Since then, warm dry days with the occasional bit of rain, have allowed everything to grow but kept at bay some of plant disease problems that you associated with cold wet growing seasons. Roses look good and not too much potato or tomato blight as yet. The importance of soil health is really obvious in dry periods. Soils with lots of organic matter in them and even better, soils with a good layer of mulch, hold their moisture longer and produce better crops. The investment in compost or bark is easily paid off by the improvement in the plants that are grown, and that’s all there is to it. If you don’t want to buy ready made compost and lug heavy bags from garden centre to garden , and if you don’t have a friendly farmer neighbour, then you should be making your own compost. Invest in 2 good sized compost bins, plastic, wood, metal; whatever you prefer, and collect all you uncooked vegetable kitchen waste, hedge trimmings and grass clippings. Make sure they get mixed up to avoid slimy heap, keep it moist enough to heat up and let nature do its thing.

Plant of the Month

I can’t remember a summer without hydrangeas. Their large blooms bring flamboyant colour to the garden in late summer and autumn. They are easy to grow, dependable and improve with age. Use them in big, bold groups in the border, or even try them in large containers.

Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle

Hydrangeas are deciduous and can be either treated as large shrubs or small trees. They are grown for their beautifully domed or flattened flowers which appear from late summer for about a month.

The flowers normally consist of a mass of fertile flowers surrounded by infertile flowers which give the hydrangea its large flower heads. Hydrangeas are recommended for the amateur and the experienced gardener alike.
Mop head hydrangeas (with rounded heads of large flowers) come from Japan where the native species with lace cap flowers (flattened heads of large flowers) have been grown for hundreds of years. When these plants reached the west in the eighteenth century they caused a sensation, initially treated as tender and grown indoors. There are now many, many varieties to choose from.

Soils for Colour

With Hydrangeas, the soil type determines the colour. Acid soils for example produce blue flowers. To create blue flowers on a chalky soil, use a blueing compound composed of aluminium sulphate. This can be purchased at your local garden centre. However, the results won’t compare with plants growing in a naturally acid soil.
Alternatively, you could grow a compact variety such as ‘Blue Bird’ in a large container filled with ericaceous compost and supplement its liquid feed with a blueing compound.

Site and Watering

Hydrangeas are true survivors and can be often seen flowering in overgrown and neglected gardens. Mop heads and Lace Caps prefer dappled shade against a north or west facing wall. If it is too bright they are likely to scorch. Their leafy shoots need plenty of moisture during the summer, apply a mulch of well-rotted compost to drier soils to help lock in moisture and promote decent sized flowers. Plants also need to be sheltered from cold winds which can scorch new foliage during the spring.

Pruning

Pruning isn’t essential but can be done each spring as new shoots appear. With established plants, just remove one third of the older, less productive stems and cut back old flowering stems to a strong pair of buds.
Leave old flower heads on over winter to provide frost protection for new growth. The brown papery domes look great when covered with hoar frost.
Left unpruned Hydrangeas will continue to bloom but the size of the flower heads will be reduced by the overcrowded stems. Hydrangea paniculata types need to be cut back completely each spring.
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Unique’
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’
H. arborescens ‘Anabelle’
H.villosa
H. quercifolia (oak leaved hygrangea)
H. seemannii one form of climbing hydrangea
H. ‘Blue Bird’
H. ‘Grayswood’
H. macrophylla ‘Altona’ (Pink)
H. macro. ‘Blue Wave’ (Blue)
H. anomala ‘Petiolaris’ (another climbing type)
Hy. ‘Forever Summer’ – - a new group of hydrangea varieties that flower on their current season’s  growth.

