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From one year to the next you always see something different here. The year Goldilocks was born I saw kingfishers all the time and yet now I feel privileged to spot them occasionally – I’m still not sure if this was because she wasn’t the easiest baby in the world to get to sleep and I tramped endlessly with her up and down the towpath.  Then there was the autumn of the herons, making statues of themselves all along the canal.  This year we have swans.  I must say it makes washing up all the more pleasant as I can watch them swanning around (like swans do I suppose) from the kitchen window.  This pair of swans don’t strike me as particularly wild.  They seem to have worked out that if they hang around the right end of a boat someone will come out and feed them breakfast.  They can’t even seem bothered to hiss at Willow as we walk past, which strikes me as unusual for swans.  I took this picture whild a little girl who was out fishing with her grandad fed them bread and bait.

When I looked at this picture later I realised I’d been adding to the blurry line between wild and domesticated.  I’m pretty certain that what passes for ‘grass’ around here is more than 50% clover, the stuff, both red and white is everywhere.  Despite this wild bounty,  I found myself last weekend sowing bought clover seed into bare patches of soil among the vegetables.   It is true it was left over seed which Granny Goo gave to me.  She had sown it on a large patch on her allotment where potatoes had grown previously.  I expect the clover to feel quite at home on my soil and I also expect it to fix lots of nitrogen into the soil at the same time as protecting it from erosion.  My compost isn’t quite ready yet to do the autumn mulch and I’m sure in the meantime the clover will do a good job of preserving and adding to soil health.  Even if you haven’t got any bare patches yet (are you looking at it or eating it?) sowing green manures inbetween crops is also beneficial, especially to brassicas if you’re using a nitrogen fixer like clover.  Not only does it surpress weeds but apparently it will reduce risks from pests and disease.  Time to go wild on the plot!

What's for breakfast?

The sun shone briefly this weekend and The Man did what I imagine countless other men did and got the lawn mower out. Vvvv-Vrooooom-chug-a-chug and a peaceful Sunday disappeared.  Our lawn mower is an old petrol model, it is noisy, hard to start, heavy to push and unwieldy.  Is there a better, more sustainable option?  You bet, a hand mower.  In particular the Brill Razorcut Premium 38 from Nigel’s Eco Store.  This is probably the Rolls-Royce of hand push mowers, and is a far cry from the push-along hand mowers of old.  It is light-weight  (lighter than your average push chair which means even the most feeble among us should be able to manage it.)  It is engineered so there is no friction between blades making it easy to push and probably the quietest lawn mowing experience there is.  The cylinder blades are manufactured using a hardened high-grade steel setting it apart from cheaper  push hand mowers which feature a poorer quality tempered alloy.  All of this in addition to a special non-stick coating increases blade life considerably.  It is unlikely that you will have to get blades sharpened during the first five years of use – that is pretty low maintenance compared to your average lawn mower.  The sealed ball-bearings eliminate the need for any oiling or cleaning.

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Manual lawn mowers are actually better for your grass as well, the clean cut enables grass to recover quickly, making it healthier and improving the general appearance.  And yes the Brill Razorcut Premium  is definitely on the eco-friendly list, not only will you save on fuel bills but you won’t be contributing to the UK’s hydrocarbon emissions, for which powered lawn mowers contribute  a surprising 2.1%.   Find out more about the Brill Razorcut Premium 38 or visit Nigel’s Eco Store for their complete range of hand mowers.

Now I come to think of it, it’s not even our grass The Man cuts.  I wonder if we could persuade British Waterways to start using hand mowers?  I’ll still take their clippings for my compost though!

This year I planted  kohl rabi for the very first time.  Because of the terracing work that we are doing on our sloping garden I have even less space to play with than usual.  I decided that cabbages, which can take up quite a bit of room, were the crop we could most manage without.  But then, as happens to me quite a lot, a packet of seeds caught my eye!  It was a red variety of kohl rabi, ‘Purle Vienna’.  You can also get a pale green kind.  I’d never grown it before, let alone eat it.  The little red swollen roots with leaf shoots sticking out all over look like the angry heads of  a particularly savage scalping!  But I’m going to be growing this member of the brassica family a lot more now that I’ve discovered what a fantastic and versatile crop it is.

My kohl rabi sitting pretty amongst lettuce and rocket.

Besides looking unusual and adding welcome colour to the veg patch this crop is easy, easy, EASY to germinate and grow.  I sowed straight into the ground and thinned out as they got bigger.  Kohl rabi matures quickly and this has many advantages not least that you get something to eat early on in the season.  But it also means it lends itself to several successional sowings and is less prone to disease and pest infestation simply because it’s not in the ground for so long.  I’ve found I’m not worrying about cabbage whites laying their eggs.  While the leaves are perfectly edible, I’ve sliced some into a noodle soup, it those swollen roots below you are after so I don’t feel too worried if the odd leaf is home to a caterpillar, they’re not going to burrow their way through to the heart.

Kohl rabi tastes pretty good too, raw or cooked, it has a mild cabbage-like flavour.  I’ve used both leaves and roots in soups.  I’ve grated roots into coleslaw type salads.  My next experiment will be to make something akin to an Indian aloo-gobi type dish.  I’ve decided I really like discovering the more unusual veg that can’t be found on supermarket shelves, it encourages you to experiment and try things out.  I’m determined to try more and more unusual things,  vegetables that make the best of the resources I have.  Kohl rabi fits the bill perfectly and sustainable living gets to be more fun by the day!