#productivegarden

Plant of the Day

Saturday 8 July 2023

Here Nepeta × faassenii 'Purrsian Blue' (catmint) has been used as a low hedge around a section of the productive garden. This compact perennial reaches 45cm in height with grey aromatic leaves and upright blue flower spikes. This plant is popular with pollinators and cats!

Plant of the Day

Saturday 15 July 2023

This wide range of Cynara scolymus (globe artichoke) forms were grown from seed and show how variable they can be. The edible flower buds, produced over the summer months, can differ in shape and colour. This edible, perennial plant is highly ornamental, with big, jagged, silvery leaves and tall flower stems topped with large globe-shaped buds that have purple flowers like giant thistles.

Plant of the Day

Monday 26 December 2022

A young fan trained Malus domestica 'Scrumptious' (apple) is being grown in this courtyard in northern Scotland. This cultivar is a self-fertile, dessert apple. The flowers are pale pink with the red fruit having a fragrant, honeyed flavour. The parents of this cultivar were Malus ‘Starkspur Golden Delicious’ x Malus ‘Discovery’.

Plant of the Day

Friday 18 August 2023

In this lovely productive garden by the sea the annual Pisum sativum (garden pea) are producing a good crop. Peas are such a tolerant crop there are several types with those for shelling, as well as mangetout and sugarsnap. The plants come in various sizes with tall varieties that reach 1.8m to dwarf varieties of just 45cm.

Plant of the Day

Sunday 3 September 2023

Good looking enough to plant in an ornamental border Brassica oleracea (Acephala Group) 'Redbor’ (kale, borecole) has vivid burgundy-coloured, crinkled leaves with colour that intensifies to deep purple with cold. This vegetable is useful for the winter productive garden, coping with frosts and continuing to produce its delicious young leaves right through the coldest months. Here it was thriving in the garden of the restaurant 59 degrees North, Sandy, Orkney.

Plant of the Day

Thursday 6 July 2023

Here a number of Pyrus communis 'Beurre Hardy' (pear) have been trained as espaliers on a tunnel framework. This is a popular French dessert pear dating back to the early 19th century. The fruit has a melting texture and is said to have the fragrance of rose-water perfume.

Plant of the Day

Friday 6 January 2023

These winter hardy cultivars of Brassica oleracea (cabbage) show the value of this plant as a year round food supply. For winter cabbages the seeds are sown in April/May and are transplanted in late June/July to the final growing site. Here winter hardy cabbages are ready for harvest and thriving in a vegetable garden in Orkney, Scotland.

Plant of the Day

Thursday 13 July 2023

This impressive espalier was a trained Malus domestica 'James Grieve' (apple). This tree must look beautiful in the spring covered with pale pink flowers and in the autumn when there will be yellow fruit blushed with bright.