Cutting my losses

Well I have decided to give up on a few things.

Tomatoes - my six tomato plants are now having a party in my compost heap and the green tomotoes have been combined with courgettes in the lovely chutney recipe on the farming friends website. The leaves and fruit were going mouldy and stripping them off wasn't helping - I think it was just too damp and sunless in my greenhouse. I will try again next year for third time lucky. (Last year the plants were fine but the tomotoes were totally tiny.)

Leeks - the plants were so small I could hardly see them and there was no hope for getting anything edible. I sowed the seeds far too late and planted them out when there were about a millimetre thick. It was doomed from the start.

Spinach - every seed that I get to germinate bolts immediately, I have no idea why. So I have said bye bye to the row.

Beetroot - I'm not sure about this one, I find these hard to germinate. Then some of them look ok, some bolt straight away and some remain teeny tiny seedlings. I have taken out a row that is never going to produce anything and I'm kicking myself that I left so much ground for it. Well I will know next time.

(By the way, I am cheating slightly with photo as it was taken before the plants went mouldy. I just didn't want to put a minging image at the top of my blog!)

Welcome to the ladies

Well...I have been pretty quiet blog-wise but busy elsewhere. I celebrated my 26th birthday a week ago (and so now over the half-way mark to 50 as my family lovingly pointed out.)

I had a fantastic time with the most wonderful fantastic Mr Butternut giving me the present of my dreams...an Eglu chicken house! It is a beautiful thing and is now being happily occupied with two new additions to our family - a partridge brown hen called Mrs Cecilia Cluckerson (or CeCe for short), and a Maran called Mrs Weasley. CeCe has already established herself as the boss I think. They don't do very much but I could watch them entranced for hours... I will post a photo as soon as I can.

Garden wise, we are drowning in cucumbers and the herbs are all looking lovely. Tomotoes have been disapointing so far - they may have blight as the greenhouse has been quite wet and there is some mould appearing. However, they are much bigger than last year so I will try again next year. I think I would space them out a bit more though and maybe try some outdoor varieties.

We have started munching on some of the most delicious carrots I have ever tasted, it's so tempting to pull them up when they're tiny but I must be patient and let the rest grow a bit bigger. I've been busy too sowing winter salads, cauliflowers and cabbage. It looks too like I've successfully created four blackcurrant bushes from tiny cuttings I took from a wild bush.

I've been constantly amazed at some of the veg that has done well in my heavy, wet, clay soil. Carrots are supposed to be a no-no in this kind of environment but they've been fantastic. I just wish I'd grown more rather than the measly two rows I thought I'd try as an experiment. The beetroot on the other hand has been extremely slow, as have the pumpkins, while other squashes are doing well.

It doesn't feel like a year since my 25th birthday when I was given my greenhouse (isn't Mr Butternut good to me?) and started on my garden adventures...

Job Done

Lots of activity in the garden today so I am just doing a list to help with my memory...

• Potted on the purple-sprouting broccoli and basil
• Planted out the leeks (hannibal variety) and sowed another row
• Planted three more rows of beetroot (detroit globe) and two rows of swedes
• Planted out my butternut squash and jack o'lantern pumpkins
• Planted out chamomile round the blueberry bush
• Planted out a mystery squash near the strawberries
• Weeded like a demon
• Trying to get the lawnmower to work with no success
• Tidied out the greenhouse again and chatted to my plants

Endless sowing (of seeds)

I am unbelievably stupid. Was about to get on the train today when I get a phonecall from my man D to let me know that I have his keys for the house and the car he has borrowed for the week. And my response?... 'Can you drive to the station and pick them up?' Perhaps one of the most illogical things I have ever come out with.

As a result I had two extra hours this morning until the next train and so two hours in the greenhouse (every cloud and all that...) Managed to sow some more beetroot and the first swedes as well as some Jack O' Lantern pumpkins. And finally take some photos. So here they are.





And the strawberry cage is still there. I am doing a little dance!




















From left: blueberry flowers, some orange seeds I spat out in a pot, cucumber babies and the first strawberries