Blossom, Wildflowers and Other Plants

Here are some of the plants, blossom and wildflowers in our garden today. We have encouraged lots of wildflowers to set up home and we make a few small areas to grow fruit and veg in the wildness.

(Please click on the collage to see a full-size version.)

Walk Near Kirtlebridge

Rob and I went on a three mile circular walk from our house, down towards the village of Kirtlebridge, back along the B7076 towards Kirkpatrick Flemming, turning off at the Robgill Bridge turning and back up to our house. The verges were alive with birds, especially young fledgelings, and packed with flowers. We try to allow as many wild flowers as possible to grow in our garden, so it is interesting to see what grows well locally.

Here are some of the plants we saw on our walk (including chive flowers in our garden!). (Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.)

Rob took this photo of the Burnswark Hillfort that we can see from our road. It is a late Iron Age fort, later used by the Romans in the 2nd Century.

This is Robgill Tower: (it's up for sale if you have a spare £2,250,000.00!).

A view of Kirtle Water taken from Robgill Bridge, with Robgill Tower in the background.

Dawyck Botanic Garden

Rob and I had a trip to the Scottish Borders today. We started out with a visit to Dawyck Botanic Garden. The garden has a superb tree collection, as well as many shrubs and herbaceous plants. The fir trees, and rhododendrons were spectacular and there were carpets of blue bells and some beautiful meconopsis to see.

You can see views of Dawyck House (below) from various points in the garden. There are many trails and paths to follow, so you could easily spend 1 - 2 hours wandering around.

The function of this mysterious little building was not mentioned on the map, but I think it might be an ice house.

 
Scrape Burn runs from top to bottom of this sloping garden and provides some refreshing movement and sound.

We ended our visit with lunch in the cafe, which was really excellent. Lots of home cooking with local ingredients. We enjoyed jacket potatoes with cheese, coleslaw and side salad, cappuccino and Early Grey tea for under £17. The salad was fresh and crunchy, the homemade coleslaw included apple and sultanas and the potatoes were perfectly baked with tasty cheese. Some of the best we've tasted (and we've eaten quite a few over the years!).

The small shop has lots of interesting seeds: Rob choose some Scottish wildflowers to attract bees and I bought some pink oyster mushroom spawn. I have tried several times to grow mushrooms, with very little success, so fingers crossed!

We went on to the picturesque town of Peebles afterwards, which was lovely - lots of small, interesting shops, including delis, clothing shops, cafes and restaurants. Also a handful of charity shops, which were ideal for me to search for buttons :) All-in-all a very nice day out!

Hedgerow Series #3

This is Indian Balsam or Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) photographed next to the River Annan at Hoddam, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

Introduced to the UK in 1839, it is now a troublesome, invasive species, most commonly found along waterways and on waste ground. The photograph below shows an example of the problem along this river. The RHS suggest ways to erradicate it here.

Hedgerow Series #2

This is a photo of Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), a member of the daisy family. Photo taken 7 August 2009.

Hedgerow Series #1

While walking our dog (Henry), Rob and I enjoy seeing the ever-changing variety of plants in the hedgerows around our house in southern Scotland. It seemed like a good opportunity to try out our new camera and take some photos of the plants throughout the year, and perhaps learn some of the names for the plants we photograph.

The sloes are just beginning to ripen.



These are the fruit of the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). Having tried them fresh from the tree, I would not recommend them raw: they are extremely astringent. They make a beautiful liqueur, called 'sloe gin'. The sloes are pricked with a fork, then infused in a mixture of gin and sugar for three months, before the liquer is drained off the fruit, filtered and bottled. I have since been given the tip that freezing the fruit first, splits the skin and saves having to prick each one with a fork.

Roger Phillips, in his book "Wild Food" ISBN 978-0-330-28069-3, also mentions recipes for Sloe Jelly, Sloe and Apple Cheese and Sloe Wine.