A Busy Sow And Sow!

Hello and bore da!

This is what I've been up to over the last few days. 

On Friday I re-sowed mixed Sweet Peppers and Sweet Romano peppers. the first lot really didn't seem to do anything so the new lot are in the conservatory still but covered over with a plastic bag; we'll see how they get on.

Sunday was great as I was in the poly house (PH) at about 9.30am making the best of things before it possibly rained and I set about getting a few jobs done inside and out. In my RAF surplus flying suit I was good to go but when you need a pee it's a bit of a bugger so in I went, twice(it's my age) and also put on another pair of socks as my feet were cold!

First I needed to cover over the veg beds, again, whilst taking up the odd weed; sooo bored of this wind.

I sowed my first tomatoes, three varieties - Cuor di Bue, Outdoor Girl and Yellow Delight. The PH was 20 degrees, as was my homemade propagator but need to increase that some how.

So I have some in there and some just on the bench to see if they germinate ok or if they need to go onto the window of the kitchen or conservatory - just about the extent of any trial work I do!

Getting a few things on the poly house benches now! 

I then set about sowing Kale Curly Dwarf outside in the bed with the shallots which is at the back of the (PH); I love Kale, managed to grow a bit last year so hoping to do better this time.

In a recent post I said I was trying to grow more flowers, well today I sowed some of the newly bought Nigella Persian Jewels in a terracotta pot in the PH. They grow to about 
45 cms so not sure now that will work out but we'll see!

I had two fruit trees which in a word died, doing nothing, so I've taken those out. The fruit area is definitely something which needs looking at; it is very, very overgrown.

You may remember Jon built me three new raised beds some time ago.

and these, too, have stayed covered over for a while; I decided to sow some turnips in one of them; turnips are another thing I love, sliced thinly and fried with garlic. Nomnom!

Because of the rain I had my youngest help by filling up the watering cans and bottles for the PH and he moved the wheelbarrow back where it belongs after being used to move logs and kindling. 

I've got quite a few strawberry plants to pot on; there are the 12 from my Thompson & Morgan bargain fruit bundle still in the small middle pot but the others are looking quite healthy; the drainpipe with strawbs in is now outside resting on the raised bed just outside the PH.

I don't think I've shared my seed potato plans for this year.

Swift and Charlotte earlies...

then maincrop Cara are all sitting in the conservatory.

I plan on growing most of them in open ground this year but there will be the odd growing bag, too, I'm sure.

Also on Sunday, Jon was managing to work on the fencing for the bird enclosures, thanks to a break in the weather, but he was still out there in the rain at times - he is very tenacious!

After the fox attack on both the chickens and ducks we  he is raising the height of the fencing. This means, of course, that the gates will be taller, too. (The tree seat came in useful as an extra support!)

Here is the gate into the ducks, love it...

and the one for the chicken area will be the same; this means we can let the chooks free-range at times without letting the ducks out; still a bit to do but a great job to get started on.

We are all very excited about getting the birds again.🐔

Today, Tuesday, I've been outside and potted on the two blueberry plants which also came in my T & M fruit bargain bundle. Does anybody else feel like ericaceous compost is like gold dust and shouldn't be wasted or is it just me?

Ok, that is it for me, finally got this done. I shared this on Twitter yesterday but what the heck. I got round to a bit of baking and for tea made a beef and spud pie in my skillet, in the oven for the first time, and was really quite pleased with the result.

And finally, I received in the post yesterday some new crochet hooks thanks to inspiration from Emma over at Farmer's Wife And Mummy and SueArcher6 over on Twitter. I've tried in the past as I sooo want to be able to do just simple projects. I'm going to give it another go today with the help of an internet tutorial.

Right that's it I think.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

A Snap Shot Of Christmas, And Other Stuff!

Just realised I've not included a photo of this year's tree. I love it - this year as for the last couple of years we've gone for a slightly shorter and more rounded one.

I just love decorating at Christmas and this is how my living room looks. I have a very traditional feeling about this time of the year reminiscent of the 1970's I guess which makes perfect sense as I was born in 1968. I love paper chains, I have crepe paper streamers in the TV room and I think these paper honeycomb globes are just fab. However I always look to my very fav book when it comes to Christmas inspiration, Tim Mouse and Father Christmas - still available.

It always has pride of place somewhere at this time of the year; hope you can see or at least get a feel for the similarity....

Inside the house everything is VERY festive but I popped outside yesterday to take photos.

Somebody on Twitter mentioned snow drops so thought I's take a look and....

a bit blury but you get the idea!

Also making an appearance are other things which are overwintering like the tulip and daff bulbs for Spring I planted outside The Snug.

The shallots,

garlic, just,

and onions have popped up to say hello as well.

Also outside and still showing signs of life are some red 'n' green lettuce,

the Spring cabbages seem to be surviving though not that big,

and the chooks and ducks are ok. A few more eggs in the last couple of days; my husband puts this down to him having given them a slug of grit recently, 

the ducks are still free loading. The one in the foreground, A l'orange, is a bit nasty, nearly pecks the food out of your hand, the Crispy Khaki is soooo loud and Duck-chess seems to just go with the flow.

