Archive for September, 2010

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Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Marrow Day at Far Sawrey

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When we bought the Sawrey Hotel in July we had no idea that the village of Far Sawrey was the centre of the marrow growing universe. Well, if not exactly the centre, then very close to it, as it turns out that there are marrow competitions all over Cumbria.  Today is Marrow Day in Far Sawrey and most of the regulars of the Sawrey Hotel are taking part.  The real experts are using seed from the marrow which appears in the Guinness Book of Records, which weighed in at 128 lbs.  This year’s winner was grown by Roger from Farm Fold and weighed in at a mighty 118 lbs- which isn’t bad for one of the coldest years on record.  I’m told that Roger has thought of little else other than his marrow for the past few months and his victory comes at a timely moment for his girl-friend Anne- they are getting married this weekend.

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Friday, September 17th, 2010

Damson Pie- Grounds for Divorce

Damson Pie
Margaret has made two damson pies which are on the menu at the Damson Dene Hotel- and guests are being warned to look out for stones.
Wayne offered the menu to a lady who was dining with her daughter . “Of course I’ll have the damson pie” she said, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. You know, my husband divorced me because of my damson pie. I’d cooked him a damson pie and when we’d finished eating he had 24 stones on the side of his plate and I only had 2. He accused me of deliberately giving him the ones with stones and we had a massive row. Our marriage never recovered”.
Did you enjoy that Madam?” asked Wayne, when he cleared her plate. “It was absolutely delicious, she replied, smiling contentedly. “Happy memories” she added. Wayne couldn’t help noticing that there were only two stones on the side of her plate.
Here’s a spooky thing. Tonight Margaret cooked me a damson pie, from which I cut a small slice, as per the attached photo. That slice contained 26 stones!.

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Thursday, September 16th, 2010

The Killer Badgers

Badger
The first thing we did when we began to garden here was to put a deer fence around the garden with a cattle grid at the entrance. Without that the garden simply wouldn’t have got going. But while the cattle grid kept out the deer it was useless with badgers, who just waddled over it, and we quite often saw them doing just that when we returned home late at night. This was potentially a problem as badgers forage for worms and can cause havoc in the process. They are large and powerful animals. We then discovered that they were actually living in our garden- their sett was in the fern garden. But we have been lucky- they forage in the woods behind us and tend to leave the garden alone, although they sometimes make a mess of the lawns.

But whilst I can live happily with badgers in my garden I share the antipathy of all farmers towards them. They carry TB; they infect cattle with TB and are responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of cattle each year. On my farm I’ve had two scares, when, after routine tests for TB, cattle have had a positive reaction. In both cases they have been false alarms, but three healthy rare-breed cows have had to be slaughtered and we have been put to immense trouble and expense because of the false readings. In the West Country whole herds of cattle are routinely put down. There is no doubt that badgers are responsible for spreading the disease. Now the new government has had the courage to allow badgers to be killed in the infected areas. The last time this was proposed 47,000 animal lovers complained and the government backed down. This time the government must hold firm.

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Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

The Gardening World Cup- Japan


In just three weeks judging will take place and we will know who has won the Gardening World Cup in Japan. I’m in daily contact with the organisers in Nagasaki. Alan Ward, who is sculpting the Angel which will form the centre-piece of my garden is already there and hard at work. He hadn’t expected such intense heat and high humidity, but he’s immensely impressed by the professionalism of the team who are organising the event. There’s a massive TV advertising campaign and every train is carrying posters promoting the show. There are 12 competitors from four continents and it would be five if David Davidson from the Kirstenbosch gardens in South Africa had been able to attend. David and I had a memorable long lunch at La Poule au Pot in London during the Chelsea Flower Show with our Japanese hosts and he was hoping at that stage to take part, but unfortunately other commitments precluded him from accepting the invitation. I think he would have enjoyed the status which we have all been given in this video, taken from the official Japanese website.

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Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Maurice Saatchi’s Secret Garden

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The Saatchi Gallery, in the Kings Road, London, is without a doubt one of the best galleries in the world and is dedicated to showing off the collection of Charles Saatchi. His collection is so vast that the exhibits change every few months. It is his life’s work. Now, his brother Maurice has revealed in an interview with Elizabeth Grice that his life’s work is a garden. This is what the article said:

“His own legacy doesn’t seem to be of much interest to him. If it lies in anything, it will be in his 70-acre “garden” in West Sussex where he has planted thousands of trees and created a new landscape embellished with bridges, pediments, arches, pavilions – things he collects as avidly as his brother collects modern art. “That’s been my life’s work, really. It gets better every year. That will be there for ever.”

Charles Saatchi has spent tens of millions on his art collection and it looks as though his brother is doing the same with his garden. The intriguing thing is that nothing seems to be known about it. I’m assuming that it is in Staplefield in Sussex, as this is where Maurice Saatchi lives and his title is baron Staplefield. But I can’t find a single article about this “life’s work” or any reference to it at all. Charles Saatchi has become a recluse and is never seen in public. He didn’t even attend the 40th anniversary party for Saatchi and Saatchi last week. Maurice Saatchi, on the other hand, did. Gardens, like art treasures are there to be shared. There is a well known saying that a garden dies with it’s owner and I’m not sure that Lord Staplesfield can be confident that his will be there for ever. I think he should start to share it now, while there’s a chance.

