Tomato Tally

Here's our first tomato, which appeared in late July.  The crop has been really disappointing this year, no where near last year's bumper crop.  I still pick every day, but instead of a good bowl full, I'm lucky to get more than 10 tomatoes a day.  I was even considering buying some today so I can make a tomato salad for dinner tonight.  I planted mine at the usual time and my neigbour who planted early (May), his crop is over  now.  I'm hoping mine will go on well into September, we'll see.

Here's a lovely tomato salad recipe:

2kg tomatoes (mixed types, some large, some small, different colours work well)

1 'gousse' of garlic
4 fresh spring onions
flat parsley leaves
Sauce
5 dessert spoonfulls of olive oil

3 ds of red wine vinegar

Wash toms, dry, cut into rounds, put in seive and add some salt, leave to drain 30 mins.  Peel garlic and onions, press garlic and chop onions small, put in a salad bowl with olive oil, vinegar, pepper and parsley.  Add tomatoes, mix, serve freshly made.

Good with fish or meat

Apologies if I've infringed someone's copyright.  I cut this receipe out of a French Sunday supplement a few years ago and have been using the recipe ever since.  Enjoy!

Marvellous Munich!

I was lucky enough to visit Munich this week for my work.  I enjoyed myself a great deal and the city looked all the better in the bright sunshine.  Munich is Germany's third city and is the capital of Bavaria.  It has around 1 326 806 inhabitants.

Its largest park is the Englischer Garten (English Garden) which is well worth visiting, especially the beer garden where you can consume freshly grilled whole chickens.  In fact, there are a lot of very attractive beer gardens (keller) dotted liberally around the city, some where you can bring your own food and you just have to purchase an extremely large tankard of refreshing beer in order to enjoy a meal in the open air underneath the chestnut trees (which were planted to keep the earth cool whilst the beer fermented underground).

It's a suprisingly green city and I managed to catch a few photos of the open air market Viktualienmarkt (Victuals Market) and its impressive flower displays plus the freshest fruit and vegetables in the city, an enormous selection of Bavarian foods, restaurants, seafood, herbs, spices and artisanal decorations using lavender and hops.

Serious window boxes

Walking in 10th arr, I was amazed to see these bamboo filled boxes hanging on for dear life on a first floor window.  Note the sturdy cord holding them in place.  Only hoping it holds on - wouldn't like to be under them if they fell.  These are really serous window boxes for someone who's seeking a whole lot of privacy (or just likes looking at bamboo instead of out of their window).

La Belle Epoque

So, holiday time is nearly over and it's time for me to get back to you.  I have so much to say and it will take ages to sift through all the photos I've taken of the beautiful things and places I've been lucky enough to see in the last two months.  Let's start at the most recent green place I've appreciated - this one was in UK.  I visited a small, charming town called Knutsford in Cheshire and shared a bottle of wine on the rooftop terrace of this lovely restaurant - http://www.thebelleepoque.com/index.php

After climbing the beautiful staircase, passing the sumptous dining rooms, the journey finishes on the rooftop terrace and the very unexpected, beautifully kept, small but perfect garden.  Perfect examples of shade loving plants create an intimate, sheltered green space.  Take a look:

Or Brun on Vente Privee.com

http://fr.vente-privee.com/vp4/_sales/ORBRUN1/bufi/FR_WM52PCK006/ikDirId1317662.aspx

Go to venteprivee.com for sales of Or Brun products including very cute and practical insect traps.  Decent reductions on all products including fertilizer, plant treatments, watering balls (for when you're not there to water) and so on and all for use in organic gardening.

Acid Loving Plants

Here's a fine spring display with Acers, Pieris and Azaeleas in a local municipal space.  The fountain is very refreshing  in the summer as it throws out a fine spray.  All these plants have in common is a love of acid soils.  Let me explain!

Composts for acid loving plants are called ERICACEOUS which tend to need neutral to acid ph measurements.  Such composts are called loam based composts and tend not to have lime.  The term Ericaceous is a reference to the Ericaceae, family of plants (heathers) generally intolerant of lime.

The majority of acid loving plants are originally from woodland areas and they prefer cool, shady environments with a soil rich in hummus, moist and well drained.  Such soils are fertile because nutrients are annually replenished by the recyclying of fallen leaves.  Plants that thrive on acid soils, like azaleas and rhododendrons can grow well in containers filled with lime free or ericaceous compost.

Examples of plants for acid soils:

- Acer Japonicum or Acer Palmatum, Deciduous tree (Japanese maple that can grow into very large trres or bushes or can keep in bush form if planted in a container),

- Camellia Japonica, evergreen shrub (shrub with dark green, leathery foilage and is covered in large colourful flowers in spring),

- Andromeda Polifolia , evergreen shrub (otherwise known as bog rosemary),

- Styrax Japonicus deciduous tree ( Japanese snowbell with glossy leaves turning red in Autumn),

- Cassiope Lycopodioides, evergreen shrub (heather like shrub with dark green leaves that forms a dense ground covering mat),

- Desfontainia Spinosa, evergreen shrub (Has a Holly like appearance with tubular red flowers tipped with yellow,

- Celmisia Walkeri, evergreen shrub ( has arching, spreding branches, low growing with dark green leaves and daisy like white flowers in summer),

- Erica Cinerea 'Romiley', evergreen shrub (bell heather with magenta flowers from early summer to autumn above dark green leaves),

- Magnolia, Pieris Formosa, deciduous shrub ( summer flowering with goblet shaped flowers and dark green leaves)

- Pinus Sylvestris,evergreen shrub (Dwarf, slow growing tupe of Scots Pine with bright golden yellow needle-like foilage),

- Rhododendron Luteum, deciduous shrub (mid green leaves and funnel shaped sticky sweet smelling yellow flowers),

- Skimia Japonica 'Rubella', evergreen shrub (tough plant with dark red flower buds in autumn and winter which open into white flowers with a pleasant frangrace, very popular for pots and winter arrangements),

- Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea, evergreen shrub (cowberries that spread over a wide area that produces white flowers that turn into red fruits),

- Phlox Adsurgens, perennial (a mound of light green foilage with pink/orange flowers in late spring),

- Podophyllum Hexandrum, Perennial ( Purple splashed leaves, spreading plant with white or pale pink flowers),

- Semiaquilegia Ecalacarata, perennial (delicate plant with bell shaped flowers in purple red in early summer).

Complementary Colours

On the HSV colour wheel opposite colours are complementary colours, that when mixed produce a shade of grey.In colour theory, two colours are called complementary if, when mixed in the proper proportion, they produce a neutral colour (grey, white, or black).
Because of the limitations imposed by the range of colours that were available throughout most of the history of art, many artists still use a traditional set of complementary pairs, including:


white and black

red and green

blue and orange

yellow and violet

The use of complementary colours is an important aspect of aesthetically pleasing art and graphic design. This also extends to other fields such as contrasting colours in logos and retail display. When placed next to each other, complements make each other appear brighter. On an artistic colour wheel, complementary colours are placed opposite one another.

Sometimes we see combinations of colours that really 'work' or 'pop' against each other.  It's likely you'll be seeing complementary colours in action.  I always get confused by the term 'complementary ' because I think it should mean matching or similar colours but in fact, it's the opposite;

We can also use these theories in garden or windowbox design if we want to create really eyecatching compositions.  This flower shop in Nogent reminded me of how vibrant red and green are together.  Why not try some complementary colours in your windowboxes (as a smal experiment) or in a corner of your garden?  Have a look around and see what catches your eye in gardens and green spaces, you might suddenly be finding complementary colours everywhere!