Garden pics

Hi everyone, here we are, as promised, some pictures from the garden. I have been playing around with the mosaic feature on Picassa, great fun! This collage shows the Hardy Geraniums, Poppy, Cosmos, pots with annual Geraniums, Heuchera and a gorgeous Sarah Raven Carnation called Moulin Rouge which has a beautiful scent. Shame you can't smell it through the computer!


These pics are of some of my homegrown vegetables. Our strawberries have done amazingly again this year, it's a pity I don't know the variety because they really are fantastic, the fruits were big and very tasty. The bottom right picture shows my 'pea shoots'. I don't know if you followed Alice Fowler's Edible Garden programme, but she showed you how to grow pea shoots from a 38p box of dried peas! They taste just like fresh peas and are a great addition to salads.

Most of the beans (runner, french and dwarf)have got black fly on them which seem to be everywhere this year, so I'm hoping it won't reduce the bean harvest.
But my courgettes are really getting into their stride and I have picked quite a few, same with the cucumbers, I shall take some pics of them for you.

Signs of Growth

Hi everyone, although the weather has become cooler, there are lots of little seedlings growing in the greenhouse.

Climbing Beans, Blue Lake

Globe Artichokes, Violetta di Chioggia

Tomatoes, Gardener's Delight

Beetroot

Peas,Onward

I had an idea to grow some salad leaves. If your a fan of those bags of salad in the supermarkets, it's well worth a go at growing your own. I borrowed a book about it from the library last year and then got lucky when the library had an old book sale in that I got it for 50p! I would recommend it to anyone wanting to grow salad, it's called Salad Leaves for All Seasons by Charles Dowding


This is my idea to grow some lettuces in an old bit of guttering placed on the greenhouse shelf! They are doing fairly well, hopefully the slugs won't reach them up there.:0)

Patchwork Skirt

I love fabric and can't resist buying it in any shape or form, fat quarters, by the metre or even tiny 3" squares. It's so addictive! Whilst trying to tidy up my sewing room the other day, I found these Patchwork squares.



I had completely forgotten that I had bought them! (I know I have some more somewhere with butterflies on them) So I started to sew them together and made Little one a new skirt. There seems to be a lot of patchwork around for childrenswear this season, there are some lovely dresses in Next with crochet bodices and patchwork skirts. I'd love to have a go at making one of those!



After three weeks of waiting (un)patiently, my seeds have germinated! I know I should have really had them in a heated propagator, but mine is underneath everything in the shed! Anyway, on the south facing kitchen window there was obviously enough heat to get them through.


As you can probably see from my home made label, these are Aubergines and Peppers


and these are Artichokes. I tried these once before, they came up well but when I planted them in the garden I put them in quite a shady spot and they didn't really grow much bigger, so I think these will need a sunny position. If you want to have a go at growing them, got my seeds from Sarah Raven, her site is great with lots of information about the plants and seeds she sells.

Halloween

B O O ! Here's my Halloween bunting!




Great for anyone having a Halloween party!

...down in the garden I have been harvesting my squash. These are so easy to grow and great if you have children as they grow so quickly they won't get bored with them! You can buy many different varieties of squash seed, but I just saved seeds from some organic squash we had bought to eat and then sowed them in pots in April/May.
Once they were sturdy enough we planted them out and they just took over! They scramble quite far, but if space is limited I think you could probably train them up some trellis. In fact I might try that next year. Although you have to protect them form slugs and snails when they are small plants, once established as strong healthy plants, they didn't really have any problems.
We have eaten them roasted with just butter and a few spices; cumin, cinnamon and chilli powder. They also make delicious soup. A real taste of Autumn!

Autumn in the Garden

We went for a lovely walk around a local Country Park on Saturday and the sun was out all the time, very warm and bright. When we came home, I had a look around the garden to see what is still growing. The Borlotti Beans I grew this year are getting a bit straggly now, although it still looks pretty when you see a bean in amongst the leaves...



My olive tree has a few olives...




Down in the Greenhouse, there are Green Peppers and tiny Aubergines. These should have been sown a lot earlier as they won't have enough warmth and sun to grow now. But they do look so cute!

Almost Autumn

Hi folks! Sorry it has been such a long time since I have posted. The main reason is that I have been up to my eyes in bunting orders of all shapes, colours and sizes. Also had a nasty cold that has been going around and my little girl has started Playgroup and dance classes (she absolutely loves both!) So it's been a bit crazy here lately.

I had to make two more Betsy Bunnies.......




.......and some gorgeous little Heart Doorhangers to clients own design which I think look great!





