Island Life Magazine Ltd June/July 2012 | Page 106
Gardening
with Tina
Having squelched grumpily
around my garden through
April and May, I am now
hoping that June and July
will finally be dry enough to
allow me to enjoy the light
evenings and the beauty of
early summer with at least
one glass of Pimms on the
patio. There is still plenty
to do, but it won’t be long
T in a H ug he s trai ne
d as
a profession al ga rd
en er
afte r leav in g school
a nd
spent a su m m er w
orki
in Tu sca ny as a n E ng
ng lis h
Ga rd en er. Sh e ha s
a
N at io na l D ip lo m a
in
Horticu lt ure.
until we are enjoying the
first fruits of summer. I can’t
Seakale a great treat
wait to share the first bowl
Seakale is both useful and ornamental; this tough
of strawberries, preferably
native of coastal shingle was once a very popular early
warm from a day in the sun
vegetable, and is a great treat. The shoots of both leaves
topped with a scoop of my
and flowers are blanched by covering with a bucket in late
mum’s divine home-made
winter and are delicious, raw, lightly boiled or steamed
lavender ice cream.
and served with melted butter and a little lemon juice.
Seakale also makes a very striking addition to the garden
with intricately curled and crinkled purple blue leaves and
dense heads of honey scented white flowers in late May.
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Blooming delicio
u
s
Flowers make
a lovely additi
on
to a meal, crea
ting a visual fe
ast
of colour. Som
e have been us
ed
as traditional fl
avourings such
as roses and or
ange flowers,
whilst the peta
ls of pot marig
old
Calendula offi
cinalis were a
saffron substitu
te. Only eat
flowers you ca
n positively id
entify.
106
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