Thought it about time I came back!

I have neglected the blog here a little bit recently, for which I apologise. Thank-you fo rthe comments too - seeing as I've not been reading other people's blogs either. Been busy trying to keep the kids entertained.

So, what's been happening with the allotment? I've been digging, that's what!

Been down there a couple of days this week, and now have a small bed planted with beetroot, turnip, lettuce, radishes and swede. The bed will be for the strawberries later in the year when I can transplant them, but for now I just wanted to see what I can get to grow. Have also made a compost bin from pallets. Needs some cardboard or something to line it with, but it's a start. Marked out a couple more beds, but the shed is still in the way until 'some time in the future', so I'm having to work round it. The new shed is up that we brough back from mum's, and the water butt managed to collect half an inch of rain today. Need to dig the guttering out from around the gaden so we can connect it up to the shed.

Managed to harvest a few things from the garden the other day too. We had 2 runner beans and half a dozen pods of peas. The peas were huge! Tasted lovely though. Can't beat fresh food. Am so excited about starting the crops off at the beginning of the year. Runner beans, peans, tomatoes and sweetcorn are going to be among the main crops.

Talking of tomatoes, had a look at the couple in the garden and have got loads coming along. The chick peas are growing too, and there's quite a few pods. Doesn't feel like there's much in them yet, but they're happy where they are. The grape vine has really settled in and is growing rapidly.

The only thing that isn't going too great is the chicken house. Haven't had a chance to get out there and finish building it. At least I have hinges now for the doors so should be able to get on with it soon. Not this weekend though as I have my sister coming down with her 2 kids next week so I have to blitz the kids bedrooms to be able to fit everyone in for sleeping. Going to be fun as she wants me to take her foraging. Well I know where there are plenty of blackberries.....

The lottie

Went to see the plot today, and it's not bad. Bit smaller than I remember, but that might be beacuse I was much smaller when dad had one, so everything looked bigger lol. It's in the corner of the sire, with scope to 'acquire' a little extra land, and overhung by a couple of trees, that hopefully won't be a problem causing too much shade. They'd strimmed it back already, but it looks like there's plenty of bindweed waiting to re-grow. I'm not intending to do much this year but plan beds, so fingers crossed it won't be too much of a problem.

We went to have a look at the other plot I was offered, but it didn't have the same feel to it, even though it was a little bit bigger, so I think I made the right choice. The shed on it definately needs to come down. It's a mess! Not to mention full of junk and falling apart. I did find a metal tank type thing in the undergrowth that I will use for collecting water, and mums old shed will go nicely under the trees.

I should be able to work in sorting the beds out while I'm waiting for them to remove the shed. Paul told me today the wife of a chap he works with keeps horses, so mulching won't be a problem. Might stink the car out a bit bringing it home mind lol. Time to get building a compost bin or two now (along with finishing the chiken house!).

Still excited :-)

Very excited!

I've got an allotment!!!!!

Came back from school this morning to see an envelope with the parish council's stamp on it, and that could only mean one thing - the lottie! It's taken 2 years 2 1/2 months, and I wasn't expecting to hear anything until at least October when they come up for renewal, but I'm not complaining. I am about to become the proud owner of a neglaected overgrown plot, awaiting strimming.

Hopefully going to see it soon. Can't tomorrow as I'm out all day, but hopefully Friday, or Saturday at the latest. Going to spend the evening planning what to plant, how to plant it, how to make beds etc. At least the bits of wood we picked up from Freecycle at the weekend ready for raised beds won't be hanging around the garden long!

The kids seemed impressed with the idea, especially when I told them they could have their own little plots. Thomas wants to grow carrots and pumpkin, and Becky wants sweetcorn and tomatoes. Thomas, bless him, wanted to go down there this evening and have a look, but we had to go somewhere else instead. Luckily it's not too far from school, so I can drop them off then spend the day at the lottie before coming and picking them up again. May have to put the basket back on the front of my old bike, or get/build a trailer for it to carry the fork and spade etc in.

Not a lot else has been happening. Most of the plants I grew have been chomped by the slugs, but the rhubarb is coming along nicely, and the chickpeas are doing fine. One tomatoe is doing well, but the other one is a bit small, and I have one good bean. Planted out the sweet peas though, and the recent rain has bedded them in well. Need to get the tyre planters sorted in the front garden for the nasturtiums and lavender. I want loads of lavender to use in cooking and scented thingummies. I keep passing huge bushes in people's gardens on the way to school, and I'm quite tempted to ask if I can have a bunch. Might take a long a pot of jam to swap.

The elderflower wine is still plipping away in the kitchen. The champagne turned out better than expected. Even my mum liked it, which I certainly wasn't expecting as she doesn't like the cordial. But then it's not quite as sweet and has a definate 'winey' taste about it. Will have to make loads more next year.

