... and roses too.

The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too.

Category: garden

Recipe: Asparagus and lovage pesto pasta 

I’m delighted to introduce Ted’s first appearance in the blog! He went to the farmers market today and found the first asparagus of the year – cause for celebration indeed. He teamed it with the most lovely homemade lovage pesto – his own delicious invention – and made us the most gloriously green spring lunch. I begged him to write up the recipe and he did. Here you go. 

What to do with lovage, the world and Joe want to know. It’s a vigorous herb which produces lots of big green fronds that look suspiciously like flat-leaf parsley. Unlike parsley, however, lovage is not mildly-flavoured. Its taste is not unpleasant – like a very strong celery leaf – but I’ve always struggled to know what to do with it as it always seemed like it would overpower most other flavours. So I’ve been left with a herb that grows unchecked and unharvested until it kicks out its flower spike in mid-summer and finally dies back.


Then, while gardening one weekend and looking again at the rapidly expanding lovage, I had a brainwave – what about making all those leaves into pesto? It turns out that other people have had the same idea and there are several recipes already on the web. See here and here

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Some flowers: April 

The first of the bluebells are out. The way they catch the light – it’s like the first hint of summer, true summer.

The winter clematis thinks so – he’s gone from old boy to old man, strands of his fluffy beard drifting all over the garden.

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Some flowers: March 

Brixton has sprung!

The front garden is filled with a scramble of spring bulbs, tumbling upwards towards the sunshine.

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Some flowers: December

It amazes me each year how the flowers keep coming, but even so, I don’t recall seeing a rose bloom in December before. This one was perfect.

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Some flowers: November

In the garden, the plants are still putting on a show – albeit more subdued – despite the cold.

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Some flowers: October

The sun is fading now, but some brave specimens are still eager to catch the last of the golden October light.

In the garden, the bees are buzzing around the ivy, one of the last flowering plants.

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Some flowers

Just had to share these flowers from the garden – forget-me-nots and peonies. Forget-me-nots are such pretty little flowers. They’ll always be one of my favourites.

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