Tuesday 30 June 2009

BBC Dig In Update

The seeds we received from the BBC Dig In Campaign, have now all been planted and things are doing really well, Jack has planted up 5 tomatoes plants into their final position, and has three lovely butternut squash plants that are also ready to be planted out. The beetroot is happily growing in Al's famous raised bed, the carrots feathery foliage is lush and green (I just hope I have managed to protect them from carrot fly), and the lettuce we sowed in the Christmas chocolate tin has also begun to grow and will soon be ready to eat. Not bad for free... I wonder if the BBC will do it again next year?

From little seeds...

Like little Jack Horner eating his Christmas Pie, I stuck my hand into the tubs with the potatoes and pulled out a beautiful pink new potato (Robinta variety), it was such a lovely colour, sadly this faded when we boiled it to see how it tasted (it was delicious by the way).
This Sunday we shall be enjoying home grown new potatoes with our roast - can't wait.

My chilli plants are doing really well to, I have some really impressive green chillies hanging amongst the leaves, I wonder how long it will take for them to mature and turn red?

In fact so far my vegetable garden is looking promising, I can't wait to start harvesting my crop, we had some of my turnips the other Sunday with our roast, we boiled the green leaves, which tasted of spinach and we roasted the root, unfortunately they turned out to taste quite bitter so I need to do a spot of research on how to cook them as I normally just pop them into casseroles and stews.

Once the thunder storms have passed I shall pop out into the garden and take some photos to document just how well everything is looking.

Friday 19 June 2009

Hello

I would like to say Hello to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog, thank you.

I would love to here your thoughts and comments, if you click on the word comment (which is green) below the post you can leave a comment or two here.

Thanks once again for taking an interest in my garden xx

Tuesday 16 June 2009

8th to 15th June


I've had a busy week in my garden, I have finally finished preparing the bottom half of the garden and all the plants have been planted, it is officially a vegetable patch at long last, with sweetcorn, pumpkins, rhubarb, strawberries and sunflowers, it looks lovely and will look even better once things begin to grow and bloom.


My salad box has begun to germinate there are the first signs of lettuce, spring onions and chives, I also have a dwarfbean coming up through the soil, and my aubergines are loving their new home in my greenhouse, and the chillies' flowers have begun to take the form of little green chillies,

every day something new and exciting is happening in the garden.



On saturday we said good bye to Simon & Penny Pumpkin the last two spare plants, as our friends Penny & Simon came up and collected them for their vegetable patch, they gave me a fabulous cookbook called the great allotment cookbook, there are some delicious recipes including Beetroot and Apple Relish, Pear and Chocolate Crumble, and Raspberry and Blackberry Cordial, I'm looking forward to some making of these once my vegetables are ready to harvest.

Today I harvested my first two strawberries before birds, slugs or mice feast upon them, and I also pulled up my first turnip... over the last week the purple and white turnip tops and begun to peep through the brown soil shaded by the lush green turnip leaves, and I'm afraid I am like it with everything, christmas, pregnancy, birthdays, I get excited and can't wait to find out what I'm going to get and gardening is no different, curiosity got the better of me with my turnips I just had to pull one up to see how big they were and how well they were doing,

and yes I did get laughed at for pulling one up of that size but I have seen them that size if not smaller, labelled up as miniature turnips at a sizable price in supermarkets. Anyway, now I have fed my curiosity I shall leave the rest until they are a little larger. (my children were impressed with it and that is all that matters to me!)

Sunday 7 June 2009

Here comes the rain again...

6th & 7th June

The rain is falling again, and it is so heavy I haven't been able to get out into the garden to do the jobs I wanted to do this weekend, however, on the other hand it has given me the time to get some jobs around the house done and update my blog.


I do hope it dies down later once the kids are in bed so I can nip out and do a few odd jobs, lets hope the rest of the week is dry I have so much to do.


Another Big THANK YOU xx

4th June


Thursday evening I was joined by my dear friend Sue, a bottle of wine and good conversation whilst we dug over the bottom of the garden... yes I did use my new fork it was fantastic!


Thanks to Sue's hard work I think it is finally ready to house my sweetcorn, pumpkin, sunflowers, strawberries and rhubarb plants, at long last.


Thank you so much Sue for your help, it is really appreciated, I am so touched that you gave up an evening to come over and help.

Thank You xx

4th June

Jack and Al returned today from the supermarket with a wonderful gift for me a lovely fork & hand trowel to help me continue all the hard work I have done this year in the garden. I can't wait to use them both I was so touched by this lovely gift, sending a big kiss and thank you to my wonderful boys xx


Garden Photos



The first sign of olives








Al's famous Raised Bed
Peas, Cabbages, Turnips, Beetroot, & Celery





Lush Potatoes
Not long now before we are digging these up.







Curly, sunshine trailing Sunflowers







Sunflowers, Pumpkins, Peppers & Rhubarb







Sweetcorn and pumpkins




Monday 1 June 2009

Devastation

After such a lovely family holiday we returned home to be greeted by vegetable disaster, thanks to such a wonderful sunny week all my plants had dried out even though Al had returned home earlier in the week to water them all (bless him xx). So before I did anything else I had to water (drown) all the plants as the soil had shrunk away from their pots and all the seedlings had shriveled. I was so upset and disheartened, after all my hard work, and care over the last few months a couple of days of hot sun had destroyed it all. After unpacking our holiday things I went out again and gave the plants another good watering with a liquid feed, lets hope I'm not too late.


Monday 1st June 2009

Today as I went out to the garden to salvage what ever had survived I was greeted by such a wonderful sight, sun drenched lush green vegetable plants back from the dead, it is such a vast improvement from yesterday. Sadly the Marigolds, Hollyhocks & Stock seedlings have not survived my holiday neglect and the glorious weather we had.


I have planted the celery plants out into the raised bed, and sowed the Kinghorn Wax Dwarf Beans I received from Fiona a member of Swapsweed, and more beetroot seeds.


Card Reader is Back!
More good news, I have a card reader again, so I can load my photos onto my computer and start updating my posts with pictures.

Bank Holiday Madness!

The bank holiday weekend saw us depart from suburbia and head to the countryside for a glorious week of nature, family fun and SUN! With our car all packed up with the essentials; food, bedding, clothes and children, oh and my seed tray of aubergine seedlings we headed off for a change of scenery, beautiful hedgerows adorn with wild flowers, birds singing and the wonderful smell of cows and sheep! Yes I did say my seed tray of aubergine seedlings, and yes my family thought I was joking when I said that I would be taking my plants with me on holiday, but I wasn't, however I only took the newly germinated aubergines as I thought my other plants were pretty well established and would behave themselves left home alone for a week. So I watered all my adolescent plants, said my goodbyes and tucked them up in the greenhouse for the week. Later in the week my aubergine babies were joined by a new addition to my vegetable family, a tray of celery plants which I got when we visited Leominster. Both have had a good holiday enjoying the Sun's warmth and the shelter of our caravan awning.









Since sowing my seeds in the raised vegetable bed, I have been saying to my 5 year old that it would be good to make a Scarecrow to watch over the veggies, whilst in Church Stretton this week we have seen many varieties of scarecrows as the village of Longville has had a scarecrow competition and they have been dotted throughout the village.














As the sun graced us with it presence during our holiday we visited Acton Scott Working Farm Museum, introducing our 2 1/2 year old to farm animals up close and personal and picking up gardening ideas from the Bayliff's Garden, I also got a fabulous national trust book about home grown vegetables it is full of wonderful facts and tips, I have learnt a lot sitting in the sun reading this book. (As well as gaining gardening knowledge I also managed to get sun burnt)