20 things you didn’t know about chillies: Part 2

It’s almost here chilli fans! West Dean Chilli Fiesta 2015 is just around the corner and we have another set of chilli trivia to wet your whistles ahead of the festival this August… Continue reading →

If music be the food of love…

While we all know that we feast with our eyes as well as our taste buds, did you know that that our ears can also affect our eating experience? Research by Professor Charles Spencer of Oxford University has found that playing music from the same country as the food you are eating can ‘sonically season’ … Continue reading →

20 Things You Didn’t Know About Chillies: Part 1

With the West Dean Chilli Fiesta just around the corner and celebrating it’s 20th Birthday this year, it’s all things Chilli! We run through 20 weird and wonderful facts (that you probably didn’t know) about chillies, across 3 installments. Enjoy!… Continue reading →

IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR: ENTERTAINMENT FOR ALL AGES AT CHILLI 2015

In the 2nd installment of our series building up to the 20th West Dean Chilli Fiesta in August, we take a look at the family entertainment in store… Continue reading →

CHILLI ON THE HORIZON: A TRIP TO THE THEATRE ANYONE?

It’s nearly here! With the West Dean Chilli Fiesta just around the corner and celebrating its 20th year of scorching the tongues of countless iron stomached patrons young and old, what better way to begin our build-up of one of the biggest and best chili festivals in our green…(yellow and red)…pleasant land, than with a comprehensive … Continue reading →

SUMMER IS HERE AS WE GO “WILD” AT WEST DEAN 2015

I’m going to start with an invitation, well more of plea really to come along to West Dean soon to admire the wild flowers in the gardens and arboretum – it really is a delightful show and like all good things will come to an end soon. Although managing wildflower meadows can be a challenge, the rewards are … Continue reading →

Sarah Wain’s Top Ten chilli varieties

“West Dean knows how to put on a good show and you can see things growing and learn so much about how to cultivate your own. The place is quietly becoming a national institution. You should see it.” The Times (2014) Sarah Wain, West Dean Gardens’ chilli growing expert, grows around 250 varieties of chillies … Continue reading →

Mark Diacono has the builders in

So, after all the planning processes and architect’s meetings, it looks like the creation of the Otter Farm Kitchen Garden School will begin this summer. It’s hard to imagine diggers, cranes, be-hatted builders and daily deliveries will soon be busying over this space, but hopefully they will. A mobile home, much noise and considerable dust … Continue reading →

Summer fireworks – hardy annuals

Any group of plants that combines a cheerful, floriferous disposition with ease of culture should be hugely popular. But somehow annuals are still associated with those vast, formal bedding schemes, so popular with our Victorian forebears and whose dying embers linger on in the truncated tradition of “bedding out” in public parks. Unsurprisingly this has … Continue reading →

Echi-thump

Echium wildpretii One of the great advantages of gardening in Britain is the opportunity to grow an enormous range of plants. For this we owe a great debt to the plant hunters, who have furbished our gardens with treasures gathered, often under considerable duress, from around the world. We may not have the opportunity to … Continue reading →