A hot jam for cool times Weekend gardener
Tomato & chilli jam
Chillies need a long season to ripen so harvesting lasts well into autumn. Try this recipe with the last of your harvest as it makes a few chillies go a long way. If your tomato crop has finished, this jam recipe can easily be made with tinned or bottled ones.
Ingredients
100g butter
3 small onions
2 green or red chillies
500g tomatoes
100ml malt vinegar
300g sugar
Salt & pepper to taste
Melt the butter in a pan. Add the sliced onions, chopped chillies (remove the seeds if you prefer less heat) and chopped tomatoes, then simmer gently for 30 minutes until the tomatoes have cooked down and the onions are soft and sticky. Add the vinegar and sugar, and reduce the jam by a quarter. The finished result should be glassy and sticky like fruit jam. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, then pour into sterilised jars.
Mother’s Day potted plant care
Potted chrysanthemums indoors do best in a well-lit spot. Water the base rather than the leaves and only when the top 2cm of soil becomes dry. Remove dead flowers and leaves as needed. After flowering, plants can be planted outside in a sunny spot.
Cared for well, a potted cyclamen can flower for up to three months. Position away from direct sunlight and heat, such as a fire or heatpump. Avoid overwatering – every three days should be enough. Remove dead flowers and leaves as needed. After flowering, store outside in a sheltered spot such as under a hedge or tree. In late summer restart watering and bring inside.
Moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) like bright indirect light. Water when it begins to dry out, usually once a week or 10 days. Use an orchid fertiliser. The flowers last for months. When they drop off, cut the stem back to the next healthy bud. Keep feeding and watering and it will rebloom.
Grow salads in pots
Sow and plant hardy leafy green veg, such as mizuna, mibuna, miner’s lettuce, kale, cress, mustard, rocket, Asian greens, and red-leafed or cos lettuces, in containers for harvesting over winter.
Not only is the soil in pots always a degree or two higher than the soil in beds, the drainage will be better. To protect containers from getting waterlogged in winter, raise pots above the ground – just enough to allow drainage from the pot.
Plus you can keep the pots right by the kitchen door so you don’t need to walk on your vege beds and risk compacting the wet winter soil (or freeze while harvesting on cold dark winter evenings).
Pots close to the house under the shelter of the eaves or on the patio are less vulnerable to frost but in particularly chilly locations have frost cloth at the ready to drape over frost-tender plants.