Music played
15 items-
Peter Bjorn and John At the seaside
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Peter Bjorn and John Norrlands Riviera
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Andrew Bird Intro
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Vetiver Double
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Sufjan Stevens In the Devil’s Territory
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Frode Haltli Jag Haver Ingen Kärare
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Psapp The Counter
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Sufjan Stevens Jacksonville
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Steve Reid Lions of Judah (Juda)
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Art Ensemble of Chicago Theme De Yoyo
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Pharoah Sanders Astral Travelling
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Devendra Banhart Cristobal
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Paris Smith Pentatonia
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Psapp Calm Down
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Sigur Rós Með Suð í Eyrum
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ALYS ON FLOWERS AND HERBS
‘Oh you pretty things, I bet you’re driving your mamas and papas insane? Let me make it plain, you gotta make way for the homo superior,’ sings David Bowie.
Vegetables may keep your body sustained, but it's flowers that make a garden grow. When I started this project I thought it would be easy to weed out any pretty, but useless flowers. If you couldn’t eat, drink or cut it - well off with its head!
But they kept creeping in, those pretty things, the geraniums, heleniums, asters and euphorbias. For these I made excuses or myths . . . ‘it’s particularly good for night flying moths.’
The truth is as long as the flowers are simple (rather than over bred doubles), have some scent (a sign of nectar and thus pollen) they’ll attract all sorts of insects (and with them everything else). The flowers bring in the pollinators and predators that mask the mistakes (who notices slightly munched lettuce leaves when theirs a pretty marigold flower next door?) and generally hold the picture together.
I do like an edible flower though. They make for interesting salads. Marigold (discard the middle, just the petals), aquilegias, campanulas, rocket flowers, violas, borage, daisies, cornflowers, pinks, pelargoniums, sage, sweet williams and the peppery nasturtiums are all edible. I‘m not suggesting you can live on flowers alone, but they certainly do make the heart sing. -
Edible Flowers
For insects, the eyes and the belly, edible flowers are a really good ‘doer’ in the garden. Some to try are viola, calendula, poppy, valerian, verbena, nasturtium, courgette, chicory, chive, dianthu, rocket, basil and lavender. Eat them fresh in salads, baked into biscuits and fried as tempura, but beware of shop brought plants not intended for eating as they may have been sprayed, so wait for a new flush before digging in.
Plants for a future -
Herbs
The link between home-grown food and the kitchen, no recipe is complete without an herbal inflection. With so many herbs requiring a variety of growing conditions, find out what soil you have and grow suitable plants, and for those that can’t go in the ground, try a pot with the right soil and drainage.
BBC Gardening - Growing herbs -
Bee Keeping
Back gardens are an incredibly important resource for insects with reduced habitats and food sources in the UK. Alys met her local beekeepers to find out where some of the bees in her garden come from and what kind of honey urban backyard nectar produces.
The British Bee Keepers' Association -
Mitsuba
Also know as Japanese parsley, it is barely used outside of Japan but for little reason. A great parsley alternative and good looking plant, the heart-shaped leaves can be eaten raw or cooked.
Wikipedia - mitsuba -
Perilla
Is often seen as a bedding plant but the leaves are versatile in the kitchen. The dark purple form is a really beautiful addition to an edible garden.
Wikipedia - perilla -
Japanese bunching onions
Like large spring onions but lasting longer in the ground with the whole stem, green and white, used in cooking. Try cultivars like 'Ishikura,' 'Summer Isle,' 'Savel,' 'Long White Tokyo' or 'He Shi Ko.'
Wikipedia – bunching onions
Credits
- Production Manager
- Jacque Brown
- Presenter
- Alys Fowler
- Producer
- Juliet Glaves
- Executive Producer
- Gill Tierney
