Our 21st century guide to the good life

Just an hour..

2012-03-15T07:30:00.000Z

Not long after I made yesterday's blog post I felt very tempted to go and do a bit of work at plot 114. I knew that I had to go up at some point to water all of the seedlings in the mini greenhouse. I decided to do an hour and a bit of solid revision for my exam on Saturday morning, and then I took myself up to the plot to do something nice.

My Grandparents had given me a bag of red onion sets on Tuesday so I thought that I would spend just an hour or so planting out my onions sets. I already had some sets myself for brown onions and the red onion sets I had previously bought had a low count of quality sets, so it was good that I had the new stock to replenish them.

I wasn't going to grow shallots either, but one of the other allotment holders who was there on Monday gave me a bag of shallots that he had left over after planting his. I now had plenty of sets so it was time to get them in the ground..

The onion bed is right next to the patioed area. I am trying a slightly different way of growing them that I thought of myself after reading various methods of growing onions. I planted the onion sets in drills that I simply made from standing on the ground either side of the set. I then sprinkled some growmore in the foot imprinted areas and watered to dissolve the granules. I am then going to top up the foot imprinted areas either side of the drill with multipurpose compost which hopefully will be a good feed for the onions and should make hoeing really, really easy. Only inhereting the allotment in late February we haven't been able to feed the soil as much as we have liked so we are definately playing catch up in that regard,

I have planted the garlic cloves in a drill right at the end of the bed nearest to the compost bin in the hope that there won't be too much of a garlicy scent near to the patio area.

It was nice being there for just an hour and actually being able to get something in the ground. I have spent many whole days (8+hours) on Plot 114 clearing weeds and preparing beds and then thinking I still have so much more work to do which can be a tiny bit de-motivating. So this was a short and sweet change to that pattern. I also managed to get another freebie from another allotment holder, this time in the form of a gooseberry bush! One of my favourite fruits!! I already have 2 other small bushes looking for a spot on the allotment, so I look forward to getting those in the ground at the weekend.

Anyway, seeing as I said there wasn't going to be an allotment update until Sunday night, I didn't do too well did I? Oh well. I had fun and I still found time to revise.

I definately won't be making a blog post now until Sunday. Amy and I are watching 'Oliver' at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Thursday night and then 'Disney on Ice' at the NIA on Friday. Then on Saturday I have the dreaded exam.

Have a good weekend and Happy Birthday Mum!

Martin

Our little friends...

2012-03-14T12:03:00.000Z

Well plenty of progress is being made on Plot 114. All the beds have been dug over except for the pumpkin bed which is currently covered over with plastic sheeting to keep the weeds down until we are ready to do something with it. We're also still waiting to get a trailer full of well rotted manure on the brassica bed, but hopefully that might come to fruitition this weekend.

Anyway today's not about the plot itself but who we share the plot with. I've made several references in previous blog posts to the feathered friends who have been visiting the plot without fail every single day. There are a trio of robins who will sit on nearby posts, tubtrugs and wheelbarrows and watch as I clear an area or dig over the ground. As soon as I move away then they are straight in, and let's just say the worms are straight out!

I haven't been able to get any good photos of them as of yet but my brother was down on the allotment on Monday and managed to get a few pictures with his special camera...

Being tied up with coursework deadlines is not as fun as being tied up in twine and brambles so this week there is going to be little progress on the plot, I sure can not wait for the Easter break. I have Sunday off from work so that is going to be a whole day of allotmenteering fun and adventure. Possible time to get the onions in, but I'm still not sure about the first early potatoes. We'll wait and see..

Over at one of my favourite blogs 'Purple Poddes Peas', Magic Cochin (Celia) is celebrating her 5th blogging birthday. She is hosting a live blogging day with regular posts and questions and answers. Make sure you head over there especially for the tour of the vegetable garden this afternoon.

Have a fantastic day whatever you are doing!

Martin

Skip to it...

2012-03-08T22:21:00.000Z

As you may know when we took over the allotment a big chunk of the land about 1/6 of it was covered in carpet and the weeds rather than being surpressed had grown straight through it.

I rang the town council to see if there was somewhere I could dispose of it, however they said they were getting a skip soon and that is all they could say. They told me to put all the rubbish off the plot to one side and then they would ring me when the skip had been delivered.

Well I got a phone call today and they said a skip had been delivered at the other allotment site yesterday and I needed to transfer the rubbish myself.

Well, it's a good job I acted immediately because it seems that all of the other allotment holders had been waiting for the skip to arrive too...

It was certainly releaving to have rid of all the carpet and all of the rotten bamboo canes, plastic bags and rotten timber that had covered the allotment for the past year. The allotment is looking a tidier place today. I just can't wait to get up there and start sorting out that soft fruit bed. That is my task for the day so wish me luck!

Martin

Amy's area..

2012-03-07T22:14:00.000Z

What a strange day we have had today weather wise. I was up at the allotment at 09.30 this morning and there was a light drizzle, but nowhere near enough to put me off a bit of a digging. Then within half an hour I suppose the inevitable happened and there was a terrible downpour which lasted about 15 minutes, I will be eternally greatful to our shed for providing shelter. The showers were on and off every 15 minutes which is really annoying since it was my day off and my main day this week I had allocated to spend sorting out the allotment.

Dinner time came and I picked Amy up for lunch at my grandparent's house before returning to the allotment where there was CLEAR BLUE SKIES and SUNSHINE but a horrendous WIND blowing. The weather really was throwing everything at us today. But we did manage to get things done.

I finished off digging the 2 beds on the right hand side and I also spread some homemade compost from home over the bean patch. Amy pottered around in the shed sowing seeds for Kale, Kohl Rabi, Lollo Rosso and a a couple of courgette seeds in the hope of an early crop like last year. Amy also planted some raddish seeds in one of our salad raised beds that I filled with a bag of compost this afternoon.

Anyway, it's time to show you Amy's little area that she wanted..

It's not completly finished but the foundations are there. On Friday evening my Dad came down to the plot and helped me move the slabs in to place. We actually had the chairs out on it earlier but we put them away before I took the pictures. The 2 salad raised beds make the border for the slabs and I think this area will look great in the summer. We are going to get a table and put some pot plants in and around the area to make it a perfect hangout for those sunny summer days. Amy is pleased anyway so that is good!

It's nice to be able to show you another perspective of the allotment from the slabbed area...

You can see the beds on the right hand side which I finished today. One of the beds on the left is covered with cardboard to surpress weeds until we need to plant our potatoes out and the uncovered bed is the bean bed where I spread the compost today. The runner bean trench is also there and is now full of rotted manure, grass clippings, banana skins, apple cores, tea bags, shredded paper etc. A perfect mix for the beans to thrive. Again you can see at the back the tarpaulin covered area for the pumpkins and root beds. The soft fruit bed is being tackled tomorrow if I remember to take my gloves up with me.