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Monday, September 13th, 2010

Surprising Survivors Part 10- The Fascist Pineapple

Fascist Pineapple
This plant is a bromeliad, a member of the pineapple family. Most bromeliads come from tropical rainforests and are epiphytic, which means that they grow on the branches of trees. But this bromeliad comes from the coastal forests of Chile and unusually grows in soil like most other plants. Its Latin name is Fascicularia, which means “growing together in bundles” and it is the very same word from which the Italian “Fascisti” derives, which means “a group bound tightly together”. According to the RHS at Wisley it can’t be grown outside in the UK, but we’ve been growing them outside for years and when I went out to take this photo today I noticed that we have about 70 clumps, which must be upwards of 350 plants in all. At this time of year the leaves start to turn a brilliant crimson and the rosette in the centre opens into a pale-blue flower. The trick to survival, as with so many exotics is good drainage. Last winter the hard frost burnt the leaves quite badly and they looked rather unsighly for much of the spring, but they have pulled through nicely.

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Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Death by Killer Potato

Killer potatoes
I’m taken with the idea of someone meeting their fate in a manner which is appropriate to their lifestyle as in Tom Stoppard’s falling bookcase or Mike Edwards’ bale of hay (see September 10th). I nearly fulfilled my destiny today in a manner which was entirely appropriate to me. I was driving to the Damson Dene Hotel taking as usual some produce from my kitchen garden, which in this case was two trays of potatoes, which were perched behind me on the back seat. I don’t dawdle on these winding roads, especially as I know them so well. So I was belting along at a fair pace when an idiot shot out of a side road without looking, making me slam on my brakes. When I did so the potatoes behind me shot forward, two of them smashing against the windscreen. I’ve no doubt at all that if one of these potatoes had hit me on the back of the head I’d have been a gonner. A fitting way to go, no doubt.

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Saturday, September 11th, 2010

Our Wagyu Cattle- Looking Magnificent


The last time I saw Wagyu cattle looking this magnificent was in Kobe, Japan, on a very hot summer’s day. They were in a large barn in temperatures approaching 100 fahrenheit, being cooled by enormous fans, which had the dual purpose of controlling the powerful stench of ammonia. In Japan, this is how Wagyu cattle are kept year round- it is in effect factory farming. In contrast our Wagyus have the freedom of the open field and access to fresh grass rather than the imported grain which is fed to their Japanese counterparts. Today, our English Wagyus, who have been raised from embryos, looked to me to be the picture of health. In three month’s time they will be ready for slaughter- the very first since we began the embryo programme three years ago. We are fortunate in this country that we have the option to give our cattle the freedom of the open fields- unfortunately the Japanese don’t have the choice because they don’t have the land available. Nor do they have the land to grow their own grain, which is why they rely on imports from Australia and Canada. It won’t be long before we find out whether our superior methods of husbandry will lead to superior meat. Now that would be something.

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Friday, September 10th, 2010

A Good Way to Go

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On the day that Tom Stoppard is quoted as saying: “I have a spasm of envy for the person who was killed by a falling bookcase- it would be a good way to go. You went when you were in a good frame of mind and you were doing something pleasant and interesting”, the news has come in that Mike Edwards, a founder member of ELO, has been killed by a one ton bale of hay, which fell on his head, killing him instantly. This is a very rock and roll way to go in the 21st century, as most rock stars turn to farming or gardening once they have made their pile. But people of our generation will always hanker after the glamourous way to go, as written about by Roger McGough in the sixties in his poem “Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death”, of which these are the first and last verses:

Let me die a youngman’s death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

Let me die a youngman’s death
Not a free from sin tiptoe in
Candlewax and waning death
Not a curtains drawn by angels borne
‘what a nice way to go death’

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Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Surprising Survivors Part 9 – The Tree Echium-Giant Viper’s Bugloss

Echium Pininana
Strictly speaking the Tree Echium (Giant Viper’s Bugloss- real name Echium Pininana) shouldn’t be included in the “Surprising Survivors” series as all of mine were wiped out last winter. The photo above was taken two years ago. But the seeds of these magnificent flowers survived in the ground and, without any help from me, have sprung into life. The result is that we have hundreds of survivors, growing in the unlikeliest of places. Of these we have potted up about 100, which I will keep indoors in the hope that I can get them through next winter. In this country, unlike its native Canary Isles, the Tree Echium needs to survive two winters before coming into flower. The flower spire can reach 14 ft, so it is worth waiting for. The spire contains thousands of tiny blue flowers which bees love. On a sunny day, as you approach the Echiums you can hear the hum of hundreds of bees feasting on the flowers.

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