Recipe: Italian Mimosa cake

Just in time for Women’s day – here is a classic recipe for the delicious Italian mimosa cake.
It is usually prepared for Women’s day on 8th of March

The name of the cake is due to its shape resembling the flowers of the mimonsa plant

Level of recipe difficulty: medium

Ingredients:
For the cake base:

• 2 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 110 g sugar
• 100 g flour
• 20 g potato flour (fecola di patate – sold in Italian delis)

For the custard:

• 150 ml milk
• 150 ml double cream
• 100 g sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 27 g flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavour

For the dip:

• 50 ml water
• 1 table spoon orange blossom water
• 25 g sugar

For the cream with sugar:

• 100 ml double cream
• 10 g icing sugar

Method:
First prepare the cake base:

Mix the eggs and sugar in a bowl, using an electric whisk for 10 – 15 minutes at high speed. This is an important step to ensure the cake base is light and full of air bubbles.
Then add the egg yolks and continue mixing for another 6 minutes. 

Once the eggs have been incorporated, add the flour and potato flour through a sieve, folding the flour in delicately by hand to add even more air into the mix.

Butter and flour a round baking tin, add the cake mix and bake at 180°C for circa 30 minutes. 

While the cake bakes, prepare the custard:
In a small pan mix the milk, double cream and vanilla flavour.
In another small pan mix the egg yolks and sugar.
Heat both pans up, stirring constantly, but do not boil.
Stir the egg and sugar mix with a wooden spoon. Then add the flour and stir it until smooth.
Now add the warm milk and cream into the egg-sugar-flour mix and stir at medium temperature until the custard starts to set.
Ensure the flour in the custard cooks. Once the custard starts to bubble, remove it from the heat and pour it into a flat pyrex ramekin.

Cover the custard with cling film. The cling film needs to touch the custard. Then place it in the fridge to cool. 

Prepare the dip:
In a small pan, mix the water, sugar and orange blossom water. Heat it up to let the sugar melt. Then put to one side to cool.

Assembling the cake: 
When the cake base is baked through and a skewer comes out clean, remove it from the oven and let it cool on a flat surface , turning the cake base upside down.

Once the cake base has cooled completely, cut off the brown crust all around the cake to reveal the yellow cake. Now cut it into half.
Then with a long-bladed knife, cut one of these cake halfs carefully into three even layers. These will form the layers of the cake.
Cut the other half of the cake base into small cubes. These will be used to decorate the top and sides of the cake.

Whip the cream and caster sugar. Keep two table spoons of cream to one side
Place the first cake layer on a plate or cake stand.
With a table spoon drizzle a third of the dip onto the layer. Then spread some cream on top and then some custard.
Cover with another layer of cake. and repeat.
Then cover with the third cake layer.

Once you have assembled the three cake layers with the dip, cream and custard, cover the entire cake with custard and do the same with the sides of the cake. 

Then cover the top and sides of the cake with the yellow cake cubes you have cut. The custard will act as ‘glue’. 

Ensure the cake is covered with cubes from all sides, place in the fridge and voilà your mimosa cake is ready!

I hope you enjoyed. Happy Women’s day!

My favourite buildings in London: The house overgrown by ivy in De Beauvoir, Hackney

One of my favourite buildings in London is in Southgate Grove (N1)

Garden Art – The Bertrand Lavier Fountain

A relatively new installation, the Bertrand Lavier Fountain can be found in the garden of the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London.
For all details about the sculpture and artist click here, or view it yourself in Hyde Park until the 4th of October 2015. 

Happy Gardening!

Autumn

October arrived and London and our garden took on autumnal colours.
One quiet Sunday we spotted two foxes sleeping on the neighbour’s garden-house roof all afternoon. The location covered in leaves which they choose for their nap matched their fur. The sight of these animals in the midst of a metropolis felt very peaceful and fairytale-like.

 By now the vine leaves turned red and orange:

 and a storm blew the sunflowers over

 I started to clear up the garden for winter

Over the summer I had made a friend, who comes to visit me from the flat downstairs
most times when I spend time in the garden, Stanley the cat:

 So the clear-up activity has begun:

A Hackney garden in summer – part 5

In August the runner beans were ready for harvesting:

and had developed what I didn’t expect: pink beans 

 

 By September the sunflowers were more than 2 metres high:

 

A Hackney garden in summer – part 4

A closer look at the garden in July and August.
First year Hollyhock plants grown from seeds, on a fresh summer morning. These plants only flower starting in their second year. 

