Flowers, Decorative & Possibly Edible

It's been jolly cold all week, & yesterday was not only cold, but drizzly too, so I decided on an afternoon baking rather than gardening.

Today, however, the sun shone warmly, so armed with a list of things to do, & a handful of seed packets I headed to the Hill where I saw neighbour Jody busy with the hoe & we chatted in the sunshine as I weeded the front of the plot.

It's looking rather good, by fortuitous accident - a whole heap of last years annuals have self-seeded, so once I'd pulled out all the chickweed & bittercress there is quite a pretty display in the offing.

Then I sowed a row of CARROT (manchester table), RADISH (french breakfast) & LETTUCE (dazzle & mini green).

The spring cabbages are coming on well (from seedlings that Julie (second best plot) kindly gave me back in September) & I cut one for Jody in return for his offer of a some spare pepper plants & whilst we looked at the brassica bed, we considered the kale.

"What a shame it is that it has started to bolt", I said, looking at the long flower shoots, "it looks a bit like purple sprouting, but green. I wondered if I can eat the shoots?"

"Dunno," he said, then leaned over & snapped a flower head off & popped it in his mouth & ate it. He considered for a moment before nodding "yep, you can. It tastes like that cabbage you use for coleslaw."

Brilliant! I wasted no time in cutting all the sprouting stems, and had a portion for tea tonight. Admittedly I cooked the ends furthest from the flowers, but - boy - they were woody. I'll try again tomorrow with the tips to see if it is less like eating twigs.

Back at the plot, I planted out the PEAS (newick, neplus ultra, raisen cap & ezetha's) along with the ONION (hi-keeper) seedlings. I used these to fill in some gaps left from some of the sets not making it overwinter.

I was just earthing up the potatoes when returning allotmenteer Chris came over & we chatted about this & that - she's offered me some spare tomato plants, & asked if I wanted to go across in the week to collect. Fabulous!

With all the jobs done, I picked a huge armful of rhubarb and headed off home to get a batch of rhubarb wine underway.