July 2010

On return from my 1 week away.....WOW! I now have a jungle in my veggie patch!
I have harvested my first fruit courgette, charlotte pots, beetroots, peas and x1 green bean lol!
The raspberries and strawberries are coming ripe, the tomatoes are overgrown but all salads have bolted, shame.
All the parsnips are covered in black flies, YUK, sprayed with a detergent solution.
I have bought some GH staging and had a good clear out.

Sowed:

• salads
• turnips
• carrots
• beans
• peas
• okra (one last time) damn it!
• radish
• fennel
• kohl Rabi
• cauli
• broccoli
• pakchoi

Placed all new into mini GH.

Whilst clearing up found a tiny baby frog near the outside tap, I filled a tub with water and pebbles, rocks for an escape route and a few leaves.  Wonder if hell stay?

As usual I always go overboard, so after finding the frog I have decided to set up a miniature pond for him, last night I ordered from the internet, a pink sparkly tub, and some aquatic plants, its going to be so cute!

Well the next morning.....should I be surprised? of course the frog has gone.....and then the pink sparkles with plants have turned up...oh dear!

Harvested my first Patty pan courgette and my Cyprus potatoes, nice size but full of dimples?

Propagated strawberry runners, thyme, mint basil and bonsai pine, put in GH.

Picking toms daily now, also courgettes, put into soup, delicious!

Have started to make up plans for winter and next years veggie layout. 

Today I am the proud new mummy of x4 goldfish (Shubunkins), put into tub.

The garden next door has had tree surgeons in this morning, by the afternoon on my return from work cant believe it, they have completely cleared all the garden, including x2 huge fern trees, the old shed and pine trees, so sad! now my garden is completely exposed!

June 2010

And its raining yet again, I discovered this morning that something (don't think its the cats) has been tunneling for gold in my veggie beds, it has completely destroyed the pakchoi i planted only a few days ago and lights trampled my beans and lettuce, hopefully they will recover! :(

Well it rained all day and all night. Beautiful sunshine today.  Came downstairs, looked through the kitchen window and ......BASTARDS!!!!!
Once again the suspect has been at my veggies!  Will have to put cloche back over it again after replanting some more spinach and pak choi....GITS!

Unbelievable? what ever it was that trampled my veggie beds had upset both of my Okra seedlings, reset them and thought they would recover but unfortunately not!  Will resow some tomorrow and plant them direct.
Also very low on salads since the event!

Navestock flower festival today


Will it be raining? have asked my friend Teri to join me.  Wow no rain, but what a disappointment, it was more like a church gathering, never mind.  We used the day to visit several garden centres and lunch out, cant be bad.

Sowed:

• Asparagus
• Okra
• Spinach
• Radish
• Pak choi
• Lettuce

Repotted 3 cherry tom plants to keep upstairs in window together with chilli plant.

Have spotted first tomatoes on all tom plants.

Harvested my Maris pipers today, lots of potatoes but very small, maybe i was a little impatient, i should have waited till all the leaves had died.

Went to water inside the GH, something has eaten all my new lettuce seedlings, one of my Aubergines, not happy!  Found the culprit, a very large slug.....just you wait till I get my chickens, they'll have you for breakfast!

Well the mole is back, or at least that's what I think it is, it has tunnelled near my chives, slightly damaging my courgette and newly planted marigolds.

Had a garden tap fitted today, yay! finally no more carrying heavy watering cans, made a wire cage around my veggie beds, hopefully this will keep out our little tunnelling friend.

....

well, so far so good, looks like my cage has worked.:)

May 2010

First day of May and the weather is SHIT!

Planted some marigolds today, hopefully they are good at keeping bugs away?
Sowed:

• Aubergine
• Lambs lettuce
• Lavender
• Sweet bell peppers
• Banana peppers
• Radish

Oh dear, Ive overdone it with the jelly in the hanging baskets, there has been sooooo much rain that they have swelled and are almost spilling over. Took out the bulbs and half of the compost/jelly mixture and replanted the bulbs.

Went to B&Q to get filling for veggie bed No. 2. 

Have seen a fox over the past couple of days, discovered whilst emptying compost that it live next door in an abandoned old shed! what does this mean for my future chicken plans?

Harvested my first pakchoi today YUM!

Have finally filled veggie bed No. 2, Oh no, JD is not going to be happy as it has taken over her toilet plot, shame.....go next door! :)

My potatoes are in flower!

Planted strawberry plants and fuchsias, look really nice. 

Found 2 naughty slugs in my beds, sent them away and put some pellets down. Also had another naughty visitor in my veggie bed, her name is JD, she is in protest, no poo, just a bit of digging.

Its now the end of May and my potato plants have toppled over, googled and apparently this normal at point of flowering.

