How Does Your Garden Grow?

Hello.

I really am enjoying Spring time outside at the moment and the poly house is filling up nicely. 

Right now I have some potting on to do in the next couple of days and maybe some planting out. Even though the weather has been as wet as wet can be at times recently, we are expecting some drier weather toward the weekend.

I'm feeling very excited about how both my sowing and growing are coming along, and I was able to show a new friend around #mylittlepatchofparadise on Wednesday. I met Karen on a couple of courses run by Kim Stoddart at Green Rocket courses and we had arranged for her to come to mine for coffee. She brought me some tomato, celery and early PSB plants and I was able to give her three different varieties of courgette. I've already potted on the toms...

and I'm looking forward to visiting Karen in Bethania, which is about 30 minutes from me, and seeing her set up including the big poly tunnel she has.

I now have a good amount of tomato plants but need to figure out which ones I can grow outside in order to maximise the space in the poly house along with the beds I'll be using outside since the loss of the greenhouse.

I got a fairly serious amount of seed sowing done on Tuesday morning; the weather was perfect so had a great time after getting my inside jobs done first. I sowed swede in the new bed, now known as bed three, and decided on the space where the climbing beans and peas will go. The dwarf beans are nearly ready to go out; 

I also managed to fit in a row of red and green lettuces! Talking of lettuces, in the drainpipe in the poly house the salad leaves there seemed to be needing a little more compost to boost their growth so I topped that up and hopefully they will be big enough to harvest soon and I can cross that off my shopping list!

I had made the decision to re-sow my carrots after only a very few of the first sowing had germinated so I got down to this. 

Two of the three beds Jon built on the other side of the fence to the main growing area are being used. In one are the turnips, which were the first things to go in, have now been thinned and I've sown a few more seeds in the gaps; I've now sown parsnips in the second.

I've made use of the remaining space in the bed with the shallots and sown additional Kale plus more salad leaves by way of a couple of rows of Corn Salad; I also intend to fit in a row of rocket I have in the poly house which is almost ready to go out! I'm really trying to make use of every space.

My cabbages and cauli and doing well and have been potted on once but will need doing again soon. I also have to get the two huge tyres ready for when they are planted out which is not too much work. They were mulched with chicken poo and compost and covered over during the winter. 

The bane of my life that is ground elder has only got into one of them just a little bit so should be ok when I weed it out and they are topped up with compost ready for planting. I'm going to be honest with you here, and a lot of people may not agree with me, but I HAVE to spray the ground elder sometimes. The way in which the darned stuff grows on #mylittlepatchofparadise I cannot cover it. To be honest there are parts where it grows that don't actually bother me as it doesn't affect the sowing and growing but sometimes needs must. There is no point strimming it, I think we all know that, and I cannot dig it up but what I hope to do next year is to lift up the tyres I grow in, put down membrane and then replace the tyres so that they'll hopefully be deprived of sun and the growing rate will at least be reduced.

In other news we are getting very close to finishing the third Airbnb listing which will actually be called Studio 4. This is a self-catering unit and we are VERY excited about the way we are theming and dressing it. I've just ordered union jack bunting and at the weekend we're going to Aber and Craft to look at buying miss matched crockery, pictures and hopefully some tin vintage style pictures. We're going for a war time theme and have wallpapered the inside of the wardrobe with paper showing old newspaper adverts. We should be able to list it by the end of the month. The biggest job is some electrical work Jon needs to do on the cooker but everything has been made now that the shelving for the bathroom, 

vanity table and bedside boxes are done. 

One of my fav things is the towel rail made from a refurbished ladder.

 I think I should get on with some other jobs now, ironing to do for the Airbnb rooms, a bed to change the usual chores but I think I'll have just one more brew before I start.

Bye for now

Lou.xx

Aaarrggghhh! Veg Patch Panic!

Good morning.

The weather today is a little overcast and a little less windy than when we got up.

I've been out and watered but feel there may be a shower later on.

As I walk around my little patch of paradise at the moment there are a few things I'm a little concerned about. We are having this kind of weather just now after three weeks or so of wonderful sunshine and not a lot of rain.