Not seen much sign of the tadpoles in the pond lately. Mum's had froglets hopping around hers, though they've either hopped away somewhere or been eaten by the cats/birds, as she can't see them any more. I see the odd one here and there, but not many considering the amount I transfered over when I emptied them out of the water feature temporary home.

The hen house is slowly coming along too. It's ended up slightly wonky though, so I'm not sure how i'm goig to get round that. but the coop bit has a back, sides, legs and a fully felted roof. Just needs doors and a ramp, and the rest of the run built. We're hoping to get the chickens next month, so I'd better get on with it!

Blooming elderflowers!

Tis that season - the one I've been waiting for. The elderflowers are out! And after I escaped to my mum's on my own over the weekend, I came back with a very large bag full of flowers ready for wine, cordial and all sorts.

Read that the stems are a) inedible, b) make wine bitter, and c) are midly poisonous, depending on where you read, I stripped the flowers off as most recipes suggested. It took hours! But, in the end, I turned this:



into 2 of these:



I ended up with 8 pints of flowers!

4 pints went on around 5 gallons of wine (bucket wasn't big enough for any more), just over a pint has gone on 'champagne', to be bottled later this evening for drinking in a couple of weeks time, and the rest I thought about making jam with.

The only recipes I could find were elderflower and something, mainly gooseberries. Now my recently bought gooseberry bush is coming along fantastically, but it doesn't have any fruit, so I decided to just go with the flow and use the elderflowers on their own with some apple and lemon juice for pectin. I'm obviously not a natural jam maker, or knowledgeable enough about the technical bits. I've got pouring sauce for ice-cream now! Didn't help that I'd forgotten to add sugar, but while that helped a bit, it didn't reach any kind of setting point. Have put it in jars anyway, and will see what happens when it's colled down a bit.

Note to self: When the gooseberries come in, freeze some for the elderflowers next year!

Still, at least I now know where there are loads of elder trees ready for the berries in the autumn. Am quite looking forward to elderberry this, that and the other - wine, jam, cordial, crumble, cakes.......

The garden has been a bit waterlogged the last couple of days, so I thought I'd have a quick look to see what was going on. The slugs have certainly been having a feast!!! A runner bean (quite a big plant) is leaf-less, a broad bean (another quite big plant) has gone. The re-growing rhubarb has gone gaain, as has as squash, the 3 marrows, a courgette and a couple of pumpkins; 2 cabbages, all but 2 turnips (from a 2' row), and the tops from the black eye beans I sprouted and grew on. The chick peas are doing ok though, and I'm surprised I still have half a dozen carrots.

Hopefully, if the rain holds off a bit longer, I can mend the repairs on the greenhouse. Things were growing quite well in there before the wind broke the plastic tubes I'd used to join the metal legs. Have now bought some canes to put down the middles, so hopefully that will hold them together. I liked going out and pottering around the greenhouse. One day we might have enough room to get a proper glass one to replace the freecycled plastic broken one.

Have got a step closer to the chicken run - got some wire today for the run. Ok, still haven't had a chance to do anything with the fence panels we got, but I will get there - darned rain. Came back from mum's with a bee house though, so we're doing something for the animal accommodation. Mum didn't think she had the right sort of garden for a bee house.

Am worried we have backward tadpoles though, after seeing hers. They came from the same batch but many of hers have back legs already. I can't see anything on any of the few I can find in our pond. Not that I can see many though, as they tend to hide down in the depths of the bottom. It's all slowly coming along though. Need another few days of good weather........

How does your garden grow?

Pretty well, even if I say so myself. It's been a while since I updated, so thought I'd better get around to it.

Most things are growing well. The marrow, squash, pumpkin, courgette, tomatoes, peas, runner beans and broad beans have all got big enough to plant out - and have survived one (very wet) night so far. The cucmbers haven't fared so well and keep being eaten, but the chiclpeas are growing great, and the mung beans, aduki beans, black eye beans and black turtle beans are all coming along. Not sure how they will turn out as it was a bit of an experiment to see if they would grow! The rhubarb leaf is re-growing after being completely eaten - so I now have 3 crowns, as the 2 replacements I bought are doing well (got wise, didn't plant them straight away). Good job I like rhubarb!

I managed to clear a space for the greenhouse and chicken run. Mended the legs on the greenhouse with some plastic pipe, but was away the weekend (ran a marathon in Edinburgh), came home monday to find it had fallen down and all the repairs were broken, so now have to find something stronger.