It was definately nice to sit back today and reflect on how much we have done already. We can't wait for the seeds to start germinating now...

Thanks for reading,

Martin

Progress

2012-03-06T07:30:00.000Z

I have spent every spare minute of every day at the allotment since last Tuesday when we took over our new allotment, Plot 114.

I have been going to university in the mornings and then getting home for a few hours of digging and on my days off on Wednesday and Friday I was there from the moment I woke up til it was time to go to bed.

We want everything ship shape and ready to start growing in the next couple of weeks.

The next picture shows you what we have done so far. We have dug out the first three beds on the left hand side which will be home this year to our courgettes, potatoes and beans. The courgette and potato beds have been covered with some old carpet and cardboard to surpress weed growth until we are ready to grow. We've also dug a trench in the bean bed for the runners and have put in a load of grass clippings and horse manure in the hope of getting a fantastic harvest.

We've also started the right hand side and cleared the area where the onion bed will be and the area we have designated for a table and charis for Amy to relax on. The seating area will also be great for my grandparents who love visiting the allotment my Grandad was up on the first day we got plot 114. He used to be the chairman of the allotment society in Derby and had 4 plots of his own and managed over 300 for the society. He is a true fountain of knowledge when it comes to allotment gardening.

In the foreground bed you can see the established rosemary bush which I have cleared of weeds and planted two rhubarb crowns on the other side too. Our allotment neighbour, John, gave us a Rhubarb crown as a moving in present which was very kind of him. John has been on the site for a very impressive 31 years and he is full of great advice. My Grandad and John got on very well comparing tips, advice and stories.

Another picture from the other end..

We have started clearing the soft fruit beds. Amongst Raspberries there are Blackberry and Gooseberry bushes and we also discovered a grape vine which is rather exciting. We need to get a frame ready to help support it's growth for the summer. John gave the vine to the last plot holder as their welcome present and it still remains. He says that almost everybody on the site has a grape vine from him and they produce the best British grapes he has ever come across, so fingers crossed.

If you are observant you might also notice that we have brought the mini greenhouse up to the plot from the house. In here we have some brussel sprouts, cauliflower, brocolli and cabbage in seed trays. We also have some lettuce underway ready for our salad raised beds.

Amy has suprisingly been pulling her weight too. She helped to dig one of the beds and she was also excited to sow the seeds. Amy was definately looking forward to sorting out the shed, and hey presto..

We managed to get the table from my grandparents as they conveniently bought a new one a few weeks ago. The table is covered in our potting essentials as well as our seed potatoes, garlic and onions which we will be planting in the next couple of weeks.

We've also been greeted by our little friends every time we have visited. I thought there was two of them but there definately seems to be three. Here is one of them watching over me as I clear some weeds from the soft fruit beds..

We have done even more than I have outlined in today's post over the last two days, but I've only just got around to uploading this installment, so you'll have to wait to see the rest.

Thanks for reading. I'm just catching up on my blog list, so if I haven't commented on or visited your blog recently then I will be in the coming days.

Have a good day!

Martin

Our New Home - Plot 114

2012-03-01T17:30:00.000Z

If you've been reading our blog over the last few days you will have joined us on the rollercoaster ride we've been on. We had an allotment. We had 2 allotments. Shall we have both. Let's just have one. Which one?

All of those questions and topics have been discussed in the previous blog posts, but today's blog is designed to give you an insight in to our new home.

Why did we choose Plot 114 over Plot 16?

It has the contradicting type of soil. (Retains moisture, but has good drainage) - We felt this was far better than the chalky/dusty soil on Plot 16. I took advice from my Grandad the allotment guru and he said he'd rather have 1 allotment like plot 114 than 10 of the plot 16 because you'll probably grow the same amount of produce with less work. Our winning soil was definately one of the winning factors.

Plot 16 had a massive apple tree as it's only feature. Plot 114 has a shed in mint condition. Inside this shed is tools a wheelbarrow and lots of other nifty neceseties like netting and poles. Outside this shed is a composter and 2 water butts. Where Plot 16 had apples, plot 114 has raspberries. 2 whole rows of the things.

Ok, Plot 16 was closer to the water supply. But Plot 114 isn't too far at all from the site water supply and is definately reachable by a hose. With the two water butts too we should be able to use some of our own water harvest if it ever does rain again this year.

The really cool thing about Plot 114 is I can even park my car right next to my shed! At Plot 16 you have navigate down a narrow alley in between 2 houses to get there, no good for carrying heavy things. At Plot 114 I can park up and transfer heavy and odd shaped things with ease.

So thanks for reading, here are the photos!

Here is a view from our lovely shed! You can see that it needs a bit of work but it definately has a bit of potential. This place is covered in 'useful junk' such as stakes and small raised beds which would be ideal for sowing salad...

The allotment goes up pretty much all of the way to the shed in the background minus a few ft.

At the end of the allotment there are 2 rows of raspberries and blackberries followed by a strawberry bed. Here is a view from the alternative end...

You can see how the soft fruit area is a bit overgrown and is in desperate need of pruning. You can just about see my car poking out from behind the shed too. (Advice regards pruning and mulching raspberries would be greatly appreciated.)

Walking back down to the shed, we meet these two little fellows who were watching us the whole time...

The pair or Robins did give us a good source of entertainment for a while.

Reaching the shed, it's time for a peak at what is inside...

2 hoes, a spade, fork, 2 rakes and a few planks of wood are on the left hand side as soon as you walk through the door.

Well Plot 114 is certainly going to take some work, but we believe we've made the right choice.

We're now feeling a bit better and can't wait to share our adventures with you. From planting the onion sets in a couple of weeks to harvesting pumpkins in September.

Thanks for visiting us and reading our blog we really appreciate it!

Martin and Amy x

Plot 114

2012-02-29T21:27:00.002Z

Well, I hope yesterday's post left you in suspense.

Well here's the story..

Early last year we applied to join the waiting list for an allotment on any of the local sites. At the time Amy filled out the form and we sent it off dreaming of a smooth process and hopefully in 2012 we would get the call and would be granted a lovely allotment.

Well that day came just under 2 weeks a go when we got the call whilst shopping in Solihull. The town council outlined that they had a plot for us but they had no idea which one! Fantastic. We couldn't wait to see where it was and really get going with it. They were going to let us know within a week and then it would be all spades go! Well on Monday Amy got a letter through the door. We were now the proud tenants of plot number 16! You can see plot number 16 here. We went up to visit with our noses streaming and we were really pleased with our new acquisition.

We got our pencils out and made plans on Monday night. We even popped in to Stratford Upon Avon on Tuesday despite feeling under the weather and bought some raspberry canes and some other essentials that we needed.

It was only when we got home on Tuesday evening that we got a huge shock. At my house was a letter from the town council. We were now the proud tenants of Plot 114. You may be wondering how we managed to be prescribed 2 allotments.