Pink and White Dwarf Godetia:

A wild star-shaped flower:

Floor covering Five Spot Nemophila:

Plants in our staircase garden:

Delicate, silky Ipomoea flowers growing through our Star Jasmine terrace railing:

Double African Marigold:

A Hackney garden in summer – part 3

Mornings in our garden in June and July are wonderful.
At the back you can see that the runner beans grew a meter tall and started to flower.

 Runner bean blossoms:

 A few wild flowers blossomed in the ‘meadow’ section of our flower bed: 

 A detail from our staircase garden:

Another wild flower, Borage:

 

Hosta flower:

 

 Star Jasmine:

 And our friendly visitor, the neighbours’ cat Stanley, who comes round every morning

A Hackney garden in summer – part 2

My second update on gardening progress this summer.
I finally found the best suited space for an ivy plant I had for the last four years – it is now on the terrace, facing North-East and finally doing very well:

 I love spring and summer in London

In June it was time to come up with some new decoration outside the front door:

And see the runner beans grow taller

A Hackney garden in summer – part 1

It has been a long time since I last updated you on my garden here in Hackney in London. The last you probably know, is that in April I decided to take part in the National Gardening Week. I cleared out the entire shared garden and started to plant seeds.
I can now tell you that the whole project was a success! Over the course of the summer the garden has gone through several stages , which I have recorded whenever I had a moment to take a picture. Observing the different plants develop was very fulfilling. Here is the first of a few updates : )

Step one, seedlings growing in a propagator:

 

My home-grown runner bean seedlings ready to be planted outside:

 

 

 

Three rows of freshly planted sunflower seedlings:

At the back, runner beans and marigold; at the front, dwarf godetia and five spot nemophila;
at the centre, nectar rich wild flowers to attract butterflies:

  A few weeks later: 

Lavender:

 Lavender, herbs and the flowerbed in the background:

 

Urban Gardening: London – Holloway

My friend C. has a lovely garden in Holloway. Well by now I should say she had this garden, as she’s moved out to a new house. In any case, I wanted to share a few pictures of her Holloway garden with you. I believe one can see the Scandinavian influence in the fabrics used. C, if you read this, where can we buy the cushions? For now dear friends, enjoy the view

 Luscious white climbing roses

Pear tree

 Ivy climbing on the house and London’s mild summer evenings

 If you know of a nice garden you’d like to share, send me some pictures and they may feature on this blog very soon!

Everyone can be an urban gardener! – Examples from London (Hackney)

Here are two examples of urban gardening I came across recently when walking around Hackney. I thought they are definitely worth sharing as part of the blog post series ‘Everyone can be an urban gardener‘. The pictures are not photoshopped – the blossoms were as immaculate as you see them below

 

 

 

Cacti at Kew Gardens

This is the last in a series of three posts about Kew Gardens in London. In one day, we visited the temporary Orchid exhibition, the Palm House and a greenhouse dedicated to cacti. All three were memorable and I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Kew. Besides the three exhibition spaces featured on this blog, there are dozens of other glasshouses and specialised areas to see, not to speak of the Treetop Walkway, a viewing platform towering 18 metres above the ground which is accessible for free and offers mesmerizing views of London. Truly there is something for everyone. From the Japanese Gateway, to the Ginkgo, the Azalea and the Woodland Garden, several visits could offer a new experience every time. There are plenty of cafés and also a well-stocked gardening shop. 

 

For more information about the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, visit:
http://www.kew.org

The Palm House at Kew Gardens

On the same day we visited the Orchid exhibition at Kew Gardens, we also strolled around the Kew Garden Palm House.  A lush selection of plants from all over the world awaited us. I must say, the interior of the palm house itself is in need of renovation, as the colour is chipping off the metal frame and in places the glass is heavily stained with patches of moss.
Nevertheless, we enjoyed the super-sized plants, some of which clearly recalled the presence of dinosaurs and prehistoric times.

 

 

 

For more information about the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, visit:
http://www.kew.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orchids Exhibition at Kew Gardens

A few months ago, we went to see the Orchids exhibition at Kew Gardens. The dedicated greenhouse was filled with tropical mist, and water sprinklers filled the air with warm water droplets. It was heaven.

