Seed Exchange List

The Seed Exchange is a network of people offering seed.  My own seed is now all saved by myself here in France.

Please come back and visit this page again soon, I intend to update it regularly as I establish what seeds I have available.

Anyone can ask for seeds by emailing me at kitchengardeninfrance@gmail.com .    If you have a blog then why not offer some of your own spare seed?    To find out more about the Seed Exchange Network, why not take at look at Patrick's comments on

Bifurcated Carrots

Please note.  This is only the second year I have offered seeds for exchange and I have tried to keep the seeds pure.

Seeds for 2011

Beans

• Black Turtle Beans  -  These are a pole bean. The seeds were saved by myself.
• Purple Podded Pole Bean.  These beans are beautiful.  They are a deep purple on the vine and change to green when cooked.  The pods are long and full.  Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Borlotto Bean - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Poletschka Bean - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Pumpkin, Courge and Melon etc

• Monsieur Gary's Charentais Melon. M. Gary is a local farmer here at the Kitchen Garden in France and for years he has grown his own sweet Charentais melon, saving the seeds from one year to the next.  I'm pleased to have grown a few of these myself and kept the seeds to offer here.
• Courgette d'Italie - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Queensland Blue Pumpkin - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Butternut Pumpkin - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Bari Cucumber - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Tomatoes

• Ian's Red Cherry Tomato.  A delicious variety of cherry tomato which grows successfully here, giving truss after truss of delicious rich red cherry tomatoes.  These are seeds I've saved myself after several years acclimatising the plant to the climate here.

Capsicums

• Cath's Red Cornos Capsicum - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Yellow Cornos Capsicum - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Cabbage and Lettuce

• Joy's Cos Lettuce - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Lollo Rosso Batavia Lettuce - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Reine des Glaces Batavia Lettuce - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Red Cabbage - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Herbs

• Dill - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
• Chives - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Email me if you would like any of the above seed.

Garden Layout

After all the work in getting the new beds ready I thought I'd give you a list of what is actually growing in them and also, what is just around the corner...

 

So here is what is actually growing, today, in the garden (in the Ground)...or things waiting to be planted (And almost ready to go in the ground)

 

Bed Number	In the Ground	And almost ready to go in the ground:
Bed 1	Spunta Potatoes Oak Leaf Lettuce
Bed 2	Courgettes Dog Beans (Patrick) Dwarf French Yellow Bean (Sarah)	Bari Cucumber (Kate)
Bed 3	Borlotto Beans Wisley Magic Runner Bean Purple Runner Bean (Sarah) Black Turtle Beans (Kate/Toni)
Bed 4	Spunta Potatoes Binjt Potatoes Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Bed 5	Verte Grande Asparagus  Argenteuil Selection Asparagus
Bed 6	Queensland Blue Pumpkin (Marie-Sylvie)  Butternut squash (André)
Bed 7	Ananas Tomato (chaiselongue) Geant Tomato (Gabriel) Coeur de Boeuf Tomato (Marie-Sylvie)	Purple Ukraine Tomato (Miss Fuggle) Veeroma Tomato (Miss Fuggle) Golden Sunrise Tomato
Bed 8	Glasking Perpetual Rhubarb (Val) White Lisbon Spring Onions Lillia Red Salad Onion Jaune Paille des Vertus Onion Globe Artichoke
Bed 9		Melon Medley Charentais Melon (M.Gary)
Bed 10 (a)	Ian’s Red Cherry Tomato	Yellow Cornos Capsicum (Kate) Kaibi Round Pepper (Miss Fuggle)
Bed 11	Bok Choy	Red Radicchio Cavolo Nero (Kate) Cabbage Broccoli
Bed 12	Douce Provence Peas  Dwarf French Green Beans (Sarah)	Yakon (Patrick)
Bed 13 (a,c,e)	Longue d’Espagne Hazelnuts  Salad Leaves Radish (18 day) Radicchio
Bed 14 - 24	These beds are not yet Constructed
Bed 25	Groeseillier a Grappe Juniper Red Currant Raspberries (André)
Bed 26	Zeva Raspberries Magnific Delbard Raspberries September Raspberries Fall Gold Raspberries
Bed 27	Bay Evergreen Shrub (Still to identify) Deciduous Shrub (Still to Identify) Hyssop	Thyme
Bed 28	Cotoneaster Lacteus Deciduous Shrub (Still to Identify)	Wild Flower Mix
Bed 29	Cotoneaster Lacteus Kerria Japonica Pleniflora Lagerstroemia Rouge	Wild Flower Mix
Bed 30	Evergreen Shrub (Still to identify) Deciduous Shrub (Still to Identify)	Wild Flower Mix
SALAD GARDEN	Oak Leaf Lettuce Joy’s Cos Lettuce Radicchio Radish Broad Beans Garlic(Patrick)      Burgundy Creole      Cuban Purple Creole       Tuscan Ail Blanc de Lomagne Salad Onions Spring Onions Leeks Fennel Marais des Bois Strawberry Gariguette Strawberry	Batavia Lettuce Wild Alpine Strawberry
HERB GARDEN	Basil Chervil Chives Coriander Flat Leaf Parsley Garden Cress Garden Mint Peppermint Sage

 

The Salad Garden seems a bit strange now but it was originally the vegetable garden and it will become more salad oriented as we harvest the existing crops.