Well when we first applied to join the waiting list we listed Amy's Dad's address on the application form. However, seeing as he has a very long garden which just touches the Parish of Arrow. We were considered to be outsiders and therefore would not be preferred over other people within Alcester parish and would have to pay £5 a year more rent for our allotment.

Being the super scrimper and understanding how much of a demand for an alloment there is I filled in another application form with my address. We told them to withdraw Amy's application and proceed with mine.

Amy was 12th on the waiting list when she joined, and I got an email a few days after my own application saying I was now 12th on the waiting list, so I presumed Amy's application had been dropped as asked.

Well it turns out there was an oversight and both of our applications proceeded. We therefore had a choice of 2 allotments, however they are on completly different sites which meant different soil type, different facilites, structure etc.

We initially thought that Plot 16 was going to be perfect. We thought we were very loyal to it and we liked how I already knew the people either side of us. Well when we visited Plot 114 we didn't think much of it at first but we did quickly fall in love. We did think of having the two of them and then dedicating one to strawberries and pumpkins and doing the majority of our growing on the other. But we decided that this was too much and we wanted to have one 'really good' allotment rather than 2 average ones.

After consideration of the 'really important things' we plumped for Plot 114, our new home.

I will save pictures of Plot 114 tomorrow, so make sure you come back for a look! You won't be disapointed. But here is a small teaser...

Have a good day!!!

Martin

Don't forget to come back tomorrow!!!!

Bye Bye Plot Number 16

2012-02-28T18:32:00.001Z

It saddens me to say that we are no longer the tenants of plot number 16. There has been a bit of a mix up and basically it is no longer ours.

We were so excited to finally have plot number 16, and to have to give it up almost immediately is a real shame.

We really enjoyed the 1 day we were the tenants of plot number 16.

A more indepth post will follow tomorrow..

Martin

Plot number 16

2012-02-27T19:44:00.001Z

It's been 10 days since we last posted. We've been agonising during that period because of the wait for the town council to give us a ring and tell us which plot was ours. We had been drawing up fantasy plans in our head and on paper, and today the letter came telling us which plot was ours.

I could not believe it when I saw which plot we had. Plot number 16.

The reason why we could not believe it is because it is directly in fron of my old alloment. Plot number 17. During my 3 years of allotmenteering on the site plot number 16 had never, ever been touched. It was just a weedy patch with a big fruit tree on it.

It was strange going back to the site today, I expected to walk straight past plot number 16 and on to plot number 17. It looks like in the 2 years I have been away from the site, plot number 16 has remained deprived of the sight of a spade the whole time. Something will be changing over the next week or so when we both recover from our winter colds.

Let me introduce you to plot number 16...

The plot starts at where I am standing and goes all the way past the big tree and then back to the greenhouse that used to be mine. It is a good sized plot, very narrow, but a good size. You can see the two plots either side of me are tended to so mark the boundary. There is a very small path (one foot in front of the other) between the plots.

The huge tree, I think if I remember correctly is an apple tree. But which variety, I do not know. It will be interesting to see what fruit starts forming on there this summer. Here is the view of the plot from the tree down to the houses...

Despite feeling ill, we've been drawing up plans and shopping lists so we can get started quickly...

We want to have 6 beds on our allotment and we will rotate the crops grown in each bed every year to ensure good crop rotation and ensure we care for the soil correctly and avoid diseases building up. The six beds will be for soft fruit (which will be permanently fixed), squash, potatoes, roots and beans, brassicas and alliums. The top 1/5 of the allotment will hopefully be slabbed with the shed and a table positioned there. There will also be a couple of compost bins and a raised bed for growing salad leaves and a few lettuces. The beds will be divided by maintained grass paths to enable easy access around the plot.

We really feel that a shed is an absolute essential for the plot, it is somewhere to store tools, shelter from rain and to do all of the small potting jobs in the summer. We are going to ask for permission to erect a shed from the town council tomorrow when we go to pay the rates for the year. For £25 per year you have to admit this really is a bargain. However, it has gone up £9 since I vacated plot 17 just over 2 years ago, which is quite an inflation!

I've written a comprehensive shopping list and a production target for each vegetable (You can tell I study operations management at university) and I am going to work out how much it will cost us to start up the allotment this year against how much the worth of our veg should be.

We are both completly excited about the project and can't wait to get our hands dirty as soon as we rid of this cold!

Thanks for stopping by and reading. With spring now in the air we hope to bring you lots of interesting updates over the coming weeks about the advances on the plot!

Martin

We're going to need a few more seed potatoes...

2012-02-17T17:31:00.001Z

We only bought 21 seed potatoes for our small little patch.

But today we had the news that we're getting our own very big patch. The town council called to say they had an allotment with our name on it. It will be ready for us from the end of next week which of course is very, very exciting.

We have a lot of plans running through our head already. We can't wait to put the spade in the ground for the first time very soon!

Martin

Bread of Heaven

2012-02-11T09:00:00.000Z

Well that certainly tasted good.

The other day I thought I would teach Amy how to bake bread. It is something that I really enjoy doing and the taste and texture of a home made loaf is far grander than a shop bought one. I've really got the knack of it now and would never use a bread machine again.

I realised I give my bread quite a thorough seeing to in the kneading process, but Amy seemed to show a lot more gentle love and affection to the dough. She certainly has the right knack anyway because it tasted absolutely scrumptious and it looked good too...

I look forward to her baking many more loaves for me in the future.

Delicious!

Martin

Frustration

2012-02-10T12:20:00.000Z

There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to do something, but not being able to do it.

We're at war with the elements at the moment and this is what we are having to fight against...

A soft sprinkling of 2cm of snow surprised most of us last night. However at least it wasn't the 10cm that we had been promised last night on the weather forecast. Amy and I watched the snow sprinkle over the road from our bedroom window until midnight and we envisaged waking up to a collossal level of the white stuff. However just the small sprinkling was all that was left at 8am but it did pick up again at 9am and it hasn't stopped lightly snowing ever since.

The reason why I am so frustrated is that I really want to get a move on with preparing the ground for the new growing season. I've already dug over half of the patch and covered it with organic material but because of the snow at the end of last week I have not been able to do the other half. The last thing I want to do is to lock the extremly cold ground temperatures in to the soil which could of course prohibit this years plants from growing as quickly as we would like.

In this situation the best thing to do is definately to wait. But I'm just so eager, so I'm going to have to find something to do inside instead. It's a good job I bought a mini propagator last week then isn't it?

Have a good day, and keep warm!

Martin

Planning for perfect potatoes

2012-02-07T11:09:00.001Z

We are now 4th on the waiting list for a plot at our local allotment site. I have always regretted giving up my allotment when I had one, I had given it up due to a split interest between my social life and work/educational life, and deeming that I didn't have enough time I gave it up, a big mistake indeed.

