What have you done in the garden today? Part 9

[Jimmyneutronsforehead]

Welcome to part 9.

We love hearing about all of your gardening adventures, purchases, tips and tricks and very worthy boasts about what has gone well for you, as well as all of the behind the scenes bloopers.

We're well into the growing season, after a long wet and windy start to the year and a fast and hot spring.

We also love hearing about what you've made from your garden forage.

We are just about out of peony season, but this recipe was beautiful especially in a sponge cake, mixed in with a glass of lemonade and with my morning yoghurt and oats.

Wipeywipey's peony jam (soft set, syrupy) recipe:

I removed the petals and steeped overnight with 1 mug water per flower head, squashed the petals through muslin in the morning (no longer than 12hrs). I did a rough recipe of 1 good mug of sugar to every 2 medium heads, and 3 tablespoons of lemon. It is a wonderful golden magenta colour and tastes a lot better than it smelled when steeping and cooking (quite woody).

for a firmer set

per 1 head of petals, 1 cup of water
Steeped in freshly boiled water for 10 minutes- a large French press works
Brought back up to a boil on the hob
Add 1 cup of sugar per head of petals (or a full bag if you use 4 petals), reduce to a simmer and gently mix in the sugar until dissolved
Add 2 Tbsp lemon juice
Add 2 Tbsp pectin powder, seived in slowly
Bring to a boil again for a minute or 2
Let cool just enough to jar up safely without burning your hands.

We are also out of magnolia season, but if I can find the magnolia syrup recipe for drinks, mead and wine, I shall post that once I've found where I got the recipe from or the book I wrote it down in. It's very similar to Wipey's peony recipe, with optional additions like ginger and spices.

Please feel free to share any of your garden favourites ❤️

Dug up three potato plants this morning and I am covered in sweat, panting, running for shade. And before I was dressed (to be honest I'm still not dressed😄) I was chasing an escaped chicken around the garden. That may be all I do today.

We were expecting a thunderstorm last night with a downpour. Sadly didn't happen.

God these took some digging out. Can't find the one of me up the top of a ladder, but if it pops up as a memory I will be sure to add the full body fit.

Could you hear the Benny Hill song playing while you were sprinting round?

Definitely not. When I am trying to achieve a task I hold my breath, it is a stupid quirk of mine that is hard to fight. So I was running back and forth and through the undergrowth in the sun for 10? minutes, mostly holding my breath. The theme tune to that might be slightly less jaunty and more passie outie!

In the end we gave up on her and sat to drink our tea. She then somehow slipped back in the pen, so the next job is to find her escape route. Not today.

Uh oh, a Dies Irae then

More that than Benny Hill, certainly.

So today as I lay in my pool floaty, I took a glance upwards onto bamboo bastards roof and saw bamboo bastards berry thieving birds. Except he has 4 and I saw 8.

I sat there and counted over and over again, because I thought for a moment I'd spent too long out in the sun and was seeing double. Yep, definitely 8.

8 berry pinching bastard fancy white sky rats.

And he's still not done anything about his bamboo.

No actual gardening but have just had a mammoth watering everything hour. It’s so hot here today, 35 degrees, the garden looks very sad.

This is an old picture of this hole that kept appearing in my bed, no exit to it though. Thought it was a hedgehog. Didn't have it last year after we had new fencing put in but today I've gone out in the garden and it's there again.

I hope it isn't rats.