Decorated Focaccia

 Within my WI we have a crafty group that meet each month, and our leader suggested that I do a demonstration of a decorated Focaccia.  

There are loads of eye candy type coverings on the internet, and our leader already tried an instant shop bought focaccia mix.  We ought to have a proper base!  Yesterday I had a trial run at home, and just wanted to try to see what replacing half of the flour with sifted wholemeal flour would produce.  

Decorated and ready for final rise

I didn't quite get the process right as there were not the "consistently inconsistent bubbles", probably dimpled it too many times, but it was very light, delicious.  Anne said she would be alright with just white flour, so I shall be taking two batches of dough on Tuesday for the ladies to decorate.

Out of the Oven

Everything else was in accordance with Jack's recipe and technique.  The focaccia was cut up and filled as in a sandwich with home made pesto, and sliced ham to take to an Italian picnic today.

From my garden, Six things this Saturday

It is the start of another month and although this year I had not planned sufficiently for good summer displays, I've managed to find Six things from the garden to note down.  For much more summer colour and plant related things, a bunch of us gather under Jim's wing and cogitate over our gardens.  You can either just hang over the garden fence as it were, or you can join in with musings of your own, guidelines are on Jim's post. 

1. Last year in September I brought back a few plants purchased from Derry Watkins of Special plants.  One was a small plant then, but just look at it now.  I took a couple of cutting in November, and these together with the original are in the one pot.  This is Pelargonium 'Salmon Angel'. 

Pelargonium 'Salmon Angel'

Behind it is the pelargonium which was given as a plug plant by my gardening club last year which we were to grow on and bring to be judged at the summer party.  I can't remember the name, but it does go quite well with 'Salmon Angel'.

2. These next couple of weeks will be taken over with our shed refurbishment.  It is amazing how the years have flown, it is eight years since it first went up, plants have had to be moved from along the edge and the shed shelf. On the end of the shelf was this white Pelargonium,  again another plug plant from our club for growing on. I have been careful with this, as I hope to go to the Summer Party this year. 

I always feel a little discombobulated when there is disarray, whether it is when the house is being decorated or something like this is taking place.  The pots have been dotted around the garden. Mr S is very competent and also has sourced a membrane that has a twenty year guarantee, rather than just replacing the felt roof.  It will be an upgraded shed, with stainless steel hinges etc, but at the end I shall get busy with the brush and give it a coat of paint inside and out.

3. I looked at the mess of the border now that the poppies are well and truly over.

Over the last two early mornings, I have been out there cutting them to the ground, keeping some stems to use in dried arrangements, and the rest were cut with short stems and put in a large bowl, ready for harvesting the poppy seed which I use in my bread. The bed is looking much better now, and no doubt I shall show it again in the forthcoming weeks.

4. I just couldn't resist another Coleus when I went up to the market on Wednesday. Whilst the shed is being refurbished, they have been moved to sit by the willow.  The growth on Flamethrower Serrano in the foreground has been prestigious, and it has already been moved up a couple of pot sizes.  I planted 'Coral Candy' bought this week in a larger pot straight away. When we were at Dunster Castle recently they were edging the tropical themed beds with Coleus 'Skeletal' with what looked like hundreds of plants, what a show that will be.  I had Coleus  'Skeletal' envy! I am on the hunt for that one, is not a trio after all is a better show than just two?

However the most exciting thing is that when I went down to check the names for this post, a little frog jumped out.  What excitement, with such a rush of endorphins, it is making up for my worry over the lack of rain.  We haven't had a frog in the garden for years. In this hot dry weather it must have been attracted to the damp around the pots.  The large pot at the back is on feet, so there is always a cool and damp place guaranteed there.

5. Summer time is not all about sitting back and enjoying the colourful displays!  I had been meaning to do this job for a few weeks: repotting up young cyclamen that I have been growing from seed from the Cyclamen Society. Now the job has been done, they sit under the blue bench in a relatively cool and shaded situation. Maybe one or two will flower this year.

Cyclamen repotted.

It is also time for me to spread a mulch over the ground where the Cyclamen hederifolium in the garden, they are waiting on some rain to send up their flowers, so I had better get on with that job next week. I have been meaning to mulch that area for a couple of years, but there is a small window to do it in, as that is where early spring bulbs are situated too.

6. I have been buying the odd packs of small plants from the stall within the Bishop's Palace - simply to support them I tell myself.  Although it says things like Antirrhinum it doesn't give the cultivar, but am I embracing the real 'Cottage Garden' ethos, when planting just bits that become available?  It was when planting these early yesterday morning that I experienced the hard clay phase of our garden.  With water and compost I managed to make a planting hole suitable to take what is only a little more than a seedling, quite different to the large Antirrhinum which I saw recently at Waitrose, fully in bloom, looking like they were ready to plant out in some Hampton Court Palace Show garden.  I did however prepare a good large spot for them to grow into. It also made me realise that the roses could really do with a good watering.  They are very slow to reflower after their first flush, but I do have one flowering stem.

Rose Home Florist Timeless 'Charisma'

This morning any rain is amounting to a very light mizzle, just enough to make a glass surface such as our conservatory roof damp.

In a Vase on Monday at the end of June

The heat is damaging the plants in the garden and the scorching sun is taking its toll too.  An early spell gardening at around six this morning meant I was able to pick a few stems of the hydrangea before they start to flop. For other fine arrangements from garden material do go over to Cathy's post.