We are both keen to get a plot, but in the meanwhile we are having to re-evaluate our growing methods and most importantly, what we grow. Our growing space is very small to say the least. Last year we grew most of our vegetables in pots, but this year we are really keen to get things in the ground that we do have.

Potatoes were one of the things that I had considered not growing this year. Last year we had some poor luck with growing them in old compost sacks, which we had been assured was a great way of growing them. I am still enviable of people who get results when using this method, it obviously just didn't work for us. The reason that I am not giving up on potatoes is the fond memories I have of harvesting sacks full of large, delicious spuds on the allotment. Hopefully, come the summer our homegrown potatoes will be the staple of many delicious meals for us.

We really need potatoes to work for us, because they are going to take up a large portion of our growing space. About 1/3 to be precise. Therefore, it's key that our preperations start now.

There are always 4 steps when growing potatoes and we are now at the second step.

We have chosen which potatoes we are going to grow (step 1). There is always such a wide variety of seed potatoes around at this time of year. The garden centres are full of them! We decided that this year we are going to grow a maincrop variety only. (Although I have been tempted to give some earlies another go in the sack method.) After careful consideration, we plumped for the good, old, faithful Maris Piper. Such a versatile and traditional potato, it can be used for most things such as chipping, roasting, boiling and their good size means they are also great for jackets!

Step 2, is a rather funny step. It's time to get chit-chit-chit-chit-chitting. 'Chitting' is basically where you allow your seed potatoes to develop their 'eyes' ready for planting out in mid-March. It takes about 20-40 days for the eyes on the potatoes to develop. It is a very funny stage in the potato growing cycle, just seeing the kitchen table full of egg boxes holding rather funny looking eggs (potatoes) is quite novel!

Step number 3 is the planting. This will take place some time towards the middle/end of next month. It will take about 4 months for the potatoes to grow and reach a good size. We should be harvesting (Step 4) these beauties from mid July onwards until October.

Having written this blog post, I am now even more tempted to buy a few early seed potatoes and try the sack method again. I might invest in some proper potato growing bags though, rather than use old compost sacks.

Which variety/ies have you gone for this year? I've always loved the idea of a really good mix, but at the moment we do not have the space to do so.

I can't wait until I post about the results of these in several months time. I am hoping they give better results than last year, where in one of the bags full we only got 1 good sized potato. Never mind and fingers crossed!!

Martin

Time to start getting excited

2012-02-05T19:09:00.000Z

Very, very, very cold right now. I was expecting a small sprinkling of snow last night but was informed by the wonderful BBC weather people that it would have melted by the morning due to a slosh of rain. However come 3pm yesterday afternoon the snow began to fall (pictured above), and when I went to bed at gone midnight this morning it still hadn't stopped. Anyhow, it was going to rain wasn't it? Nope!

It looks like it snowed through the night, we have had a couple of inches which is a couple of inches more than I first imagined we would get. It was melting quite quickly though, but it was funny walking up to see the chickens this morning. Lesley and Geraldine have seen snow several times before, but the poor bantam girls looked very startled. Being born only last summer they have not seen a downpour of the white stuff before.

If I had have known we were going to get so much snow it might have been an idea to move them to a hard standing part of the garden rather than leave them on the grass. The front section of the eglu run looked like a big pooey mess as the snow starts to thaw. I just had to take a picture.

They were glad to see me and were given a nice handful of oats in addition to their normal layers pellets. It wasn't much fun breaking the ice in the water bowl either!

Hopefully this snow is an abrupt end to the winter. I see that we are due cold temperatures for a couple of weeks but hopefully after that we can start getting serious in the garden again. We visited a local garden centre on Friday, one of those which are more about 'status' and 'trendynous' with some of the older generations than the actual gardening stuff they sell, it is also one of the more pricey ones too. Anyhow we did come away with some bargains and also our seed potatoes. We are re-evaluating the way we grow potatoes this year. We had moderate luck with the grow in a sack method last year (small sized potatoes, small yield), so this year we are going back to traditional ways and putting them in the ground. They are currently in egg boxes as we await the 'chitting' process to begin!

I also found other items rather irresistible such as packets of seeds and some magazines. I have a massive problem. Every time I see a magazine involving vegetable growing, chicken keeping, smallholding etc. I just have to buy it.

It's almost time to sow the first seeds of the year so I hope you'll come back to read about what I'm doing over the next few days and weeks.

I can't wait to read your blog and see what you are doing too!!

Martin

Christmas - Where did that one go?

2012-01-27T16:56:00.000Z

There's nothing better in my opinion than taking a day off in January and spending it digging in the garden in a polo shirt and pair of old jeans. So that is exactly what I have been doing today. I've been digging our little plot in our garden and adding 1 and a half years of rotted compost in the process. The area looks lovely now, it's just awaiting this years crops. I've covered the area with planks of wood that have come from an old broken bed frame so that weeds can't grow in this lovely moist area of land. Taking a look back, it looks like a mess with all that wood over it, but I know that come July this area of my garden is going to look a lot better than last year, well I certainly hope so!

The last post I made was just before Christmas when I was showcasing our homemade cross stitch cards. I said I was going to make a post with all of our other christmas activities in, but whilst digging I just remembered that I hadn't actually done that.

I posted about making our Christmas cakes in October, and I am pleased to say that they were very well received by the lucky people who found them under there tree last month. We had a fantastic day in mid-december icing the cakes and decorating them, we also had mincepies on the go so the whole house smelt superb.

Here's a small selection of the festive eatings we had this year...

Everything tasted great, which was a surprise on Christmas day when we tucked in to the cakes! It's hard to make something in advance and not know if it tastes ok until people have tried it on the day. It could have tasted awful, and we would still have handed them out unknowingly.

We also visited some nice places over Christmas including London, where the coach crashed into a lamp post on the way, and to Birmingham for the German Christmas market.

It's always nice walking down to uni when the market is on. It's full of nice smells and sounds all day long..

It was nice to see that the Bullring Bull was keeping warm on those cold nights...

Onwards to London, despite the crash, we had great fun doing a bit of Christmas shopping and visiting the zoo. We loved the Disney Store on Oxford Street and its festive theming...

Anyway, Christmas soon flew over and now it is 2012. A very happy new year to you all too, before I forget! It's going to be an exciting year this year, we are both hoping to go in to full time employment and we are going to have lots of fun outside of work along the way. I just can't wait to get back to the veg patch in the next couple of months and start doing the best bit about gardening, planting out the seedlings,plant and flowers ready for this years harvest.

This year we are going to be growing things that we enjoy eating to make sure we are making the most of our small plot. Last year we grew leeks, beetroot and turnips. Things I don't normally eat frequently enough, and in the case of Amy, things she doesn't like eating. We are going to grow those vegetables and fruits which make nice meals in themselves. Courgettes (and lots and lots of them), tomatoes, potatoes, runner beans and peppers. We'll be growing more than just that of course, but those are the things we really enjoy growing and eating, which funnily enough were the things which grew best las year.