 

For more information about the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, visit:
http://www.kew.org

 

 

 

 

 

London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in May

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Gardening Week update – Seedlings in pots

As part of my £50 gardening project, started during National Gardening Week, I prepared the soil and unfortunately had to resort to snail killer (I chose an organic one which is safe for pets as our neighbour has a cat).
Over the last ten days I have been propagating flower seeds indoors. The seedlings are coming along nicely. There are Sunflowers, Marigold, Hollyhock and runner beans.
In year three of my urban gardening efforts, I am no longer nervously waiting for the seeds to sprout. I know, it is a matter of letting them be and watering them regularly  – they won’t grow faster just because I look !

I have to say, time has passed quickly and I am rather pleased with the progress:

Sunflowers: 

 Marigold:

Hollyhock:

 Runner beans:

 

 

Indian Cress:

 Updates coming soon

 

National Gardening Week – First Update after 4 hours of work….

I managed to get the garden into a better shape. It’s miles away from finished, but take a first look.

Before: 

I cannot say this enough, to whoever planted the bamboo in the neighbours’ garden, which grows its roots into ours, it was a really bad idea.
It took ages to remove the roots and it’s still not completely done.

There was also another surprise. I found a large amount of sneils. Eeeeh, I always forget about them and whenever I start to dig around the garden, the first few hours of seeing them are rather unpleasant. They started to climb up the pot walls….but I’ll spare you that

So I kept on digging

and weeding

As I was unearthing all sorts of bugs, a tiny bird showed up to take advantage of that

I also cut off the hydrangea:

and fixed the runner bean support net against the fence attaching it with cable ties to bamboo sticks that I had cut off while weeding.
You can almost not see the net.

So in 4 hours I managed to get the garden from this:

to this: 

I hope you like the progress

#NationalGardeningWeek #ngw

http://www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk/

National Gardening Week – I’m ready, how about you?

Hello!
To take part in the National Gardening Week launched by the Royal Horticultural Society, I pledged to turn an abandoned garden into a little oasis – spending less than £50.
The money was quickly spent: £18 for seeds, £20 for soil, £2.50 for bean netting and  £9.50 for a garden fork. I did a bit of haggling with the owner of my local hardware shop. Mr Bradbury was happy to help me out, so I could stay within the budget – he knows I am a good customer :  )
So, here are the seeds with their package description. All, besides the Hollyhock should hopefully flower this year:

•  Red-flowering Butler Runner Beans (Early and heavy cropping. Sow: Apr-Jul. Harvest Jul-Oct)
• Mixed Sunburst and Evening Sun Sunflowers (Ideal backdrop to summer borders. Sow: Mar-May. Flowers: Jun-Sep. 1.8 mt tall)
• Chaters Double Mixed Hollyhock (Elegant stems at the back of borders. Beautiful, but only flower the year after sowing. Sow: Mar-Jul. Flowers: Jun-Aug. 240cm tall)
• Mixed annuals, nectar rich plants that attract butterflies (Sow: Mar-Jun. Flowers: Jun-Oct. 90cm tall)
• Tall Double African Marigold (Sow: Apr-Jun. Flowering: Jul-Oct. 70cm tall)
• Mixed Dwarf Godetia (Easy for beds, borders and pots. Sow: Mar-May, Sep-Oct. Flowers: Jun-Sep. 30cm tall)
• Five Spot Nemophila (Easily grown unusual dwarf plants. Sow: Mar-May. Flowers: Jun-Oct. 15cm tall)
• Milkmaid Nasturtium (Easy to grow softly coloured flowers that climb or trail. Sow: Apr-Jun. Flowers: Jun-Oct. 1.8 mt tall). 

Here I am ready to go. It’s pretty cold today, but I want to get started.
This is the challenge ahead –  the garden how it is right now: 

As you see, there is a lot of clearing up to do! My attention will mainly be focused on the back left-hand corner. I am planning to cut down the bamboo, ceating a new planting bed with sunflowers to the left along the wooden wall, red flowering runner beans to the back against the brick wall. In front of these tall plants, I’m planning to sow the butterfly attracting wild flowers, marigold and the colourful dwarf plants.
In my head I have a wonderful image of how it will be, but I know there is a lot of work, and a lot of patience required.

For now, the soil has arrived, the garden fork is ready, it is just a matter of unpacking the bean support net….

