Lavender’s Blue
Apr 15th, 2007 by Chris
“Give me a land of boughs in leaf, A land of trees that stand;
Where trees are fallen, there is grief; I love no leafless land…”
A. E. Houseman
Today was the first really hot day this year and everyone at the allotments were visibly melting.
After watering all the seed beds Rob built a raised bed for the courgettes while I sowed a couple of rows of herbs. First in was cat nip, Nepeta, followed by Lavender Officianalis.
Catnip is the common name for Nepeta cataria, a hardy perennial herb of the Mint Family, with a fragrance which is highly attractive and exciting to cats and is said to deter rats.Catnip grows to a height of three or four feet, and features downy, light green foliage with small lavender flowers that grow on spikes up to five inches long.
We sowed another pot of Leeks, Musselborough, and a full row of Swede, Best Of All.
Rob put in the last of the International Kidney potatoes.
Grown on Jersey as Jersey Royals they are kidney shaped potatoes with pale yellow skin and flesh which is waxy when young. They are excellent boiled or as a salad potato. The famous flavour is said to be different when grown in England as they are fertilised with sea weed in Jersey. They can also be grown as an early main crop and when left to mature become more floury.
