Monday, September 17, 2012

In Praise of Buddleia

Its time to prune our Buddleias.   By pruning them back hard the next years growth will be long and straight - just right for use as garden canes.   The flowers on Buddleias are loved by butterflies and my bees.  As well as sticks for the garden the chippings go into the hen run to be processed (eventually) into garden mulch - isn't nature wonderful!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Winter Stores!


It feels satisfying to have a good stock of fruit and veg bottled, jammed, frozen and dried ready for the winter. We are using more Kilner jars now to save freezer space.  To freeze our fruit we cook with a little sugar, sterilise the jars in the oven and the lids with boiling water.  Fill the jars when everything is hot and screw down tight.   The Kilner tops will pop up if the fruit is not keeping.