It doesn’t take much for a British person to light up the barbecue. Just a warm Saturday afternoon with some sun rays to tempt us outdoors. However, a few burgers and sausages burnt to a crisp really doesn’t cut it anymore.
Since I’ve been a garden designer, outdoor kitchens have grown enormously in popularity. Now the majority of my clients want some sort of outdoor cooking experience, as well as fully zoned areas, such as relaxing areas and dining areas within the garden.
We’ve always use Alfa wood fired ovens because they are such a superior quality and very versatile. They are large enough to get up some decent heat for pizzas and grilling. Overall, they are beautifully designed and worth every penny.
By comparison, lower cost mass market pizza ovens that have recently been introduced are really not worth it. They’re not large enough to really get some good heat going and are just downright fiddly.
The beauty of an Alfa oven is that you can churn out beautifully crusty pizzas and quick grilled steaks all night for a group of friends, and then use the retained heat all night to cook a shoulder of pork for a family roast dinner the next day.
Pictured is an Alfa wood fired oven from an outdoor kitchen design in 2019.
Narcissus “Thalia”
This is Narcissus “Thalia” cut flower from my own garden, which is a beautiful dainty little spring bloom, with a white petal and pale yellow centre.
I’ve planted thousands of this particular variety of daffodil over the years, and they are brilliant for naturalising (spreading in clumps) over the years. They ultra reliable on a range of soils, and they seem to love clay soils in particular.
I’ve talked before about conservation efforts around our peat bogs, and the upcoming Government ban on selling garden compost using peat. This article in the Guardian explains the issues very succinctly, and says that more than a third of all garden compost sold in the UK is from peat removed from carbon-rich habitats.
Peat-free April is a grassroots campaign to highlight to many home gardeners why we need to make the effort to avoid using peat-based compost.
I’ve found the best quality peat-free compost to be Sylvagrow which is available from independent garden centres – but peat-free compost is also available in most supermarkets too this year.
Read the full article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/31/third-of-all-compost-sold-in-uk-is-climate-damaging-peat
