The Garden Plot

Garden photos and veggie update

2010-06-29T14:22:00.004+01:00

The garden this year is looking good. Perhaps it's the extra long and cold winter, but the roses are really blooming and everything just looks lush and full of life.

The section of ground directly to the side of the kitchen conservatory was just a glorified plant dumping ground last year! A place to put plants that didn't have a suitable place elsewhere to grow. At the beginning of the year I thought this area would be ideal for a herb garden, but now, seeing how beautiful my "dumping ground" is, I'm tempted to have my herbs elsewhere. I had a little gap with nothing growing and some left over tomato plants, so the two seem to go very well together.

The actual veg plot is finally doing its thing. It's taken its time though with the bad start to the year and I know I'm not the only veggie grower to notice a difference with the produce this year.
This photo shows the peas (I finally managed to grow a successful second crop - took three attempts), a couple of lines of parsnips still at the very baby stage and raised bed in the background with chilli and spring onions. Both bags of free seed potatoes did well - both now harvested and thoroughly enjoyed! Also in the plot are two rows of garlic, which have been extremely disappointing (so far all very tiny), two rows each of spring onions and leeks.

Goodbye Gina

2010-06-08T18:50:00.002+01:00

Sad news - we lost Gina, our ex-Tesco Finest hen last week. She'll be missed that's for sure. Full of cheeky character and never one to miss a fallen crumb, scooting at full pelt across the garden at the sight of the tiniest piece of biscuit!

I remember during the winter asking on one of the hen forums for some advice about her rather purple comb. The messages back weren't that promising and I was half expecting her to not survive the bitter weather. However, she was a tough little cookie and perked up once Spring came our way. Leg mites posed the next problem which I thought we'd got sorted fairly sharpish. She hadn't laid eggs for over a year and people said she was probably quite old. Well her time ran out but I was so pleased to have been able, just two days before it happened, to have that final very big cuddle before letting her loose on any fallen crumbs around the garden table.

I'm back ... it's been a while!

2010-05-14T21:09:00.004+01:00

Guess what - wonderful news - the purple sprouting broccoli finally decided to sprout! I couldn't believe my eyes when, a couple of weeks ago whilst weeding the veggie bed, I noticed tiny little purple broc heads appearing on the three plants. According to the seed packet, this should have happened in February! It didn't take long for the little heads to become bigger and I started to pick them once I noticed the chickens taking an interest. With the first lot of heads picked, they've now started to produce more - yippee.

Other sowing and growing news:

The kitchen once again has turned into a greenhouse. We have lots and lots of pots of baby chilli plants lining one long shelf, together with some tomato plants (ready to be moved into bigger pots).

The first batch of mini peas have been moved to their home outside. Sadly only one seed from the second batch decided to produce anything resembling a pea-plant. A third batch have been sown today so fingers crossed. Peas were our best crop last year and I'm hoping for double the amount this summer.

Chilli

2010-03-28T20:08:00.004+01:00

The weather has been lovely these last few days, so spring-like and so needed after our long, long winter.

This afternoon gave me my first opportunity this year to get out into the garden and potter. I have a couple of projects to get on with, other than vegetable sowing. Firstly I've started clearing the cottage garden patch in front of the conservatory as I'd like this to become a herb garden. It attracts the sun all day long so it should do well. Secondly, all the pretty cottage plants and bulbs will need to be moved to other places around the garden and these places generally need a good weeding ready for their new arrivals. That'll keep me busy!

Today I've sown eight chilli seeds which will germinate on the conservatory windowsill, all being well. Over the next few weeks I'll be sowing leeks, peas and tomatoes as well as the free potatoes from the Potato Council. I also need to put in some canes for the peas - hoping to do double the amount this year and skip the runners.

Snow apparently is forecast for this week, so most of this may be put on hold, we'll have to see.

2010 here we come!

2010-01-13T19:26:00.003Z

Actually, veggies for 2010 started on 12th December. I've just been too lazy to update the blog. Actually, that's not true, I was thinking about forgetting this blog, surely it'll just be a repeat of last year. Then I thought about it and realised the reason for veggie blogging is purely to help me keep track of the best times to start the seed process, do the garden chores, to harvest a crop and of course any additional wonderful veggie or outdoor thing that may happen during the year that's different to the last!!

So, I'll kick off by saying the garlic is neatly sowed in two strips along both lengths of the plot. Doing a rotation thing is quite difficult I find as there's only certain veggies I want to grown and eat each year and three of them are all from the onion family! Anyway, I think this is a new spot for them; it may overlap a little from last year but who's being picky ah!?

I've gone for Taylors Garlic Marco and have planted the lot (that's an awful lot - 3 large bulbs in a small plot). We're still enjoying last year's garlic so hopefully we'll have double the bulbs this time next year.

