Sandy’s Garden ... Grow Your Own

My fortunately almost empty burgundy bin for paper waste had been blown over but was easily righted; a neighbour’s empty bottle box, which had blown into my garden and which I had tucked in against a fence where it could be seen and was likely to stay put had, I assume, been collected by its user for it had gone. Some small branchlets from trees had been blown down: but my overall impression was that the crop most likely to thrive given my garden’s sodden state was – rice! Oh, and lest I forget, my new television aerial and its associated new co-axial cable were standing out, proud and spotless, against the threatening sky. Yes, gentle reader, if you have been following the saga of my preparations for the contractors who are due here tomorrow to renew the soffits, fascia boards, guttering and drainpipes of my house, you will know that I have had to have a shrubbery cleared to permit staging to be erected; I have had to have cables detached from the fascia boards; and that I discovered, when I checked the 53-year-old co-axial tv cable, that it was very much past its best - as was the television aerial, I was assured by the engineers who came at my invitation to renew the cable. And I am happy to report that any suspicion I may have entertained about the need for a new £240 aerial proved to be entirely unfounded, for we are now enjoying the highest definition television pictures that we have ever had, complemented by the truest colours and clearest sound track. Thank you, Gareth and Steven!

But, returning to purely horticultural matters, yet another sometimes wild and wet morning prompted me to glance at one of the gardening catalogues which have arrived, unbidden, in recent weeks. This one is for garden fruit; and it opens with six pages dedicated to strawberries. On the first page my eye is caught by ‘Malling Centenary©’, a name I recognise from supermarket shelves. “Bred in the UK by East Malling Research,” I learn from the descriptive text, “this new variety was chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of the research station in 2013 and is considered to be the British strawberry of the future! Bred for the supermarkets but with the aim of putting flavour back into the berry, it has a unique combination of outstanding taste, heavy yields and good shelf life.”

I did know that some species of fruit … particularly soft fruit … were favoured by supermarkets over others: but I think that this is the first time I have read that some species were actually developed by plant researchers to meet the supermarkets’ demands, although I might have suspected this if I had thought about it. And here’s another reference to supermarkets; ‘Marshmello’, I learn, despite being described by French chef Raymond Blanc as “the sweetest strawberry he has ever tasted,” bears large, glossy-red berries which are ‘not firm enough for the supermarkets’ but are very popular on ‘Pick Your Own’ farms and are a great favourite amongst home gardeners. And here is ‘Elsanta’, another variety frequently found on supermarket shelves, mainly in mid-summer. “Thirty years after it was originally released, this heavy cropping mid-season strawberry is still the most widely grown variety in the UK. The fruits are large and firm and have a very good flavour when home grown.”

This is saying that fruit farm grown ‘Elsanta’ finds favour with the supermarkets for its large, firm berries rather than its taste. The message is, ‘Grow Your Own ‘Elsanta’ if you want the tastiest fruits.’ This is exactly what I’d expect; home-grown is best. But I’m going to confess that I’ll not be growing my own; I shall continue to rely on the farmers and the shops.