I've been blighted!

Well what should I have expected! After all the problems with germination and getting things growing it was sure to happen really. I have the dreaded blight on one of my tomatoes! It is one of the plants that is by the patio doors, I have two plants here and the rest are at the other end of the garden and in the greenhouse. I have removed and destroyed the offending plant and hopefully the others will be safe. I will just have to keep a close eye on them. I must admit I did stamp my foot and swear!

Anyway moving on to the rest of the garden. I have been picking some more beans today, there were a few runners that were ready and some more French dwarf beans. Again the pests have been having a field day, I think they have been joining in with the Olympic's! The snail munch and how many flies can fit on the one stalk event. Below are two photo's of the decimated dwarf beans  and one of the fly event that is happening on the runner beans.

As you can see it does not look very pretty to say the least. I have sprayed the runner beans with my rhubarb solution and hopefully it will eradicate these damn flies!

On to a more positive note, the courgettes are growing quite well, I have now had three round courgettes of the same plant and several more are developing. The squashes and pumpkin plants are growing very well, however they are covered in snail trails which I find very surprising as these plants are quite prickly, goodness knows there are no bounds to these critters!

The goodies collected today. I was at a craft fair all day and the boys were left in charge of seeing to the chickens, I think they missed one or two of the eggs as there were six in the coop. One was on the poop tray and another was hiding under the shredded paper.

The melons are coming along, there are quite a few on each plant. Some have dropped off and these are being replaced by new ones. Not having grown these before I am not sure if I should remove some to allow others to grow or to just leave them all. I'll have to go and do some research. They are probably the size of a small marble at present.

The girls have also been busy with their own Olympic's! Who can knock the feeder over first event, Who can run to the fruit border in the quickest time event and the Who can make the biggest hole event. Dory won the gold for the feeder event. Octavia won gold for running the quickest event and Matilda won gold for the biggest hole with Bell getting a silver! Oh and I almost forgot they have been having a hurdle event in the coop as both perches were on the floor!

And finally I would like to thank Jo the author of The Good Life blog who has kindly awarded me The One Lovely Blog award. I am truly grateful to receive this award. There are rules that have to be adhered to in accepting this award and I shall be revealing all in my post tomorrow. To view Jo's Blogs visit The Good Life

Ohhhhhhh look at that My first ever award, how exciting!

Well that is it from me for today, until next time x

back to the wet and soggy UK

After spending four days relaxing in wall to wall sunshine in Portugal it was disappointing to come home to the rain and thunder again. This morning I woke up to a glorious day and was out in the garden early this morning to tackle the ever growing weeds. I can't believe how much everything has grown in just a few days.

I managed to weed both the raised beds and the fruit border, even though the sun was shining it was bitterly cold, especially after being in a totally different climate for the past four days which makes it feel even colder. I had to come in after an hour as I could no longer feel my fingers! I can't weed with gloves on as I find they get in the way and are too bulky. Hopefully tomorrow will be another dry day so I can weed the veg plot.

I need to get to the garden center as I have run out of soil for the potato bags and they need topping up again. The first earlies have grown quite a bit and a few more weeks and we shall be having fresh potatoes for dinner! I uncovered the second lot of cabbages today as they had also grown quite big and were getting squashed in the plastic bottle cloches. The onions that I planted out in March are almost as big as the ones I planted out last November.

Something has been attacking my peas that I planted out in the veg plot, it is either slugs or snails as you can see the silver trail they leave behind. I got some more hair from the hairdressers so I shall be putting this round the base of the peas as a deterrent from those pests! I have been taking the peas in and out of the greenhouse to harden off, they can be planted out at the end of the week.

I shall be sowing french dwarf beans, White Lady runner beans, pumpkin and squash seeds this week. The pumpkin and squash seeds did not germinate so I shall try again. Another tomato plant has come through so I have enough of those now. The gardeners delight tomatoes germinated the best and are the stronger looking of the three varieties. Only two Roma and one Alicante  germinated. However we should still get a good crop from these, that is as long as the blight does not attack again like last year.

