower –Sambucus nigra. In the month of June its flat flower heads whiten hedgerows and fields around Ireland. Outside my office window I can see the branches bob and sway with the breeze. Seedlings all too often appear in the garden, unwanted, in abundance. But I don’t mind, theContinue reading “Respect Your Elders – Elderflower Cordial Recipe”
Jane Mc Corkell’s My Garden is a garden for everyone -BLOOM 2012
Maybe it’s the economic climate, maybe people are more nostalgic when times are hard and we reminisce with our rose tinted glasses as we look back on the days that were better. Some of my favourite show gardens at Bloom have a touch of the past about them, where the simplistic design relies on aContinue reading “Jane Mc Corkell’s My Garden is a garden for everyone -BLOOM 2012”
Ciaran The Gardener 