Grow to Eat #1

This is my first Grow to Eat Link-up post. I decided to make this a Monday one because we often go to the allotment at the weekend and a Monday evening might be a good chance to sort through the weekend gardening.

Things are getting serious down at the allotment. About 10 days ago I popped over there on my own and I managed to plant most of my seedlings. There are still a few to go in, but the majority of them are in the ground. It was ideal, really. I went and planted everything and only watered them in a little bit because I didn't have time, but that night it started to rain and it rained pretty much all day the following day - not a hard rain but a gentle drizzle, ideal to water the seedlings in nicely without damaging them.

The structural stuff is also coming along - the shed is slowly taking shape. After blowing over a few times over the winter D quickly finished the front panel because that is the side that faces the wind the most and because it was partially open it acted like a sail and simply pushed the whole structure over.

D also managed to get a water-butt set up to collect rain water off the shed roof, so we won't have to bring water with us in containers this summer. This was really high on the list, because the site has no running water and we could just never transport enough to water the plants adequately. Since rain isn't exactly a rarity around here the water that get get off the shed roof should sort this problem and in fact, the rain we've had these past two weeks has been enough to almost fill the water butt up to the top!

For the past few months I've also been contemplating how to extend our existing beds without creating a massive headache for myself. When I started planning for this year I realised that in order to really plant everything that I want to I will have to have more beds than we currently have. D was not enthused - he is of the opinion that we should try to come to terms with what we have instead of adding more and I can kind of see where he is coming from. Then there is are the borders for the beds. I quite like the way the wooden borders give the beds a clear definition and without that it would be much more difficult to keep the beds tidy. Because this is an allotment I didn't really fancy buying more wood to frame the beds, though, so all this meant that I was pretty much stuck with my planning.

Then, just as I thought I'd just make do with what I had, one of the allotment old-timers came up with the obvious solution. 'Well, you are just going to combine a few of the beds, aren't you?' It solves all the problems. More planting room? Check. Clearly defined outline? Check. Wooden surround? Check, because I can now just take out two of the wooden planks between the two beds and re-position them between the beds to create a rectangular space. It is kind of obvious, isn't it? Hadn't ever crossed my mind. Not once.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon we went over there again to cut the grass and see how the plants were getting on. We've had a lot of rain recently, so we'd not been for almost two weeks and boy, things really go wild quickly this time of year. Especially weeds, they always seem to grow much more quickly than anything else.

When we arrived it all looked a bit unkempt. D got the mower out and started, while the boys settled in for a bit of mud play in their favourite patch. I was going to plant in there this week but I'm slowly coming round to the idea that I may have to leave this patch bare (even more need to combine and enlarge beds!) - they really enjoy digging in there and really, the allotment is supposed to be fun for all of us...

Successful as a sand box and as a water-play area but not quite so successful as a vegetable bed - note the almost invisible tiny seedlings to the left, now trampled into the mud by small feet. I think I'll give up on this bed...

Now, look at this patch:

Hard to believe it, but under that clump of weeds is parsnip. I accidentally pulled a few up before I remembered and I'm only managed to weed half of it before we started to get attacked by our neighbour's honey bees and had to leave. Does anyone know why this happened? They are normally really peaceful and have never bothered us before, but this time they actually pursued both D and myself around the whole patch. So strange.

Anyway, when we left the patch looked like this - not much progress, but it was quite tricky to extract the parsnip seedlings from the weeds!

And what is going on elsewhere? 

The potatoes are doing well and I have to make sure to fill the tubs up with soil in the next few days.

I've planted these in tubs this year because 

a) they took an awful lot of room in the plot last year and 

b) we hardly got to eat any of them because they were so riddled with potato worms. I am hoping that growing them in plastic bags / tubs will deter them a bit...

I have also planted up some of my poor neglected tomato seedlings in the greenhouse at home, but they looked too sorry for themselves for a decent photo, and the salad bowl on the patio table is looking amazing! It's actually a mix of some salad bowl seed mix, rocket seeds, and some replanted plants from one of those supermarket 'living salad' packets. They looked pretty sorry for themselves because I had forgotten to water them, so I thought I'd give them a chance and replanted them around the edge of the pot. I didn't think they'd all make it but well, apparently they are tougher than they look!

So there you go, the season is well under way!! 

This is the first post in my new 'Grow to Eat' series. Since I am posting a lot about allotmenting and vegetable / fruit growing (and cut-flower growing too, so it's a flexible term, lol) I thought I'd start a link-up. I don't anticipate any large response initially, but since I'm posting anyway I might as well make it a thing and invite others to share if they are growing to eat as well. If you do I'd love it if you could link up so  I can find your posts - it's always more fun if you can share, and I'd love to see (and possibly learn from) what others are doing! 

(A better button will come, but I'm not that great at making them so don't get too excited! ;) )

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Happy Monday

Well, happy Monday, everyone.

Despite a rather so-so weekend including a trip to the 7-day surgery because of my body's rather excessive reaction to a red ant bite (my whole arm basically became one of those balloon animals) and further exciting adventures in summer colds and sinus infections, my Monday was actually quite happy. I went into work and was quite content to be in my office, tinkering and getting things done, and this evening D went off for his Banjo lesson and I went up for an early bedtime. Boy #1 pounced on the chance of some mummy time (a rare commodity in a household with two younger brothers) and is snuggled up next to me, inspecting my knitting.