What will you grow this year?

Martin

Santa Claus is coming....

2011-12-08T23:11:00.000Z

Well, I'm definately not a professional and I'm nowhere near completing a masterpiece comprising of an idealic riverside cottage with gardens to boot. But I do like cross stitching and I can do a few basic designs.

I absolutely love receiving homemade cards, and this year Amy and I have decided we will distribute them amongst those we know who will appreciate the time and effort we have put in to creating them.

The following designs are just a sample of what we have produced. I'm not going to post a photo of all of the designs because I know some of the receipients are going to read this very blog post...

We've filled a box full of threads and designs so that is something to keep us busy in the new year when it's raining hard and we can't get in to the garden as much as we would like to.

I've got a busy day tomorrow. I have to go to university to submit my Econometrics coursework, and then I am going to do a spot of Christmas shopping so that I can finally tick Amy completly off the list. I need to get a shift on with my own wrapping too so I must buy some wrapping paper. However, saying that our bedroom has resembled Santa's workshop recently. I've been writing the cards and the labels and Amy has been wrapping the presents and tying the ribbon. It's been so much fun, I absolutely love this time of year. So after the submitting and the shopping, I then move on to socialising when I meet some work colleagues for a get together as a substitute for the lack of our Christmas party.

I've also got some things to do in the kitchen as well. I've got onions to pickle and cakes to bake.

'tis the season to be jolly...

Martin

Those winter nights..

2011-12-03T22:25:00.000Z

Have you ever been in a rush in the morning only to go outside and feel your heart sink and your brain spin out of control at what is in front of you? These winter nights are really catching up with us now, and I've already had to reach for the ice scraper in the last couple of weeks.

Christmas is nearly upon us, and tomorrow is the first Sunday in advent.

Although, we haven't been posting much recently due to commitments such as University coursework, we are still living 'our good life' and it is definately good enough for us, but we are sorry we haven't been able to share it with you.

We are going to try and tell you about some of our festive happenings over the next few weeks. We are going to be visiting some of the most beautiful and fascinating Churches in Warwickshire as we look forward to our festive celebrations, and we will also be visiting many other fascinating places too. We'll try and give you a bit of an insight in to the Frankfurt market in Birmingham city centre, and we'll let you know about our trip to London on the 19th.

If that's not enough, I am looking forward to making cranberry sauce for the first time, so that will definately give me something to get excited about. I also want to show you the delicious home made Christmas cakes that we will be distributing to our nearest and dearest in a couple of weeks from now. The cakes have been maturing for 2 months now, and on the 20th we intend to ice them ready for handing out. We've been taking some advice from the lovely Nigella and there are a few different ways we are going to try and decorate them.

We've also been very crafty this year. We've abandoned the Tesco Christmas Card multipacks in favour of a needle and thread and we'll reveal the results very soon..

Before I sign off for now, I just want to show you a picture of one of these winter nights. It was taken at Ragley Hall in Arrow, Warwickshire....

We visited the Ragley sailing club at Ragley lake for it's last ever meeting. A club that Amy's grandpa has been a member of for more than half a century. It's a shame to see that they are being turned away by the estate, in favour of cash generating ventures.

Thanks for reading,

Martin

Time to say hello...

2011-11-02T09:38:00.000Z

Following on from our last post a whole month has passed. We are both very busy at the moment, but I think that after reading some of the kind comments you have left over the last week it is only fair to give you a bit of an update.

After taking Barbara the cockerel back to the farm she came from, we returned with a gorgeous white pekin as her replacement. We were a bit unconventional this time in the naming process so please give a warm welcome to...

This photo was taking the day she arrived, she now has a much bigger comb and is laying at occasional intervals. Oh, her name by the way is Barbara 2, or Barbara Deux, Or Barbaratu.

It varies every morning when we go to feed her, and depending on how naughty she has been too.

The first day she arrived we filled that green tray with straw, sand, soil, leaves etc to give Margot and Mrs.Weaver something else to focus on other than Barbaratu. The fun lasted two minutes, and then they were pinning poor old babs down to the floor and jumping on her back etc.

The bullying lasted about 48 hours, but the pecking order is definately established now, and they all look so cute cuddled up together inside the eglu on these cold, dark winter nights.

I will see if I can fit a vegetable update in tomorrow or later this week.

It looks like we have a lot of catching up to do with everybody else's blogs too.

Thanks for reading!

Martin and Amy

Time to say goodbye..

2011-09-22T09:30:00.000+01:00

So the day came, and went. Barbara the cock-a-doodle-doodling cockerel has gone back to the breeder. The breeder breeds absolutely first class and show winning birds, and she said that he was a pretty perfect example of a Light Sussex cockerel. She had mentioned that she might rehome him with friends but she seemed pretty keen on keeping him for herself.

Margot and Mrs.Weaver were a bit miffed and upset at the relocation of their boyfriend. But they seem quite content now, making gentle cooing and clucking noises.

Thanks again Barbara! Go scratch some dirt!

Martin and Amy

Free Food is Fantastic

2011-09-19T09:30:00.013+01:00

This is the picture of a the park where I have played and played and played ever since I was a very small child...

It is just down the path from my grandparent's house...

Notice anything?

That's right a very established crab apple tree. One of two on the park. You may notice that there is a pool of fermenting apples already littering the floor. Why should so much FOOD go to waste? People walk past these FREE APPLES every day. Surely there is no need to waste ALL of them....

So after picking half of a plastic carrier bag full of these crab apples, about 2kg, this is what the kitchen sink looked like...

I wanted to making something nice and tasty from these apples. Crab apples are known for being sour and pretty unapealing when raw. But when cooked and with the addition of a little sugar, the juice is lovely. But is wasn't juice I was making today (well not primarily). I was going to take my first plunge in to the world of jelly making....

With a very nice looking, clear, perfectly set and most importantly delicious jelly, I was very pleased!

I've made endless amounts of jam before but I've never endeavoured to commit to a jelly. I think it's the fact that you have to strain it over night, do this and do that. Oh well. I looked at buying a jelly strainer and could not believe how expensive they were for such a simple and flimsy object, but with a little bit of searching and imagination I made my own. I got an old, clean bathroom towel and using some elastic bands attached it to a microwave stand. It worked a treat, I just wish I took a picture to show you how it worked.I put all of the boiled pulp in to the towel stand to drain the juice from, then I left it for 8 hours to drain. It said in the recipe to leave it over night, but I started it off early morning so made the jelly in the early evening.

Once you had the juice, it was a very similar method to jam making which I am familiar with.

The jelly is very sweet so I would proably use less sugar next time, but it is still very tasty.

Making the most of free food which is available in public places, the side of a road or anywhere else for that matter is a brilliant thing to do. Not only are you pleased with the fact that you are eating delicious, homemade food, but you are also happy it cost you no more than a bag of sugar.

