25/06/2015
Pennie Latin visits the 'soul garden' at Dudhope Multicultural Centre in Dundee, where residents have turned a car park into a vibrant kitchen garden.
This week the kitchen garden team visit Dundee's 'soul garden' at the Dudhope Multicultural centre. Pennie Latin and gardening expert Nicola Singleton, take a walk around this wonderful, urban, car park, garden. They witness the first harvest of potatoes and come across some non-native vegetables such as kabachi and pak choi growing side-by-side with the more familiar; peas, beans and marrows. This reflects the whole ethos of Dudhope, a space where the diverse community can come together and grow. For this centre provides a place to exercise, socialise and to eat together.
Speaking of eating, this week chicken and vegetable curry is on the menu in Dudhope's community café. Nicola Singleton takes her turn in the kitchen making fresh mint chutney, under the watchful eye of centre cook Schweta, whilst Dan Holland comes across an unusual food vending machine in the Overgate shopping centre, Dundee.
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Dudhope Multicultural Centre, Dundee
Duration: 00:32
Kitchen Garden Plot Blog - The diary of a grow your own enthusiast
As summer rolls on with its glorious weather…. oh boy, I wish! I had put off going down to the allotments with the cool and miserable weather, but managed to drag myself down on Sunday morning just as one damp phase finished and a bit of sunshine turned up. Funny thing was, as I watered the plants in the greenhouse and went to get more from my water butts, it was noticeable that the water level hadn’t gone up very much at all. It has felt very cold and damp but obviously the actual rainfall has been at a minimum. So, now we are in a situation that lulls most gardeners into a false sense of security where everyone thinks there has been little need for watering but alas, we suffer the miserable conditions without any benefits. Keep those root crops watered!
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During my brief visit on Sunday, I planted the rest of my squashes and courgettes. I really have gone overboard with these this year, planting way too many but I hope that if they all crop well, I will keep a few friends happy with my bounty. The Sunburst squashes that were so plentiful last year are already fruiting and I have 2 or 3 nice squashes developing despite the plant looking sad. I have removed the cloches from these as they were getting a bit ‘squashed’ up – oh come on; allow me a pun or two…
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Whilst my sweet peppers are doing well, I have given up the idea of outdoor tomatoes and have potted some of these for growing in the greenhouse - they will need extra care with regard to watering as they soon dry out. I got some more Brussels sprouts and sprouting broccoli out in the ground, moving the big green cloches to them; with this weather, I don’t think I will be bothered by cabbage whites on the now exposed brassicas. In fact, I don’t think I have seen a single cabbage white so far this year. There you are! A silver lining to these clouds after all!
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A couple of weeks ago, I heralded some good weather off the back of my comfrey bursting into copious greenery and flowers. Well, we did get that warm spell, but in the same way as that disappeared, the comfrey has decided it has had enough of flowering too. The remaining nectar pots are alive with a cornucopia of buzzing bees which was nice to hear as I worked around them.
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Things I will be doing over the coming week include my second spraying of Bordeaux mixture for the potatoes. I will sow more cauliflower seeds (just one or two) but I need to spend some time sorting my sweet peas that are progressing very well this year – I decided to leave the 5 litre water bottle cloches on them to allow the base of the plants to keep relatively warm and it seems to have paid dividends.
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Broadcast
- Thu 25 Jun 2015 13:30±«Óãtv Radio Scotland