I hope you will be back to see how it all develops! 

#NationalGardeningWeek #ngw

http://www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk/

 

 

 

The London Aquatics Centre Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

One of the main venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics & Paralympics, the London Aquatics Centre is now open to the public.

 

 The Aquatics Centre has two 50 metre (160 foot) pools, one of them, the Competition Pool

 and a 25 metre (82 foot) Diving Pool

 Visitors can watch swimmers through the window in the entrance hall, or from the 2,500 seat gallery

 The Olympic Park is beautifully planted

 

The large scale of the venue and park, the futuristic shapes, long-distance views  and the different materials used, make one feel very welcome

 Bird nesting boxes have been placed along the Eastern facade of the Aquatics Centre  

 

Planting your own Kitchen Window Herb Garden

This was something I intended to do last year, but never took the time to put into practice. So in March this year I finally went for it. 

Eight herb plants were the most I could fit into two planters and a pot. I ventured to Columbia Road Flower Market  and as usual was not disappointed. The quality of plants they sell is second to none and the price is neither. 
My strategy on Columbia Road Flower Market is to walk the entire length of the market and assess every stall without buying anything, then turn back and pick the healthiest plants from the stalls that made it into my short list. I always end up buying one or two plants from two to three different sellers. Every stall is specialised in a specific area, so the stalls I buy from change depending on what I’m looking for.

For the Kitchen Window Herb Garden I bought one of each (clockwise from the top left):
Thyme, Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Chives, Sage, Basil, Mint and Lavender

 Before filling the planters with soil, I covered the drainage wholes with potsherds.
One could also use small stones.

 Then added fresh soil and the plants.

When deciding which plants to put together in one pot, I placed the Basil next to the Mint plant. I believe this was a mistake, as the basil did not last for two days. I’m certain it was not due to the quality of the plant, but rather due to the location, too much or not enough water or the fact of having been placed next to the mint plant. To be honest I don’t know. However all other plants are doing well and are now on the window sill. 

 

Happy Gardening!

Flower meadow update

The blog post about Hackney’s biggest ever wild flower meadow has been updated. If you’d like to see the latest, take a look here.

Hackney’s biggest ever wild flower meadow

Yes, this is what the council has planned, and it is right here were I live!

The area that has been dug up is extensive. Chances are it will look lovely. Apparently the fence should come down in July – I am surprised how quickly this meadow is expected to grow.
Will keep you posted!

Update, October 2013:
In the end it took a bit longer than July for the fence to come down, but when the meadow was ready, at the beginning of September it was stunning!

Related articles:

• Plan to revive UK wildflower meadows (bbc.co.uk)
• Olympic park will blossom with more meadows of wild flowers (standard.co.uk)
• ‘Coronation Meadows’ could save wild flowers (telegraph.co.uk)

Gardening Project – Step 3: Protecting plants against frost

It really is cold in London these days!
The migrating pigeons on our cherry tree, have fluffed up their feathers to the max as if they were wearing thick jackets.
I find them cute, but also feel a bit sorry for them.

The one on the left keeps his beak and feet as much as possible under the ‘duvet’!

So this is the setting in which I received the climbers I ordered last week online. Immediately after unpacking, I added the Indian Summer Capsis and Honeysuckle to the pots on the staircase.

However, as frost is forecast for the next few nights, I covered the climbers with newspaper. This will keep them warm enough but still allow them to breath.

 

Lemon cypress

I bought this lemon cypress a few years ago and must say it is a plant I tend to neglect. It does nonetheless well and that’s why it is getting its own blog post today.
In London, lemon cypress can stay outside all year round and need very little care also in summer – so it’s an ideal plant if you go on holiday.
The plant also releases a lovely lemony smell. 

My favourite buildings in London: The Lloyds Building

One of my favourite buildings in London is the Lloyds Building at 1 Lime Street

Home of the insurance Lloyd’s of London, it was designed by architect Richard Rogers and built between 1978 and 1986.
Its distinctive appearance was achieved by placing services such as water pipes, elevators and power conduits, that generally sit inside a building, on the outside.

What resembles a steel manufacturing site or industrial-plant in the heart of London can be found opposite the Swiss Re building or “Gherkin”, and consists of a central rectangular space surrounded by three main towers and three service towers with twelve glass elevators. Every floor can be altered by removing or adding partition walls.