Jobs for the Month –

In the fruit garden – early and mid-season strawberry plants need to be cut back tidied up and mulched to get the plants to recover after their exertion. Summer fruiting raspberry canes should be removed so that the new canes can grow well enough to be trained for next year’s crop.
Summer pruning is every bit as important as winter pruning
and is absolutely essential for fan trained peaches, nectarines and cherries, as well as for espalier and cordon apples and pears. Trim back the long side shoots so that they are only 1 leaf over the basal cluster or leaves – sounds tricky but is very obvious once you look at how the trees grow. If you are short of time you can always get the hedge trimmer out to take back the superfluous growth that is draining the plants and deflecting goodness from the fruit crop. Then trim back properly later in the year. While you have the secateurs handy and if you have a wisteria then apply the same rules to that and follow up with a further pruning in January.
Vegetable gardens – regular picking helps production – if you don’t pick then the plant will assume that no more is needed which will leave you a few leaves short in the veg trug!
Onions, shallots and garlic should be lifted and left in the sun to dry for better storage. Wet bulbs will rot.
Check potatoes and tomatoes for blight – any brown spotted and blotched leaves should be removed and burnt. Finish lifting early and second early potatoes before either the blight or the slugs make them unusable. Caterpillars will strip Brassicas a plant in not time. Check to see if they’re there. Either pick them off, or spray with pyrethrum [plant derived insecticide] or a manufactured product such as Provado Ultimate Bug Killer]. Crops are really best covered with a fine mesh such as Haxnick’s Enviromesh.
There is still time to sow salad and leaf crops for harvest this year. Radish, spinach, lettuce, parsley and rocket as well as herbs such as coriander and chervil.
Ornamental pots and planters need regular feeding and watering.  It is asking a lot of any plant to have 6 months flowering – so give them regular attention. Grass shouldn’t be cut too short in dry weather nor left too long in wet weather or you’ll never get through it. Still no news I’m afraid of the long awaited neat & evenly footed, low-methane grass eating animal that will do this job for us. Has to come one day I’m certain of that, and it could also help with shredding material for the compost heap.
Finally rose growers, a good feed and mulch now will help most sorts, except the species roses to recover strength for their autumn display.

They are named after the city of Hamburg – where they are believed to have first been made!
Mostly made with beef but you can use lamb or pork

INGREDIENTS
Beef Mince
1 egg
Pepper & salt
Breadcrumbs
Onion – very finely chopped

METHOD

• You will need about 5 ounces [150g] for a decent size burger.
• Place the mince in a mixing bowl or pudding basin and grind in some pepper and salt; add one teaspoonful of tomato puree for each burger.
• Add the finely-chopped onion. For a milder flavour try using red onion instead of white.
• Depending on your taste for heat and spice you can now begin to experiment. For a relatively calm experience, add a tablespoonful of mustard or horseradish. To go for broke, try Worcester Sauce, Tabasco or one of the fiery Caribbean or Asian pepper sauces. Alternatively, if your tastes are more European add some fresh herbs.
• At this point you add a tablespoonful of vegetable oil (olive oil is fine) and one handful of breadcrumbs per 8oz (227g) of mince. Add an egg to the mixture and then combine the lot, mixing it gently. A fork or spoon works well but you can do it all by hand if you prefer.
• Form the burgers into your preferred size. Whether thick or thin, do make sure that they are cooked all the way through.

Serve with a salad from our range Gold Hill Organic Farm products, some delicious Lagan Farm sausages and choose your condiments from the wide range available in the Farm Shop. From French, American or English Mustard to chutneys, pickles and pepper sauces, we’ve got plenty to choose from.

If you prefer lamb, you can use the method above as a template, but perhaps adding mint, garlic or redcurrant jelly to our lamb mince. Happy August Barbecuing !

At last the fine weather is here and with it a cornucopia of Dorsetshire delights. From Child Okeford we have the most delicious young spinach, fresh garlic, baby cucumbers, mange-tout peas, broad beans, beetroot and lettuces. With Wimbledon comes strawberries and we have the privilege of bringing you the freshest fruit from the Ansty PYO and Farm Shop – strawberries and gooseberries are now in stock. We also have the last of the English asparagus from the New Forest. True to our motto of “fresh, seasonal and local” we hope you like what you see.

From slightly further afield we have new season’s English salad potatoes, carrots and tomatoes, and from even further afield are bananas and pineapples, Royal Gala and Braeburn Apples and seedless grapes.

In the spirit of encouraging more people to try more local brands, we also have offers on Keystone Brewery’s Very Pale Ale (VPA), down from £1:95 to £1:00 a bottle, and The Seed Company’s dressings and marinades are reduced from £3:99 to £1:99 before the introduction of the replacement products from the new Mr. Filbert brand, based in Milton Abbas. These are dressings made in Dorset, based on Dorset-grown rapeseed oil.

Over the new few months you will see an increasing number of price promotions on local foods. We want to increase awareness of all the good things that are made round and about us – you may have seen some of these at our family day in early June. Earlier today we had a visit from Claire of Purbeck Ice Cream who was giving out samples of their absolutely fabulous sorbets and ice creams. Quite apart from the joy of eating ice cream on such a sunny day, the sheer quality of their range (including the fascinating flavour of ChiliRed) encouraged many to pick up a tub on their way home.