Just went out to take a look at the garden, there are so many wonderful colours at this time of year. I love it when all the leaves start to fall and you get those amazing shades of reds, browns and orange. We have had some lovely sunny days but I think wet and windy weather is forecast, so it will soon really feel like Autumn.

PYO and Jam

Hope you all had a good bank holiday weekend. We went to a PYO farm on Saturday. Resulting in huge bag of apples, damsons and plums; one bruised face from falling bramley and one large bite from flying insect! Still, it was great fun!
Got up early yesterday and made the damsons into some jam, delicious!



Last week I had to start picking my tomatoes. The warm and humid weather this summer has meant they have succumbed to blight. It was quite depressing pulling up all the plants; remembering how exciting it was planting them all out as little seedlings. But I will salvage what I can, I've put them on the window sill with a couple of bananas (it's supposed to help ripen them) and I'll use the rest for chutney. Yes another batch of Green Tomato Chutney! Seems the last three years have proved very difficult for my tomatoes.


My Mum has some glass Kilner jars and we bought some new lids for them from ebay so I'm going to have a go at bottling some of the red tomatoes and some fuits. Have to read up on it first but will post soon on how I get on.

Reasons to be cheerful!

1. It's Bank Holiday Weekend and it's not raining!

2. My cucumbers are still growing!

3. I've just bought some new wool!

In the Pink!

The sun is shining and we're feeling in the pink today!


Decided to make a little skirt for my daughter. It was such an easy pattern, just three pieces of fabric, some elastic and hey presto a new skirt! The fabric was some I found at a local fabric shop, it was very unusual, shaded a bit like those dip dye jumpers you get.


I feel like making some more. so I've sorted out a few bits and pieces to make another one.


Beetroot. These are the only ones that grew this year! Not sure why They didn't do well, but I will persevere with them next year.



Osteospermum, which flowers for such a long time. This one is great because it is winter hardy. Lost three others last year from the snow. It's also very easy to propagate, you just pull off a piece with a root and stick it in a pot with some compost and it will take easily.




Another skirt, this time a fairy princess one! This is made from nylon mesh fabric in two colours. All I did was cut double petals, fold them over some elastic and sewed together for the waistband. The top layer has a gorgeous silver sparkle effect all over it. I want to make more of these possibly using tulle instead as the mesh is so heavy, I think tulle would give a more 'floaty' look.



Love this rose, I think it's like this one Definitely on my wish list, but just need to find room to put it!

Freebie Food

We went to a Wildlife Fun day for children this week at a local Country Park. Whilst walking around the activities, I spyed these little beauties growing in the hedgerow.
I only had a carrier bag with me to put them in so they were a little squashed when we got home! But they were delicious stewed with a Bramley apple and mixed with some yoghurt.

Back home, I harvested some of my Swiss Chard, before the snails devoured it. The leaves are a bit like Spinach so I made a sort of curry with it adding some Chick Peas. The stems are supposed to taste a little like Asparagus but i just chopped them separately and through them in aswell. It went down very well with home made pilau rice.
If you can beat the snails, it's actually quite a good vegetable to grow. Bright Lights is a beautiful variety; the stems are either red, yellow or white. An amazing vegetable for a potager garden. It can also be sown in September for Winter harvesting.

Sunshine and harvests

The sun has been shining and it feels like summer again. We went to a 'Big Lunch' children's picnic yesterday and it was lovely to see all the little ones running around in the sunshine!

Back at home in the garden, we have had a mini harvest of some vegetables. The carrots and turnips were just thinnings but looked big enough to eat, so we kept them. Always seems a waste to throw them away. The only disappointment is the radishes, think I may give up on them for the moment I just don't seem to able to grow them. Any tips on growing them will be gratefully received.



We have limited space in our garden and so decided to pool resources and use a bit of my parents garden as an 'over flow'. My Mum is also a keen gardener, so it works out well; we do some weeding and digging for her and then we share the growing space. It's a great idea! We have our name down for an allotment but have been told the waiting list could be five years! I also registered with Landshare but it seems spare land is like gold dust in this neighbourhood.


I read this morning that there is still time to do a sowing of runner beans right now, so I might give it a go. If only I had more space!

It's been a wet and windy couple of days here, so not much chance of getting out and gardening. Had a quick peek out in between showers and everything's really coming along. All that rain has certainly given the plants a well needed drink. I took a couple of photos


I just love the Alchemilla Mollis, it looks so beautiful with the raindrops on it's leaves. I started out with one piece and it has generously self-seeded all around the garden.