The Lloyds Building was awarded Grade 1 status in December 2011

For a view inside, click here:

North American Landscape at the British Museum

There is still time to visit the North American Landscape at the British Museum

The fifth landscape installation created in collaboration with Kew Gardens, is open daily until 25th of November 2012 and free for all visitors.
Among the plants on display are the carnivorous pitcher plants:

orange coneflowers:

 and echinacea:

Previous installations at the British Museum included,
an Australian Landscape in 2011:

and a South African Landscape in 2010.

 

Everyone can be an urban gardener! First round-up of examples

Amongst the rather few definitions of ‘urban gardening that are available, the one I have decided to adopt, describes urban gardening as synonymous with ‘urban horticulture’, and according to Wikipedia* includes ‘all horticultural crops grown for human consumption and ornamental use within and in the immediate surroundings of cities’. (*I know Wikipedia is generally not considered a scientifically reliable source of information, however it has provided what I deem to be a rounded definition of the term urban gardening).

Urban gardening can be subdivided, based on the technique that is used to grow the plants, be it:
•  traditional gardening (growing plants in the ground)
• container gardening (using exclusively containers, pots, hanging baskets or growbags)
•  water gardening (focused on plants adapted to pools and ponds)
•  hydroponics (growing plants in mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil)
•  native plant gardening (sometimes with the intent of attracting wildlife)
•  community gardening (where the effort is shared by several people)
•  vertical gardening (using multiple levels of vertically spaced pots)
•  bonsai gardening (or miniature gardening)
and a variety of other techniques.

Overall, I think anyone who grows fruit, vegetables or decorative plants in a city or a large town, is an urban gardener.

This is the first in a series of posts, that will collect examples of the different styles of urban gardening I see around me, or find online. The following pictures were taken in London, besides the last one, which I came across online:

A by now, very famous urban garden I found online, is the Drummondsville front yard garden in Quebec, which had to fight for its survival as city officials wanted to see it removed. Luckily 30,000 people signed a petition and now the garden can stay:

Are you proud of your urban gardening experience? Let me know, and if you send in some good pictures and I think they are worth including, they will be featured on this blog. Happy photo taking!

Related articles:

• Beautiful!  Our Urban Fence Garden Expands (wellpreserved.ca)
• the secret urban garden (gorgeoux.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: My Urban Garden (cardinalguzman.wordpress.com)
• Drumondsville front yard garden

Edible flower review

Hi everyone!
I recently found out that my friend Adam sells edible flowers on his market stall. So, of course, I was intrigued by the idea and wanted to taste and possibly review these flowers myself.
I bought two boxes of flowers from him and started my tasting session. And I must say, I was swept away!  These edible flowers were truly amazing!
[this is the dinner I prepared: roast chicken with a flower and tomato salad]

To be honest, I was expecting to eat something which would taste blandly green, but how wrong was I! I ended up trying each flower individually [see photos and taste description further below] and was so impressed by the variety of flavours these plants have.
The flowers come in a transparent plastic box. For this review I tried the ‘Chick bag’ and the ‘Bull bag’.

[The Bull bag]

Before trying the flowers, I drafted a few review questions – and here are my answers:
Smell the flowers don’t have a strong fragrance. Some of them don’t have a scent at all.
Taste Each box contains a variety of different flowers and impressively each flower has three to four different flavours. The flavour changes from when you start eating, to a different flavour while you chew, to yet another flavour that is left as an aftertaste.
Overall impression Great. I can’t believe I waited so long to try this. It was a wonderful experience.
Price £4.50 per box. I think it’s a fair price, given that the box provides enough for two people, if you use the flowers for a side dish. If you only use a few flowers as decoration for a desert or a cake, the box contains enough for several decoration projects. So all in all a very good price. Of course, I wouldn’t eat this all the time, and consider it more as something to eat for a special occasion.
What do you think is the best way to use them I would eat them with meat. The Cornish Food Club has matched the flowers so well to the different types of meat, that I think eating them with a well cooked, good cut of meat is how you get the most out of these flower boxes. As you can see further below, I used the blossoms also in a fruit salad, but it did not taste that nice and I felt the flowers were almost wasted, as their flavour could not develop, as it did with the chicken.
I have taken a picture of each flower contained in the two boxes with a description of the taste for almost all of them:
The Chick bag:

I did not know what these flowers were, but thought they tasted a bit bitter like rocket salad. Later I found out that they are indeed rocket flowers.

