Borage flowers

Why grow borage? Well…

Bees LOVE it for starters 🐝🐝🐝which is why it’s often called ‘Bee Bread’. It’s easy to grow, can reach 2 metres tall, you can make a healthy tea from the leaves and the blue flowers are beautiful and edible!!

☕️

*Gorgeous photo of borage flowers by Lise-Lotte Larsson

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Soak borage seeds in water for 2 days
2. Plant outdoors straight away from April (they have a long tap root and don’t like being transplanted)
3. Cover seeds with 2cm of compost or soil
4. Watch it grow and wait for all those bees!

For more details see Gardening Know How

THE PERFECT POT OF BORAGE TEA

Your tea was brought to you courtesy of HerbClass ❤️

What’s the difference between a swede and a turnip??

Well, it depends where you come from and it is VERY confusing!!!

There are two distinctly different root vegetables called Brassica napus and Brassica rapa. Strictly speaking (and according to the RHS!) the rapa is an older variety (turnip) and the napus is a more recent cross between a cabbage and a turnip (Swedish turnip or swede).

Jamie Oliver’s Vegepedia has great ideas for cooking turnips and swedes

And plenty of articles are devoted to these two:

‘Are neeps swedes or turnips?’ The Guardian

‘Turnips: the unsung hero of the vegetable world’ The Guardian

‘Rutabaga vs. Turnip: How to Tell the Difference Between These Yummy Vegetables’ Pure Wow

‘The difference between turnips and rutabagas’ The Spruce Eats

Make a FREE Watering Bottle for a targeted, delicate stream that won’t drown your seedlings 🌱💦🌸

#lockdown took us by surprise 😳and our little plantlets and seeds need gentle watering.

We didn’t have time to buy a little watering can from B&Q….

So, we’ve made one!

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Find a plastic milk bottle or pop bottle
2. Put holes in the bottle top using a large pin (I used a safety pin)
3. That’s it!

Watering Bottle

Watering ‘Can’

Watering ‘Can’

Everlasting Basil

Turn one supermarket basil plant…

…into all these!

Then make yourself a delicious Stoots Basil Smash

🌱🌱🍹

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Split up a supermarket basil plant (this will work for other supermarket herbs as well)
2. Carefully replant into individual pots
3. Harvest leaves from the tops to encourage bushy growth
4. Water in the morning (they don’t like having wet roots at night!)

For more information on growing basil visit the RHS

STOOTS BASIL SMASH

Stoots Basil Smash

The Basil Smash is quite a famous cocktail (I didn’t make it up!)

1. Smash a handful of basil leaves with 1 tbs caster sugar (I don’t have a pestle and mortar so I just use a wooden spoon and sturdy glass!)
2. Add a glug of vodka or gin
3. Add the juice of half a fresh lemon
4. Pop in some ice
5. Cheers! 🍸

And apparently the basil in your drink could also be giving you many, many additional benefits….

• Reduce memory loss associated with stress and ageing
• Reduce depression related to chronic stress
• Reduce stroke damage and support recovery, whether given before or right after a stroke
• Improve fasting blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides
• Reduce blood pressure in people with hypertension
• Relax blood vessels and thin your blood, similar to aspirin
• Protect against aspirin’s damage to your gut, particularly preventing ulcers
• Prevent certain cancers, including of the breast, colon and pancreas
• Increase mental alertness when inhaled as aromatherapy
• Inhibit the growth of bacteria that cause dental decay
• Improve food safety if integrated into food packaging by manufacturers
• Provide an alternative to antibiotics for infectious diseases, including combating antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria
• Repel insects, such as mosquitos and ticks

Healthline

Leeks are SUCH fun to plant!

Just get yourself a dibber…

And a leek-ling..

🌱

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make a hole in the ground using a ‘dibber’ 
2. Put the leek-ling in the hole
3. Fill hole with water
4. That’s it!

INTERESTING FACTS

1. Leeks have been cultivated since the time of the Ancient Egyptians and were probably part of the diet of those who built the pyramids
2. The Romans brought leeks to the UK because it grows well in our colder climate
3. Leeks were prized by the ancient Greeks and Romans especially for their beneficial effect upon the throat. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, believed the clear song of the partridge was down to a diet of leeks and Nero, the Roman emperor, ate leeks everyday because he thought it would improve his singing voice!
4. Legend has it that in 640AD, the Briton King Cadwallader and his men were fighting the invading Saxons. To distinguish themselves from the enemy, the Welsh wore leeks in their hats – and subsequently gained a great victory over their opponents
5. Girls who sleep with a leek under their pillow on St David’s Day will see their future husband in their dreams!

Taken from British Leeks

Make the most of all the wild garlic growing in shady places this time of year 🌱and make this pesto in about 30 seconds flat.

Store it in a jar in the fridge for weeks for a potted taste of Spring!!

Wild garlic pesto with wholewheat spaghetti

Wild garlic & hazelnut pesto