Which gets me to the image for today - the first tentative beginnings of the Garter Yoke Cardi! I cast on this weekend and have been knitting slowly but steadily. Even so, since this picture was taken I've already managed to misread the pattern twice (!), but I'm not ripping. I think both mistakes are sort of fixable/hideable, and the thought of ripping out all these hundreds of stitches (because this is a top-down cardi there are a LOT of stitches) fills me with despair. I'll just have to try and hide the mistakes.

Anyway, here is is, next to some more flowers from the garden. It looks innocent enough, just lying there... ;)  So flowers + new knitting project + pretty yarn = happy thoughts for a happy Monday, right?

Simple Things Sunday

I was thinking that I might show some pictures of the last few days of our holiday this week, but then we went to the allotment yesterday and so much has happened there these past two weeks while we were away, plus you've already seen a few holiday pics, so allotmenting is the theme I'm going with this week.

It always amazes me, the way nature immediately takes a patch of land back, as soon as you stop tending it. We were only gone a fortnight, yet when we got there yesterday the whole plot was overgrown with some - admittedly very pretty - yellow flowers.

Pretty, no?

As for what was happening within the flower beds... well, let's just say that I didn't realise that courgettes could grow from basically non-existent to full-on take-over-the-world massive marrows within the space of 14 days.

Just look at those babies!

Overall there was a mix of over-grown wilderness and cultivation that was quite charming in its own way - not that I think the allotment committee would agree with me there. They have some pretty clear ideas of what an allotment is supposed to look like. But look at those pretty Dalias and sunflowers!

Well, D took to cutting the grass between the beds, and I went into full-on weeding mode. By the time we left it looked pretty tidy again.

In addition to the aforementioned marrows I also carried away a huge basket of vegetables and flowers.

I'll have to process all those beans and freeze them. The flowers however, are ready to grace our tables. I love that throughout summer we can always have a fresh bunch of flowers from the garden and the allotment on the table. So pretty.

Shared with Simple Things Sunday

Happy Monday

My Monday was actually a little less happy and a little more stressful, with work, and holiday planning and all sorts of annoying paperwork, so I think I'm in need of a bit of eye candy to bring back the happy. I'm still with the theme of flowers because there is just so much in the garden right now and I'm trying to capture at least a fraction of it.

Keeping Chickens

These chickens, they love us. 

Honestly, before we had chickens I could never have foretold how affectionate and even downright clingy these birds are. 

Even when we first brought them home they were already pretty tame and put up with not only children but also cats relentlessly stalking them. Not only that, they even seemed to seek out the company, seemingly drawn to the activity whenever we were in the garden. They are so nosy! 

As they got to know us they grew bolder. They would hang out with us on the patio, would sit on the bench next to me as I drank my morning tea, would wait for scraps under the table when we had dinner outside. If you don't watch them they'll fly up to steal food right off your plate (and once right out of boy #2's mouth - he was not happy!). In the winter they mainly hung out on the patio, sitting on the bicycles stored by the back door, high enough so they could peer through the glass in the door and spy on us inside.

Then they decided that this really wasn't close enough. 

They started following us into the house. Nyla, the brown chicken, in particular developed a strong fondness of cat food and whenever the back door opened she ran across the garden to get there before the door was shut again. It's pretty amazing how fast chickens can eat when they put their mind to it! 

She will also happily follow me into the kitchen to hoover up crumbs under the kitchen table. I wouldn't miind this so much if she didn't poop every 5 seconds. I think there is really not much space in there - it's mainly all egg I think - so whenever something goes in at the top (which is constantly) something needs to come out the other end (which is therefore also near-constantly). 

Sorry, I realise this is probably more information than strictly speaking necessary.

This is Rex on the picture above - the boys named her when they were still convinced that she was a cockerel. They look pretty fierce when viewed up close like this. I read the other day that they are descended straight from dinosaurs and I think in a shot like this you can kind of see that. 

Anyway, I'm conflicted about the fondness that our chickens have for our company (and food) - on the one hand they really are good company and I love the way they will immediately start 'chatting' to you when they can hear you getting close, but on the other hand there is all that poop, and the bold food-stealing off the table... We have built a run for them at the back of the garden under the fruit trees and they are mainly in there now unless one of the boys lets them out. They like it well enough, although they still prefer to be with us all of the time. 

Happy Monday

I'm still finding my equilibrium with this new/old blog and part of that is figuring out what I want to post throughout the week. As I've said before, having a structure helps not only my blogging habits but also gives me motivation for crafting and photographing. It looks like Wednesdays are going to be my WIP days, which means Yarn Along and WIP Wednesday. FO's are probably going to be posted whenever, but I may at times participate in FO Friday. Sundays are for Simple Things.

I think Mondays should be for happy things - who can't do with something happy to look at or think about on a Monday? So this will be whatever makes me happy or struck me as beautiful in the past week.

This week it's this:



This time of year I'm so in love with my garden - all those flowers!

If you want to play along, just post something that makes you happy on your own blog and if you'd like me to have a look at it you can always leave a comment and link and I'll hop over. :)