Cornshoots these were interesting and I wanted to eat more of them. They have a light, zingy, fresh flavour with a sweet aftertaste.

Rocket leaf this has a more mossy, ‘grown-up’ aroma. It tastes a bit like whisky, compared to beer.

Tagetes leaf  is lemony combined with a flavour I had never tried before. It is difficult to describe, but a truly inspiring combination of flavours.

Fine peashoots I don’t know how to describe this. Again, it tastes different from the others and I liked it.
Purple viola [sorry no close-up picture] tastes of violet, which you might remember from bonbons, but less sweet.  However, there  is not only the taste of the viola – while you eat, you can also smell the flower in your month: the scent moves from inside your mouth internally through your sinuses into your nose. A strange, but wonderful sensation.

Yellow viola is similar to the purple viola, but has a less strong, more suttle aroma.

Pink daisy [no close-up photo] it is beautiful to look at, but has a neutral taste.

Overall, when you eat the whole salad, it matches perfectly with the chicken and the salad has a real gourmet feel to it.

The Bull bag:
Unfortunately I didn’t write down what I thought of each single one of the plants in the bull bag, but I have taken pictures of all of them.

Red amaranth 

Dittander  

Radish flower 

Red mustard  

Fennel fronds

Marigold flowers these don’t have a strong flavour. They are more pretty than tasty.

Overall, when you eat the whole bull bag salad, it has a more ‘robust’ flavour than the chick bag and a cumin-like taste comes through as well.

[The Chick bag]

My verdict: Eating the edible flowers has been an all-round good experience for me. I can only recommend it!

If you would like to buy the edible flowers that feature in this post, the Cornish Food Club market stall is open every Saturday on Maltby Street Market, in Bermondsey, London.
They sell five mixed boxes, each picked to match the flavour profiles of different meat. I have asked them what exactly you can find in each flower box:

• ‘Chick bag’– fine peashoots, cornshoots, rocket flower, viola, rocket leaf, and tagetes leaf.
• ‘Bambi bag’ – nasturtium flower, tagetes flower, blackcurrant sage flower, parsley and carrot tops.
• ‘Bull bag’ – fennel fronds, radish flower, marigold, dittander, red mustard, cornshoots, red amaranth and carrot tops.
• ‘Ham bag’ – borage flower, bubbles cress, radish pods, red lion mustard and red amaranth.
• ‘Baa bag’ – blackcurrant sage, nasturtium, watercress, celery, and pink stemmed ice plant.

A package of flowers costs £4.50 and stays fresh for ca. a week in the fridge. The flowers come from Cornwall from The Modern Salad Grower in Looe and also go to some of the country’s top restaurants, including Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray. So that’s an option to consider if you don’t want to cook the flowers yourself, but fancy a professionally cooked flower-meal.

Lemon plant

This lemon plant was a gift I received from a gardener when I bought some other plants in his shop. It is a very rewarding plant as it keeps producing lemons all year round.

In London lemon plants can stay outside during summer, and in winter it is best to keep them inside, on a window ledge with no radiator underneath. This past winter this lemon plant stayed on a window ledge facing East where it was exposed to plenty of light and did indeed very well. It needs to be watered every two to three days in summer and once a week in autumn and winter.

Tip for sticky lemon plants – how to treat scale:

If you notice that a lemon plant and its immediate surroundings (i.e the window and windowsill) are sticky and the plant is covered in a gluey liquid, it has most probably caught ‘scale’.
But no need to worry, as long as you catch scale early, it can be easily treated in four simple steps that should be performed in the evening:

• Put on some rubber gloves, place the plant into the shower and wash it off with cold water. (Do not use warm water as this will damage the plant).
• Look underneath the leaves. If you see any brown spots, rub them off gently with your hands as this is a secretion that the scales leave on the plant. While doing this, be careful not to scratch the leaves, as you only want to remove the deposit the scales have left. If a leaf is very badly affected, break the leaf off and throw it away.
• Give also the pot a rinse and clean the window sill to avoid re-contamination.
• Then take a small water spray bottle, fill it with water and a few drops of dish-washing liquid. Spray this mixture on every part of the lemon plant (including the stem and soil). Now put the plant back on to the windowsill. [Important: don’t spray the plant with soap water and subsequently put it into the sun, – this will ruin the plant. Instead, spray the plant in the evening, so that by the following morning the soap water has dried and the sun can’t affect the plant]. 

