A Guernsey Gardener in 2025

A little early rather than late...

4/7/2025

Bulgur Salad with crisp Quinoa topping, hummus, and tomatoes.

4 July 2025 (Friday)

No walk this morning, so it was straight to my desk to do some work and some work work.

The morning went swiftly, and soon it was time for lunch which I decided, with leftover bulgur wheat in the fridge, would be another Bulgur Salad; doing exactly the same as I did the other day though this time I left out the pesto and added in some liquid aminos and a little bit of lemon juice instead. As I said yes today, with the butterbean smash, this type of recipe is really all about what you have in the fridge and I could have added in some chopped celery, greater carrot, little leaves of baby spinach or even chopped up rubbed kale. Just think about how the flavours go together, obviously you wouldn't put in a tablespoon of honey, or a few handfuls of strawberries because neither really fit in this type of dish.

This evening Richard's doing his usual live, and I'm waiting to hear from Vanessa as I'm going to the theatre with her again. I'm waiting to hear what time we're going to meet and while I waited I went to the plot and took out the brassicas I spoke of yesterday. Tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to get our module trays of beetroot in.

Getting back home, I have a wash reader chapter of my book and then see the message from Vanessa that we're going to have supper before the show, which is what she wanted to do on Wednesday though he was so late arriving that it made that impossible. We agreed to meet at six at a restaurant around the corner from the Jermyn Street Theatre.

A walk to our local station and on to the Elizabeth Line then onto the Bakerloo Line and up at Piccadilly Circus and then along Piccadilly to the restaurant. I'm about 10 minutes early, which is fine as I think it's really good practice to be a little early rather than a little late.

I waited for Vanessa, and at 6pm I joined Richard's Live briefly; I was hoping it would be brief because Vanessa would arrive pretty soon, though actually somebody that I knew from many years back was walking down the road and she and I had a little chat. At about 6.20, I got a message from Vanessa that traffic was terrible… again. It had been on Wednesday when we met and she was an hour late then. Today's message was that she wouldn't arrive until 6.50, almost an hour later than planned… and with the doors of the theatre opening at 7.10 and the show going up at 7:30 I messaged back to say I’d decided to go for a walk and see her at the theatre at 7.25. I felt a walk would be better than waiting on the pavement like a numpty.

So, I put my phone in my pocket and walked… along Jermyn Street, up onto Piccadilly, in front of the Ritz, left into St James's Park and right at the fountain, passing behind the rows of green-and-white striped deckchairs and over towards Hyde Park, which I’d decided would be the extent of my walk so that I could get back in time to meet Vanessa for the show.

When I got to the extent of my walk, and needed to turn around and wend my way back, I saw that Vanessa had messaged me about ordering her a pasta dish at the restaurant... “any pasta”.

The thing is, if I’m meeting somebody for supper at a restaurant and they don't turn up or are going to be hugely late, I don't go into the restaurant myself. I'll wait to eat a snack when I get home. I’d also messaged to say I was going for a walk and would meet Vanessa at the theatre, so obviously I wasn't at the restaurant to order any pasta for Vanessa, so that wasn’t going to happen.

Anyway, I turned around and walked back to meet Vanessa who was now waiting outside the restaurant; she was hungry and wanted to have something to eat, though because we literally had 15 minutes the last thing I wanted to do was throw a bowl of spaghetti down me as it would just completely mess with my digestion. So whilst Vanessa had a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine, I sipped on some tap water, we chatted, she ate, and then she paid up and we went to the theatre. Not a great start to the evening…

Now the show that we went to see wasn't a show that I’d have chosen to see, though I could see how it might be a show for our audience at the Great Green Barn, or for the audience that we're building at the Great Green Barn. However, despite the musical side of the evening being really top-notch, with a brilliant pianist and fabulous tenor, the whole thing just didn't gel for either myself or Vanessa, and I doubt it’s something that we’ll have at the Great Green Barn in its current format.

At the end of the show, after much rapturous applause from the audience, which I think was made up of many family members and friends, we were up the steps, and out of the theatre. Vanessa was driving on to Stratford-upon-Avon, so following a quick goodbye where I said to Vanessa to drive safely, I was on my way home… retracing my steps. Along Piccadilly, down at Piccadilly Circus, into the Bakerloo Line, then the Elizabeth Line, changing trains at Ealing Broadway as the first train did not stop at Hanwell, off at my home station and then ten or twelve minutes of walking, crossing the Uxbridge Road.

I got home by 10.25 and then had a small bowl of All Bran and oat milk for a rather late supper, as I know this won't upset my Barrett's.

Going to bed after about 45 minutes, I read my book for about 20 minutes and then it was time for lights out,

Weather: Breezy, though a little bit warmer as the day went on. Around 26°.

Breakfast: All Bran and oat milk
Lunch: Bulgur Salad with crisp Quinoa topping, hummus, tomatoes and Ryvita rye crackers
Supper: All Bran and oat milk

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Tomato cares started!

20/6/2025

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A cooling simple supper

20 June 2025 (Friday)

We're up early again, in fact Richard was up about 4:30, opening windows to let the cooler air of the morning in. However, the cooler air is only cool compared to yesterday's daytime temperature and how the rest of the day will be, so it's still pretty warm. The good thing is, there’s a bit of a breeze today so that’s helping with the temperature feel at least.