Tomato plants are full of flowers, wont be long now!

April 2010

Now that i find myself addicted to planting seeds i have decided to add yet more variety of vegetables to the collection:

• Cucumber Telepathy
• Yellow Scallop courgette
• Pattypan courgette
• Fruit courgette
• Golden Zucchini

Herbs:

• Dill
• found some wild Chervil already growing in garden
• shop brought Rosemary
• found some garlic and spring onions which i had planted last year and forgotten about

Bought a Mushroom kit, thinking this should be fairly straight forward?   Put compost into tray, spray mist for 10 days in warm place. Mix in mushroom vercilium, place in a cool room.  Once mushrooms appear start to spray again, harvest when ready....... after all this effort am i really only going to get a hand full of mushrooms.......unbelievable?

• I added a couple of purple asparagus crowns to my 2 year old green asparagus crowns in large pot
• Cyprus potatoes
• the Okra i seeded last month didn't take, so this time i have sowed directly into a grow bag, cross fingers this time.
• Topped my potatoes with more compost to bury about half deep of the green shoots, they are all dong nicely.
• seeded some Sweet corn Ambrosia
• Leeks Musselburgh.
• Beetroot Boltardy
• Parsnips Hollow Crown

Now your really going to think I'm mad, but i read somewhere that Dandelions are healing by purifying the blood,  balancing out the bodies natural fighting capabilities and boosting the immune system, they are used in native remedies to cure Cancer etc. 

With this knowledge in mind i have decided to make some Dandelion and Orange Marmalade recipe below:

• Bowl of Dandelion
• x2 oranges and zest
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pint water

Add dandelions to boiling water and boil for 10 mins, strain, add all ingredients.  Whilst stirring bring to the boil, simmer for 20 mins or until thick.  Let cool, transfer to jars.

delicious added to yogurt or on toast.  Enjoy!

Hanging Baskets

Mixed some jelly stuff to my compost and planted cascading begonia bulbs, surely its warm enough? have kept them in the greenhouse until the frosts are over and hopefully they will emerge quicker? well have to wait and see.

Veggie Beds

Today i have been promised faithfully by husband that he will dig my veg plot over, when i arrived home from work i have been told that it was impossible as our clay soil was completely compacted, even if he had managed i think the quality of the soil is so poor what could possibly live in a house like this?

Solution to this problem is creating some raised beds, bought some timber kits and put them together. Places weed liner underneath and started to fill with manure at the bottom (which absolutely stunk the car out coming back from B&Q) pooooooy!

Then topped with loads of topsoil and compost, sprinkled with some blood fish and bone, wow this is working out expensive, ho hum.

Bed No 1

Drew up plans for no.1 bed, measured out grid and tied up.  Planted out beetroot, carrots, corn, courgette, french beans, fruit courgette, lettuce, pakchoi, pattypan courgette, peas, runner beans, spaghetti squash, spinach, spring onions, red onions.  Covered it all with fleece, cross fingers and hope for the best.

Have now added by planted direct, tatsoi, chives, and sorrel. Transplanted into bed coriander, dill, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary and thyme.

March 2010

Well March brings my new plastic greenhouse into the picture, really don't know if its going to be any good being plastic an all!  Its freezing cold outside but I'm excited, have received delivery of my new greenhouse which i purchased from EBay, just have to put it all together, armed with woolly hat and gloves, thick jacket and boots, out I go into the wilderness.......ok a bit dramatic but hey, i do have Latin in the blood.
So, having finally erected the GH i have transferred my seedlings, potted up and put them inside their new little home until the sun decides to come out.
Both Henry and JD have visited, they like it in there, nice and warm!
I have decided to expand on the variety of vegetables and have seeded some more:

• Dwarf Bean Ferrari
• Pea Kelvedon Wonder
• Pak choi
• Spinach Apollo
• Lettuce mixed salad blend
• Spring onions
• Charlotte potatoes
• Maris piper potatoes
• Carrots Paris market 5
• Okra
• Fennel
• Celery

The seeder potatoes i planted into compost inside some old compost bags, will try the earthing up method each time the leaves appear.

February 2010

I brought windowsill propagators and decided on a few different seeds to grow, slowly did them one by one and placed them in an upstairs front window which gets full sunlight all day.  Cant believe how exciting it is to watch with anticipation, every day another seed would poke its head up out of the compost and say hello.

I planted the following seeds:

• Beef tomatoes
• courgettes
•  red cherry tomatoes
• Gardiner's delight tomatoes
• cayenne chillies
• bell peppers.

I also planted some herb seeds:

• Mint
• oregano
• parsley
• thyme
• basil.

After waiting a few weeks for them all to germinate and grow on a little I then transferred them all to the greenhouse.