The plot has been under a blanket of snow since before Christmas. At this time of year that area doesn't get much, if any, sun so it's taking its time to budge and this afternoon the snow has started to fall again. I've no idea if the garlic will survive, but seeing as how they need to be sown by the end of December, I'd imagine they're pretty hardy.

The only other veg in my plot is the winter broccoli that was planted in the summer, eaten by the caterpillars except for two leggie green things. They're still big and green and I'm reluctant to dig them up incase sometime in the not too distant future broccoli decides to appear!

Other fab news this week, Georgie our bantam, has laid her first egg of the year! Both hens stopped producting probably around the end of Autumn so this egg was a welcome sight.

Bringing in the harvest

2009-10-17T16:42:00.003+01:00

Have been clearing the veggie plot of its remaining takings before an early frost takes it all from us!

The more you pick, the more you get it seems in alot of cases. I've taken in loads more beans and tomatoes since taking this picture. I find the beans are best picked young and not too long, otherwise you are a bit stringy when eaten.

The sweetcorn stepped a tiny bit further to successful this year compared to last. Out of the six planted, all but one have produced a single corn, although sadly only one of those we've been able to eat as the others just aren't getting the warmth to ripen fully. The one we tried though was amazing - I'd never tasted corn so fresh and sweet - nothing like the stuff we buy in the shops!

Another planting year done, I guess it's nearly time to start all over again, starting with the garlic!

Veggie update (August)

2009-08-18T21:46:00.003+01:00

It feels like I've let things slip alittle, or perhaps it's just that the veg are ticking along nicely and don't really need my help too much (apart from constant watering of the indoor chillies and tomatoes), and I did spend an afternoon this week weeding like mad (but I took the photos before I'd done this - doh!).

Lots of lots of chilli. Paul is using the green and the red ones to make his hot, spicy pickled chillies - a hit with the family last year.

Sweetcorn - all six are doing OK, but all are very small - like last year, I'm not expecting much!

Oh my goodness, look at those weeds! Look at the purple sprouting broc too - not alot left is there? At least we've had a garden full of happy caterpillars and butterflies.

The outdoor tomato plants are full of fruit and a couple have ripened this last week. Need more warmth and sun.

Cute threesome of pumpkins - a litte early, not sure if they'll keep until Halloween. Growing fruit and veg is certainly a learning curve.

Peas have finished now but we have a huge crop of beans and dwarf beans. If they're not picked regularly, they become stringy when cooked. With still more flowers coming out every day I guess there'll be a lot more picking to do, which we all enjoy doing.

"Yum" sums up this photo - pickings from indoors and outdoors.

Sunny sunflowers

2009-08-18T21:43:00.003+01:00

The seed packet said they'd reach 10 feet tall - I think they may be right!

One sunflower has yet to burst into bloom, but this one's brilliant and looks into next door's bedroom window.

Here's a smaller sunflower, from a bunch of roots pulled from my Mum's garden. Loving this sunny yellow in our garden this year.

Tomatoes, Runners, Garlic and Chilli update

2009-07-22T19:57:00.002+01:00

Yesterday and today I had the joy of cooking a meal using several veg harvested from our own garden - fabulous.

Here's a photo update:

Summer flowers, broccoli and carrots

2009-07-02T19:51:00.003+01:00

Aren't they lovely? All these in the picture have been given to me as cuttings or seeds by my Mum. Looking forward to harvesting some seeds from the marigolds, they are such a lovely cheerful colour.

Really glad I didn't rush to put these purple sprouting brocs in the ground in May. I repotted them in slightly larger pots and waited, as the packet states. They're going in the ground in the next couple of days.

Carrots - love them and so easy to grow, especially in large pots. This is the first wave and all doing nicely. The netting is to keep off unwanted, nosey hens!

Garlic, Spring Onions, Pumpkins, Runner Beans ...

2009-07-02T19:41:00.003+01:00

... all coming along really well. Have picked lots and lots of peas (the more you pick the more you get) and have started picking runners too now.

These are the type that wind themselves round the bamboo poles right to the top (and now wanting to go higher) - lovely red flowers. The dwarf variety are at the front of the poles and have pretty pink flowers.

I've harvested all the garlic now. I wasn't too sure when to actually start taking them out of the ground; the book stated when the stalks start to yellow and begin to bend over. They certainly were going yellow, but not really bending. The reason I pulled them was that a few I did pull had mildew on them and definitely weren't healthy. Once the sun came out for a prolonged period I decided to dig up the rest. Have a huge crop with just a small amount of dud ones. This fabulous hot weather has been brilliant for helping them dry out (on a garden bench); they're now hanging in an equally hot spot in the conservatory kitchen to finish off the process.

