Flexing my green fingers!

What a wonderful weekend of sunshine we have enjoyed but as usual it is short lived back to heavy rainfall across the UK again from tonight.

But today I managed a few hours in the garden. Ben was a great help out in the garden today, he cleaned out the girls for me, cleaned out the guttering on the summerhouse, watered all the potato bags and swept all the paths after the girls rampage so a big thank you Ben x

I weeded the vegetable plot, sowed some fennel and celeriac. I planted out some leeks and I sorted out the stakes for the peas. So that was my gardening of the weekend. 

Onions & swede

Broad beans & peas

The photos are not the best but you can see how much things have grown since last time.

I hope you have all enjoyed the sunshine, until next time x

Another 40 days & 40 nights?

A hint of colour, my sweetwilliams that I grew from seed last year

Sorry for my absence it has been a rather busy couple of weeks getting back into the swing of things since our trip which now seems ages ago! I have yet another lovely cold, I have had more colds since I have given up smoking ( 9 months!) than I have in the last 20 years! Jay has one also so it was obviously the change in the weather.

the swamp with an ongoing hole that grows by the day!

It is now raining quite heavily again and we have it for the weekend according to the weather forecast. I have just cleaned out the girls and the run is a... atchoooooooooooo swampy mess. No gardening has been done, I have been too tired and the weather just wasn't cooperating! I just had a wandered about and the weeds are flourishing so are the broad beans and peas. 

Peas, beans & weeds!

The potatoes are also growing very well, I have already filled up the bags with more soil and greenery is poking out the tops of the bags. I do look forward to the first potatoes of the year fresh from the garden, the taste is out of this world.

The onions are growing well too, swede is now showing and so are a few scraggly leeks. The leeks in the greenhouse are doing just fine, there are not many, but what ever I get this year will most certainly be a bonus. 

Leeks in the greenhouse

Rhubarb top left, onions, weeds and bottom left you can just see the swede

The strawberries are flowering as are the blueberries. The girls have ravaged the gooseberry and tayberry bushes so I am not holding my breath of getting anything from either of these.

One of the Blueberry bushes

Forlorn gooseberry bush

bedraggled tayberry bush

Strawberry plants

However I am considering moving the fruit to the front garden. I have mentioned before about the strip of garden down the side that has now overgrown somewhat and looks bloody awful. So plans for later on in the year I will be relocating all the fruit bushes to the front garden and may even add a new fruit. 



Well another busy weekend lies... atchoooooooo ahead, a craft fair tomorrow, Adam will be holding the fort at the shop. Sunday morning will be running around getting jobs done and the rest of the weekend I am going to relax and enjoy!

I hope you all have a grand bank holiday weekend here in the UK 
and for those of you further a field I hope you all have a wonderful time whatever you maybe doing. 

Finally I would like to say a big hello and welcome aboard to my new followers, I hope you have enjoyed it so far. Until next time x

Quick half hour

I am still feeling the cold, going from 40 degrees to just 13 during the day and 3 degrees at night is certainly taking it's toll, a sniffly nose and cold feet!

I popped into the local B & Q store on my way home tonight and grabbed six strawberry plants, paint, wall paper and other bits and bobs and trundled home.

I am pretty knackered and didn't feel much like going out in to the cold again to potter about the garden, but needs must the girls house needed cleaning and as I had bought the plants I had better get them in.

The girls were pleased to be let out, as usual heads down and arse up and the stones and soil were flying everywhere! Another job for me to do but on the upside 3 large eggs were waiting in the nesting box.

Once I had cleaned out the hen house I planted out the strawberry plants

I managed to take this one photo and as usual the battery ran out, I think it is time to look into getting either a new battery or camera. A few hints might be needed it is my birthday soon... nudge nudge wink wink household.

I now have ten plants in this bed and today I found another strawberry plant that I had forgotten about in a pot which I have  left it in the pot. 

I wanted to take a picture of the blueberry's I think I may actually get a crop from them this year as they have lots of new growth and it all looks pretty promising. 

The cut and come again salad leaves that are sitting on the windowsill had grown very well and they girls enjoyed them tonight as they needed to be cut and it is too damn cold for salad!

The herbs look a bit poorly as I think the boys forgot to water them, I have tried to rescue them and they appear to be battling through. I will take photo's later and post them tomorrow.

Well it is that time again, the glass of sherry has hit the spot time to do some crochet in front of the TV. Until next time x

Feeling the chill...

A big hello to you all, I am presently sitting here with a big cardigan on and a pair of socks as well as other clothes of course but I am feeling rather chilly even though the weather has warmed up considerably but unfortunately not the soaring heat that we experienced the past two weeks in Egypt.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that things had started to grow in the garden. The broad beans are starting to flower, though they are not very tall, unlike next doors who's beans are twice the size but they did sow them in November so they had a head start on me. 

The peas are coming along nicely as are the red onion sets. The swede has also made an appearance as have some leeks and an abundance of weeds! The potatoes have also shown their green leaves and I managed to add some more soil to the potato bags yesterday. 

I managed a couple of hours in the garden yesterday and as well as filling up the potato grow bags I also weeded the strawberry bed with the very sparse four strawberry plants! I will be calling at the garden centre at some point this week to get some more.

The girls survived without  me looking after them, and the boys between them done a splendid job of looking after the hens, dogs and the house. I scrubbed out the hen house yesterday whilst the girls enjoyed their freedom and continue to make the usual mess about the garden, it took me a good half an hour to sweep all the paths and patio up once they had gone back in the run.

The gardens at the hotel we stayed in were fantastic and so well kept. They have the lushest green grass, it is like walking on air. They make good use of the grey water and it is used to water all the gardens. There were an army of gardeners who looked after and tended to the gardens and a superb job they done too. Below you can see some of the wonderful work that the gardeners do. 

It really made me smile seeing these

Walking on air

An oddity amongst the flower borders, A tomato plant!

The garden is looking a bit forlorn and could really do with some TLC hopefully the weather will be good on Sunday and with all hands on deck we should get the job done. I am hoping to get some seeds sown later this week and also get the strawberry bed filled up.  I hope you are all well and enjoying your time in the garden. Until next time x

A quick hello...

Hello everyone, apologies for my absence I have been enjoying some lovely warm weather in Egypt. I have lots of photos to share and some gardening news too.

I hear the weather has been quite good whilst I have been away. I have still to check on the garden and I will do a more detailed post over the coming weekend. I hope all is well in blogging land and look forward to catching up with you all soon.

Until next time x