Depending on how badly the lemon plant is infested by scale, the above procedure needs to be repeated on three to four different days, leaving one or two days in between. This might seem cumbersome, but I promise it works, is cheap and there are no pesticides involved.

So all the best for your lemon plant!

.

My favourite buildings in London: The house with a roof terrace in Hackney

One of my favourite buildings in London is at 63A Fremont Street in Hackney

It has an unusual triangular shape, that’s simply fascinating. On one side it is so thin, it almost looks like a theatrical scenery

and it is wonderful to look at it from a distance imagining how perhaps one day you could have an urban garden on a terrace like that yourself.

Urban gardening: Vienna

A few weeks ago I went for a long weekend to Vienna and wanted to share with you what I’ve seen in terms of urban gardening. As you know, I have started some urban gardening myself here in London and so I thought it would be a great inspiration to see Vienna’s world famous Hundertwasser Haus and its approach to ‘urban gardening’. And in fact it was well worth it!

On the Sunday I wanted to visit the house, it was pouring with rain, but I couldn’t leave Vienna without having seen it with my own eyes and photographed it.

To give you some context, Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist who in the early 1970s was a firm believer in the need for “forested roofs” and “tree tenants” to maintain “harmony between nature and man”. He also advocated the “window right” of every tenant to embellish the facade around his window. The City of Vienna invited Hundertwasser to build a housing project to implement his ideas and the Hundertwasser Haus was built between 1983 and 1985. A few years later (1989-91) Hundertwasser also built a museum nearby, called Kunsthaus Wien.

I went to see both buildings and this is how they look:

This is the first one I saw and it is also my favourite one of the two: the Kunsthaus Wien.

[Kunsthaus Wien, Weißgerberlände 14, Vienna, Austria]

You can see the museum has uneven floors, asymmetric shapes, “dancing windows” and bright colors, which are in great contrast with the surrounding neighbourhood that is rather grey and anonymous. But – most importantly for me – Hundertwasser planted a dozen trees on the roof. And if you look closely, you can see that one tree is growing out of a window from inside the house! [at the top right-hand side of the photo] This is what he called a “tree tenant”.

Inside the museum you can find the only permanent exhibition of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s work worldwide. There is also a beautiful café that has both inside and outdoor space in an inner court-yard with plants and colourful tiled floors.

[Inside the CafeRestaurant Dunkelbunt, Kunsthaus Wien]

[The inner court-yard at the CafeRestaurant Dunkelbunt]

[Uneven floors]

[The mosaic staircase which leads to the exhibition gallery]

[A “tree tenant”]

And this is the Hundertwasser Haus:

An expressionist apartment complex housing 52 apartments, four offices, 16 private terraces, three communal terraces, and a total of 250 trees and bushes.

Unfortunately, it is a bit more over-run by tourists than the Kunsthaus Wien, so I didn’t like it that much. BUT! as you can see it also has uneven floors and grass is growing on the roof, so I took some pictures: [the grass is on the top right-hand side of the picture here below]

[The Hundertwasser Haus is located on the corner of Kegelgasse and Löwengasse, in Vienna, Austria].

Related articles

• Vienna Museum Visits – An Overview (biljasworld.blogspot.com)
• Vienna: Art and architecture – from Gothica to Hundertwasser (globexpress.wordpress.com)
• Royal Academy of Arts exhibition London (22 June – 16 September 2012): In the Architecture Space 

My low cost flower bed

Hello! Today I woke up early and worked on a small flower bed that was overgrowing with weeds.

The great thing is that before I started to add potted plants, almost nothing had been planted on purpose in our garden. The only plants that grow in the ground have deposited themselves in this flower bed. So today I removed the weeds that did not look good, and left the weeds that did. I also added some fresh soil, to create the impression that the flower bed was ‘planned’.

In reality I simply removed the weeds that looked conspicuous, and left the ones that looked pretty. At the very end I added a few sunflower seedlings and tada! my low-cost no frills flower bed was ready.

To conclude the whole experience our neighbours’ dog ‘Bruno’ came into the garden and inspected everything I’d done with interest. I hope Bruno does not step on the sunflowers, but hey, he lives here too.