Spring Onions in the pot and in the ground have grown so fast this year and are all more-or-less ready for use. Have noticed a bit of "rust" on a few and the cats seem to enjoy laying on them too!

I can certainly vouch for whoever said to grow pumpkins in last years compost (Monty Don I think) - they're going berzerk! Under all those lovely large leaves there's alot of gorgeous flowers and alot of mini pumpkins beginning their new lives. Hopefully we'll be able to get at least two out of that lot for Halloween.

Potatoes

2009-07-02T15:23:00.003+01:00

Strangely the four bags of free Potato Council potatoes never made it to the flowering stage. It seems we were not alone! Having received a (late) email from them saying it was time to harvest, we went ahead and empty two of the bags. Unfortunately, we won't be able to take part in the big weigh-in competition as the labels had come off making it impossible to distinguish beetween the two different varieties.

So contents of two bags and one small pot which contained a home sprouted spud from the cupboard. Not bad - will do for a couple of family meals. Just love new potatoes. The other two bags will be harvested in due course as we had just bought a whole load a new pots from the supermarket - typical!

Quack!

2009-06-17T20:12:00.005+01:00

I'd like to share these lovely photos that Katie and I took yesterday of the ducks that live across the road from home.

There's been four sets of ducklings born so far this year although sadly one set didn't really make it past a few days. The second lot are more-or-less adult sized now and very, very cute. You can tell them from the adults by their yellow legs (adults have orange).

2 days old

This new lot of ducklings arrived two days ago and belong to a calling duck we named "Mental". We named her this when we first moved into the house as she makes an awful lot of noise (as calling ducks do) and has serious "mental" moments chasing other ducks around quacking at them furiously and often crash landing when she flies around the place! She's not a particularly good mum either and often abandons her little ones when there's a potential bread snack around or when she decides to have one of her "moments". Hopefully these ones will do better than the last lot.

"Mental"

There are plenty of "Mental" style ducks in with the pack, but somehow we can always distinguish the real "Mental"!

Veggie update - lots of progress

2009-06-17T19:45:00.004+01:00

Tomatoes (indoor) and Chilli plants are beginning to flower. I'm amazed at how much taller the tomato plants are indoors compared to the two planted outside, even though the weather has been glorious lately.

We also have the distinctive mauve flowers on our self-seeded potatoes which have taken over the onion plot so much now that I have to part the leaves in order to find the onions. The potatoes grown in the black bags from The Potato Council are still flourishing although I've had to water them up to three times a day during the hot weather and there aren't any flowers on them yet.

The onions are looking fine, but small. I didn't have much hope for them from the start as they'd taken so long to get going, but they should be OK. Small is beautiful (and flavoursome).

My pride and joy is the peas. I'm so glad I decided to plant them and have actually sown more (having watched the River Cottage program recently where he liberally sowed peas rather than carefully spacing the seeds out like I'd done). I read somewhere that eating the peas once the pod has been popped is one of the biggest pleasures of home grown foods - so right. I think doing this is higher up the enjoyment stakes than digging up potatoes. I wasn't sure when to actually harvest the peas and didn't want to pick them too soon or too late. Having Googled Kelvedon Peas I read that it's best to harvest them sooner rather than later as the peas are much sweeter. This seems to be true in my opinion. I discoverd some very fat pea pods and found the goods rather bitter compared to pods that are plump but not bursting.

I've also plucked up the courage to try growing sweetcorn again - hopefully I'll do better than last year. The reason I've found some spare space in the veggie plot is because the little cabbages I grew went to seed and then promptly got eaten by the chickens! Nevermind, I'd rather have sweetcorn than cabbages.

Not such good progress - cabbage

2009-05-19T19:39:00.002+01:00

OK, so I did this as an experiment and you never know, it may end up OK in the end!

The cabbage I planted out were mini offspring from a shop bought white cabbage that had started to sprout. One of the five that I'd planted outside had started to flower so I can only guess it's gone to seed. We shall see what happens with the other four.

Progress - inside

2009-05-19T19:32:00.002+01:00

The seedlings for the purple sprouting broccoli are slowly growing, but I think they are more-or-less reading for planting on outside.

Lovely tomatoes. Have planted on four strong seedlings (and two more outside). They'd grown so quickly in their baby pots I couldn't let them wait any longer for their permanent home, which, like last year, is in the conservatory kitchen taking up one end of our work surface. Hope the return will be as good as in previous years.

I have three strong chilli plants in good size pots lining the windowsill. No sign of greenfly just yet! Need to read up about picking off certain leaves to make it a bushier and healthier plant.