Have a good day!

Martin

P.S I will definately be making jelly again, such fun and highly reccomended. Off to bake some more bread now!!

Loaf at first sight!

2011-09-17T09:30:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm not sure if it looks more like a football with a puncture or a work of art.

I hadn't made bread by hand for absolutely ages. In fact I never thought I was ever any good at it full stop. However I decided I would have another go yesterday to get me in the mood for Friday's baking session. (Which I will blog about over the weekend.)

From the moment I started making the dough I knew this was going to be a top loaf. After the dough had been left in the airing cupboard for 40 minutes, it had risen like my other doughs had never risen before. It was so big, so smooth. I was so excited and half an hour later..

Drumroll please....

Delicious!

I'm making another loaf tomorrow. I had made this loaf for Amy for when she got back from work, but when my family saw it, they asked me to bake them one too.

Don't you just love that scent that wafts through the house when bread is baking in the oven. If you don't know what I am talking about then you really need to bake some bread!

Heavinly!

Have a good weekend!!!
Martin

You're not supposed to that!!

2011-09-16T08:30:00.000+01:00

Ever since the 3 Bantam hens have arrived, we have been filled with nothing but laughter watching them being so innocently charming and delightfully clumsy at times.

However, nothing could have prepared us for the laugh we have had over the last few days.

You must watch the video below to understand why...

Turn your volume right up because I was only using a mobile phone to record it..

So it turns out Barbara is actually more like Barbarian! We've heard crowing for the last couple of days but were convinced that it was coming from somewhere else. But today she, I mean he, was caught red handed.

We phoned up the breeder who we bought them from, and explained the situation and she said she would happily have him back. So tomorrow we are taking Barbara back 'home'. She has a great place to live with the breeder, large open fields with plenty of places to scratch, play with friends and cock-a-doodle-doo to her/his hearts content.

We will miss you Barbara. It's been an honour to have you with us these last 2 months! But we're not quite ready for a cockerel yet, not with neighbours in the proximity anyway.

Martin and Amy

The price of currants..

2011-09-15T09:30:00.000+01:00

I'm going to tell you a secret. We are making Christmas cakes this year as presents for some of our family.

My Grandma always used to grace us each year with a delicious Christmas fruit cake, delightfully iced and topped with festive decorations. However for several years she stopped making them, but I dug out her old cookbook last year and we made one together which was really enjoyable.

This year we are making the rich fruit cakes as presents. I love the idea of homemade delights at Christmas, and I know people will appreciate them more than a box of Thornton's chocolates or a bottle of lower end red wine.

So again, it was time to dig out Grandma's cook book. It is one of those proper, proper cook books. There are stains on the pages, some pages have come loose from the bind, the edges are cellotaped up, there are handwritten notes on certain pages, and at the back are years worth of shopping lists safely preserved. I can't stand it when people have cookbooks on shelves that have never been opened and the pages are clean and new, and they still have that new book smell. What is the point?

My Grandma got this book when she was 21. So over 50 years later, it is still purposefully being used by the next generation.

So we are to make four cakes. (For whom shall not be mentioned, because we know that some of the potential receivers do read this blog.)

We multiplied the ingredients for one cake by four, and this was the shopping list we set off with.

1.8kg Currants

1kg Raisins

1.8kg Sultanas

680g Mixed Peel

340g Glace Cherries

340g Shelled Almonds

1.2kg Margarine

1.2kg Caster Sugar

24 Eggs

1.4kg Flour

1 Jar of Mixed Spice

4 Unwaxed Lemons

Well, we won't have to buy all of those eggs, but we are a few short so I will have to pop in to a local farm shop to make up the numbers that we (or they the chickens) cannot provide for.

First stop was Tesco. I've recently enjoyed shopping in Tescos, because they have had lots of reduced stationary, and I love buying stationary, however I didn't love their home baking section as much, they had no Raisins, no currants, well in fact all they did have off our list was Sultanas, Flour, Caster Sugar, Lemons and Almonds. Oh well. Onwards to Morrisons.

We piled the trolley with the Morrisons value raisins and then we went to pick the currants up, and we almost died of a heart attack at the cost of them. Where as the raisins and currants cost about £1 per kg, the CHEAPEST currants were priced at £3 per kg. So working on a budget, we bought one pack of currants and and extra 1/2kg bag of both raisins and sultanas, costing us much less in the end.

We have a baking session set asside for Friday afternoon. The cakes need to bake for just shy of 5 hours, so we need to be sure we are going to be in to monitor their progress in the oven.

We will let you know how our afternoon goes, and we might even treat you to some more pictures of the cook book.

Have a great day,

Martin

Autumn

2011-09-14T12:34:00.000+01:00

Well, with the night's coming in earlier and earlier as each day goes by and the air begins to turn colder and colder it means only one thing. Autumn has arrived.

Where we live I had the best childhood ever when it came to Autumn. The park which is only 50 metres walk from our house has many established Horse Chesnut 'Conker' trees dotted around the edges, so around this time I always remember going with my Grandma and brother down to the park to fill up a few Tesco's bags full of Conkers and then I would take them home and pierce each one and load them on to strings ready to take to school to abolish my friend's conkers with.

Great fun indeed.

With the change of season comes the need to update the look of the blog.

So here's our Autumn profile picture which was taken by my brother, who wants to be a photographer...

He does a great job every time, and he is responsible for tweaking all the graphics on this blog.

I have a few Autumny posts lined up for the rest of this week and then we proceed rather directly on to.. ahem.... Christmas posts. But don't worry there will be plenty of more immediate things to blog about too.

I've had a great morning starting to catch up with some of my favourite blogs, don't forget you check them out on the right hand side of this blog. Each one is definately worth a read.

Have a great day, and thanks for visiting us. Your support is amazing, thankyou.

Martin

A month of fun and things..

2011-09-13T18:17:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been exactly one month since we last posted about that delicious green pepper.

Amy is back studying again now and I go back to Uni on the 3rd October. Despite not blogging, we've been keeping up with 'Our good life' and the tomatoes just keep coming, the apples are almost ready for eating, the runner beans won't stop running and we're enjoying gluts of delicious produce aswell as sharing it with friends and family too.

Today brought a momentous occasion. Despite having the Bantam girls for several months now, until today we have been eggless. But only moments ago came the groundbreaking discovery...

It's very small but very perfectly formed. We think it Barbara, but we can't be sure yet. We'll be watching carefully these next few days to see who is making all those right signs.

Anyway, you might be wondering what else we have been up too. Well we've started a radical health plan, we are visiting the gym daily, and we've made radical changes to our eating habits which have been conducted with immediate effect.

We're making big plans for next year already, including upscaling our operation to cover a wider range of all things good. We are far from where we want to be in the long term, but these little strides make it seem like a realistic aim to have.

