When and How to Harvest Zucchini
24.05.2024 - 18:49 / houseandgarden.co.uk / Hazel Sillver
A lilac bush can be a bit dull when not in bloom, but the larger forms can be livened up by sending a climber through them.
When the scent of lilacs hangs on the air, summer is just around the corner. The wonderful smell is warm, almond-like, with a hint of spice, and it floods from the generous flower panicles of common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) in May and June. This large deciduous shrub (which can be grown as a small tree) is hardy, low-maintenance, and very much back in fashion, having fallen out of favour.
Most species of lilac (Syringa) hail from the mountains of Asia, but the main garden form, S. vulgaris, is native to the Balkans. The Greek syrinx means pipe, and one of the common names is pipe tree because syringa stems were once used to craft smoking pipes. The more beautiful word lilac comes from the Persian for bluish: nīlak, after its glowing purple-blue blooms.
In 1563, the Flemish herbalist and diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq introduced S. vulgaris to Europe, having brought it to Vienna from Istanbul. Seven years later, he took it to France, where it would undergo its most important transformation. Of the 2,000 or so varieties of S. vulgaris, over 200 were bred by three generations of one French family: the Lemoines. The first, Victor Lemoine, created many superb plants, including the peony ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and the mock orange ‘Manteau d’Hermine’, but he is most celebrated for his lilacs.
Marooned in his home in Nancy in northeastern France in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, he set about crossing single-flowered varieties of S. vulgaris with a double-flowered form that was growing in his garden. Because the shrub was tall and his eyesight was poor, his wife, Marie-Louise, was obliged to do most of the
When and How to Harvest Zucchini
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Summer is arriving and, all of a sudden, the kitchen garden is coming into its own. I am harvesting masses of salad leaves, broad beans and strawberries, and hopefully the first new potatoes. I can almost see things growing before my eyes, including the weeds, which I make an effort to keep on top of every few days (although I leave self-seeded dark pink poppies and some mauve linaria to encourage insects and add colour). To make the most of a small space, I grow salad leaves in large galvanised metal troughs, making sure that I sow a new crop every few weeks so I have a constant supply through the summer. Salad leaf mixes, including swift-growing, cut-and-come-again lettuce, rocket and mustard leaves, are available from almost any seed company, or at garden centres. Winter salad leaves, including mizuna, are best sown after midsummer, as they tend to run to seed quickly. I grow my salad leaves in the least time-consuming way, scattering the seeds thinly on the surface of the prepared soil or compost, and raking them in gently with a hand rake. Keep them watered and they will germinate within a few days and be ready to harvest in about six weeks. If you want to grow them in your vegetable beds, it is better to sow them in drills, so that the emerging seedlings are easily distinguishable from the weeds.
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In 2020 a rather unusual virtual Chelsea Flower Show took place online instead of at its usual Royal Hospital location due to the coronavirus lockdown. As you can tell from our gallery of archive pictures from Chelsea, the royals are among its most enthusiastic attendees; the Queen almost never missed a visit, the Duchess of Cambridge had her own garden there last year, as has Prince Harry in the past, and various other senior royals are regular visitors. That year, since they were unable to visit, the royal family took part in the #MyChelseaGarden campaign, which encouraged the public to post pictures of their own gardens on social media to celebrate the show.
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