Progress ... outside

2009-05-19T19:21:00.004+01:00

The beans have been added to now so there's three different variety of beans in there. One lot are dwarf from last year's supply and the other two varieties are from a friend so not sure what they are! I grew quite a few seeds indoors which turned out to be the perfect amount in the end as I had to replace a couple that had been completely destroyed by something or other - most probably the hens. This is why the "keep out" netting is back around them. Although I've just finished planting these out, the second lot are exactly the same size as the first lot. Hope they liven up soon - perhaps the ground is a little too cold for them. At the end of the row I've put in a couple of tomato plants as they were surplus and I didn't have the heart to get rid of them!

Planted out two pumpkins which had started off indoors. Had to replace one of them as it was looking pretty dodgey. Luckily I had a healthy spare still on the windowsill. Both have grown quite well since the wetter weather. These are planted in a thrown together raised bed with last year's compost, which I've read they love. Their leaves are going a bit yellow (I've noticed this with the first lot of beans too) - will watch what happens.

Look at these pots and plastic bags of potatoes - all doing fabulously - just need some flowers now. Wonder if they'll be white or purple.

Peas are gradually climbing, they are now up to their fourth line of supporting string. Getting lovely white flowers now too.

Garlic is looking good and strong and the spring onions, sown between the rows of garlic and also in their own section, are beginning to look more settled in their new positions.

Easter cactus and lots of yellow

2009-04-25T20:38:00.002+01:00

Katie's Easter Cactus flowered a week after Easter; it looks fabulous opening up during the day and closing at night.

The scent from the Wallflowers is fabulous. They are planted under the conservatory windows so the perfume wafts in when the windows are open.

Katie bought these mini tulips last year as an "end of range" so we didn't really know what they'd look like. When they came out a week or so ago they were a real surprise with their feathery edges and beautiful sunny colour.

A simple Dandelion nestled in a pot of other goodies. We have loads of them all over the garden and although they are looked on as weeds they are actually very pretty and also handy for my rabbit who adores the leaves (in small quantities).

Our Primulas have been wonderful this year. We got quite a few from a friend who gave Katie some unwanted hanging baskets with rather sad looking Primulas already planted in them. I took them all out and just left them with all their soil around them and then planted them up about a month or so ago. I'm really pleased I didn't just bin them, they have brightened up the garden big time.

Cheating abit here as the Violas are not quite all yellow. They look lovely under the trees and have self-seeded since last year so we have double the amount.

Potatoes

2009-04-25T20:36:00.004+01:00

The potatoes which we received from the Potato Council are growing well. The photo was taken a week ago and the plants have all grown quite a lot since then. I needed to add more compost to the bags today.

A surprise find - cabbage

2009-04-25T20:31:00.002+01:00

Whenever we have a barbeque (and we've had three or four already this year) I buy a white cabbage to make my own coleslaw. Having left the half used cabbage in the cupboard I found, after a few days, it had started to sprout! Carefully sectioned off five mini cabbages and have planted them in small pots to see what'll happen. A week on, they are still looking good - none have shrivelled yet!

Chilli

2009-04-25T20:27:00.002+01:00

The propagating chilli seeds had sprouted several tiny shoots, with three strong ones which I planted on into larger pots. I'm always nervous about planting on, hit and miss as to whether the tender seedlings are strong enough for all that handling. Luckily all three perked up within minutes and are doing fine.

Have put the others back under the plastic bag propagator, although I really won't have the space for any more chilli plants, especially as I shall keep them on the conservatory windowsill like last year.

Garlic and peas update

2009-04-25T20:23:00.002+01:00

The garlic is doing extremely well and is look very healthy.

The peas grew exceptionally fast in their first seed pots and quickly needed planting out. The hens immediately focussed on the new seedlings and starting pecking at them! Had to construct a very makeshift fence to keep them off!

I know I'll need this, I certainly did last year

2009-04-16T19:40:00.004+01:00

when the chilli plants became infected with aphids.

It's just a reminder for me and perhaps it may help someone else too:

aphid buster using nettles or very diluted washing up suds.

Perfectly pink

2009-04-02T19:59:00.000+01:00

Yoghurt and nettle soup

2009-04-01T19:47:00.002+01:00

Couldn't resist putting this photo up showing Georgie and Gina enjoying some left over yoghurt. They just love the stuff. Must add though that I didn't let them have the whole bowl, otherwise the poo would have been just a little too runny!

Thanks to Lucy for blogging her lovely Nettle Soup recipe. We have so many nettles in our garden at the mo, I decided to put a few to good use. Delicious.

Bean poles and pumpkin patch

2009-04-01T19:35:00.004+01:00

The children do some preparations with the veggie plot on Sunday. The weather was glorious - lovely to be outside for so long with the extra light too in the evening. Wasn't so good losing the hour on Sunday morning though I must say!

