A Writer's Life: Fruit, Flowers and Forward Planning

Delicious!

At the moment I'm hard at work on the final draft of my next book, Jewel Under Siege. It's not difficult to concentrate on writing work when the weather's as bad as it has been lately. It's warmer inside our old house than out, which makes a change. On the other hand, as we've had a bumper crop of strawberries in the bigger greenhouse this year, there's always the temptation to take a stroll down the garden at regular intervals to pick (and eat!) some. I started my writing career producing features for gardening magazines, and it's lovely to mix business with pleasure. Growing fruit in the greenhouse is easy. Opening the door on a cold morning and inhaling the lovely fragrance of the ripe fruit inside is amazing. It's protected from the worst of the weather, as well as the blackbirds and squirrels who love strawberries as much as we do. I can pick the fruit in the warm and dry, however wet and cold it is outside, and then there's the fun of eating it.

Once the strawberry plants have finished producing, the older, worn-out plants will be replaced with some Brompton stocks. They’re easy to grow, and if you don't have a garden or greenhouse you can keep them in pots in a conservatory. Sown at this time of year they'll flower in the dark, cold days of February and a packet of nearly 200 seeds costs less than $3 (£2/€2.50). Best of  all, they have such a lovely perfume it really lifts the spirits. It gives me a real kick to walk into my  greenhouse while winter still has its grip on the garden, and smell their heady fragrance.

By KENPEI

This year, I'm putting coffee grounds around all my seedlings as it's supposed to deter slugs. It’ll be interesting to see if this idea works. A lot of coffee drinking goes on at Tumbling Towers. I like the idea of recycling the waste product  and beating slugs at the same time! 

If I can stop the bugs eating my Brompton stocks, the plants will keep growing until the weather gets really cold. Then they'll mark time until the days start to lengthen, after Christmas. When that happens, they'll push up their spikes of white, pink, red or purple flowers. To experience their lovely summery perfume will be a real treat on days when the mornings are dark, the afternoons short and winter feels endless.

What's your favourite flower?

If you'd like to keep up with the latest news about Jewel Under Siege, you can subscribe to Christina’s newsletter by sending her an email at christinahollis@hotmail.co.uk with the word “subscribe” in the subject line. You can also read her blog at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, and see a complete list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com.

The First Fruit of Summer...

I love strawberries, so I always try to have a few ready for my birthday this month. Another snowy winter followed by a long dry spell stressed the plants in the garden quite badly, so they’ve been late starting into growth. Then just as they were coming into flower, an unexpected hard frost nipped them. All the centres of the open flowers went black, which means they'll die. Luckily I had some spare strawberry plants growing in the greenhouse. They didn't suffer so badly over winter, and were protected from the worst of the weather. We picked the first ripe berries on 6th May this year. There weren’t very many, but there are plenty more to come. Those fruits were all the more delicious for being home grown, with absolutely no food miles! The weather here has been miserable for ages, so its great to escape to the greenhouse.  Opening its door to be greeted by the smell of ripe fruit is lovely, whether it’s the strawberries, or melons and tomatoes later in the year - and really fresh fruit tastes even better than it looks and smells.

My favourite time of the year is always now, whenever that might be. In spring there are all the signs of new life like snowdrops, primroses and the dawn chorus of birds to enjoy. Nightingales  arrive back in the woods of Gloucestershire after wintering in the sun, and listening to them is a real treat. 

Summer brings the delicious smell of freshly mown grass, more ripe fruit and long, hopefully sunny days.  When the sun shines - which hasn’t happened often so far this year - it’s tempting to escape from the office and head out into the garden. Thank goodness for laptops! 

We may lose the swifts and swallows in autumn, but we gain flocks of redwings attracted by windfall apples. I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of collecting conkers and kicking through fallen leaves. Finally, winter’s short gloomy days makes spending time in the garden less of a temptation, but that gives me the excuse to spend more time in the kitchen. The downside of that, of course, is that calories consumed in the shape of casseroles and chocolate cake aren’t burned off easily. When it’s wet and cold or dark, it’s so easy to curl up in front of the fire after a good meal rather than muffle up and go out for a walk.

What’s your favourite time of year? There’s a signed book from my backlist on offer for a comment picked at random!