Well, we hope to blog more frequently this month. We've missed reading your blogs, but it's been nice to have a break. Dare I say it, but with Christmas now only around the corner we are already starting to buy, make and think of presents and puddings ready for the big day.

Thanks for reading the blog, we won't abandon you again!

Martin and Amy

Green Pepper!

2011-08-12T19:13:00.000+01:00

We have successfuly grown our first pepper of the year.

It's been sat dangling off the pepper plant for a while now and it was finally a good size and didn't seem to be getting any bigger. We snipped the pepper off the plant and cut it into small pieces to skewer on to some kebabs we were making for a barbeque. With some chicken pieces, fresh tomatoes and onion, the kebabs were absolutely delicious.

This is the first ever pepper I have grown, so to grow it and enjoy it with Amy was really nice. I've grown lots of chilli peppers before, but never had much luck with actual peppers. There are about 6 more peppers in the pipeline so fingers crossed they will be just as tasty.

Have a great weekend.

Martin

Final Call

2011-08-11T21:00:00.000+01:00

There's only three days to go until the entry deadline for our contest.

The contest should take you a few minutes to complete and you will have the chance to win a £20 vegetable growing hamper!

You can read this post here to find out all about how to enter.

Good Luck

Martin and Amy

Endless amounts..

2011-08-11T18:04:00.000+01:00

Does it ever feel like some things are just endless?

We were only cheering with delight at the emergence of these tiny courgettes a few months ago and now the amounts are just.. endless.

I've been trying to hack down and dig out the weeds at the garden share but the amounts are just absolutely endless.

The tomatoes keep coming and are thankfully, endless.

We've been trying to catch up read everybody's blogs this afternoon. We've missed a few days of reading and the posts are just endless.

You get the idea. If you don't keep on top of things quickly and efficiently you can get the feeling of things becoming endless, but that doesn't mean they are any less enjoyable or unwanted, it means it just takes you a little longer longer to get to that place you want to be.

I've took some time this afternoon to plant out some very late leeks and some cabbage plants. We've planted them in the garden at home instead of the garden share. We were probably being over ambitious trying to get the garden share up and running straight away. It is definately going to need some time sorting bits out and restoring the paths and raised beds. We will definately be ready come March when the plot will really begin to take shape.

We are sorry that we have lacked a bit with blog posting in the last week or so, but we have been glued to our television screens watching the unbelievable scenes that were the UK riots. How can anybody support or not condemn such lawlessness and criminality.

We fully intend to be back to blog writing tomorrow, and I believe Amy might even write her first post in months if you are lucky.

Have an enjoyable evening and keep safe.

Martin

Delicious..

2011-08-08T09:30:00.000+01:00

I love watching cooking programmes.

But it occured to me the other day that I never ever get around to making anything that I see on the programmes.

However, something that we saw Jamie Oliver make a few weeks ago really tickled our fancy and this is our attempt at it..

Yes, it is a glorified sandwich, but it was delicious. We bought the foccacia bread from Marks and Spencers, and slipped it in the oven for 8 minutes. I prepared the salad for inside whilst it was in the oven. We simply used a round lettuce, some slicing tomatoes and some mozarella. All of it was cut in to slices ready to go in to the bread. When the bread was out of the oven we sliced it in half, it's trickier to cut foccacia than you think. Then we drizzled some olive oil onto the bread as an authentic Italian substitute for butter and then layered the salami in to place. Then the lettuce, followed by the tomatoes and finally the mozarella. It's a massive sandwich, and looks great on a wooden chopping board which can be used for serving. This could feed 4 people, or two really hungry people. It's definately the tastiest sandwich we've ever made. In fact, we've made it twice since.

I think a lot of inspiration for my cooking comes from what I have seen on a telly, mixed with what I have seen my grandparents and parents cook. If all celebrity dishes taste this good then it won't be the last thing I cook off a TV programme.

So, who are your favourite celebrity chefs? I find it really interested how people can despise one chef and love another who in turn another person despises. My favourites are Hugh FW, Jamie Oliver, Heston and good old Nigella.

Leave a quick comment if you have time to let us know who your favourite celebrity chefs are!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Martin

Cabbage Patch Kids

2011-08-06T16:00:00.019+01:00

You wouldn't know the trouble we've had trying to find some cabbage plants this late in the season. We wanted to get something in the ground at the garden share plot. We've tried numerous local garden centres and all of them proved fruitless. It seems that garden centres think the vegetable growing season ends when the final strawberries ripen. All those grow your own banners have been taken down, the vegetable plants have gone.

We were lucky to find a single pack of cabbage plants and a single pot of leek plants on a shelf by some limp and lifeless strawberry and chilli plants. We felt quite lucky to get these as they were just what we were looking for.

They were a bit pricy though, but what do you expect from a fancy garden centre in an affluent shopping village..

Having all of that space just to simply over winter at the garden share would be a real waste. We've been up there a few days this week to clear all of the raised beds, and cover the two side beds for over the winter. The middle bed has been dug over and is ready for the cabbage and leek plants as well as some late salad.
I was hoping that we'd have some more brassica plants but some wretched caterpillars have eaten the lot, and there is nothing worth saving which is a real shame. We were lucky to have a few to plant at home, but that is it.

Next year it is really important that we plan properly, we will have 3 spaces to plant up, and ideally we don't want to spend a penny on seedlings and plants because we haven't planned properly. If we use saved seeds and the ones we already have then it will be much more cost effective all round.

I hope you enjoy the remainder of your weekend and a good week is in store for you! The football season has just started again., which excites us both (well one of us more than the other), let's hope for some good weather for the first few matches. We shall see...

Martin and Amy

Beautiful..

2011-08-05T20:56:00.000+01:00

Today saw the harvest of the first ripe tomato. This is from a variety simply called 'Orange Cherry'.

Hopefully this is the first of many, a whole vine were ripening in the sun this afternoon...

It was sweet and delicious! It was only small but we had half each. Not quite enough for tea.

Talking of meals though, we have had plenty of food from our own garden to eat. We had an entirely self produced curry (minus the sauce) the other day. We also had cottage pie with home grown new potatoes, spinach and runner beans. Sunday Lunch was completed with the daily harvest too!

Enjoy the weekend!

Martin

Autumn August and the Alphabet

2011-08-04T15:19:00.000+01:00

Well, a belated welcome to August. What has the weather been like? It's absolutely piping hot, very muggy and until today there has been absolute drought.

The water butts have been empty, and I've had to sinfully use a hosepipe to water the veggies. Thank goodness for today's drizzle of rain, first of all it will save me some time watering the plants and secondly those butts will fill back up and secure us a few weeks worth of useage.

I was reading another blog called The Compost Bin. They are doing an Alphabet August, where each of their blog posts must start with the next letter in the alphabet. Obviously we start today with A.