I used a pile of old bricks to build a quick veg bed for our pumpkins. I didn't quite have enough to make a minimum 12 inches in depth (as suggested by a magazine I have recently read), so I rummaged around in the log pile and found some suitable chunky logs to make up the few extra inches needed. Having read that pumpkins love to grow in compost heaps I decided, with Ben's help, to fill the new bed with the majority of last year's home made compost. Really pleased with it - it's composted down beautifully (with the odd tea bag still lurking!). Now I have space on the compost heap for this year's lot of kitchen and garden waste, including a fresh bag of horse manure to kick start it.

So, have dug over and raked the main plot, Katie helped put in some tall poles for the peas (which are doing really well indoors) and later the beans. They also both helped plant up the four free potatoes, plus a couple of others which we found sprouting in the garden!

First wave of Spring seeds

2009-03-25T14:44:00.004Z

Feels good to see rows of potted seeds on the conservatory windowsill. Over the last week I've sown individual small pots of Kelvedon Wonder peas, spring onions, Jelapeno chilli and a bigger container of mixed salad. I've got the bug now and want to crack on with all the others! Potatoes (from the Potatoes for Schools campaign) are chitting slowly on the utility room windowsill, they need to get into their individual bags within the next couple of weeks.

As Pepper, the kitten, is rather into digging in fresh soil (he'd completely dug out each seperate section of spring onion seeds within seconds of me bringing them into the kitchen), I decided to rig up a small barrier of sticks, string and silver foil to keep him off the salad! It's working so far - in fact the salad has already started to grow! I am also so amazed at how costly bags of salad are in the shops. As a family, three out of the four of us aren't huge salad eaters, but Paul does enjoy a bowl of salad with dressing when serving up chilli or something similiar. I often find a bag of salad will very quickly go soggy if not eaten within a couple of days. I used to buy just Iceberg lettuce and chop it up as we needed it, but it seemed a little dull! Growing and cutting your own salad leaves is such a brilliant and cheap way to getting just what you need.

The warmth of Spring

2009-03-17T19:56:00.003Z

Wow, what a glorious weekend we've just had.

It was so warm on Sunday that we had breakfast in the garden (at 8.30) and our first BBQ of the year for lunch (although by the time we'd sat down to eat the clouds were beginning to loom).

Took the opportunity to continue with some much needed tidying and weeding and took a few photos too to prove that Spring is so, so close now.

This mini tulip that Katie planted last year is the first Spring bulb to flower.

Primulas seem to be so hardy. I had about 8 all thrown together (literally) in a couple of bags, taken from old hanging baskets last autumn and I pulled them out and planted them in full and delightful bloom.

Lovely to see my long sweep of Wallflowers finally making an entrance. I picked up a whole load of bunches of them from a garden centre late last summer for about £2 in total - they are brilliant for ground cover but one of my cats seems to have taken a shine to laying on top of them in places!

New arrivals in the garden

2009-03-13T21:00:00.003Z

Very excited to see a couple of Long-tailed tits taking their breakfast from our tree of fat balls the other day. Don't think in all my [....] years I've ever come across this darling of little birds.

Unfortunately, the Starlings seem to have cottoned on to the tree of fat balls too. They are mean little things. I've noticed that they line up along the gutter of next door's roof and wait until the Sparrows, various members of the Tit family, Wren and Blackbirds are happily pecking away and then swoop down and literally peck at them until they fly off. Not good - will need to put my thinking cap on to put a stop to it.

Tidying and pet proofing

2009-03-10T14:51:00.003Z

We've had a spell of lovely gardening weather. Not hot, not cold, not windy ... just right. Grabbed the opportunity to get outside and do some major tidying up on the hardstanding next to the veggie plot. The water doesn't drain well on here and it accumulates, along with any mud and muck trodden in be me (as main gardener), so it needed an enthusiastic sweep and wash down. While I was at it, I decided to tidy all the larger plant pots (and get rid of all the dead plants), sort and store all the plastic seed pots and generally put things where they should be. Although the photo still seems to show it as messy, in my eyes it's now "organised mess"!!!

Note the gorgeous bay tree in the (temporary) pot, given to me a friend - can't wait to get it into its final destination, somewhere good in the garden - a new herb section perhaps.

Note also in the picture the leeks still going strong. As I type we're down to just 4 now. They've been probably the best veggie we've grown in 2008 and have lasted us well.

During my tidy up, I came across a basket stuffed full of old bulbs, some of which were showing good signs of life, so I cleared a section in my flower bed in front of the conservatory to plant them up. They seem to have taken well and will look great when they finally spring into action.