The layout for the new garden originally allowed 12 beds for expansion...but I have already pressed one into service to grow Hazelnuts (Bed 13) so there is space for just 11 more.

and here is a sketch plan of the new garden

From Garden to Kitchen

I have not managed much in the garden this week.  It has been raining a lot....quite a lot....no, I guess it's an awful lot...  Every Sunday morning I check my rainwater gauge and log the rainfall for the preceding week...  It was actually raining, but only very lightly, when I checked it this morning and recorded 125mm (5inches) of rain since last Sunday......  Like I said a lot of rain.

"From Garden to Kitchen" really refers to me rather than any of my produce...although I did harvest the ends of a few things.

I also managed to sow a pot of batavia lettuce which I'm hoping to persuade to grow even though winter seems to be arriving early this year with temperatures already having dropped to 2C (35F) overnight.

	"From Garden to Kitchen" really refers to me rather than any of my produce...although I did harvest the ends of a few things. We had some guests come to stay so I bought a small whole salmon from the fishmonger and on Friday evening prepared a very simple Baked Salmon with Roasted Vegetables....I think baking the salmon, just wrapped in a little foil and adding only a few herbs allows all the natural flavours to be retained.  The vegetables were drizzled with olive oil and then roasted to make a delicious meal, served with some of my homemade multigrain bread. This morning we took the guests to the weekly market at Issigeac. As I said, it was raining, so the market was virtually empty
	We were able to park easily and buy all that we wanted without queuing.   There were some beautiful local strawberries, still available, which we completely failed to resist and which we shall be eating a little a later for supper. As the cold weather is drawing in now I pulled all the tomato plants out during the week and saved the last few tomatoes.  Mainly they were green with just about a dozen or so tiny red cherry ones which went into the salad bowl. I used the green tomatoes to make my own version of Green Tomato Chutney.
	I love Green Tomato Chutney, and usually manage to make a few jars of it at the end of every tomato season.  This chutney is traditionally made with green tomatoes, apples and onions but for my version I also add figs, sultanas, banana, courgette and garlic.

I simply fill the slow cooker crock with as much of the mixed  vegetables as I can manage, add some sugar and vinegar and then cook for about 12 hours.  I find that the slow cooker allows the chutney to develop a beautiful ,rich, deep, colour.  We have just a couple of jars of last years chutney left so by the time this batch is ready, in a month to six weeks, we'll have completely run out....

 

Back in the Garden

Regular readers will know that the Kitchen Garden in France is situated at my home near Issigeac in the Perigord Region of South West France.   The property also has a self contained  holiday apartment.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been very busy constructing a swimming pool for use by our holiday guests.  It is a part of a grand scheme..... which will probably take longer to complete than the 300 years the main house has already been standing for....

Anyway, I mention this simply because, for the past two or three weeks, day after day I have been building this kit and not attending to my garden.... and therefore not having very much to write about in my blog....  You may have noticed a move away from kitchen garden towards la vie Français...  the parties I have written about were wonderful events and deserved their place in the blog.  The article on Summer and sunflowers similarly. 

However, tonight I want to return to the dirt....

 

So... I have some red cabbage which have been in for a long time now and are looking superb.  Onions and Garlic are ready to pull and will be out of the ground tomorrow I would guess..  The strawberry patch has been ok... It was planted late and although we have had a few berries we are expecting the main crop next year.  The plants have really established though, and I have just about twice as many as I planted back in April/May

The one rhubarb crown has been prolific this year and I have been cutting and freezing for a month or so now.  I'm thinking of moving the crown around November time but am unsure as I hear bad storied of people moving them....  My intention was to lift and divide it and move it at the same time.

A few days ago, I sowed some broccoli which are now up and with tiny little leaves.   I'm not ever so successful with seeds so anything like this is a challenge.   They have survived so far.....  Today I sowed some batavia lettuce (a French version of Webbs, I think)and on Tuesday some Fennel.

Tomatoes have been my biggest success this year.  Tomato plants ended up dotted about and that hasn't proved too good for watering etc.  Next year I really must put aside some space and grow all my tomatoes in one place.....

But we haven't bought tomatoes for several weeks now and are enjoying the different varieties.... Marmande, cherry red, golden sunrise... and a "unknown"variety which Michael and Mary gave me.

On the beans front, I have been very unsuccessful.   Patrick, over at Bifurcated Carrots gave me some Dog Bean seeds earlier in the year.   I have grown them but not at all well.   I think the spot I chose was too shaded and I did get them in the ground quite late as well.   The few beans I have had have tasted wonderful though... but not enough for a good meal.  I'm not giving up with these and am hoping to sow some again next year... a bit earlier and maybe in a better spot and hopefully have a bumper crop..... 