Meat of the month in June was going to be lamb, but prices are still going up as I write this. As a result I’m simply going to recommend our range of barbecue meats – burgers, sausages and chicken. If you tried the pork and venison sausages on the Members’ Day you won’t be surprised that I’m recommending them – meaty but not to heavy or dry, they are a treat indeed. We are also now making larger 6oz. and 8oz. burgers to order, in addition to the regular 4oz. Pork & Apple, Lamb & Mint and beefburgers.

Have a look at the chicken portions – Chinese, Kentucky, Mediterranean flavours are all there.

Come and see us soon and enjoy our Tastes of Dorset.

Think of the stars of borders in gardens big and small and the chances are they will be perennials. Colour is key with perennials – there is such a varied palette to choose from. It’s up to you to decide the mood you want as the garden backdrop to your life – the excitement or vibrancy of red, the romance of pink or the calm of blue and for a plant family that offers all of these and more, look no further than perennial Salvia or sage plants.

Offering true perennial perfection, these are a wonderful choice for gardeners looking to bring stunning colour and style to their borders. There is an amazing range to select from, many of them Award of Garden Merit holders, so you can be sure of getting top performance. Now is a great time to plant container grown plants and many salvias are drought tolerant, once established. This makes them a fantastic asset if you are gardening in a drier area.

Some Salvias are great for attracting beneficial wildlife, including butterflies and bees. This will give a boost to the overall health of both your garden and the surrounding environment – so what are you waiting for? Like most perennials, Salvias are easy to look after. Some are fully hardy across the UK, but others are less so and in certain areas may be better looked on as annuals. The name Salvia comes from the latin ‘to heal’. We still use culinary Salvia in stuffing, perhaps unconciously helping our digestion!
Here are some suggestions: Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ – a wonderful perennial reaching about 75cm in height, bearing violet to purple flowers, fully hardy. Chelsea 2010 Best in Show Award winning designer Andy Sturgeon highlighted this variety in his BBC TV interview prior to the show. Salvia officinalis – a foliage plant with culinary uses, evergreen and hardy, up to 80cm high; Salvia coccinea ‘Lady in Red’ – great for a summer show of red flowers (tender). The closely related ‘Lady in White’ bears white flowers. Salvia patens ‘Cambridge Blue’ is frost hardy (safe down to -5oC’) and produces very elegant, pale blue flowers. Salvia pratensis is a clump-forming perennial with a woody base. Up to 90cm in height and bearing flowers of violet, though in some case may be pink or white. Hardy.

Salvias are a sun-loving plant, so grow in either full sun or dappled shade. Soils need to be well-drained and moderately fertile. Remove flowers once they have ‘gone over’ (dead heading) and trim in late spring any shoots that spoil symmetry.

I have managed to get out and about a bit and am not long back from a late spring trip to visit my expatriated brother-in-law in the Czech Republic; fascinating country and still has much of the elements of its communist past still in place. Severe, gaunt grey buildings and rather dismal residential areas. There are some very beautiful historic buildings and dramatic castles that have been brought back to life. It’s a habit that I probably share with other gardeners, but I always like to have a look at what other peoples gardeners are like. Food in Czech Republic is not as varied as Dorset and garden produce seems to be mostly potatoes, onions and broad beans. It’s too cold to overwinter brassica crops so if you grow dense white cabbages you have to harvest and store before mid November. Salad crops seemed to be a rarity but it might be that they hadn’t sown them yet although the tomatoes were well up and planted out. There was a definite change since our last visit with evidence of new buildings in the villages and more ornamental gardens. Fruit trees still line the roads leading to the village; in the old days villagers ask the village organising committee if they could look after a particular tree [all numbered] and harvest the crop. That would be an excellent scheme here I think and a worthwhile extension of the allotment system.

The new garden centre was officially opened by David Howard who was then Prince Charles’ Head Gardener at Highgrove. David called in again on Friday to see how things had progressed and witnessed first hand the activities at Orchard Park as the garden centre and farm shop celebrated their 5th anniversary with two days of events.

On Friday with a background of summer jazz from local band, Lizzie Sparkle, several of the Farm Shop suppliers including Mere Fish Farm, Lavender Blue Cakes, Longmans Cheese and the ever popular Keystone Brewery brought along samples of their produce for members of the Orchard Park club to try and buy. Orchard Park’s own resident barbeque experts had a range of Weber BBQ’s running with gas and charcoal grills and the unique Weber Smoker which cooks or rather smokes food over moist scented wood chips to give that extra flavour to food cooked outdoors.

