Hello,

What fun that you and I both love the topic of gardening. Thanks for joining me.

1) Vegetable jokes and quotes
2) Eco gardening tips
3) 5-minute Pesto Sauce Recipe

Does a Bok bring you Choy, then Lettuce all smile.

The above is a start to a ROFL (rolling on floor laughing) page at Gardening Jokes and Quotes page. How clever are you? Lets' see what you can come up with... and while you're there, I'd like to know, "When's Honeydew? The Thyme's getting on."

Eco gardening tips

• Cover crops:
  This is a crop that you don't harvest, but covers fallow ground over winter and is used as green manure in spring.
  
  

  If you've grown a cover crop and are looking to turn it under or cover with no dig materials, be sure to do this at least 2-4 weeks before planting a new crop so it can break down and not try and re-grow and compete with your new crop.

  Also, it's a good idea when planting your cover crop in Autumn to add any fertiliser you want to at the time of planting. This means the cover crop, be it ryegrass, alfalfa, lucern, clover, lupin or similar, will take up the fertiliser and you don't need to add any in spring when your cover crop goes back into the ground.

• Where was I now?:
  When replanting bushy plants or trees, try and orientate the plant the same way in its new home. Attach a bit of colour or peg or string on the north side to remind you before you move the plant. This is one less little stressful thing the plant has to adjust to.
• Recycling:
  Old net curtains (they pile up in 2nd hand shops and charity shops) are great for shade and frost cloths. If you've put out some seedlings and a searing day is forecasted, throw over a net curtain for the worst hours. Same with a late frost, don't get caught out, get out and put grannies old net curtains over your spud patch.

Hassle-free and guaranteed to turn you into a true 'make-it-youself' pesto believer. If you've got basil, no more grabbing a jar of pesto from the store.

5-minute Pesto Sauce Recipe

• 50g (1.8oz) basil leaves (about 1 large loose handful)
• 1 tablespoon (20g/0.7oz) pine nuts
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 Tbln grated parmesan cheese
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Pinch of salt

Method

1. Peel garlic clove and chop finely. Pop it in a small handheld mixer/blender or use a pestle and mortar to crush well, adding a glug of oil.
2. Rinse basil and throw into mix along with the pine nuts and parmesan.
3. Mash/mix/whiz the mixture until it turns to paste, adding a trickle or so more of oil if the mixture seems dry.

Done! How simple?

Preparation: 5 minutes

Serves: 2

Now: Just cook 200g (7oz) of your favourite pasta (100g for each person).

Genovese people like to eat pesto with linguine (a type of flat spaghetti), along with small cubes of boiled potato and/or green beans (also boiled).

Tip: When your pasta is cooked and you are draining away its water, try pouring two tablespoons of this water into the pesto to loosen it up. Then finish draining, add the watered pesto to your pasta and mix it thoroughly.

Buon appetito – happy eating! (Thanks to Matt at Pasta Recipes Made Easy for this recipe and all the other great advice and recipes on his website.)

Happy gardening

Megan