Rain at last!

It is really weird having proper rain, you know, the kind that gets your feet wet, soaks your hair. The garden is getting a well deserved soaking. Looks like I bought my slug traps just in time. I removed a snail from a sunflower plant this morning. It had devoured one of the leaves. I lobbed it onto the compost heap.

No gardening will be done today, so I can't escape Mount Ironing!

Oh, the endless ironing!

I have been ironing most of the morning and it seems the pile has not decreased. I am taking a break. It is too nice a day to be indoors. I have managed to plant the strawberry plants. A couple already have berries on them. Look forward to tasting them soon.

Off to the London Green Fair tomorrow. Particularly looking forward to a talk by chap from North London on growing vegetables. I will also feel compelled to buy a few plants.

Had to pull out my Rainbow Chard plants. They looked very unhealthy and I had no clue how to cook them anyway!

I am off for a massage to ease my aching shoulder. I have no clue what is causing the pain but the massage will help (I hope).

Buddha and blooms in my wee garden

Thought I'd share some photo's of my progress.

Sunshine and strawberries

Tomorrow I will be planting my strawberry plants and my long awaited cucumber plant. Not the best week to be vegetarian what with the ecoli. I figure it will turn out to be from meat.

We are meeting friends for a meal in a couple of weeks for dinner. I just checked out the website and it's a French restaurant with no sign of a vegetarian main course. Hopefully the website is not up to date.

After no initial signs of slugs in all this dry weather, I am now battling slugs as well as the cat from next door. How do you know what has been eating your crops? All I know is something has had a go at my kohlrabi plant.

I had to Google to figure out when I could harvest my spuds. I really haven's got a clue. And I didn't know what a sideshoot was until my OH should be last night. Still the tomato plants are flowering which is good. Will need to feed them tomorrow. So much to learn!

The garden is beginning to get interesting

I have been remiss at posting but I am back!

I have been on my Introduction to Permaculture course. It was very interesting. The people were very friendly but I felt a bit out of place at times. My experience in environmentalism is minimal but my interest is growing.

This week I bought 2 rather fetching pairs of Converse shoes and became vegetarian. So far I am not missing meat. I am still cooking meat. I can't see my omnivorous gang refraining from flesh anytime soon. My eldest son has been eating some of my vegetarian fayre which is encouraging. It is mind boggling the amount of resources used to produce meat. The smell of bacon tomorrow will be a test. I am most missing chorizo. I am still eating eggs and dairy. I can't seeing me chucking out my leather goods and turning vegan any time soon. A life without cheese, would be too hard to bear!

My first potato crop should be ready soon. It has been great eating all the salad from the gardening. I am not quite into the habit of regular sowing for constant crops. Today I harvested some radishes and sowed some carrots, iceberg lettuce and some poppies. The flowers in the garden and I am looking forward to more blooms. I will be eating my own courgettes soon. The plants have lovely bright yellow flowers. I may have to deep fry them, a la Jamie Oliver.

I hope to post some more pictures of my little polyculture project soon.

I spent the afternoon in the garden with my 14 year old son. He was a great help, He fixed the fence, made me a tripod and a bird scarer. I am all set for planting my vegetable seedlings tomorrow. I am so excited. I need to get some netting tomorrow to stop the birds eating my seedlings.

We attempted to make a video of the garden but my commentary was woeful. You won't be seeing it on youtube any time soon. Tomorrow I will post some pictures of my progress in the garden. I now have to go and read through my companion planting book to make sure I put all the plants in the correct place.

More digging!

I am trying to motivate myself for more digging today. I need to edge the bed and put some wooden planks down for edging. I attempted it at the weekend but the ground was too hard.

My seedlings are coming on. Unfortunately, my sunflower plants have flopped. I think I will sow some seeds straight in the ground. I am itching to fill the empty bed. So far it only has a French lavender plant, 2 coleus canina plants and some garlic. My vegetable plants arrive at the weekend but I am not sure if I can put them out yet. I think I need to wait to be sure there will be no more frost. I am now obsessed about the weather. My head is buzzing with different growing instructions. I definitely need 'L' plates for this gardening lark.

I have not met on 'real' gardener that does polyculture gardening. Most are perplexed at the thought that my veg are going to be nestled amongst flowers. I read one website saying that it is not very established in home gardens and that people that do are pioneers! I like the idea of being a pioneer, all be it a clueless one.

One of the plants arriving is called kohlrabi which is a seriously weird looking vegetable. Think alien veg! I think that will have to be well disguised before I serve it up. In the meantime, I am looking forward to my first salad leaf crop in the next couple of weeks. If there are any left. Youngest son was in the garden yesterday with a friend showing off the plants and eating some of the little leaves.

Hopefully, in the next month I will have some more pictures of my endeavors. I am facing the fact I am middle aged. Instead of heading out on a Friday night, I now tune in to Gardeners World. Monty Don kindly give out a list of things to do in the garden. When I get more plants in, I will feel like I have a garden.

Still undecided about the AV referendum. Leaning towards no at the moment. Actually feeling a wee bit sorry for Nick Clegg, though not much. Not looking forward to seeing my payslip next week. Anyway enough blogging, time to spring into action....or have another cup of tea!