Gardens: What To Do This Week
This week’s to-do list includes doing the right thing with lavender, garden design and the benefits of Blue River clematis
Trim This
Lavender is like a toddler: you need to get it into the habit of regular haircuts or it will sulk and sprawl. Now is the time to take action. Use sharp shears to remove the flower stems plus 1-3cm of this year’s growth; don’t cut into old wood, because it will not resprout. Clip again in mid-spring to keep it neat. Do not waste the blooms: hang up in bunches to dry somewhere airy, then strip the flowers to stuff into lavender bags or lavender shortbread.
See this
With gardens created by Piet Oudolf and Tom Stuart-Smith, Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent present a living snapshot of the best in contemporary garden design. Entry is from 9am-6pm every day (5pm from 29 September), so why not hire a rowing boat to explore the lake or lose yourself in the floral labyrinth of towering perennials? The estate is on the A34 between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stone, Staffordshire; go to lavenderblueflowers.com for full details.
Plant this
Clematis ‘Blue River’ doesn’t cling, it scrambles, so it makes a good cloak for bare soil in borders and raised beds. A long flowering season from June to September means that its sky-blue blooms with white centres keep coming all summer long. Height and spread: 1.2m x 60cm. Order one jumbo plug plant for £13.99 or two for £21.97 (prices include free UK mainland p&p). To order, call 0330 333 6856, quoting ref GU240, or go to our Readers’ Offers page. Delivery in September 2014.
Lavender Marriage
The cottage garden classic can perfume more than your knicker drawer, says Sybil Kapoor
Every cook has their quirks and mine is flowers. Ever since I was a chef, I have been obsessed with flavouring my food with fragrant flora. I can’t help myself, as soon as spring arrives I feel compelled to pick sweet-scented primroses or violets, followed by pungent elderflowers and sweet cicely. But my true love is lavender. It can be the dark-flowered Lavender ‘Hidcote’ or the narrow-leafed Lavender ‘Munstead’ – it doesn’t matter – just so long as I can use its aromatic flowers for my recipes.
My condition is not unusual. For centuries, English cooks have collected herbs, fruit and flowers to make fragile concoctions and distillations for both medicinal and culinary purposes. Admittedly, lavender belonged more to the former category – hence its association with aged aunts dabbing their throbbing brows with lavender water, or repelling moths with dusty sachets of dried lavender. However, if you overcome your prejudice of cooking with something that was once akin to TCP, you will discover a delicious new herb that adds a refreshing citrus note to a wide variety of dishes.
Lavender can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. Pascal Aussignac, chef and part-owner of Club Gascon in London, for example, makes his own lavender vinegar to flavour a delicate sweet-sour dish of gilt-head bream. Its fragrance enhances the fresh taste of the fish. I myself tend to use a few of its spiky flower heads instead of a vanilla pod in peach compotes, lemon lavender syrup cake or my favourite – pear ice cream. The key to success is moderation, otherwise lavender will overpower a dish.
