Things are definitely looking up in the Moot garden, the sun is back! From late November the sun doesn’t get above the hill that runs behind the Moot garden and so we’re plunged into darkness. Okay, I’m exaggerating slightly, but we don’t get any direct sun for a few months and it can get a bit depressing. But on February 16th the sun came back! Just a little sliver in the morning at first, but now the whole garden is getting its share. It’s very exciting, and it means that things are starting to happen. Spring is springing, albeit tentatively.

Firstly, the crocuses are finally opening now that they actually get a bit of sun on them. A welcome bit of spring colour.

Finally a bit of proper spring sun and the crocuses come out to play

For the last few weeks we’ve been enjoying the hellebores that we planted in the autumn. They’re very happy in the shady, north-wall bed at the feet of the Morello cherry. We’ve also planted a few ferns, but there’s a lot of space to fill, so if anyone has any suggestions for shade-loving plants please let us know.

A welcome bit of winter colour. Hellebores are a Moot favourite.

There is even a little bit of action happening in the edible garden. The garlic is doing its thing despite being planted a month late. But it seems to be very happy, and it was so successful last year we have high hopes for this.

The young garlic is enjoying the spring sunshine

And finally, a triumph. Despite being reduced to not much more than some vegetal lace by the caterpillars last summer, the purple-sprouting broccoli has rallied! It’s no less than a miracle, as we’d even talked about digging up the plants because they had been attacked so badly, but there is a little tiny head of broccoli growing in the centre of each of the plants! It’s not exactly going to be a bumper crop, but it’s just amazing that we’re going to get any. Don’t worry, we’ve learned our lesson for this year, we’ll be netting out brassicas well and truly!

The miracle purple-sprouting broccoli

There’s not much more to see in the garden at the moment, but things are happening. The Crabapple and Morello cherry both have little tiny buds on them; newly planted Shakespeare and Iceberg roses are shooting little tiny new leaves; the rhubarb is budding, as is the red currant and the blueberries; and the pototoes are chitting. We’ve ordered our seeds for the year and have even done a planting plan. All we need now is a bit of time to start planting and we’ll know for sure that spring has sprung.

Now, the plan with this blog was not to only write one entry every three months, but I’m very sorry to realise that is what’s been happening of late. Things will change come 2011 and that’s a promise. Keep visiting to check up on me.

I was particularly inspired to write today because Moot has woken up to about three inches of snow. Not surprising you might think, given the weather conditions across the UK recently, but it’s very rare that we get snow of any consequence here. In fact last week when the rest of the UK ground to a halt, we had not a single flake. But not this week.

The Moot Shed in the snow

The garden itself is pretty uneventful at the moment, there aren’t any tender little seedlings that are at risk in the cold. But it’s that lovely quiet time in the garden. We did plant a beautiful Iceberg Rose last week (a belated Moot birthday present) but we’ve given it lots of protection around its roots to keep it safe in the cold. And we have hundreds of bulbs that we should have planted weeks ago (see, it’s not just you we’ve been neglecting). The plan had been to plant them this weekend, but unless there’s a dramatic thaw, they’ll have to wait. Perhaps we’ll have lovely late flowers this spring! Hopefully.

But what, I hear you ask, happened to all those apples I wrote endlessly about? Well, the short answer is a lot of cooking.
Here are some of the highlights:

Some of the MANY jars of apple jelly from the 2010 crop.

Our first attempt at chutney – spiced apple chutney. We also made some apple and tomato chutney with tomatoes from the greenhouse. They're both maturing, so we'll let you know how they turn out when we crack open the first jar.

Normandy apple tart – a DELICIOUS apple and custard tart from northern France. A fiddly recipe from Ballymaloe, but so yummy and really worth the effort. It looks so beautiful too.

So as you can see, we put all those apples to good use. The only problem is that we now have a lot of jars of apple jelly that I’m not too sure what to do with! Any suggestions gratefully received.

Here is a photo I took of the last of the summer’s crop. Not a bad lot of borlotti beans, onions and a variety of different types of tomato.

One of the last crops from the garden this year.

So you’ll see you haven’t been missing out on much in our absence, it has all been very quiet. But before we know it, Christmas will be gone and the days will be getting longer and we’ll be heading back into busy garden season and back into the battle with the slugs. But in the mean time, a very merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all. More from the Moot garden in 2011.

Readers, I owe you an apology. And I can say readers with confidence as we’ve had reports of blog fans as far and wide as London, Dubai and New Zealand. Who’d have thought the Moot shed and garden would have such international interest! But the apology is for the lack of communication over the last few weeks. Moot has been busy busy busy, which is great, but hasn’t left much time for gardening or updating.

So, the garden aside for one minute, what have we been up to? Well, work, mostly, and details of all that will be on our news blog soon. But we’ve also had two Moot birthdays in the last couple of weeks. These aren’t particularly of interest in themselves, but one half of Moot bought the other half such a great present that we just had to share it with you.

Freshly baked in the Cotswolds at the dead of night, and then driven at high (but legal, of course!) speed across the country, Hobbs House Bakery delivered a box of eight delicious loaves of bread to Moot’s front door in time for a late birthday breakfast. Since they arrived we have been working our way through the selection, and we have been so excited that we just had to tell you about it. The bread is fantastic, it comes beautifully packaged and it was the best birthday present this half of Moot could ask for! It’s not easy to get proper, old-fashioned bread made with nothing but ‘real’ ingredients, so we’re very excited to find this fantastic source. Pop down to the Moot shed and we might just give you a slice!

The Hobbs House Bakery sample box

We thought you might also like to see where we went for a birthday walk.

Moot's nearest beach. Come visit.

This is Langland Bay, Moot’s nearest beach. Only a 10 minute walk from the Moot shed, the best location for a meeting in the UK? We think so.

Okay, so back to the garden. I have to admit that because of how busy we’ve been, the garden has been a little neglected of late. But there’s not a huge amount going on at the moment.
The tomatoes are finally beginning to ripen. It’s definitely a bit late for them to be full of flavour, but they look fantastic and I have lots of recipes up my sleeve for ripe and green tomatoes, so watch this space.
The purple sprouting is holding up, JUST, against the caterpillars. Many of the leaves look like some strange brassical lace, but as the weather cools I’m hoping the caterpillars will be beaten.
The chillis have definitely been coming into their own. They’ve done really well and are delicious. Last night a handful were used for a delicious Thai curry paste. Yum!
But of course, the main event is still the apples. They continue to fall by the bucket-load on a daily basis and last week we made our first batch of apple chutney. It’s a great recipe from Ballymaloe – the pots are maturing now for the next few weeks so we’ll report back with a taste test.

The first of the apple chutney

More soon, readers, I promise.