That is it for just now I think. I'm continuing to make mince pies, but bread making has stopped for the festive period, we begin the last week of work and school next Monday and the not too big list for the festive shop is complete; helps we are going away for a couple of days after Boxing Day - looking forward to some fun times in Llandudno and blowing some cobwebs away with a walk on the beach among other things.

Lou.

Back To Basics

Good morning.

The weather has changed quite dramatically over the last couple of days. We were having monsoon-type rain ie. wet and warm but this weekend it has turned decidedly chilly and we succumbed to lighting the woodburner in the living room on Saturday evening. This morning is a might chilly also but a glorious morning all the same.

The shifting of the seasons brings most gardeners and growers of their own around to planning for the next growing season, and that includes me.

I have some overwintering plans in place which I'll update another time but just now I have a few other bits and bobs to share. To this end I have just received some new seeds. 

The first of which are Nantes 2 early carrots. I plan on sowing these in either the greenhouse or poly house, maybe in containers or one of the raised beds in the greenhouse once the sweet potatoes have been harvested which should be some time within the next four weeks or so.

I also have plans for dwarf pea Meteor; these are very hardy and only grow around 16-18" tall so don't really require any support. I can put these outside or in but probably the latter space willing.

I admit to getting into a bit of a panic recently as my harvests have not been the best this year so....

I'm going back to basics for the next growing season. My aim is to grow plenty of what we all eat as I really want to see how much we can avoid spending money, on vegetables at least, examples being spinach beet and chard. I am the only person who eats either of these so I'm keeping these to a minimum as I had already sown some but these can be grown in the houses without taking up a lot of space. I have never done too well with spring onions so these are on the back burner for now.

So, along with the above new additions, this year I will mostly be growing - 

carrots, cabbages, broccoli, potatoes, onions, garlic (though not masses), cucumbers
NO gherkins this year, aubergines, tomatoes (hopefully a MUCH better result) peppers 
salad leaves, courgettes but probably just the one plant, dwarf beans as they were great this year so more of those, leeks, swede, turnips (not huge this year due to spacing I think but very tasty) and probably NOT climbing peas this year as for a really good harvest I think I need more space than I can allow.

More to the point with all of this I do need more space to grow enough of what we eat for it to make a real difference.

Currently I have the following space to use:
19 x 6 ft veg patch 
4.5 x 10 ft veg patch
3 x 3 ft veg patches, 3 of these including the one in the poly house
1.5 x 6 ft approx. raised beds in the greenhouse, 2 of these...

and this weekend Jon has built me one of three new raised beds which are 1.5 x 4 ft each; there will be three in total.

I like raised beds because at times I struggle with my back and the size of them may look a bit overkill but they are solidly built to last and hopefully make my back last a bit longer, too!

I've been thinking, but not overthinking as Jon thinks that is half my problem, I should be able to make a good go of it next year. I have literally just measured the new beds so really don't know what will go where but they are about a foot and a half deep so would be good for carrots, turnips, garlic, onions but not the brassicas as they will need more planting out space than that.

I look forward to using this new space in the coming months and sharing with you how I get on. I'd be interested in plans others have for the next season of sowing and growing.

Along with all of this I don't think I've yet shared the photos of our new ducks; 1 Khaki Campbell called Crispy and 2 Muscovy and the other are Duck-chess and L'Orange, as in duck a L'orange! They are not laying right now but the entertainment value more than makes up for them being freeloaders when it comes to feeding!

Oh and O M G, major excitement in the house is that we FINALLY have a quad bike.

Everybody in the family are extremely excited about this. It means we can get our pigs next year as Jon can get in the field to prepare things, we can get the trailer in the field to cut down trees for logs to store and the boys are just excited about getting to drive it! Get in!!!

I've just had to stop to put a match to the fire - really quite chilly and it is my birthday so I think I deserve to be warm!

That's all from me for today.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Fab Family Time And Garden Gorgeousness!

Welcome to another bright and sunny day. 

What have we been up to? Well, Saturday morning was a few indoors jobs including ordering a lime tree from my Grow Your Own mag for which I only paid the p and p. (With you on this one,Tracy.) Then I did an hour on the new veg patch whilst Jon got his fire lit, finally. We headed off to have a quick lunch in town before we took Alfie to Stage School, to do a few errands then food shopping before fetching Alf again. We ended up just having a relaxing evening. Nice.

Sunday morning we were all up and at it before breakfast; with something I needed to do in the afternoon with Alfie we had to get some jobs done first thing. 

I have been keeping in the kitchen the 'lemon tree' given to me as a seed by Dawn this time last year, and here it is now! 

It will be a while before it comes to fruit but still fab to have it, thanks again Dawn.

Jon was putting the last layer of cement on the pizza oven and then he came and helped me. I had been de-stoning, again, the new veg patch and was so close to finishing but I needed his muscle for the tree roots I could not move. He turned it all over and I kept taking out more stones and fibres. 

