For gardeners, each part of the year and every change of season comes clearly marked by signature plants. In my garden, a winter daphne beside the carport welcomes spring in a cloud of fragrance. Cheery sunflowers and ripe tomatoes express the joy of summer.
As I strolled up the driveway one late August day, two plants representing the transition between summer and autumn caught my eye. Blooming together, one under-carpeting the other, were a border sedum and colchicum, their hues of soft pink and pale lilac speaking of the happily gentle shift between the seasons in our climate.
Mending Wall. In Robert Frost’s Mending Wall, when a character questions the need for a barrier between his and a neighbour’s property, the neighbour replies simply that “Good fences make good neighbours.”
This summer, I’ve had reason to be thankful for both a good neighbour and a good fence — an attractive 1.2-metre-high fence along the back property line between us. The fence has a handy shelf top.
Our mutual garden and cooking adventures began just before mid-July, as we were both gardening near the fence. Gisela was digging up some Yukon Gold potatoes and voiced her astonishment at their earliness, abundance and large tuber size.
One morning soon after, a phone call alerted me to the presence of a plate for me on the fence. The plate held a potato pancake, a favourite recipe in Gisela’s family. It was tasty, and easily made with grated potato, minced onion, egg, a little flour and salt. The number of eggs and amount of flour used depends on the juiciness of the potatoes and onion. They are cooked like pancakes. Grating a little extra salt over the flattened cakes as they cook on the first side makes them especially flavourful.
I’ve made a rosy version of the potato cakes with a red-fleshed fingerling potato called AmaRosa (Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes).
Plum cake. Later in the summer, I noticed Gisela in her garden as I was hastily gathering in the last prune plums before a predicted period of heavy rain. She was pleased to receive some of them, and phoned me that evening to say there was a piece of plum cake on the fence for me.
Her recipe consisted of a crust pressed out onto a baking sheet, with the halved plums on top. I altered the crust recipe to reduce the amount of flour and sugar, to make it a little more like my basic shortbread crust.
Plum cake
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour, plus a bit more at the end to make a soft, easily spreadable dough.
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk or cream
20 plums, halved
Combine the butter, sugar, flour baking powder and salt.
Then, whisk together the egg, vanilla and cream and add to the dry ingredients.
Spread the dough onto oiled parchment paper in a 9 x 13 pan.
Place halved plums on top, skin side down with small cuts made around their edges to keep them lying flat. I found that the space used 20 plums — five halves across and eight down the long side. Bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes. Let cool a bit, then sprinkle with a little sugar.
I returned Gisela’s plate, with a piece of the altered version, to the fence top. Her review was favourable. I’m looking forward to many more plum cakes, made with frozen plum halves, during the winter.
GARDEN EVENTS
VIRAGS meeting. The Victoria Rock and Alpine Garden Society will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in Gordon Head United Church, 4201 Tyndall Ave. Doors open at 7. Come early for the annual Members' Plant Sale. Speaker David Sellars, avid mountain hiker and award winning photographer and writer, will present The Joy of Sax: Growing Saxifrages in the rock garden with reference to natural wild habitats in the Alps, Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and North America. Together with his wife, Wendy, David is developing an extensive alpine and woodland garden in coastal British Columbia. The evening will include a plant raffle. Visitors are always very welcome.
View Royal meeting. The View Royal Garden Club will meet on Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Shoreline Community School, 2750 Shoreline Dr. David and Crenagh Elliott will present Some Gardens in France and England with Emphasis on Roses. A judged mini-show will feature exhibits from members' gardens, and there will be a sales table with plants and garden items. Visitors and new members are welcome. More information at 250-220-5212.
