I Met Paul From “River Cottage” - Jul 12, 2024
Dear gardening friends
I met Paul West today at the IGC Nursery Conference in North Sydney. You may remember him from "River Cottage". My son Dan was only 10 when this Lifestyle Show was on TV, and we had to watch every episode at least twice. Dan loved it.
Well it's not often you meet someone, and they are even nicer than you imagined they would be. But Paul West was like that. He was full of life, he was fun, and he had time to listen to you. I told him too.
He thanked me, with a kind smile and a laugh.
River Cottage was a big part of our life, we loved this show which was filmed in Tilba Tilba. We even drove through Tilba and had a look at the house which was used for the filming. It's absolutely the most beautiful part of the South Coast, with its rolling green hills.
But we loved how Paul involved all the local community in the show, we fell in love with these South Coast characters.
It was great to meet Paul today, he's launching a new range of Vegetable Seedlings called "Grow it Local".
Every packet has a QR Code which you can scan to get the info from Paul and his friends about how to grow them.
Paul wants to get more people growing vegetables in their backyards. It's much easier than you think.
The range will be available soon at Tim's Garden Centre. It's called The Rainbow Range.
I'm so glad I had my Red Scarf on.
Did you love River Cottage?
I said to my Rose Grower, send me a rose that you love. He sent me 50 "Radox Bouquet".
This amazing Rose bush isn't new, it's an old favourite, that has beautiful perfumed pink flowers on long stems. It's perfect for picking.
You can see that it's easy to grow. The plants are multi stemmed. Plant them now and they will be covered in highly perfumed roses in October.
The secret to getting Rose bushes to grow well in your garden is to dig Tim's Cow manure into your soil. You'll need one bag for every 3m2. Dig it into the soil.
Plant your Rose bush, then water well.
Mulch around the base with Sugarcane mulch.
Don't use Rose Fertiliser, it will kill your plants.
For some extra colour plant Pansies and Violas around your roses. They will flower through winter, while your roses are resting and they won't compete with the rose roots, like shrubs do..
Come and see us, the sun is shining today. A walk through our nursery will make you feel good. It will make us feel good too.
We were having a crisis with a plumbing problem and I was out on the lawn just on closing, turning off the mains. I looked up and there was this very nervous looking guy.
He wanted to meet me and he was so nervous he started talking and he didn't make much sense. It was just on closing time, but I let him talk. I decided to listen.
Peter Corsi has been coming to the nursery to meet me, but he hasn't had much luck. He's grown this bumper crop of Pumpkins and he wanted me to have one.
It been rolling around in his car for weeks, because he just kept missing me. The Pumpkin looks fine.
It's an unusual shape, we discuss this, Peter has called it "Pete's ButterKent".
Hopefully someone will know its origin. Peter's just popped up in the compost heap and took over his backyard. He's new to gardening, he's discovered Permaculture. I look him in the eye when he says this. Permaculture can become a religion.
I ask Peter why he's started gardening, I wasn't prepared for the answer. His mother loved gardening but she died when Peter was in high school. His father died more recently, both died due to cancer. We just looked at each other.
Peter has found gardening very therapeutic, he's made a huge raised vegetable garden, he's having great success, the rain is making vegetable gardening so much easier this winter.
He's growing Onions and Broccoli, he grows most things by seed. His garden faces the sun all day so it's perfect for vegetables.
Peter wants me to cook something special with his unusual Pumpkin. I'll have to have a think about that.
He wasn't so nervous when we parted. I'm glad I stopped to talk to him. The plumbing problem got fixed.
I've just made "Giant Sausage Rolls" and they tasted amazing. Dan has just given them 10/10. They are so crunchy and delicious and there's a secret add on, that you just must do.
But firstly there's a story, after my Pepper pie making success, I joked about making Sausage Rolls next. One of my followers said I must use Kofta mince. I had no idea what that was, so I googled it.
Kofta is mince with parsley, onion and herbs. I went straight to Green Valley Spices in Campbelltown Mall and yes they sold a Kofta herb mix. How easy was that.
I also bought half a kilo of mince, you could use beef or pork, depending on your swing.
Of course I invented my own ingredients based on love. I added a Leek to the mince chopped up, with Onion, home grown Parsley, Garlic, Capers and one Anchovy (chopped up fine). Lots of pepper and pink salt and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. One table spoon of the Kofta herbs, I mixed this all up and added the juice of half a Lemon. (Home grown).
I put the mince mix on the Puff Pastry. I bought the Woolies 6 sheet packet. It's so easy to use. Leave in out of the fridge for 10 minutes and it thaws.
Once the mince was in place I rolled up the pastry. I sprayed it with Canola oil. I put them on a slide and cooked them on Eco for at least 40 mins. Yes I've got an Italian Oven and it's Eco, I think it saves energy by simply not getting hot!!!! For the last 4 mins I changed it to grill. Don't walk away. It turns brown within minutes.
I served it up with Hummus and my mum's marinated beans. We had to have something green. OMG the hummus makes them taste amazing.
The sausage rolls had so much crunch. They were delicious. We both added a squirt of Tomato sauce. Seriously it has so much sugar in it, it will kill you.
I cut the Giant Sausage Rolls in half because they were just so big. The meat was delicious, it's a winner. Thanks to my follower who said, go Kofta!
What an amazing discovery, I've got crunchy crumbs on my jumper. I don't care, this is magical.
Give it a try.
It's that time of year when we all fall in love with Magnolias. These winter flowering trees have these amazing Tulip shaped flowers. The most common variety is the pink flowering Magnolia Soulangiana.
You will see this growing everywhere, so it certainly seems to be the easiest one to grow.
This White flowering form is Magnolia denudata.
It's not so common. We have numerous varieties here. To get them to grow, don't just dig a hole in the clay. They will be doomed from day one.
Instead plant your tree on a mound of Tim's Best Potting mix improved soil. Mulch around the base with Sugarcane. Water well.
Come spring your tree will sprout fresh new green shoots. Mulch with Tim's Cow manure and keep your tree well watered through summer.
Happy gardening
Tim