Finally we were ready to put in some compost we bought on Saturday along with some of my own compost which was looking really good. 

I am amazed how good the area now looks after all the work we have put into it; there are still some small-ish stones in it but I figure what if the carrots DO come out a bit wonky? What does it matter? Jon had some cement going spare so he and the boys put it around the wooden edges and pushed stones into it to create a solid frame. 

I plan on putting sweetcorn and carrots in it, as I've already said, but think I may sneak a few shallots in with the carrots to help the pests, should they come calling.

After we had had breakfast I got a few jobs done in the house and then took Alfie to his extra Stage School rehearsal. I took the time to look over my garden plans whilst having a cup of coffee or two as I waited for him.

When we got back from Aber Harry had helped Jon finish the top of the cold frame for the strawberries, they are in there, trust me,

and they were also chopping logs. I went back outside to hoe the onion and garlic areas; the recent rain brought up some of the stones and they were reasonably easy to remove so it's looking great now. I also did the same in the area that was covered by the yellow polythene so I am good to go for planting out very soon! I just have the black-covered end to do now.

Jon also helped me a great deal by digging the holes for the soft fruit we needed to get in. I will admit that our little fruit area is a bit organic in the sense that it has been planted up a bit au natural. We still hope to get at least a cooking apple tree and maybe one more.

Things may be a lttle bit close together, not top quality soil as we have to deal with stones there, too but a bit of ericaceous compost will help the blueberries at least! However I feel nature will do her stuff and all will be well; it is in the countryside where things grow wild, so that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it! Jon will build a frame around it for me soon. We finally came inside at about 4pm I think as my children needed feeding at some point!

We are SOOOO pleased how things are coming along now. I just have a few containers, grow bags and potato bags to buy so that I can properly get started and then, as Jon says, it's up to me now - the sowing and growing!

In other news Alfie had his piano prep test on Friday and got some great comments from the examiner so we have great hopes for his Grade one when it comes around.

I have asked Jon to build me a solar dehydrator. Going to give it a go as we have pretty much everything we need in the shed already so will be no real outlay - love it.

No ducks until the beginning of next month due to low numbers after the avian flu, but I have received my order of egg box stickers, cuuuute!

Ok I need to get outside now. The electricity is being turned off for a couple of hours today so a good excuse to get a lot done outside today but I do still have some indoors jobs to do so will work around the big switch off which generally covers lunch time.

Bye for now.

Lou.x

Into The Weekend From Here.

Good morning. Here is Jon with the next stage of the pizza oven; we hope Sunday will be dry meaning it should be finished this weekend...

I've done a bit of baking the last couple of days. Harry has decided to go back to packed lunches so I am baking a bit more bread, plus Jon has been doing some house renovation for his boss in Aber this week instead of being at the sawmill so he has been taking butties for his lunches, too.

At the weekend I really hope to get the last of the soft fruit trees in. I'll need Jon's help with the holes. Only seven to go so very few compared to some peoples' fruit campaigns.

This is the new smaller veg patch alongside the fruit area.The edging needs finishing and it is about 10x8 feet so, as usual, I am feeling paranoid about my spacing when it comes to planting out!

Now can any of my faithful followers?! tell me what these small berries are? They are growing around a couple of the trees at the bottom of the garden, actually near the top right corner of the new patch I just showed you.

Yesterday we sold three boxes of eggs, can the girls keep up we ask? We have sold £10 worth this month but all of that was really since Sunday so fab result! We don't have room in the hen house for any more as we have 8 actual boxes in the house and 11 chooks. We'll have to stick with what we have for now, but there is always more room at a later date to have a bigger run in the field. (Also some very sweet people have been leaving me empty egg boxes; they don't know I have about 300 in the cellar storeroom!) Weather here is a bit overcast so need to pick my time for cleaning out the chickens. 

I am calling about the ducks today and we really hope Jon can collect them at the weekend.

And..


I went to my new Welsh lesson last night and really enjoyed it. There is always somebody who talks too much or somebody who wants to race ahead in the progress - we had both of them, but some very nice people, too and it was also great to go with somebody I knew! The class is much bigger than the last one I went to which means practicing conversation is easier. I have a proper class and homework books so will now be able to put time aside a few times a week to work on it all. I may have said in the past that I want to be able, amongst other things, to go into the post office and ask for my stamps. Simple things!

Just been reliving part of my youth by listening to Take That on Chris Evans' breakfast show. Fab.

Ok, best get on with a few jobs as the weather looks like it is trying to improve. Look forward to hearing about what everybody gets up to over the weekend.
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BREAKING NEWS
I had a message through my blog yesterday from some people saying Jake has been moved on to them from the lady who originally took him. The new owners have had him for about four weeks and they sound GORGEOUS. They told me he is the perfect dog for them after losing their own Collie and he is having lots of walks and cuddles. I had a little tear in my eye when I read the message but Jon and I couldn't be happier for them and Jake.
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Bye for now.

Lou.x