My Poly House is still uncovered in the main but really hopeful this will be rectified in a week or so. I have "in" there my tomatoes in planters and I'm not sure if it is a watering issue or something else but the leaves on a couple of the plants are curling. In the raised bed I have two gherkins and a cucumber which seem to be ok for now.

In the main patch, top of this photo, my first early spuds are not flowering but the second earlies are! They are all well earthed up so just leaving them be.

On a positive note the salad leaves, bottom of above photo, are going great guns and we eat them every day. In the back of my mind I'm thinking the sun has increased the foliage on my swede, also in this photo, as they are seemingly doing well.

In the small bed next to the fruit patch I have done well with radishes so far and plan on sowing some more. However, I sowed parsnip seeds underneath the radishes and I'm not sure if that has been an epic fail or they are not meant to show at all just now, because they are not doing!

My climbing peas are beginning to flower quite well but no pods yet so I don't think I need to worry about them, but I'm thinking about the foliage thing here, too, with it racing ahead and possibly the pods will not come....

Most of my anxiety is hopefully just to do with the late start to the good weather after the snow and bad storms, trying to be optimistic on all levels!

Any advice or assistance regarding all of this would be warmly received and, of course, much appreciated.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Good Job!!! A Lot More Than One!

There's nothing like getting a few jobs done.

On Friday I had a baking day due to a plan change re food shopping; I baked bread, rolls and loaf, plain shortbread and I think my best yet Millionnaires Shortbread for Jon.

On Saturday after food shopping and lunch we got ourselves outside and made a start.

Jon was finishing the verandas outside the Airbnb room; here they are from start to finish - with a little help from Alfie.

We are really pleased with how it looks.

I was busy in the Poly House and got lots done. I bought new sweetcorn kernels to sow as the others all failed but one and I must have them growing this year.

I potted on and sowed some more French Marigolds and put three Beef tomato plants in their final big pots.

On Sunday I decided to put the sweet peas in with the climbing peas as planned and at the same time set up a little netting for them at both ends, you can just see I think.

I sowed parsnip seeds as I've decided to put my cucumbers inside and use that outside space for something I can't grow indoors. I still had to dig the spot over, again, and take out more stones but done in the end.

We decided to go to Aber to get a second table and chair set to match for the next room and pick up a few things including this for my Poly House.

We finished up and had a quiet night watching the Durells and the finale of Line Of Duty.; it was soooo good!

Today, Monday, we were up quite early and after breakfast I headed to the Poly House. Jon was in the shed making the beginnings of a chicken house for the boy's school; they ordered one, the company went bust and they lost their money; he will make them a run, too.

I went straight to the potatoes as the frost caught the leaves the other day! I cut off the black ones but new green ones are already coming through so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! 

I didn't do very well with my sunflowers last year so hope for improvement with the four I put in a trough.

Due to a few failures with my sowing I decided to re-sow the following:

butter nut squash
sweet peppers
peppers boneta (should be grown outside)

I gave the spot for the swede a good turning over, as I did for the parsnips, then sowed the seeds.

When I look at my growing area I sometimes can't believe my eyes. It looks pretty much how I have dreamed of having a veg garden - I just hope it all comes off this year as I have worked so hard on it all.

I am very pleased there are signs of the carrots coming through, as with the shallots, in the new patch and I can see the rows of teeny, tiny leaves where the turnips are germinating.

The weather is glorious just now so Jon and I have taken a turn around the garden. The wild garlic is in flower and I have picked some to dry.

Here is some information about ways to eat and use the garlic; it is all but done by June so I need to keep an eye on it.

I have been looking after the strawberries now they are in the cold frame. I have lost a few of the plants but I can see some little fruitlets on the ones I still have.

I've been looking for a before photo of the gate. Reason being that we power washed it today, mainly me, Alfie and bit and Jon finished off. Trust me it looks sooo much better. We were going to paint it but I just like it like this. It was covered in green mossy stuff and looks like a new gate now. It will need preserving with something at some stage. 

Right, I'm going to close the gate on this post and look forward to catching up with what everybody has been up to over the last couple of days.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

So Excited To Show This!

OK, STARTED THIS POST A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO SO SORRY IF IT IS A BIT HIGDLEDY PICKLEDY (WAS GOING TO SAY ALL TO COCK, LANCASHIRE EXPRESSION, BUT DIDN'T WANT TO OFFEND - OOOPS!)


