Wulf's Web-Den

One of the features of Folia, the social network for gardeners (and, more importantly for me, an excellent online garden notebook) is a wishlist where I can jot down ideas for what I want to grow.

I have finally reached the point where I am able to move some items from the wishlist and into my garden. The myrtle (Myrtus communis) shown above was the first to make the transition. I thought it might be interesting to take you on a tour of some of the other plants I am also considering over my next few days of blogging.

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garden

Last weekend I visited the Lakeland store near Bicester and picked up a grain grinder they had on sale. This lets me turn grains like rice into flour which can be used for all sorts of purposes.

My first experiment was grinding salt, pepper and a dried chilli along with some dried rosemary from the garden, creating an aromatic rub for Sunday's roast lamb. I also produced a bowl of rice flour. Combined with strong white bread flour, it made an excellent bread with a much more open structure than the bread flour on its own. Superb!

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food

I discovered yesterday that my kitchen scales fly well. Unfortunately they aren't so hot on landing!

The challenge of getting used to a new kitchen is that not everything has a proper place to live. Jane had left the scales on top of the basket of flour; I thought they were tucked down the side and so lifted the basket out less carefully than I should have done, hence the aerodynamic display.

The scales did seem to be completely broken although my "I might as well have a look at what's inside since they are beyond repair" fiddlings seem as if they might have repaired things. I need to give them a proper test but, whether they turn out to be restored or if we need a new set of scales, will definitely try to find a more secure home for them in future.

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kitchen

Harvesting steam to get distilled water turns out to produce ample for the purposes of soil testing and we tested a couple of spots at the end of last week. The back of the back garden showed a medium green — weak alkaline — and the middle of the front garden actually looked a touch orange — weak acid — although it looked a little greener later in the evening. Possibly there is a lot of alkaline in the chalky lumps but it is not well integrated with the soil and takes some time to dissolve.

What I really need is a list of cheap and quick-growing plants which have specific requirements and thus serve as biological indicators; if they thrive, more expensive and cosseted plants can be safely planted. Perhaps certain "weeds" could fill that role (although I have a feeling dandelions are pretty tolerant of soil conditions).

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gardening

soil testing

A couple of years ago, I wrote several times about my attempts to use a product called Droughtplug, a siphonation system for reusing grey water. At the time, it wasn't hugely successful because we lived in a ground floor flat; yesterday we got it out again and proved that an upstairs bathroom makes all the difference.

As before, we are keeping the reused water for ornamental plants and aiming to use it quickly (it can start to smell if left sitting too long). Time to water the garden again!

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water

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recycling

Today's breakfast of champions: a rosette of black pudding around a duck egg, garnished with ketchup and fresh basil.

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food

breakfast

Of all the Oxford colleges, St Catherine's is the one most reminiscent of my alma mater in its architecture (which is to say that its modernist lines mean that it is probably just as well it is demurely situated away from the main tourist trail). It is now also the site of my first college gig, down in the bar for a short session with Peter and the Wulf last night.

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music

oxford

peter and the wulf

stcatz