2019-07-01_Your_Home

http://www.yourhomemagazine.co.uk June 2019 117

For the price of a bag of salad leaves

which have a limited life once opened, you

can buy one packet of salad seeds that,

with a few successional sowings, will feed

a family for weeks.

Sa lad leaves are available in a wide

variety of flavours that include delicious

herby, spicy and Oriental mixes. Or

you may prefer to grow single varieties

separately and mix them into different

combinations depending on the dish

you are serving.Se eds can be sown

outdoors in pots or growing bags filled

with multi-purpose compost. Cover the

tiny seeds with a thin layer of compost

and be sure to keep them well watered.

Repeat this every few weeks from now

until September and as soon as one pot

has been depleted the next crop will be

mature enough to pick from. Most salad

crops do best in a sunny position but

many varieties cope perfectly well in a

slightly shady spot too.Get the most from

each sowing by treating the young plants

as cut-and-come-again crops rather than

harvesting the whole lot in one go. Pick a

few random, baby leaves regularly from

each plant avoiding

any damage to the

central growing

point which will

continue to produce

new leaves.

salad bowl

Salad Leaves Mixed

Spicy, £2.35 for

650 seeds from Mr

Fothergills, is a mix of

tangy and peppery

salad leaves

latin lesson

The contribution foliage makes to a planting

scheme is not to be underestimated. It can

be a great foil for flowers to radiate against

or provide its own unique charm in the form

of a stand-alone specimen. In addition to

uniform green, look for plants with foliage in

unusual shapes and forms in shades of silver,

burnt amber, lime, maroon and watery blues.

Th e Latin name may indicate the colour,

shape or size of the foliage. Macrophylla

denotes large leaves and microphylla small

Extend an invitation to wildlife

Several species of our native butterflies, along with

many other pollinating insects are on the decline.

This is thought to be caused by a combination of

factors which include loss of habitat, widespread

use of pesticides and nitrogen pollution in the

atmosphere.Gardeners can increase the chance

of seeing butterflies in their gardens by growing

plants that produce nectar-rich flowers, known to

be their favourites. In doing so, they may help save

numbers of these beautiful insects from dwindling

further.While some butterflies congregate in specific

habitats such as chalk downland or coppiced

woodland, there are others that will happily frequent

our suburban and rural gardens looking for food

and the right environment to lay their eggs.To p

of the menu are plants that are easy to feed from

with simple or single flowers. Butterfly Conservation, a charity

devoted to saving butterflies, moths and their habitats throughout the UK recommends the

following top five beneficial

plants for butterflies:

Ve rbena bonariensis and

Buddleja davidii, which

provide a hearty meal for our

winged visitors in summer/

early autumn; Lavender;

Marjoram (Oregano) and

the perennial wallflower

Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

are also great sources of

nectar and suitable for

growing in containers if

space is tight.

leaves as in Hydrangea macrophylla and

Buxus microphylla – the little leaf box.

Rotundifolia – round leaved, latifolia – wide-

leaved, longifolia – long shaped leaves and

polyphylla – with many leaves. Quercifolia

tells us this plant has leaves similar in shape

to those on an oak tree, as in Hydrangea

quercifolia. Variegatum indicates the leaves

are two-tone, as in Ligustrum variegatum.

Ligustrum variegatum

Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake’

Photo

courtesy of Thompson & Morgan