Witch Hazel, Hamamelis

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Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida'

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’

The Witch Hazel in the Grapes Hill Community Garden, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’ (a.k.a. Hamamelis mollis ‘Pallida’) is in flower at the moment, providing some delicate winter colour with its yellow flowers. We only planted it last March but it was in flower when we bought it and it will eventually grow up to 4 metres in height and width, if the ash trees allow it.

It’s hardy and doesn’t mind partial shade, so is a useful plant to grow. The flowers are fragrant, though you sometimes need to warm them up by breathing on them if you want to catch the scent.

There are several other species of Hamamelis and even a nursery in Kent that specialises in them, though we bought ours at Mousehold Garden Centre in Norwich.

Witch Hazel is useful medicinally. Extracts from the bark and leaves are used to make soothing eye drops. I can vouch for these but, thankfully, not for Witch Hazel’s use in the treatment of hemorrhoids or post-natal tearing of the perineum.

Pea Shoots

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Pea Shoots

Pea Shoots

Although I grow lots of salads on my allotment I like to have some standby salad ingredients at home.

In the autumn, winter and spring I grow various salad leaves in my unheated greenhouse.

These salads include pea shoots, grown from a bag of  marrowfat peas from a wholefood shop (such as Norwich’s Rainbow Wholefoods). Bags of marrowfat peas are cheap and one bag will give you lots of shoots, so the main expense of growing your own is compost.

Pea shoots taste lovely on their own (like fresh peas) and combine well with other salad leaves. Harvest them just before you eat them because they wilt quickly once picked.

Grow pea shoots as follows:

  1. Go to a wholefood shop and buy a large packet of marrowfat peas.
  2. Plant the seeds in a pot or seed tray of damp, seedling or general purpose peat-free compost, sowing thickly. Cover with half an inch of compost.
  3. Wait until the pea shoots have grown their first sets of leaves and tendrils, then snip off the tender shoots.
  4. Repeat step 3 several times, to get more than one crop. Keep the peas well watered and in a fairly cool place. I stop growing them in summer when there are lots of other things to eat and my greenhouse is too hot (and full of tomato and pepper plants).
  5. Keep sowing for a continuous supply of pea shoots.

See this excellent post on growing pea shoots. The peashoots.com website has a whole host of recipes for pea shoots.

Babington’s Leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii

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Babington's Leeks

Babington’s Leeks (in bud) on St. Martin’s, Isles of Scilly

A week ago I wrote about Leeks, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum.

But I also grow another variety of leek, Babington’s Leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii. This is a British wildflower, which grows on the coasts of south-west England. We visited the Isles of Scilly in summer 2010 and it was plentiful in the sand dunes, although it is rare nationally. Personally, I wouldn’t pick it in the wild.

Like Leeks and Garlic Chives, Babington’s Leek is edible and I’m growing it as a perennial plant, having bought young plants last spring. Once established, you can harvest it by cutting it at ground level or taking the side shoots that split off from the main stem.

Babington's Leek

Babington’s Leek in Norwich, in January

But I have to admit that the main reason I’m growing this plant is for its spectacular flowerheads, which can grow to two metres tall. We also have some Babington’s Leek plants in the Grapes Hill Community Garden. Come along in June or July when hopefully they will be in flower.

Alys Fowler mentions Babington’s Leek in an article in The Guardian in May 2011, as well as several other decorative and edible Alliums.