Tiles, Seedlings & Bunting

Phew what a busy week I've just had, sorry for the little blog break but I had a week in Shropshire with Mum & Dad doing some much need organizing and decision making about the wedding, it all seems to be coming together well and Rich and I are stating to get pretty excited about it now!

While I was away Rich was yet again doing more tile laying in our cottage, you may remember that we (and by that I mean Rich!) laid our quarry tile floor in the living room, we had always intended to do the whole ground floor of the cottage but as its very small and Rich's time is limited we are having to do one room at a time. Last week was the turn of the dinning room/my work room/hall/room thats too damn small to do much with! Once again Rich was helped out by his Dad who gave up a weeks holiday to put himself through mild physical torture on his knees on a cold concrete floor (thanks Rick!!) and the result as you can see is beautiful!



Rich has also been watering my seedlings in the greenhouse for me, they seem huge after not seeing them for so long, the Peas are going really well, I'm hoping to plant then out this weekend (hopefully the frost will keep off!)



The Onions are also doing really well, I need to get some more on the go this week, but its quite exciting growing them from seed!



My Tomatoes have also at long last made an appearance, helped along by the warm weather at the beginning of last week.



I'm hoping to get a few hours in the garden some time this week so I will have a better up date on whats happening.

My next little project (in between working on artwork, stuff for my shop, the garden and my part time job!) is making stuff for the wedding, Mum and I managed to get some really lovely fabric last week, including some beautiful old hand stitched linen place mat's from a charity shop (for the grand total of £3.30!) we'll be using these to stand kilner jars full of wild flowers on at the reception.



And as buying ready made bunting is so exspensive I'm going to try making my own...



I have a feeling this week is going to be just as busy!

Happy Birthday!

Two Birthday s actually, I have just realized that my little blog was a year old on the 2nd of March! so a slightly belated Blog Birthday to me, which brings me on the the more important Birthday of the two.

Happy Birthday to my lovely Dad who is 60 today! I have mentioned my Dad on here before so I won't go on to much (but just enough to make him feel embarrassed!) sufficed to say he's had a very crap year, there's nothing like a load of medical professions killing off your bone marrow then pumping you full of drugs to really put a dampener on your day, put he has come through it all wonderfully (in fact we recons he has more hair now its grown back than he had before, score!)

So this is just to say we are all so proud of you Dad, we weren't ready to do without our silly old bear just yet!

Sun At Last!

Mmmm lovely sun shine, how I've missed you! Its warm enough to walk to work without a coat at the moment! Its been so nice to stroll down to the greenhouse after breakfast and have a look at how the seedlings are getting on. Their doing pretty well actually, even the onions have finally made an appearance!



The Garlic is also rampaging away in its sink...



And as the weathers improved a bit I got some of my Victoriana Nursery's Spinach seeds planted, they are also in one of our freecycled sinks!



As the Pea seedlings are coming on so fast I thought I would take the opportunity to get the pea bed ready for them. I'm using the same bed as last year, I know your supposed to rotate the beds to stop problem build ups in the soil but the end bed is so handy for peas as it narrower that the others and I can get at them from both sides.
For the last 2 years I have used the method of burying a layer of corrugated cardboard about 2 foot down to act as a sponge layer, peas really don't like to dry out so this should mean that the card retains any moisture in the soil so the peas roots can borrow down and get at it. Now in theory this works fanatically well, unfortunately the last 2 years have been a total washout as far at the summer was concerned, so dried out Peas really haven't been an issue! But I believe firmly in forward planning and every man and his dog recons this year will be a scorch so here I am yet again digging a bloody big hole...



Then lining it with cardboard, a layer of wood ash from our stove (quite a big layer, I really must empty it more often!) and a layer of worm filled compost from one of our bins...



Then the fun job of back filling it, my thighs are still aching 3 days later!



Hopefully all this effort will give the Peas and Squash the best possible conditions to give us loads of lovely veg this summer.

I love this time of year, so many things are sprouting and showing tiny bits of green, our All Gold Raspberries are just starting to shoot, they where a huge success last year apart from it being slightly too wet for them meaning quite a few of the fruits went moldy before they had even ripened.



So generally the whole garden is looking pretty promising right now!



Apart from all the fruit and veg we grow I try to grow as many flowers as possible, not just because they look nice but to attract the insects, especially the Bees which seem to be having a very tough time of late. I like to try and grow flowers for cutting as well, money being so tight means cut flowers from a shop are an unaffordable luxury right now, so to make sure I can have flowers over the summer I'll be planting my favourite Sweet Peas in tubs on the patio by the front door.
I managed to buy another old galvanized tub the other week for a mere £3, so Rich kindly drilled some holes in it for me...



then it was filled with wild flower seeds and will hopefully also have the Sweet Peas planted in it but the end of the month.



I put it next to the pond where it should end up covered in Dragonflies like the pots I had there last year did. I already have my Pansies planted up which the Bees seem to like.



So a pretty productive day Sunday, its so nice just to be out a working in the garden again. Who needs foreign holidays when you have all this on your door step...

First Spuds In!

Woohoo, the first spuds of the year are in, they have been sat chitting on my front room window sill for a month now, and looked ready to go to work.



So the beds got a good dig over yesterday and a nice layer on compost to help them along. I am putting the spuds in the bed that had the onions in last year, I don't have a lot of room for rotating as I only have 3 small beds (and the peas will be going into the same one again!), hopefully they'll be happy here.





Its very satisfying to finally be digging again! I also saw the first signs of life in little pots in the greenhouse this weekend, my little peas are stating to pock their way though! I can't wait to be eating fresh peas this spring!



The Garlic I planted at Christmas is also on its way...



...and here are further signs of the approaching season.



we suddenly have millions of purple crocuses every where, I even spotted tiny green shots on my Grape and Raspberries!!!

I will have to go and have a sit down, this is all to exciting!