Haven't had much of a chance to do anything a bout the chicken house as the weather has been naff this week. Can you tell it's half term? But I did manage to get out and pick enough elder flowers to make some cordial. The bush round the corner is bigger than I thought, as is the one down the road a bit, and I've found 2 more. There's a big tree in town, but it's at the junction of some very busy roads, so I'm not sure about the pokkution aspect. Hubby says to just wash them, but I'm not sure how far in things impregnante the surface, if you follow me. Don't want to pick too many of the flowers though as I want the berries for cordial and wine later in the year, and I'm not sure there's enough flowers to make wine AND get the berries. Quite impressed with the cordial though - it's not as sweet as the shop bought stuff. Went down very well with some lemonade.

Water off a chickens back

Wow, what a fabulous few days!!! It's been brilliantly hot and sunny, and the garden has just been crying out for some company, so that's where I've spent the last 3 days. Much to the detriment of the k itchen, I hasten to say.

So, what have I been up to? Mostly I've been planting seeds, tidying up the borders and digging a small extension to the small veg plot, making a slightly large small veg plt. Just enough for a couple of potatoes a shorts row or two of carrots and peas and beans up the fence. Both bean and peas are growing like mad - and I seemed to have solved the slug mucnhing problem by balancing the seed trays on a ladder on it's side. Last year the majority of what I planted got anihilated as soon as it's first leaves poked through the surface. The cucmbers and courgettes are doing well, and are detsined for the patch under the living room window. It's a south facing wall and gets the sun all day, so hopefully they will flourish. I'm thinking about getting a grape vine for that wall.

Because it was so hot over the weekend we put the paddling pool up for the kids. Ok, not very green to use all that water, but I have been watering the plants with it, and refilled the back garden water butt and have now filled the butt in the front garden. I first tried running the hose through the house and attaching one end to a watering can. To my credit it worked, but it took so long I resorted to carrying cans through the house and ignoring the drips on the carpet.

Had a bit of good news - neither side neighbours are fussed about us keeping chickens. Woo hoo! Just need to build their house and run. I picked up some bits of fence lanelling this afternoon from freecycle, soi it's time to get creative. I'm aiming (in a very loose sense) to make a house with a nest box, on legs, contained in a netting enclosure, with access to the eggs from the outside, and a door to get in and out. It will be about the size of a 6x4 shed, and may be joined on to the side of our existing shed.

I'm getting really excited about getting the chickens. I was sitting out there last night after hubby had gone to work and I'd watered the plants, and I was thinking how 'right' it would feel to have them at the end of the garden. It's a really hard feeling to put into words - but certain things just feel right, and natural and normal (like chickens and planting seeds and digging the garden), and other things just feel plain wrong (like shopping in Tesco).

I have a long way to go with the garden yet though - as the pictures show!














Think I need to mend the fence before the chickens escape next door!














This lot will have to go first!














My pile of fence panel chicken housing

Busy in the garden today

Right, that's the herb border dug over at last. We've been in the house 2 years come next month, and I've just got that border sorted. Better late than never I suppose. Have made a list of the herbs I want to plant there - just need to buy them now.

Have tidied up the pots in the front too. The herbs ath spread all over the place can go in the pots, and th no quite so prolific ones will go in the bed. Found a broken pot, so turned it into a frog house:

'Planted' the big rockery stones we rescued from mums garden when she moved too. I've now got a bit of structure in the border, and while it's no Stonehenge, it's not so bad. I didn't like the one lating down, so it's now upright like the others.

There's a couple more stones the other side of the bush, and the couple of leftover bits have been turned into a fairy house.

There's still a long way to go with all the planting, and it's going to be a nightmare trying to decide a) what to plant and b) where to plant it!

Thanks to the lovely weather the seedling I sowed earlier in the week are popping through rapidly. I have 2 cucumbers with nice big first leaves already. Haven't quite worked out where everything is going to go yet, but most of the pots fron the front garden don't have much in them of any use, so some things will go in them. There's a footpath that goes along the back of some houses just round the corner, and living on a council estate it's full of rubbish, tv's, bikes etc, so I'm hoping to find a couple of old tyres down there I can use as pots.

Oh, and I didn't get all the tadpoles yesterday - there was one staring at me this afternoon from its original home! It didn't smile for long lol, and is now happily with it's siblings.

Big plans

Has been a good week for foraging this week. Found a patch of sorrel and hedge garlic, which were tasty chopped up into couscous, and today we went down to the beach and I found sea beat - this time chopped with some sorrel into an omelette, with salad topped with hawthorn and hedge garlic leaves. Mmmm..... even hubby was impressed.

I *think* I have finally transfered all the tadpoles from their temporary home in the water feature to the pond. We rescued some from a pile of spawn laid in the dip in the top of mums sand pit cover. If it had been left it would have all dried up, so we brought it home in a plastic bag and plopped it in the tub.

After building them a nice new little pond I had the fun of trying to get them in it. Every time I thought I'd got them all, out some more would pop from the depths. In the end I emptied the tub and hopefully they are all now in their new home.