Whilst in Portugal I tasted some pumpkin jam and my it was very tasty. I'm hoping for at least two good sized pumpkins this year so I can have a go at making it. I will have to search for a recipe first. We had the jam served with cheese and also with toast for breakfast.

Whilst we were traveling through Portugal to get to our hotel we passed lots of gardens which had vegetable plots and also allotments. They have already got their runner beans in as all you could really see clearly were the bamboo wigwams and cane supports for the beans. I have got a couple of photos which I shall try and post on here tomorrow as I can't seem to upload them at present. I will also take some photos around the garden tomorrow and post those too so you can see how much everything has grown.

I have been letting the girls out every evening, Matilda was flapping and clucking yesterday as Clyde decided to go and have a sniff and lifted her up with his big nose from behind! She was not impressed one bit and was quite indignant with her flapping and clucking! It was quite funny as Clyde bolted indoors and Matilda was strutting round the patio still grumbling about the intrusion. They have been quite consistent with the egg laying we have almost two dozen to eat, so it is scrambled eggs and pancakes for breakfast.

I have rather a busy day tomorrow I have several trays of flowers that need pricking out and potting up as well as all the herbs. I will have to get some more seedling compost as I have almost ran out of it. I also want to get the rest of the weeding done and hopefully give the girls coop a good scrub. Fingers crossed for a warm sunny day tomorrow!

And finally.....I hope you have not missed my rambling too much and hope you will continue with me on my gardening journey. May you all have an enjoyable day/evening x

Losing track of time!

These light night are going to take some getting used to. I was so busy weeding and watering that I lost track of time. I thought whilst dinner is cooking I'll make a start on here.
The unwell blueberry has wilted,dried and shriveled! So I have cut off the dead bits right down to the stem leaving a couple of what look like buds and just see what happens. The good news is that the blueberry that I planted in the ground last November has lots of new growth. So I will still have two blueberry bushes of different varieties and hopefully they will pollinate and give me my long awaited taste of blueberries.
The girls have made the most of the extra hour by digging another big hole the other side of the coop, I have filled it in again for them to dig all out tomorrow no doubt. We had four eggs yesterday and another three today so all is well in the coop! They were being rather noisy today and have had lots to eat. A big bowl of rice for breakfast, cabbage leaves for lunch and a pile of weeds for supper! What more could a chicken want.

The heath where I walk the dogs

It was a lovely warm day today even the rabbits were scampering about on the heath, unfortunately I was not quick enough with my camera. There was also a Jay having a dig around in the potato field, it is the third Jay I have seen this year. It is quite strange really I had never seen a Jay before in my life until one hopped into the garden last year and now I have seen three in as many weeks. By the way a Jay is a large bird the size of a small pigeon in case you are wondering what I am waffling on about. It was really peaceful on the walk today, we were the only ones on the heath. The dogs had a good run around with a stick. I did manage to get a couple of photos.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     

A little ray of sunshine
                                                                       

When I poked my head into the little plastic greenhouse I noticed something had been nibbling my peas, a pesky snail!I had a look but could not find it so I could give it to the chickens, they love the little blighters! I am now on snail patrol before it eats all my peas. It has already munched one down to the soil and had a nibble from another. I don't like to use pellets because of the dogs and the hedgehog we have under the decking and the frogs and toads who are very garden friendly. I'll just have to keep looking for it.
I have done the weeding today, it did not take long. I am being quite good in trying to keep on top of the weeding, just hope I can keep it up for the whole growing season! I have a lot of vegetables growing in pots and as the weather has been so dry for over a week I gave them a good soaking. I really have to get my water butts organised this weekend or I am going to struggle in the summer. My jobs to do list seems to get longer everyday!
And finally.....I'm away to put the girls to bed for the night. Have a good evening or day depending on where you are x