Treasure

Ok yet another post of stuff I found at the carboots, sorry!

Last weekend was another good one, the amazingly hot weather helped, we got a vintage metal Horlicks crate (should have been £6, we got it for £4) and 3 old Ladybird books (£1 each, we got 3 for £2.50) which Rich and I sort of collect...

I decided to use the crate to plant Rocket in (Rich's favourite!), so I had to sort out a lining, we had some old willow screening off cuts from the fence and a few old empty compost bags...

Some fiddly work...

Then the cut up compost bag...

yes it did look at bit of a mess but once the compost had filled it out it look much better (honestly!)...

...and here's the finished result sitting by the pond all planted up with seed! Right where Rich can keep and eye on it! Mmm a good day of booting and recycling!

More Car Boot Goodness!

Arrr finally the car boot season is up and running again, and like an addict I breath a sigh of relief!

So what bargains did I bag this weekend ( I can tell you really can't wait to see!) well not that much actually, it was threatening rain which put a lot of people off, not us though!

I got a MASSIVE Foxglove for £4, something that looks like a really big Cornflower (not label) for £2 and half a dozed duck eggs for £1.50....

I have wanted to try duck eggs for ages, but our local shop only sells hen eggs. I can't believe how huge they are! Apparently they make good cakes, that's the only excuse I need!

Anyway here's the plants in there new home by the pond...

The rest of Sunday was spent potting up Rich's Chillies, my Beetroot and some French Runner Beans Rich got me...

...and yet another willow wigwam!

Its all looking a bit Beatrix Potter! ( if you ignore the half coke bottles on the raspberry posts...and the big white motor home in the background...and the concrete garage, ok it doesn't look at all like Beatrix Potters garden)

For The Love of Apple Crates

I love old apple crates (yes I am very sad!) a couple of posts ago I showed you the 3 we brought from Gardenalia in Bath, they where a bit rotten and very wormy in places so have spent quite a few weeks residing in the greenhouse waiting for me to give them a bit of tlc...

The plan was to make a veg storage rack as we are always short of space come autumn...

After being soaked in woodworm treatment I decided to paint the insides white, which really brightened them up, that and a good sand was all I did...

I may but a plank across each one to stop the veg sacks rolling out but apart from that I'm really happy with how they turned out!

I'm having to resist them temptation to put books in them, once I do that I know I'll never use them as a veg rack...must resist...!

Bank Holiday Weekend Part 2!

More Pics, sorry!

So as we had the Monday off ( woohoo!) Me, Rich and Mum decided to make the most of it and have a day at the sea side, Lyme Regis in Dorset to be exact, we're only a couple of hours away in Bath so its ideal for a day out!

I totally LOVE Lyme, it feels like Bath only smaller and with a beach! We had a little walk along the sea front, admiring the amazing beach huts as we went...

My favourite is this one, the colours are so seasidey, I love that its a bit flaky too!

We discovered that there was the tale end of the fossil festival going on, with people carving stone...

...and balancing stones (?) something I'd never heard of before, I later discovered it was this chap

Weird but quite cool too!

Rich and I both love this quote!

Lyme has one of the most wonderful garden shops I've ever been in, I wanted everything in there, if your ever on the South Coast go at take a look at Ginger Beer (thankfully they also have a website!)

After drooling at that for a bit we went for a walk along Monmouth Beach, this is the beach where you can see all the ammonites embedded in the rocks.

Its so insanely beautiful I couldn't stop taking pics, sorry lots of rocks coming up...

This is Mums dog Eddie, Richard wants it making very clear that he's is nothing to do with him!

Aren't those fossils amazing!

We even brought back a couple of little souvenirs (because I haven't got enough crap in the garden!)...

I'd love to say we found them but Mum brought them for me off a guy at the fossil festival for £1 each!

So another brilliant day and a very good weekend in all, marred only slightly by the fact that my Dad wasn't there, but I think we enjoyed it for him...

Bank Holiday Weekend Part 1!

I warn you now, these are going to be very picture heavy couples of posts, sorry but there was just too much to take pics of this weekend!

Mum and her woofer Eddie came to stay this weekend, as it was the Bank Holiday (for anyone outside the UK, it means we get Monday off too, woohoo!) so as usual the weather forecast was abysmal, pretty standard for this country!

However we actually managed to dodge most of the showers and had a brilliant weekend, Saturday Mum and I went into Bath (Rich gave us a bit of girly time and selflessly stayed home and played on his Xbox, what a kind chap he is!)

There was much looking in shops and having of lunches (as usual), if its a dry day in Bath it is now law that we go to the Walcot Saturday Market, Rich and I have procured many treasures there over the years and this weekend was no exception...

Now some of you may wonder why exactly I would want a Lobster Pot, in my defence...its so pretty! I couldn't leave it on the nice ladies stall, its just so amazing, I'm going to keep loo roll in it in the bathroom!

Anyway after all the strenuous buying of useless fishing equipment we spend the evening with our feet up!

Sunday we managed to get in the garden between rain clouds, we even got the odd bit of sunshine, we had had our latest parcel from Victoriana Nursery on Friday night so I was itching to get as much planted up as possible.

I got my Auriculas planted in lovely little terracotta pots...

That's the meter cabinet their sitting out, I hate those horrid white boxes, its right on the front of our cottage too, luckily with the bench in front of it and these little plants on top its not to bad now!