I am so excited to finally show you the cellar store room! In my wildest dreams I never thought I would get anything close to this.

The shelving came from the shed, some of which Jon no longer needed. I gave them a good scrub and where I couldn't get some sticky labels off which showed flanges and stuff previously being kept on them! I decided to use some of a gingham oil cloth I have to cover the edges.

I hope to find a suitable piece of matting for the floor at some stage. 

As you can see I have moved my preserving jars and bottles down there. (This leaves space in the kitchen cupboard for my Christmas stash.) The large crockery was taking up a lot of space so it is great to be able to move it somewhere else. 

We plan on having bins for the recycling and to store flour, rice and pasta down there, too. As you can see I have my measily collection of already preserved items sitting there proudly!

I am very pleased with the onions. 

The harvest? was just under 7lbs so I have some hung up, love the smell, some are upstairs to use as they grew a bit long like leeks or did not have tops long enough to hang and some in this shopping basket - doesn't look a lot but the basket is huge! 

The beetroot is out of the way under one of the tops and I plan to get it pickled by the end of the month, if all goes to plan! As well as pickling it I have a lovely thing I like to do as an accompaniment to cold meat which is beetroot cut into small cubes set in blackcurrant jelly. Trust me it is lovely and you can make it as thick or otherwise with the beets as you like. 

The curtains were quite simple to make and run on simple wires; great for covering up the less pretty stuff. With my craft bench being out of action at the moment, not for much longer I hope, I had to do the sewing them at the kitchen table.

We have moved the fridge freezer and small chest freezer in which means we are back to more space where the washer, drier and shoe stand is. The chest freezer will not be turned on until we have something substantial to put in it but the fridge freezer will be used for Christmas stock, drinks etc.

On Saturday in Aber I found this lovely letter rack plus some great vintage-looking paper for Christmas projects - zoom in and see some of the great images.

On Sunday morning I started off the mushroom kits we recently bought. This is how it looks before you put on the compost which will be tomorrow. I will post on, hopefully, positive progress!

In other news, during the week I took up the shamefull harvest of two swede, lost most of the seeds to the birds it seems? We had those with lots of butter and milk as part of our roast chicken dinner on Sunday; I also made bread sauce with one of our onions and my own bread!

At lunch time Sunday Jon brought one of the chickens inside as the day before he thought she looked a bit under the weather. Her eyes were a bit milky looking and not very bright and her comb was not the vibrant red it should be. We put her in this box and made her comfy with some water; she really didn't look well.

By the evening she had rallied a bit and we kept her inside overnight.

In the morning she looked quite a bit better so we have given her some laying pellets  but she is still in the kitchen. Jon said something that night which made me laugh; he said is this what we signed up for, chicken in the kitchen?!

POSTED SINCE THIS TO SAY WE LOST THE CHICKEN.

Ok it is now Wednesday evening and going to settle down with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Photo Call.

My last post mentioned the things that were growing, or not, at the moment so as I was out this morning I decided to take a few photos for illustration purposes.

So here are the swede, not many of them but hey ho.

Then I have quite a lot more turnips which seem to be doing well.

The beetroot is looking healthy.

I can see proper broccoli and I have started with my stinky rhubarb treatment!

I don't want to pick the apples too soon but they look great. When we moved here at the beginning of last September there were a few left on the tree so I think I should pick them pretty soon.

Here are the onions; super excited about those!

These are my bag-grown spuds. I have pulled them up this morning and....

this little lot weighed in at 1lb 12.8oz. Obviously the eggs didn't come via the same harvest process but glad to see there were four.

Finally here are my beef tomato plants. Firstly the leaves are curling slightly but I think this is just because they need extra water; I'm not feeding them tomato feed because as you can see there is neither fruit nor flowers at the moment. Hope they will come on soon...

 

and the sweetcorn. I am still stunned that I have actually managed to grow something that even slightly resembles sweetcorn, let alone that there is a good chance we will be able to eat it!

Right, mission accomplished, ie. no rambling, but I will finish with a picture across the veg patch this morning as it is glorious today and look forward to enjoying the good weather for the next couple of days. 

Hope you all have sunshine, too.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx