Weeding the Web

Songs for gardeners in the veg patch

As the sowing season swings into action, are you humming something suitable as you tease out tomato seeds, lay out lettuces, and bed down beetroot?  Do you know any songs about vegetables? 

After all, music overflows with references to flowers. Songs mentioning roses alone would take several pages - think Bette Midler (The Rose), Poison (Every Rose has its Thorn), Nat King Cole (Ramblin' Rose) and of course Hank Williams Jnr's inspiration for many a Valentine message. I could go on.

Gardens feature frequently, from Old-Fashioned Garden, supposed to be Cole Porter's first smash hit in 1919 (hear it sung, read the lyrics), through English Country Garden (of which Rolf Harris did an odd acerbic version) to all those that use the garden as a metaphor for heaven, such as the lovely In the Garden (here by Elvis). In fact, the Guardian's music blog did a readers' round-up of recommended "garden" songs which included none of these last November.  

But vegetables? Well, extensive research has revealed that, indeed, there are songs about vegetables. Unsurprisingly, they tend to fall into the "novelty" category, which can be the only way to describe The Eggplant the Ate Chicago, or the inventive Barnyard Dance (aka The Vegetable Song), sung by the Squirrel Hillbillies (which pretty much tells you all you need to know about the style).

Here's the winner, though, awarded with the bias of moderately enthusiastic fan. Even so, I hadn't come across it before.  If you like it enough, you can even download a ring-tone. Sit back and enjoy John Denver's Home Grown Tomatoes.

 (Incidentally, there must be others. If you know other veggie songs, do tell us about it below.)

Pinning the Interest in Gardening

Social networking is not my strong point. I fail miserably at Facebook, am lackadaisical on LinkedIn and intermittent on Twitter.  These platforms feel to me like walking into a crowded room and talking loudly in the hope that the assembled company will find me fascinating (you'll note I've managed to overcome that feeling on the blogging front). When you think about it, it's quite odd, but I'm getting the hang of them...slowly. One new platform, however, I've fallen instantly in love with: Pinterest.

I found it because it figures quite highly among the routes via which people find this blog. The home-made garden sprinkler that I featured a couple of years ago has crept onto a number of Pinterest pinboards.

Part of Pinterest's attraction is that it's so easy. You see a picture you like? You just click the Pin It button that you've downloaded onto your browser and, like magic, you can add the picture straight to one of your Pinterest pinboards, online versions of corkboards on the wall. Naturally, as Pinterest has grown, it's attracted the interest of marketers, so firms are looking at how to use it to promote themselves, but there are loads of people who, without an axe to grind, are putting up pictures that you would never have found otherwise and which take you straight to the website where the idea or item originates.

It's a really simple way to file ideas on any subject. My boards are, of course, garden-related, but people use theirs to save ideas on fashion, craft, home decoration, pets - you name it. 

So far most of the ideas I've gathered have been for Recycled Stuff in the Garden, but I haven't got much pinned yet, because I'm not going to fill boards up for the sake of it, but do drop by and leave a comment. If you have pictures that you think would go well on the boards, then just give me a shout, and if you're already on Pinterest, let me know and I'll come by for a visit!

 

Presents for gardeners: meet your gardening book at the British Library

Do we have enough gardening books in the world? Well, probably, but volumes from the past need preserving, and the British Library has a scheme that could provide just the present for the gardener that has every book he or she could ever need: Book Adoption.

When I had a look at what’s on offer, garden-related titles were so high on the list that I wondered if they had some secret cookie attached to my search engine. Here are just three of the one's I found: Hortus Europae Americanus by Mark Catesby (1767), with 63 etchings, just right for someone interested in plant illustration; Flowers from Shakespeare's Garden by William Shakespeare (1906), in which illustrator Walter Crane portrays the flowers mentioned in old Willy Waggle-Dagger’s plays as human characters; and The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Flower Arrangement by Josiah Conde ( 1891) in which the architect details the intricacies of Ikebana.

You can fork out quite a bit for an adoption - £1000 lets you choose a book not on the current adoption list, puts your bookplate in the favoured tome and names you in the annual report, while £150 includes a tour of the library – but the £30 standard adoption includes the fun bit of an invitation to their annual “Meet Your Book” event. OK, so you could join the British Library and ask to see it anyway but, if you’re into good causes, this gift is slightly different and offers, to be frank, a tad more enjoyment to the recipient than the news that their present’s been spent on a goat in Uganda.

Do have a browse anyway. Not all the titles on the adoption list are as old as those above, and some I’m sure will have you itching to go and have a flick through. If you do go to the British Library, the fairly proximal Lamb's Conduit Street offers some decent cafes to eat at, which are definitely cheaper than the one in the library.

Top tips to keep cut flowers fresh

Fresh flowers from the garden. Nothing beats them, does it, for celebrating the fact that Spring has arrived?

My family is now resigned to my “natural” approach to flower-arranging, which is stuffing them in a vase and being grateful they’re all upright. Having gone to all that trouble, though, it’s good to make them last as long as possible.

Of course, that goes for bought bunches too and it’s lovely to be able to tell your floriferous benefactor, “They’ve lasted three weeks!” which gives him or her a warm glow at not having wasted their money.

So, with Mother’s Day this weekend, and Easter hot-foot after that, I thought I’d investigate exactly what you should do to extend the life of your cut flowers and this is what I’ve found.

General Points

1. Cut flowers when it’s cooler, first thing in the morning or in the evening. 
2. Keep the arrangement out of direct sunlight, out of draughts, and away from heat sources.
3. If possible, put the flower arrangement somewhere cool overnight.
4. Clean your vases before use. This reduces the proliferation of bacteria, which will block the stems and reduce water uptake.