I mentioned that Michael and Mary had given me some tomato plants.  I didn't realise until recently that Mary is quite a kitchen gardener herself.  I stole this photo whilst she wasn't looking  during a recent visit to see them.

I've been eating salad leaves for some time now and haven't bought any recently.  I have 3 varieties of lettuce, as well as some wild chicory.   I recently entertained a professional chef for dinner.... which was quite daunting... but he commented very favourably on the fact I had included mint leaves in with the mixed salad leaves.....

Lettuce is bolting now as the hot weather hits but I'm looking a shady bed where maybe I can persuade some to grow for a little longer yet....

Finally, in the herb garden, I'm doing ok with the basics, basil, flat leaf parsley, mint and dill, all growing in containers on the terrace.

Growing dogs by the moon

Dog Bean, now there’s a silly name for a seed. I mean, Dog Bean, like we think it’s going to grow up into a dog?

Anyway, I was given some dog bean seeds the other day. They are an heirloom dwarf French bean. It got me round to thinking about how seeds and plants get their names and what other names we might conjure up.

I mean dog bean , well, not much imagination there. If it’s a dwarf French bean and it needed to be called after a dog surely, French Poodle bean would have fitted better. After all, French Poodles are pretty dwarf but oh so showy!!!!

And then I thought about some flowers. I’ve got foxgloves growing - and I thought dog bean was silly!! Fox gloves! Have you ever seen a fox wearing gloves? And why would he? Monsieur Renard, your gants? I don’t think so!

Now as you know, I’m trying to follow the moon planting guidelines this year and am generally planting things on the correct day. This has proved a challenge on more than one occasion.

Take a lettuce, we need to produce leaves so we plant lettuces on a "leaf plant day". Now leaf plant days come around about every 8 to 10 days and usually there are two together.

So you have 2 days to sow your lettuce seeds.

Then 8 days later they are not really ready to pot on so you wait. By 12 days they are climbing the walls but you have to wait till 16 days before you can pot them on.

Another 8 days and they really aren’t ready to plant out so you wait another 8 days. 32 days after sowing they really still aren’t quite ready to go out into the big wide world so you wait again. Another 8 days. This is looking good, 40 days old and they are a nice size to plant out, they’ve even been hardened off ready.

Planting day arrives but it’s the one day this week we are not at home! Never mind tomorrow is ok. Tomorrow comes and it’s raining. When I say raining, I’m talking full blown Mediterranean raining.

It doesn’t rain much here but when it does then it makes up for it. Aquitaine was apparently named after the amount of rain that fell and it is still falling. So it’s raining and you wait for a dry spell, and you wait, and you wait and you wait.

As you are eating lunch you at last notice that the rain has stopped but by the time you can get the plants and get out into the garden the next deluge has started. If you planted in this the little plants would float away.

So forlornly you go back indoors and wait another 8 days – and exactly the same thing happens again!

So you check the charts for the following day and it says "Today is a good day for planting fruiting plants but would not be a good day for planting leaf plants".

You swear under your breath and plant them anyway, quietly telling your friends that you’re following the lunar cycle but occasionally you’re a day or two behind!

So that was my experience with lettuce. Oh and that rain. 30mm (about an inch and a quarter) of rain fell during daylight hours!!!!

Then came the strawberries.

This was going to be much easier. I had bought plants from a local nursery so all I needed was the right day to plant them out.

Strawberries, easy, a fruit plant, right?

But hang on! The Royal Horticultural Society, no less, advised me to plant the strawberries but not to let fruit set for the first year to encourage strong root growth.

So, I’m looking for root growth not fruit? Does that mean I should plant on a fruit day to get good fruit, or - on a root day to get good root growth?

Difficult question.

I threw it into one of the online gardening communities I belong to and caused some discussion. The advice came back that perhaps I should plant out between the fruiting plant day and the root plant day.

This was so simple! I had the answer. I just needed to check the appropriate days and then Presto!

Plant Fruiting Plants on Tuesday great,! Now root plants , oh here they are Plant Root Plants on Wednesday!

At long last I have now discovered what planting by the moon really means. At midnight, between Tuesday and Wednesday I was out in the garden, planting my little strawberry plants by the light of the moon.

Ian

Yet more seeds

Those of you who have read my blog over the past few weeks will know that a recurrent theme has been my inability to grow anything from seed. Lots of people have said very encouraging things to me and bullied me into not giving up.

So, today, I tried again. I planted one of those 24 cell things with 8 each of three different varieties of leaves, batavia, lollo rosso and wild chicory. I think that’s what I have sown but – my translation might have missed something as, of course, all the seed packets were in French.

I have taken steps to prevent everything being eaten by mice. I looked at propagators in the garden centre and now, Sylvia, my wife, has a drawer missing from her vegetable rack!!! I used good compost –which sadly I had to buy as my own is not good enough for seeds yet - Maybe next year though.

So, if in a couple of weeks a photo appears you’ll know it worked. If you hear no more then please...

I also bought a French – English Horticultural Dictionary - I’m hoping that might help me a bit. I’m expecting delivery tomorrow so I’ll let you know what I think.

Ian