We're slowly getting the garden together. I've sorted the adult corner out ok. I wanted somewhere I could sit and chill while the kids run riot in the rest of the garden. Still a little bit to do, but we'll get there.

Here's a before and after shot:

- as far as putting the bench and arch in place

I've got pink and yellow honeysuckle going over the arch, lavender behind the bench, and the pond is just out of picture on the left. Need to get some more slate chips to fill in the holes, and the bench needs renovating, but it's almost there.

Have had a bit of a planting spree recently too. Made a start last year, but it didn't all go to plan, but this year it's a lot more methodical. Have sown peas, sweetcorn, courgettes, cucumbers, herbs, flowers, pumpkins and tomatoes, and things are starting to grow! It always strikes me as amazing when tiny seeds I've stuck in a pot turn into plants.

Can't wait to get the allotment. I've been on the list for a couple of years now, and I have no idea how long I'm likely to have to wait. Really should give them a ring to see how things are going. Looking forward to being able to plant things in reasonable numbers to be able to feed us all, so we don't have to buy from anywhere. We have a plum tree in the garden, and a gooseberry bush and blackcurrant bush, and I have easy access to blackberries, and the apple tree is growing well after being rescued from almost dead last year, but there's nota lot of room with 2 kids, a climbing frame and a swing.

The next big project is chickens. Am hoping to get 3 from either a local activity farm that sells animals, or the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. Need to build a house and run first (AND get some money together!). While they'll be loose in the garden in good weather while we're there, I want a run to keep them from hopping over the back fence, and a house to shut them in at night. Will take a bit of doing - this is where I plan to put them:

Mmmmmm............

Simple things

Having done all the washing over the weekend, I was left with ahuge pile of wet stuff - and pouring rain, so I had to use the tumble dryer. After hanging things on the washing line it just doesn't seem right any more. A washing line was one of the best things I inherited when we moved here and finally had a garden. Luckily it's brightening up so I can get another load out.

In the meantime it was lunch time. I made some rye soda bread and heated up some nettle soup. Felt very rustic, and I was a little smug that I was eating a completely home made meal. So many people miss out on the taste and health benefits by eating pre-packed ready meals, or processed food. The whole meal probably cost much less than 50p.

Talking of meals - need to find something for tonight. Sorted out my many cookbooks this morning after they fell off the shelf. Really should start using a few more of them lol.

It's been a long time!

Well, it's been a long time since I last visited here - can't believe HOW long! Time to bring things up to date I think.

We had a veg box delivery for a while, but have had to stop that as Paul was off sick for 5 months and money was very tight. Instead of running up the arrears I thought it best to cancel. Same with the milkman, so we're back to plastic bottles. I have been trying to do my best by eating organically and being careful with what I buy though.

One fantastic purchase was a Mooncup (for those monthly women things). Nothing goes in the waste, it's easy to use and far better for your body than disposable products. I am contemplating buying one for my sister for her birthday.

Had an idea opportunity the other day to reallythink about the way we live. With Paul being off sick for so long, and just having another 3 weeks (goes back tomorrow), Money is very tight and we ran out of gas and electric. It was lovely not having any television or computer for the evening. nice and quiet and I read a book by candle light. Paul was doing his nut after going cold turkey with no television. It's sad that someone has lost the ability to think for themselves, and to amuse themselves, in the absence of outside stimulation.

Come the enxt day and everything is back to normal. The tv goes on and he puts his head in the laptop at the same time. He calls the kids down from where they are playing together and using their imaginations, to plonk them in front of the dvd he's just put on for them (and then gets annoyed if they're not interested). He buys all sorts of heavily packed rubbish from Tesco (another addiction), rather than pay a little more for less, but the essentials, from the farmers market. The money ran out the same day as pay day, so he doesn't have much choice but to eat completely home made food. If he can buy it rather than make it he will - it's quicker.

It's renewed my commitment to greening up the home though. I will turn the computer off a bit more, turn the heating down a bit, and use the washing line a lot more (now we've finally put a new one up). I've been making bread for the freezer and deliberatley made extra dinner yesterday to freeze some. We'll be eating a lot more pulses, past and rice, and 'boring' food.

I've planted a few seeds too, and will give the allotment people a call during the week to see how I'm doing on the waiting list. The little patch in the garden will have to do for now. I've also been foraging and have a freezer full of nettle soup to keep me going. Following on from the Mooncup theme, I'm contemplating making some wee wipes. Little cloths to replace toilet roll, that go in with the normal washing. To help with the hygiene/smell issue I will rinse them through before putting them in with the laundry. Will help stop as much loo roll going down the toilet, as well as saving a bit of money.

Right - off to find something yummy for dinner out of the depths of the cupboard. The mixed bean casserole thing Idid yesterday turned out wuite tasty - much better than I was expecting!