  

To give you an idea on how hot and dry it is, the washing dried in two hours!

The Hydrangea was first cultivated in Japan and flowers during their rainy season of June and July and etymologically hydrangea stems from the Greek words for water, hydros so fitting  since hydrangeas require constant moisture to stay happy, healthy and blooming. And spare waste water goes to them every few days.

Hylotelephium  erythrostictum 'Frosty Morn', aka 'Alison's sedum' by me since the first plant was given to me by Alison who used to contribute to IAVOM.  It certainly is a cool looking plant, with its cream edged thick waxy leaves. The blooms are still at the tight bud stage, and may not open. Another IAVOM gift from Cathy, which I love is the Persicaria Red Dragon, and to finish off the arrangement, I have added some poppy seed heads.

Bugs and plants in the garden - 28 June 2025

 The year is trotting along, and I am already noting that I didn't quite plant the right things at the right time of the year, but hey ho, there is next year to plan for and I am already doing that. For all sorts of sensible gardening observations, many can be found on Jim's post and others that put links within the comments section as I am doing. 

Six things from my garden this week:

1. Origanum Emma Stanley is certainly my favourite and trickiest decorative Origanum, and once again I ought to take have taken a few cuttings well before flowering  It is a delight in the middle of the gravel garden, but I wonder if the soil there is a little too poor.  I have given it a bit of a liquid feed. I bought it five years ago from Pottertons, but he is no longer offering it for sale, so as insurance I shall be taking a few cuttings, when hopefully there is a flush of new growth after I have cut a few of the stems back in three or four weeks time.

Origanum Emma Stanley

Origanum Emma Stanley Closeup

2. Chrysanthemum Chatsworth, which was left in the ground over the winter wasn't told that Chrysanthemums usually flower towards the autumn, it has been in flower now for a few weeks, and has already featured in one of my In a Vase on Monday. I have already started also to harvest all those poppy seed heads before they start to scatter the seeds.  I left far too many, but they are over some cyclamen and I want to get into that space to spread some mulch.

Chrysanthemum Chatsworth

3. At the top end of the gravel garden well just within the border the hot dry weather hasn't phased the Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus. Beth Chatto gives an excellent description.  

This is the patch in another bed where I pushed in some stems last autumn. Already some of this clump has been promised to a neighbour.

Close of the flowering branch, here are the bracts the little purple flower is a great favourite of pollinators.

4. The clematis Clematis 'Purpurea Plena Elegans was almost overcome with blackfly a few weeks back, but thanks to a league of ladybirds they are now under control.  I was looking at the different types, and this week saw a new one amongst them:  form of Harlequin Ladybird:  Harmonia axyridis f. conspicua. 

Harmonia axyridis f. conspicua

5. Having seen 'Venus's navelwort', now hang on to that name, which is in fact Omphalodes linifolia, a few years back, and having been luckily given a little plant this year by Alison, I decided to allow it to seed, and have just harvested  and placed them in paper envelopes. I couldn't work out what exactly was the seed, and tried to look for it on the internet. Hands up who thinks the seeds look like little navels?

Omphalodes linifolia seeds

I've read various sowing regimes, from sow in the spring after frosts etc.  I have sufficient seed to carry out my own trials, all of which will be direct sow in the ground, as I understand they do not like disturbance.  Perhaps if I stagger the sowing, I would be able to have different patches of plants flowering at different times?

6. Difficult to photograph and especially this week when we have had some usual winds is Dierama 'Snowbells'. Also called Angel's Fishing Rods...fishing for what though? Compliments perhaps? Each morning I tell it how beautiful it is and wonder at the same time whether petals will emerge from the straw like calyxes further down the stem. 

Dierama 'Snowbells'

I was just looking back on my posts from 2023 when it was the year of fasciations...non so far to report this year. If it is too hot to sleep and you wake up early, the nicest thing is to get out there early as I did this morning and do a little gardening....then come in as I did this morning to a delicious breakfast ready made.

Chatsworth and Indian Summer together for a Mid Year Vase

I just didn't know where to start.  I could have given you pastel colours, but after a very hot and sunny few days, it seems richer warmer colours suit my mood, even though it is nearly 10 C cooler than it was only a couple of days ago. I myself find hot weather difficult to cope with.

This lovely spray Chrysanthemum now in its third year, is proving quite hardy in my garden.  It is listed as Chatsworth (21c) on my invoice from Halls of Heddon, under the heading Garden and Exhibition Sprays. On checking their latest on line list it is (U21C).  I have no idea what this numbers after the name signify. Since it started flowering a couple of weeks ago, for a Chrysanthemum it is really early flowering, and the first in flower in the garden. 

The stems are longer than this, but I didn't want to sacrifice the display and snipped a couple of pieces high up the stems towards the back, of course just above a leaf from which more blooms will emerge.

The Astrantia 'Indian Summer' has given many stems so far this year. Also in the vase is a long stemmed dark Origanum.  It has no name and is probably one of those seedlings which I consider to have great merit.  A few poppy seed heads, and dark Astrantia again with no name given to me by friend Hilary, add a little further interest.

I am linking in this arrangement under Cathy's In a Vase on Monday post.