Sarah Raven's Kitchen and Garden

I've just returned from Greece (the Island of Spetses) where I had one of the best holidays ever. It was so hot I just collapsed and read and rested for the full 2 weeks.
 
As ever we ate delicious food - simple, freshly harvested local produce, with lots of small delicious dishes making up every meal rather than our classic British starter, main and pudding.
 

I am always on the look out for new and exciting varieties of annuals and biennials for the garden at Perch Hill.

So we made a special trip to Belgium to collect a fantastic new selection of plants. With a map in hand we set off for Silene Nursery located 25 miles north of Brussels. Whilst small in scale, Silene specialise in unusual varieties of seedlings and plants with the emphasis being on offering an idiosyncratic, out-of-the-ordinary assortment.

This week I’ll be taking in the sights, sounds and inspiration of Chelsea Flower Show. On Wednesday evening I’ll be joining Alan Titchmarsh on the BBC’s Chelsea Coverage to discuss my upcoming TV programme – Bees Butterflies and Blooms, all about my mission to get Britain buzzing again. Through making the programme I’ve received some fantastic expert advice, not only about which plants are best to encourage our native pollinators, but also all the other factors that help make the best possible environment for these vital inhabitants of our gardens.

From the moment the clocks go forward we start to notice that each day is gradually getting brighter, the days are getting warmer and that spring has definitely sprung. The lane outside Perch Hill is speckled with pale yellow from the wild primroses and golden yellow of lesser celandines and the hedges and fields have begun to create a lush green backdrop.

Activity in the garden is ramping up as we move into spring. As well as all the usual March jobs we’re busy developing our exciting new nectar-rich garden for this summer. More about that soon.

Over the next few weeks I’m hoping to get out and see some of the wonderful snowdrops that come through at this time of year. There are many beautiful gardens open for snowdrop walks, or simply pull on your boots and head to the nearest wood in your area (check out your local wildlife trust web site to see where that is) and enjoy the first signs of spring as they appear.

Last weekend I travelled over to Paris to source lots of lovely new things for our up and coming Summer catalogue. The first stop was my favourite Parisian flea market ‘Les Puces de Saint-Ouen’, found at la Porte de Clignancourt – a hive of activity, wonderful smells, sights and treasures and an excellent place to visit for inspiration and ideas.

I was at Tenbury Wells Mistletoe Market early this week, researching Mistletoe for my new book.  Tenbury Wells is the heartland of British Mistletoe.  Mistletoe loves to grow on apple trees and Tenbury is surrounded by old orchards so this is the perfect place for it to grow. They have been trading Mistletoe there for hundreds of years and their festival is a real celebration of it's cultural heritage.

Today I'll also be venturing out in the snow to photograph evergreen ferns which fill the woods near me.  I'm sure it will be a beautiful sight.

I've been at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire this week to learn how they use produce from their kitchen garden in their house.

They have an abundance of produce from their gardens that lasts them all year round, including their sweet muscat grapes which they pick by the crate load. 

Sophie Burnside, their cook, is the driving passion behind the garden.  

I've been busy teaching this week, helping people who want to create a cutting patch or just grow a few flowers to pick for the house.  It's the perfect time to start planning for the year ahead.  You can have flowers to pick from March to November but you have to start preparing the garden now.  It's nearly bulb planting season so you need to think a little about how you want your spring and early summer garden to look.