There's an amber warning for heat, which means that there's a threat to life, particularly for those with underlying health conditions. The reality is, human-induced climate warming is here to stay; it's not going to go away. As long as the world carries on burning fossil fuels at the rate that we are, we’ll continue missing all the revised targets that we’ve been missing since the Paris Treaty years and years ago (2015). Also, people will still keep on having more and more kids which is adding to the population, which in turn adds to the draws on the natural resources of this planet, which are all finite. Hey, ho… rant over…

Richard’s trying another recipe for lunch today, and it's another salad, this time made with red quinoa - a seed rather than a grain, though still classed as a grain by many. Now quinoa is something that we both rather like, though in the past we’ve found that it tends to overcook pretty swiftly; one moment it's just under done and needs a little more time… the next second it's glooping at the base of the pan as a thick unwelcome slush. Anyway, Richard's got his way now of cooking it al dente, which gives the salad a nice crunch and texture. Of course, he's done a video of it and that will be up next Tuesday and I'll link to it here when it is.

There's been work today and also work work, with various challenges on the work work front; it seems that as we get closer to Midsummer Revels on Sunday, the overwhelm for some is increasing. I have to say, I'll be glad when Sunday is over, as we then have a little respite over the next couple of months with only small Head, Heart & Health sessions going on at the Great Green Barn and gardens, and no major events or shows.

Despite the overcast nature of the day, it’s again pretty hot and one of my fellow plotters is still away so I’m watering her plot. She's asked me to keep an eye on her beans and her tomatoes, and a cucumber, and a few other things, though in reality with the heat that we're having and the sun blazing down her whole plot needs a really good water, so I'm backwards and forwards with my watering can about 20 times… and then I need to water my own plot too!

I have to say that with the heat, I'm not really feeling in the mood of getting on and doing work and would much rather just grab a pint at the pub and sit on the plot and enjoy the heat. However, if I don't actually get on and do things then things just don't get done, so I got on with tomatoes. We've got a bit of a busy weekend next weekend, so I decided to film this and then I'll refer back to it in next week's A Week at the Plot.

Basically though, the first thing that I did was give the bed a little weed of any perennial weeds that are coming through, which in the case of this bed is always mainly bindweed, then cinquefoil. I then looked at any side shoots that were pretty large, and took them off and put them into a glass jar which had some water in it. I'll look at them more closely tomorrow, though with some beds empty and with the brassicas being mullered by pigeons at the moment I think it might be sensible to root some of the side shoots to put into a bed for a later crop of tomatoes.

I then got on and took all of the remaining smaller side shoots off, using my fingers, though in doing that I noticed that a few of the plants had already split into two growing tips, and as both tips are pretty established I let them be.

Getting started with tomato cares - removing side shoots and lower leaves

Tomato cares done... now the energy will go into the main stem and producing flowers and fruits

I'm still pondering on how to stake the tomatoes this year. I'd love to do a frame and string them up; I think it’s the best way to stake tomatoes, though it seems quite a few of these tomatoes aren’t going to reach a great height so I pondered whether that’s just overkill. The other option is to put a bamboo cane next to each of the plants and then tie each tomato into the cane. As I was mulling this, a fellow plotter came along with a pint of Amstel from The Fox, and I looked at it lovingly. We had a chat and as we talked about our growing year and the heat of the moment, we also discussed staking of tomatoes, and I sort of made up my mind there and then that I'm going to initially put a bamboo cane in and tie them in. Also, with the heat that we have at the moment, I didn't fancy building a huge frame which would take me half a day under this glaring sun. If needs must at a later date, I’ll build the frame.

Once my fellow plotter had moved on to walk to his own plot, I got on with removing the lower leaves of the tomatoes - doing this with a knife as I find any wound heels more swiftly. Just with side shoots taking energy from the main growing stem, having too many lower leaves on a tomato means that that tomato needs to take up more water to feed that leaf. By taking the lower leaves off, and the unnecessary side shoots (if it's indeterminate, do NOT take too many off if it's a bushing variety), the plant can hopefully put all its energy into growing taller and producing fruit.

With the sun beating down, I decided that staking of the tomatoes would wait for another day, though I was pleased that I’d at least got this tomato cares job started.

Back at home, I found an old birthday card in the bowl on the coffee table of our middle room and wafted myself with it. Apart from also getting a big drink of Vimto, it was the only thing to do at that moment to cool myself down a little.

Richard had had a nap whilst I'd been at the plot, and woke up to get ready to do his live at 6pm, which all went fine.

Supper was made up of leftover salads, a quick homemade coleslaw and cottage cheese, and then it was time for some TV and bed.

Weather: Hot at 30°, though more overcast and a breeze so feels JUST a little cooler than yesterday.

Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and banana
Lunch: Quinoa & Cucumber Salad with Halloumi
Supper: Leftover Bulgur Wheat Summer Salad & Quinoa & Cucumber Salad, homemade coleslaw, and cottage cheese with two Ryvita rye crispbreads

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