Eleanor, the representative from Alexander Rose, the leading garden furniture manufacturer who supply Orchard Park’s range of beautiful crafted wooden benches, tables and chairs gave helpful advice on how to look after your furniture as well as how to find the right bits in the first place.

Plant lovers were not left out either as the plant team staged special informative displays on plants to attract insects to the garden, looking especially at bees and gave detailed advice on grow-your-own herbs. On Saturday face painting for the children, Felix the Orchard Park clown, a Hog Roast from local pork producers Pure Pigs, honey from Gillingham bee-keeper Mark White and additional activities from Spotty Pots the resident ceramic painting studio at Orchard Park.

We have been attending the Anonymous Travelling Markets in Shaftesbury Cattle Market on the last Saturday of every month, so come and see us on Saturday May 29th when we’ll be selling burgers and sausages, meat, cheese and eggs.

We were really hoping to bring you a fantastic offer on lamb this month, but prices have stayed resolutely high. This may not be good news for all meat-eaters, but I’m sure that all those farmers will be grateful. In any case we have got another great offer for you – Rump Steak at £9:99/kg (£4:54/lb.). Rump steak is sometimes overlooked in favour of Fillet or Sirloin, but for my money it is the best of the lot. Certainly for flavour it can’t be beaten. Fillet is undoubtedly the most tender, and sirloin too, but the combination of flavour and texture in a rump steak that has been hung for 21-28 days is exceptional. The recipe I’ve got for this is meant to bring out this flavour with little or no fussing about.

Ingredients :

1 8oz. rump steak per person.
Salt and pepper.
A splash or two of red wine.
Watercress.

• Remove your steak(s) from the fridge at least half an hour before cooking.
• Warm your plates (the recipe will take about five minutes from start to finish).
• Have a pan of boiling water ready.
• Heat a good heavy frying pan, ideally a non-stick one.
• Grind some black pepper into the pan and add half a teaspoonful of salt, preferably sea salt such as Maldon.
• Put the steak into the (very) hot pan, pressing it down. Cook for 30 seconds.
• Turn the steak over and repeat.
• Turn the steak over again and add half the red wine.
• Repeat and plunge the water cress into the boiling water for 30 seconds.
• Drain the watercress, take the steak of the heat, put on top of the watercress and serve.

This is for a rare steak – you will know exactly how well-done you like yours, so amend the cooking time accordingly. Ditto the seasoning – you may want more or less salt and/or pepper, although you will need some salt to bring out the flavour. Serve with whatever potatoes you like – sauté are usually a popular choice.

Where possible the produce will be English, but until the warmer months are with us we have limited choice in terms of UK-grown food. Despite this, we will be starting to sell Sara and Andrew Cross’ delicious vegetables from their organic farm at Child Okeford.

We do have some English vegetables – leeks, mushrooms and parsnips as well as the last of this season’s Maris Piper potatoes from Stourton Caundle – and of course English Bramley apples.

Our April offer on the Meat Counter is Pork Chops. There will be some good deals on lamb as well; prices are high at the moment, but will be coming down in the next few weeks as the new season progresses.

By next month I should be able to introduce you to a new range of wines, including some sherries. Naturally we shall have to sample them first and I hope to persuade our wine merchant to conduct an evening’s wine tasting for Orchard Park members. We will only be sending invitations out to this by e-mail, so please let us know your e-mail address so you don’t miss out.

Well this one couldn’t be easier. As usual, you can make it as complicated as you like, so here is a basic recipe with some suggestions.

1 pork chop per person, not too lean (the chops, not the person).
Sage – just beginning to grow again now, so fresh if you have it in your garden is best. Sage has quite a pungent taste, so two decent-sized leaves per chop should be enough.
Cider and cider (or balsamic) vinegar.
Cream or crème fraiche.

• Fry the chop or chops and the sage leaves in a little bit of oil. The pan should not be too hot as you want the fat to melt and mix with the juices and not burn. Cook for about five minutes.
• Add some cider – three tablespoons per chop should do it.
• Turn the chops in the cider and turn the heat up a bit.
• Season to taste.
• The liquid should be reducing by now (if not, turn the heat up a bit more), so when it begins to become a little thicker add a couple of generous splashes of cider vinegar. Balsamic will do as well.
• At the last minute, add one dessertspoon of cream or crème fraiche per chop.

Serve with sauté potatoes and new season’s English cabbage. Do make sure your plates are well warmed – it really does make a difference.