We also planted the Sweet Peas up on the patio this year, they are my favourite flower and I wanted them where I could see them all the time...

I can't wait for that amazing scent they have, smells like summer to me!

Here's our Goji Berry next to the pond, its in a nice deep pot, hopefully this will keep it happy!

As you can see the tomatoes are going well, the odd bit of sun really helps things along.

I seem to have had a very wicker heavy weekend this week, I brought 2 more of these willow wigwams from Gardenalia for the bargain price of £20 for the 2, I hope my Peas appreciate my bargain hunting!

I ordered another 10 Chive plants, I think I have mentioned that I was trying to line the edge of the veg beds with them, as this always seems to be a bit of a dead area, I love Chives not only are the great in food but they are so pretty when they flower.

Another herd I wanted to try was Fennel, I've never grown it before (and am not entirely sure how you use it!) but I'm willing to try anything this year! 2 Plants are now at home in one of the Belfast sinks (as it was the only spot I had left!)

And lastly my Brussels Sprouts, they are tucked into a corner where they can be left to just get on with things!

We also have more of the Boltardy Beetroot which we grew last year but I haven't cleared a space for that yet, and more Chillie plants than you can shack a hot spicy stick at (Rich is very pleased!) Those I'll plant up tomorrow.

Phew, I think I need a weekend off after all that!

Bee House

I felt in need of a little DIY project last week, 3 days tied to my desk and not being able to spend time in the garden and the lovely sunshine was enough. So on Thursday evening I set myself the task of build my own little Bee House, I'm sure you've all seen the ones they sell at garden centers...

...very nice but a little on the pricey side, and this time of year all spare pennies must be saved for the boot sales! So as we had a lot of old canes around the place I gave it a go.

I cut the canes up into 10" length with a hacksaw...

Then bundled them together like fire wood and tied them with copper wire...

(that's me concentrating while Rich took pics!)

Then I wrapped some green garden string around the ends to cover the wire up.

I'm really chuffed with the end result! and it cost me the grand total of bugger all, just half an hour of my time!

Ok not quite as smart as a shop brought one but I don't think the bees will care, hopefully this will encourage them away from the other side of the shed where the chicken coop is coming together, apparently them keep crawling into the old nail holes in the wood Rich is using! Cheeky bees!

Busy

Where have I been?! Sorry life got on top of us for the last few weeks, there was holidays away in the sun, mounds of illustration work to wade through, chicken coops to work on, new computer to buy then load all my software on and in the last week the horrifying realisation that the Landrovers MOT is up on the 1st of May and the chances of her passing are slim to say the least (welding, over heating, knackered alternator ect ect.....big black Landrover shaped hole in our bank account...again)

Poor Rich, he's been either under the Landys bonnet, crawling under my desk with wires or measure lengths of wood and trying to decide exactly how much square footage your average chicken needs to live on, I have spend most of my time making tea and asking if I can help! My poor lovely husband, no wonder he's going grey!

Anyway, a v.quick catch up on the garden and hopefully more pics this coming weekend.

My Polka Raspberries are starting to show some life, I cant wait for them to fruit, we don't seem to have any problems with birds on the All Golds (Rich reckons they cant see the yellow berries as they blend with with the leaves better?) I think I will have to net the red ones.

I had my first batch of plants from Victoriana Nursery the weekend before last, I was really please as I was desperate to get my tomaotes in and going. This year I'll have 4 veriaties in the greenhouse, 'Tigerella' which we grew last years and was brilliant, very tasty! 'Shirleys Pixie' as small bush tomato which should give us v.small sweet fruits to go in salads and sandwiches.

'Black Krim' which sounds a bit menacing, they are a large heirloom verity which should be good for sauces and soups, also they have purple flesh which should be interesting!

And lastly we will be having a 'Tamerillo Tree Tomato Plant', don't know about you but I'd never heard of them, apparently they have a plum like fruit that will carry on producing for 7 months of the year, click on the link about for more info! Anyway I thought they sounded really unusual and we've been trying to experiment with slight less well know fruit and veg so I'm really looking forward to what we'll get. We wont get the plant till May time so I'll post a pic when it arrives.

We will also be trying out a Goji Berry plant this year, according to folklore, people living in the Himalayas who eat Goji Berries are reputed to live to 120 odd, not sure about that but I'll get back to you in around 90 years and let you know how I'm going. Anyway they are another tasty fruit that we can have room to grow so its being added to the collection.

We are a bit late with our spuds this year, mostly because I ran out of time before I went away so they had to wait 3 weeks. This year we have 'Forest Gold' and 'Edzell Blue' which is an amazing violet blue colour (I seem to have gone for a lot of purple fruit and veg this year, there is going to be some very odd coloured soup later in the year!)

On top of all the fruit and veg we've also had quite a few flowers, I'm trying to bulk the few flower beds we have out (most of the beds have edible stuff in!) to encourage bees and butterflies, so Hollyhocks, Lupins, Drumstick Primulas and Geraniums have gone in, some in the bed around the Peach tree and the rest in pots around the pond, things are starting to look very pretty out there now (at last!!)

I'm so pleased that Spring seem to be here at last, its so good to be able to walk around the garden and see everything starting to flower, it makes my soul feel lighter.