Pleased to announce that the garlic are doing extremely well, and the onions have finally decided to show (having been planted in November for over-wintering). I'd layed mesh over the top of them to keep the hens off during the main part of the winter, but the other day I noticed the young shoots were being squashed so I decided to take the mesh off. After just 24 hours half my baby onions were missing or dug up, either by the hens or perphaps the cats. Brainwave moment - after putting lots of unwanted CDs threaded through string attached to canes I then used leftover chicken wire to make an animal (and feathered friend) proof "tent" to keep them all safe!

The culprit I wonder? Gina looking very cheeky but very cute!

Eggs and seeds

2009-01-26T16:32:00.003Z

A welcome surprise yesterday morning - Gina is back into egg production! Yippee! A perfect brown egg was waiting for us nestled among the hay in her sleeping compartment. Now we just need Georgie to get back on track and we can forget buying local eggs until next winter.

Spring is obviously just around the corner. It's not just the eggs that give away the (slightly) warmer weather, but the onions and garlic are showing their first green shoots through the sodden earth (more garlic than onions though, but never mind) and there's buds on lots of shrubs and trees in the more sheltered areas around our home.

We got seed catalogues falling through our letterbox too at the weekend which make for lovely browsing with a cuppa and piece of choccie cake. Katie is keen to stock up on some unusual varieties of veggie - purple broc. and carrots etc., etc., but we have so many seeds left over from last year it seems daft stocking up on more. My friend has very offered me some runner bean and pea seeds she harvested last year. I'm going to plant her runners with my dwarf beans to get a really good crop (hopefully). Peas will be new to us - the birds love them apparently so I'll need to tackle that one.

Enjoying the winter sun

2009-01-14T20:16:00.002Z

The weather today was lovely bearing in mind it's the middle of January. We all got outside for a bit of a kick around with the football to blow the cobwebs well and truly away. Kanda, the visiting cat, enjoyed chasing the footie too and chickens seem to hunt out the sunniest spots in the garden to catch a few rays. Ben helped cut up a few more sticks from our October tree pruning pile. We still have a long way to go, but we'll get there in the end.

Checked on the onions, which I've now covered in chicken wire as the hens keep pecking away in there and also the cats were beginning to consider the fresh earth as their next toilet! No sign of any onion life as yet. Also checked the garlic which was planted in December. Quite a few bulbs needed pushing back into the ground, again, probably the chickens scratching away in there. They love to have a good old nose in the compost heap, especially after I've thrown a fresh tub of veggie peelings and tea bags on there, so a good old scratch around in the veggie patch enroute is probably entertaining for them.

Spotted this lovely sign of Spring growing on our driveway.

Digging, raking and planting the garlic

2008-12-19T17:49:00.004Z

The time bomb was ticking, just like last year. All the books say "garlic does best sown before Christmas", so I wrapped up warm, took the children out into the garden too, and got digging and raking and sowing. Actually, to be fair, Katie did most of it. Anyway, three huge bulbs split and sown. Can't wait for the rewards later in the year.

Also took the opportunity to give the two tomato plants a good trim. I can't believe we're still getting tomatoes from it as the conservatory can get pretty cold these days! It's looking much better now I've trimmed it into an small arch.

2 rows of autumn/winter onions ...

2008-11-25T14:49:00.003Z

planted.

So I can now start my new sheet of what's happening in the garden!

Solid ground

2008-11-23T21:52:00.002Z

Woke up to snow this morning. Naturally the garden looked very pretty before all the footprints from humans and cats changed the scenery! The ground was so frozen, even by early evening, that the leek I was pulling to accompany our evening roast broke in two! They usually pull out really easily!

Finally got round to buying the autumn sowing onions and garlic - just need to get them in the ground now. The waiting paid off as the garden centre had half price on all seeds and bulbs - bargain at £1.98 the lot!

Feathers are flying

2008-11-07T18:44:00.002Z

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the chickens begin to moult. I always thought animals (and birds?) moult in the summer and then grow more fur or feathers in the winter for the colder months. It seems not. Apparently they shed their summer feathers ready to grow a thicker coat of feathers for winter.

Gina started shedding first, leaving a trail of rust brown feathers in the garden and then Georgie started to follow leaving most of hers inside the coop, in the area where she sleeps (usually on top of Gina!). There's feathers everywhere (they are really pretty in colour and pattern) and she looks practically bald on her chest. They look very unkept and scraggy, but I do believe the shedding is slowing down now, so hopefully they'll begin to look a little healthier.

I was a little worried about it all to begin with, this, plus the fact that they've both completely halted in their egg production. Having to buy eggs again is a bit of a shock, I can't believe how they've gone up in price in the supermarkets (I can't always rely on our local egg producer, obviously she's having hen problems too). However, I see from "Down the Lane" (one of my favourite websites/forum/blog all about frugal living), tells me this is all natural, so I worry no more.

