May Garden Update

This is the garden at the end of a gloriously sunny and warm weekend. We have had picnics, we have been to the beach, and we have had the paddling pool out - in MAY!



Vegetable-wise, the garden is looking pretty good too. The potatoes are leafy and in nice straight rows.



Except for the odd stray. Like this one which showed up in the onion-and-garlic bed. (click to see it more clearly)



The peas and mangetout (for the RHS trial) are coming up nicely. I planted 8 of each, and 3 of one and 4 of the other have come up. Don't know if it's poor germination, or something more sinister...



And the bumble-bees are out in force. Enjoying the chive flowers here. Last year I split a pot from Tesco, from the 'growing herbs' (as opposed to 'cut herbs') section. They cost about a pound. I split it into three and planted among the roses which always get aphid-covered in an attempt to deter them. I don't think they are much detered, but the bees love it and they have filled the bed. And set seed and new freebie chives are growing. Not bad for a pound.


There is a bee on there, just to the left of centre... but you'll probably have to click to 'make it big' to see it clearly.

Wonderful Weekend

Had a lovely few days...

Friday I spent 4 hours at the allotment digging weeds (bind weed and nettles mostly, with an scattering of dock and thistles, just for interest) and planting potatoes. We also have a couple of raised beds with baby cabbages in. Covered in netting against the dreaded cabbage white butterfly, whose caterpillars can reduce a cabbage to the bare veins in a weekend or less!

Finished up on Saturday with a 2 hour stint. Gave the rest of the potatoes to the neighbours from the school, who are actually really nice, despite the fact that their imaculate plot makes ours look positively slovenly... At least we've got more planted than they do...

In the afternoon we went geocaching with the boys... if you've not heard of it you must find out. It is so much fun. A walk with a purpose. Fantastic for getting kids off their rumps... Treasure hunting. What more could they want?

The first picture is the view from where we found our cache.

Then we continued on for a longer walk, up Roseberry Topping, a bizzarely shaped hill. It looks like the crest of a wave. It's a lovely walk up, through bluebell woods, then wild garlic, and finally gorse. Talk about a change of scent as you ascend!

Dude at the top with the view

Spike and Pip enjoying themselves. Pip made it up first, and wanted to make sure everyone knew that!

Today has been gorgeous too. Picnic lunch in the garden, and now we are about to go out treasure hunting again. I uploaded some that looked good to our GPS unit, and now we can go hunting!

A good cause

A lovely (but crazy) guy from our church is doing the Lands End to John O' Groats route on his bike... 1000 miles, in 10 days. He is raising money for Centrepoint, a charity that helps homeless young people.

This is his page.

Today he is cycling from Tebay to Peebles, 107 miles with 5521 feet of climbing.

Go and have a look, find him using his GPS locator, read some of the experiences he has had (and is still having as I write), and if you feel inspired, perhaps even sponsor him. The people at Centrepoint would be very grateful, I am sure.

Anniversary Post

Well, to those of you who thought I would never make it, here I am. The Garden Adventures Blog has been going for a whole year! Yay! We are one! You know what's even more amazing? I remembered! On the day! And actually managed to post about it ON THE DAY! Phew...

Busy day yesterday, baking for the church fair (chocolate chip oatmeal cookies from the American Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, and Nigella Lawson's damp lemon and almond cake, with a mascarpone & raspberry icing. Yum!) It was a good fair, complete with bouncy castle and fire engine for kiddies to have a clamber on and try on helmets etc. Made even more exciting by the fact that it had to race off after about an hour for a real emergency!

This afternoon I took the boys down to the allotment (remember the allotment???) to do some digging, weeding and *gasp* planting! I planted my remaining potatoes (very late, I know) and we put some cabbages (given by a kind allotment neighbour) into one of the raised beds that we have finally built. Finally! We are growing something down there! First it was the heavy lifting of the carpet, followed by months of mud, followed by trying to get my own garden veg plot going... one thing after another and nothing going on down at the allotment. But at last we aren't complete slackers.

Our allotment next door neighbours (who have the other half of our plot) have been down in force, and have laid paving slabs for a path and a shed/greenhouse base, and put in a raised bed of lettuces and put a fence between our side and theirs... and it all looks very weed free. But I heard there were 20 of them, not 2, plus 3 kids. Although my 3 did a good job this afternoon, pulling off all the flower heads off the weeds, so they can't set seed, and gathering up random rubbish (carpet, nails, glass etc and taking it to the skip which is on site for the moment...) So they had 10x the manpower we did... Trying not to be envious... Not doing very well. Ho hum.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Happy Birthday to me!

Puddles

Another reason why I am not having any more children:
Puddles and wet pants and trousers. The joys of learning to use the toilet...

Monkey Love

This is Monkey. He is the non-human, and perhaps-not-alive (in the conventional sense) member of our family. He is irreplacable, down to the blu-tack in his tail.

And last night we had a tragedy.

We couldn't find Monkey at bedtime.

The surprising bit was that Spike (Monkey's best buddy) went to bed just fine, with a substitute bear, but I was absolutely distraught. I was not ready for Spike to give him up!

And I had had a very busy day, including a mammoth trip to the recycling centre with a carload of cardboard, plastic bottles and glass bottles... so there was the panicked thought: Did Monkey go in the recycling skip? (Visions of 'This is the Bear...') I couldn't remember if we'd had him on the rest of our errands that day... it was terrible.

I woke early this morning with a vague memory of Spike showing Monkey to someone at school at pick-up time. Long after recycling. Perhaps Monkey was at school?

And thank God, yes he was. He had spent the night playing play-dough in the Year 1 classroom. So after a nice 'bath' (read 'washing machine') Monkey was ready for a lovely cuddle with Spike again.

Here's a picture of the two of them on holiday last summer. A cuter pair I have never seen.

Aaargh!

It's not the slugs, snails or frost that I have to worry about. It's the ceaseless, blustery wind! My poor baby plants are getting whipped to bits. I put the Cherokee beans and the Butternut squashes outside for hardening off and they got withdrawn this afternoon, looking rather bedraggled. And as for the poor runner-beans. Well, they'll have to survive the best they can. What's a girl to do?

Done it

Well, finally Grampy's runner beans are out. 1-9, but no 7 It went mouldy and died. Sorry.

Now all I have to do is pray that they don't get eaten by slugs or snails or hit by a late frost. My back is aching from hours of digging, weeding and hefting big bags of soil improver. And the bean poles were so long (8ft!) that I had to stand on an upturned wheelbarrow to tie their tops together.

But it's done! See?

Also, all but a few potatoes are showing their first leaves. Not enough to earth up yet, but no doubt soon. Here are 'smile'

and 'Charlotte'

From here on out it's all about maintainance.

Oh, actually, must plant that butternut seedling and see what happens there. Still, that one seems ok inside still, so we'll wait til it gets a bit warmer.