I'm back in the garden

The cold cold winter has passed, and as we enter Spring I am back in the garden planning this years crops. My Magnolia and Camellia are in full bloom, my rhubarb I planted from seed last year is doing really well, can't wait to enjoy it in a crumble or simply poached with ice cream.

So what's the plan for this year? Well this year I am giving sweetcorn, pumpkins, carrots and sunflowers another go, and am introducing courgettes, beans (thanks to the BBC Dig In campaign) salad crops, sweetpeas, herbs, and onions. I am also waiting for Thomson and Morgan to deliver my potatoes so I can crack on with them too.

My children have also created a wildlife area at the bottom of the garden, they have built a bug hotel, a newt rockery, and a pond made out of an old kitchen sink (photos to follow), and are going to sow wildflowers around the area to encourage bees etc.

BUT the most exciting bit of news regarding my garden this year is.... I now have a walk in greenhouse and a cold frame.

As time goes by.......

It has been some time since I updated my blog as I have been busy harvesting my crops and fighting pests etc.

A lot has happened this year since I decided to grow my own and record the progress on this blog, the bottom of the garden finally got cleared ready to grow pumpkins, sunflowers, sweetcorn (not very successful) and rhubarb and it is now the proud owner of a lovely brick wall and new fence panels. The fence along the length of the garden has all been replaced and makes the garden look tidier and bigger, and we have built a raised bed which has been the home of peas, beetroot, cabbages, celery, and turnips, very tasty, and most importantly my children have been able to enjoy the garden throughout the year and have sampled fresh organic vegetables.

So now it is Autumn and the sunflowers that once towered the garden and held their heads up high to the sun, have now become feeding stations for the birds in the garden, except for the ones I have harvested the seeds from ready for next year. My pumpkins continue to grow preparing themselves for their role as Halloween lanterns, pumpkin soup and next years seeds, and I am harvesting the last of my tomatoes and celery. As the nights draw in and I begin clearing the vegetable patches in preparation for next year, oh yes I plan to do it all again next year, I return to my gardening books, magazines and seed catalogues for inspiration.

Sunday Lunch

Reaping the benefits

Well August is finally here, it is officially summer, kids on holiday, flowers in bloom and of course black clouds and rain. Oh well the peas and potatoes seem to have enjoyed the wet the weather at least, which has meant I have been able to harvest satisfying amounts of peas and potatoes for tea which has been really rewarding. I am starting to see the benefits of growing your own, as my son sits with me shelling peas and trying them straight from the pod.

Mother Nature strikes again...

As we sat outside enjoying the morning sun I spotted a nest with a bird roosting in it. Looking through binoculars with Jack we saw that it was a Wood Pigeon nesting amongst the apple tree branches, as we watched she was joined by another pigeon. However the roosting Pigeon took no notice of her visitor as he flitted from one branch to another. After a while he began to fly at the roosting bird desperate to be noticed, this must have got some what tiresome for the female (having watched many many BBC wildlife programmes, I now began to assume that it was indeed a male pigeon trying his hardest to entice a female), or she simply wanted him away from her nest because she flew off to a tree near by.

Sadly this did not lure the male away from her nest, instead he knocked it off the branches and two eggs fell to the ground. On the female's return she looked hopelessly for her nest and eggs, eventually she sat quietly on the branches where her nest once was with a twig in her beak.

School Holidays

As the school year ended we headed off to Suffolk, a beautiful part of England, spending two weeks on an idyllic campsite with lush green grass among an apple and pear orchard surrounded by a moat. Everyday a little Moorhen family hurried back and forth across the field and everyday we were bombarded by FLIES!

And as I battled to keep the flies away from our meals I began to question their purpose, do they pollinate flowers?... help sow seeds?... or eat garden pests?... So as soon as we arrived home, well after I had had a cup of tea I googled their purpose and found this link http://scienceray.com/biology/what-is-the-purpose-of/

I still don't appreciate them

Veg Patch Update...

Pea pods have begun to appear and have started to swell, since all the rain we have had, the sunflowers have had a massive growth spurt and I would say they are now taller than Jack. The pumpkins have begun to creep their way across the vegetable patch and the rhubarb are growing really well, I am so proud that I have managed to grow 5 healthy plants from seed. Little green tomatoes have begun to grow, the aubergines and butternut squashes are getting bigger, as are the parsnips and carrots, and the peppers have begun to flower. Talking of peppers, the chilli plants have an abundance of green chillies which are getting very long, and look fabulous. Friday we donated our surplus plants to Jack's school fair, two tomato plants, one butternut squash and 3 aubergine plants, I wonder if they sold?

Turnips

Something has begun to attack my turnips so I have harvested the last of the crop today, the largest one weighed 312g and the smallest 57g. I think I have found the culprit who has been nibbling away at the turnips, as I cleaned the vegetables an earwig and ants swirled down the plug hole, so I think one of these is to blame, however it doesn't explain what has stripped my broad bean plant. We have found that turnips need to be par boiled before roasting them to rid them of the bitter taste, however, they also taste delicious raw, and as part of a stew/casserole. We have also tried cooking the greens, in the same way as spinach, so nothing has been wasted. Last week our Sunday lunch was accompanied by our first crop of potatoes, they were lovely and enjoyed by everyone, next year I plan to use seed potatoes grown in the raised bed or vegetable patch for a better yield and a more cost effective approach, as using the grow pack has turned out to be quite pricey, however it has been fun and easier plus we have learnt from growing them this way.

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.

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

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!)

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

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)

Cruel Cruel World

Every year a family of sparrows nest in our gutter above the kitchen door, we are greeted every day with bird song and baby birds calling for their next juicy meal. It is just so fascinating to watch the male and female bird nip in and out of the gutter every minute of the day, taking a rest on the fence post before flying off to forage for more food or material for the nest. Sadly yesterday as I looked out of the back door I spied the first sign of the chicks this year, one of the young had fallen or was pushed out of the nest and as it lay there waiting for nature to make the next move his parents flitted around either looking for him or waiting to see if he would get up. It was quite moving to see such maternal/paternal behaviour of the sparrows they didn’t leave the lifeless chick for ages. After taking the children to school/playgroup I returned to deal with the dead body by the back door however nature had made it’s move before me, something had eaten it’s head, it is such a good job the kids are not tall enough to look through the door window yet. I decided that I would wait for Al to come home and deal with it (not that I am sure what I was going to do with it because I’m a bit girly when it comes to things like that, and as soon as I open the back door my children are there with their wellies ready to lend mommy a hand). By the time Al came home the baby sparrow had gone, I think our next-door neighbour’s cat has disposed of it for me.

Thrifty me!

Whilst doing my weekly shop I spotted a reduced Kabocha squash, which sparked a thrifty plan for next year… I thought I could make a soup with the flesh and keep the seeds for next year… A healthy hearty meal and a packet of seeds all for £1.25 – BARGAIN. It is a green skinned variety with deep orange flesh and a sweat flavour with a hint of chestnut. Check out my blog next year to see how successful I am at growing this variety of squash ;o)