17/09/2015
Pennie Latin visits Gardening Leave in Erskine, a project for war veterans which provides them with health education, peace and stability.
Pennie Latin is in the central belt this week and the first stop is Erskine, where an old garden centre is being used as a place of comfort, learning, socialising and therapy for veterans of war. Gardening Leave, described as a 'tarmac paradise', is made up of raised beds and polytunnels, where the veterans are growing food for themselves and the nearby hospital. The raised beds are made at a good height for people with mobility issues or bad backs. But it's not only raised beds here; it's hospital beds too. The beds donated by Erskine hospital have been adapted to grow veggies. Their height is adjustable for the volunteers and even better still, they can be wheeled into the sun light. Pennie stays for lunch and tries a potato pizza made by the volunteers. Next stop is another garden centre but this time in Alexandria. Here General Manager Thomas Callaghan has donated the use of a large green house to the Lomond foodbank.
Last on
Richard Crawford’s Allotment Blog
Coming back from a very sunny Portugal, I wasn’t too keen to freeze my behind off down at the allotments, but managed to pop along on Tuesday since we had a ‘warm’ day. I am glad that I did. I cycled down with my backpack ready to get some nice morsels for the week. Well, I wished I had taken the car. Take a look at the gladioli in the gallery – as per usual, these always bloom when you are away! I thought I might try a root of potatoes as well; I had chopped all the greenery off just before I went on my holidays as I was getting a little blight showing–not much, but better safe than sorry since I would be away and unable to tend to them. WOW–looks like it’s a potato year for me. I got over 5lb of one plant. If the rest are the same, that will yield over 125lb of King Edwards.
ÌýFeeling elated at the state of play with the tatties, I thought I might now venture into the carrots. You may recall that apart from one weeding session, the carrots have been covered since before birth right up until now. No thinning… I was desperate to have a good crop this year after so many failed harvests. Experiment complete, job done–I have some cracking carrots, (as you will see from the photo), straight, good sized and unblemished results. I will take a few every now and then for a few weeks as they taste sooooo good, but I will leave the majority to lengthen and fatten up.
ÌýI am still harvesting cauliflowers, broccoli, cabbages and sunburst squash, but I am very disappointed with the rest of my squash/courgette efforts. Definitely a poor year for me. All my tomatoes are picked, and the resulting relish and chutney will be a delight, I am sure. Added to this are my pickled tomatoes–not pickled in the usual sense, but a Christmassy spiced pickle. Oh my, you have to try it. Since I won’t be writing too much next week, I will post the recipe. This is such a delicious use of green tomatoes that I am surprised it is not done in a big commercial way.
ÌýRight; back to freezing my behind off–mind you I wouldn’t want to live in Portugal. It’s so hot and dry out there that allotment gardening must be a difficult past time. A great place to visit though!
Ìý
Broadcast
- Thu 17 Sep 2015 13:30±«Óãtv Radio Scotland