Trimming the trees

2008-10-28T23:08:00.003Z

I don't like doing this really, as I love trees, bigger the better. There comes a time, however, when they'll suffer if they don't get a hair cut. P and I spent most of the day keeping warm cutting the tops off our two hazelnut trees. An amazing amount of branches now litter the garden - great fun for the the children to play on and for the cats to play under! Katie rescued some twigs to do a spot of whittling. The garden seems so much lighter now and I'm sure the neighbours will appreciate the extra light pouring through their windows.

2008 veggie plot

2008-10-18T19:39:00.004+01:00

Pumpkin seeds and spring onions

2007-11-10T23:40:00.000Z

I can't believe my last post was so long ago! Things are grinding to a halt garden wise. P cut the grass, hopefully for the last time (it takes an age), last weekend and there doesn't seem much else to do now. I'm still picking off the tomatoes as they become as red as they dare to go. Made a lovely tomato sauce with a whole load of them last week. I've picked all the peppers and they seem to store well in a dark cupboard. Although small, they have a good taste and I used a few with the tomato sauce to make a favourite Mexican dish.

We carved our home-grown pumpkin for Halloween and have saved a number of seeds ready for planting next year. All the plum, apple, chilli and pepper seeds Katie carefully planted for indoor growing haven't done a thing! She's going to try olive seeds now. What has grown well is an Aloe Vera Katie picked up for 50p from the "honesty box" soon after we moved here. Katie has taken all the new shoots to make about five or six new plants which she's hoping to sell for a bit of pocket money.

I've sown some "over winter" spring onions in one of the pots rather than put them straight into the ground. This is because the "plot" won't get so much light and sun during the winter months and I can lug (with help) a large pot around the garden to get the warmest spot. Today I noticed little shoots are appearing - always a nice sight.

First frost this morning

2007-10-19T12:27:00.000+01:00

That means the tomatoes that are still in their very green stage probably won't be lasting much longer outside. What a shame, there are so many of them it's a sin to see them go to waste. I came across a recipe in one of the Sunday mags for fried green tomatoes with something or other - wish I'd kept it now. Will trawl the internet with cooking inspiration!

Peppers aren't liking the lack of warmth either. I have about two that are doing well and growing quickly and remain consistently green, the others are either dropping off like flies (mouldy) or their growth has completely stopped.

First batch of the carrots have been completely pulled now - we finished them last Sunday for lunch with my parents who came for a visit. The other tub is more-or-less ready for digging into now.

Ben and I had a nose around the garden centre earlier this week and picked up a couple of packets of veggie seeds + a freebie thrown in. We also bought some onion sets - a bargain at 90p from Wilkinsons! One of the packs is for spring onions that can be sown over winter, so we've set half of those in the big tub that had the first batch of carrots and placed it in direct sunlight (as suggested). We're also growing a couple of spring onion ends reserved from cooking a chinese the other day! They're on the kitchen windowsill and growing great guns! Katie has planted a couple of Bramley apple pips, a plum stone and left over pepper seeds (again from cooking) - but nothing has materialised from them yet.

Tomato tip

2007-10-10T13:35:00.000+01:00

My tomotoes are finally turning to red (well, they are at the orange stage at the moment), but during our high winds a few of the heavy vines broke away from their main stalks so I took them in to ripen on the warm, sunny windowsill of the conservatory kitchen. However, I found this didn't seem to do the trick, but I've since read an excellent tip that does work.

We all know how bad bananas are for over-ripening other fruits in the fruit bowl, well by placing green tomatoes next to the bananas they ripen ultra quick!

8th October 2007

2007-10-10T13:30:00.000+01:00

Everything's doing well. With all the rain we've had recently and now the return of warmer weather the lettuces have had a growth spurt.

Pumpkin came away from it's stork so it's now being stored in the coolest room, the lobby, waiting for Halloween. It's really heavy, much bigger than our last home grown one, and has quickly turned a beautiful Autumn orange.

A battle against the wind

2007-10-01T14:12:00.001+01:00

We've had some cold and very windy weather this last week. The poor tomatoes are so laden with fruit (which are taking far too long to turn red) and therefore so heavy that I needed to, once again, tie them up as best I could to stop the wind pushing them all over. They are on a section of earth that catches the gusts of wind as it hits the side of the conservatory - I won't plant anything tall there again! The problem now is that the fruits are mainly at the bottom of the plants and the vines are trailing in the earth which is rather wet and obviously a haven for tomato munching insects and plain old rot. I've trussed them up and off the ground for now.

The wet weather, however, has done wonders for the lettuce which are blooming nicely and the pumpkin which has stopped growing, I believe, and is now turning a wonderful autumn orange.

Peppers continue to grow longer and a tiny bit fatter. Having not grown these before, and having purchased these as tiny plants from a local grower, I don't know how big they are supposed to get. I've had to pull off a few that have gone bad so I guess I'll just have to watch and see.

We continue to pull our first lot of carrots. As we thin them out this way, the remaining carrots are having a chance to grow much bigger in the soil. They are a joy to eat, and we're all pretty proud of them. I'll probably continue to grow our carrots in pots from now on. The ones sown in the ground have not done at all well - we still only have two small bundles of carrot leaves!

These cold evenings (most of which I've spent in front of the open fire) have been great for browsing the seed catalogues and reading much needed growing tips in some of the veggie books I have. The best one I can recommend so far was given to me by my b-i-l and s-i-l; "Grow your own Veg" by Carol Klein - easy to follow and nicely written. So, I'm planning on getting some onion sets to sow over winter - I'll let you know how I get on.

Weeding, securing and a story about lettuces.

2007-09-19T21:46:00.000+01:00

My neighbour had sowed two rows of carrots in the veggie plot about a month or so ago, but we've waited long enough to see any results. Only one small bundle of carrot leaves among a lot of grass shoots and weeds have appeared so I decided to tidy it all up and weed the area. I'll leave the little shoot to grow, perhaps some others will appear at some time!

My lovely neighbour, once he'd finished preparing the plot for me, had also sowed two rows of lettuce lifted from his own garden to kick start our veggie site. They started off doing fabulously, with much needed frequent watering they were growing great guns, but unfortunately the ducks that visit us regularly suddenly took notice and ate the lot one night as we slept! My neighbour (I'll call him Mr. P. from now on) suggested I pulled the stumps out, rake over the area and start again. He very kindly pulled a few more of his own lettuces to replant in my garden and they are now doing fine. I also kept back three or four of the eaten ones, put them in pots of compost to see what would happen. Amazingly they began to grow again so I've put those in the ground to and get a full row of young lettuce enjoying a duck free life (Mr. P. put up plastic netting by the gate to stop any wandering feather friends).

To also deter other animals and birds, I've added a length of string, attached to sticks at either end of the plot, to hold a couple of unwanted CDs. The brightness and spinning action in the wind should keep off the predators, although the visiting cat seems to enjoy playing with them!

On the securing side. The tomatoes planted outside the conservatory kitchen are ladden with fruits, most are still green, but I've picked a few beautiful red ones from deep inside the bushes. I've had to add many more canes to try and keep them from flopping to the ground, they are so heavy. After a lot of har work the winds over night had made most of then slip back down their canes. I'm just hoping their natural supports won't get damaged in this bout of windy weather. I can't really support them any more than I have already.

The two pepper bushes are finally turning into, well, peppers! Sorry, but I get excited at seeing the fruits of, what seems like, very easy labour. Peppers, as advised by the chap I'd bought them from (locally) are very simple to grow and so far he's right. Once in a while (more at the beginnings of it's growing life), I'd use a tomato feed when watering (as I have done with the tomatoes and pumpkin too), but other than that, they have fended for themselves and seem very sturdy again the wind (although I have supported them now, just as a precaution).

First harvest from our new home

2007-09-09T21:07:00.001+01:00

I love this bit, digging up the goods. Some successes here I must say. We moved in at the beginning of May and I decided, rather late in the day, to plant some sprouted potatoes I'd left too long in the cupboard, thinking they wouldn't produce a nibble! I planted two very small rows just in front of the conservatory kitchen. This ground, like the rest of the garden, has fabulous soil, and after a good dig over and weeding session, was ready for some veggies. So, I planted two rows as I mentioned, two peppers, three climbing tomatoes, a cherry tomato (in a tub) and a pumpkin (these last three were donated, thank you, by a friend). All went in rather late, all looking rather fabulous.

End of July, I sowed some carrot seeds that had been lurking around for a couple of years. Sell-by date said this September, so I knew they'd be OK. I was told by my knowledgeable neighbour that the end of July was the best time to plant carrots as the dreaded carrot fly is no longer around. Having seen on TV a year or so ago that carrots do quite well in very large pots, I sowed my first batch like this. A few weeks later I sowed the rest in another large pot. Last week, my neighbour suggested I start pulling the first lot, randomly rather than from the same section of soil. First feeling around the tops of the carrot to make sure they are a fairly decent (but still small) size before having a slight tug! These are delicious "Trevor 1" carrots (from a DIY store as I recall), and have made fabulous salad carrots, so full of flavour.