I wanted to write a post about the misconsception that people have regards Autumn and August. I have to admit then when I was younger, my friends and I all believed that August was the start of Autumn. Ok, the first two graphemes A and U are the same, but that is where it ends in reality. Everywhere you look you can still see summer. The fruit is still ripening, the sun is shining and the school holiday's have just begun for youngsters across the country. The leaves aren't turning brown just yet, and although the night's are beginning to draw in slightly, we can still be out in the garden until about 9pm.

We need not fear quite just yet about those long winter evenings, although we should be planning or have planned for them. We bought some winter brassica seedlings today to put in to our new garden share plot, we should have some fresh vegetables in early February through to April whilst the main growing season crops are yet to begin to grow.

On the other hand it is understandable why people think August is the beginning of Autumn. Next month we will be embraced with Christmas goods beginning to fill the shops. I know that the stock room at the place where I work already has 2012 calendars, seasonal chocolate selections, cards and gift wrap waiting to find their way on to the shelves. Many people will see September as the beginning of the indulgence in to the winter season, and we've only just enjoyed June and July's sun, so logically August is Autumn.

Christmas already..? seems like only yesterday we celebrated Christmas in Disneyland.

I feel that this misconception regards when our seasons begin and end is down to globalised firms who shove our faces with Christmas in September and Easter in January. No wonder we're all out of sync.

I don't know about you, but I recon the best people to ask about the seasons are gardeners. We know when to plant, protect, sow and grow in order to make sure we have full bellies all year round.

Tomorrow's post will start with the letter B!

Martin

Too good an opportunity...

2011-08-01T19:17:00.000+01:00

Well, I presume most of you have heard of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. He's the crazy celebrity chef, slash grow your owner who campaigned for us all to eat free range meat. Got it?

Well, another one of his campaigns was called Landshare. A relatively straight forward campaign where people with spare land allow potential growers to work it and grow and produce their own food. We have visited the Landshare website sparingly since it started out, however a couple of months ago it appeared that somebody in our area had land to share.

More research and contact lead to us discovering that in fact an individual didn't have land to share. The icon on the map was actually an organisation called 'Transistion Stratford' who were trying to regenerate Stratford Upon Avon. They run not a landshare but a garden share scheme. We would have been keen on a plot in Stratford, but after talking to some of the people involved they let me know of a potential plot in Alcester, and only ten minutes walk away too.

So on Friday evening we visited the house for the first time, and weinstantly fell in love with the garden that we could potentially get to grow some veg in. The garden is centred around 3 long raised beds, so all we needed to do was clear the area.

Well, after falling in love with the potential of the plot, the agreement was signed up, and I started the clear up process today!

Here is the classic 'Before' picture...

Hopefully this time next week we can show you some 'After' pictures. We are going to be using the raised bed in the middle to grow spring cabbage, leeks and some other brassicas, and some hardy salads too. The raised beds on the right and left will be covered with some old carpet ready for next year's main growing season.

It's not in a massive state, it's just overgrown with weeds, most will pull out easily...

Not only does the garden have 3 assembled raised beds, but it also has compost bins, sheds, an outside toilet, electric hook up, a tap. All which we will be able to use. Here are the compost bins...

Not only is it a great place to grow veg, but there are also chickens. They are not the house owner's chickens they belong to the next door neighbour, because ironically they are having problems with introductions. The great news for us is that the house owner said we could keep some hens their too. It's definately something that we can discuss further. Here are the current two resident hens...

Our minds are brimming with ideas. There is so much potential with this area of land, and we are greatful to the house owner and the team at Transistion Stratford for making this all work.

We'll be posting some more about the plot over the next week and beyond. We'll also take a look inside the beehive this week via another... video!

Before, we go we'd like to thank everybody who has entered the contest already! Thank you, and keep them coming for those of you who haven't entered yet. There are some great prizes to be had!

Thanks for reading our blog. We really appreciate it.

Martin and Amy x

Contest

2011-07-31T20:00:00.016+01:00

How would you like to win yourself a vegetable growing pack worth £20 by entering our prize giveaway.

Over the last month we have published 14 clues which join together in numerical order (1-14) and make a sentence.

No matter how bizzare it might seem, just say what you see.

On to the prizes...

1stThe first prize will be an 'Our Good Life' vegetable growing hamper worth well over £20. It will include useful tools, seeds and invaluable equipment. It will be sent by first class recorded delivery.

2nd
Second prize will be three packets of seeds.

How to enter
It is so simple to enter. All you have to do is solve the simple puzzle, the puzzle is based on the story of the Dragonfly Maze at Bourton on the Water. It took us about half an hour to get out of the maze, but you won't have to naviagate around a maze in our contest. At regular intervals we released a clue to help you solve the puzzle. Each post had 1 picture in it, and if you think logically about what the picture shows then you will be able to determine a word that will fit in to the sentence. There are 14 clues. You can view all of the clues by scrolling through the blog, or click the CONTEST tag at the bottom of this post or on the right sidebar.

Let's just remind ourselves of the scenario..

Scenario
A long, long time a go an old weaver lived in the mill at Bourton on the Water. You could say she was a peasant, but she had something that was the envy of the rich. The golden dragonfly which she wore around her neck. The golden dragonfly was stolen one day when the weaver had left home to collect a loaf of bread and it has been kept in the round house by the evil goblin ever since. There is high security in the round house, so you will need to crack the code to locate the golden dragonfly. It won't be easy!

Simply write down what each picture shows to reveal a sentence.

Then just email it to me by 15th August to stand a chance of winning the prize!

Any questions then please feel free to ask.

One entry per person.

Email your entry to blythm@aston.ac.uk

Good Luck!

Martin

Introductions

2011-07-31T10:00:00.002+01:00

You never know which way it is going to go when introducing chickens. When I had the girls at home. I had 6 at one point. When I introduced Geraldine to Lesley and Carly, Geraldine displaced the other two as top chook and made best friends with the previous ruler of the roost Carly almost instantaneously.

When I added a 6th chicken to the group, it was hell. Emile was attacked and attacked and had to be sectioned off from the others. She was eventually rehomed, missing lots of her feathers, which was a real shame.

When I had the bantams and just the two large fowl before the bantams went to my aunty in Lincolnshire, they got on like a house on fire. All five of them. People say don't mix large fowl and bantams, but why not?

We took the decision to let all five of our current girls free range at the same time today, and it all went off without a hitch..

There was the odd bit of get off my grass from the big girls, but in general both flocks kept well clear of each other and when they came together for some corn there wasn't any trouble at all.

Always be cautious when mixing new hens together, it can go either way, but this was a massive success!

Have a great day!

Big news tomorrow evening!!

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Fourteenth Clue

2011-07-30T19:12:00.000+01:00

Well it's the moment you've all bee waiting for...

The final clue!

Details on how to complete your entry to win the £20 vegetable gardening hamper will be posted tomorrow..

Enjoy the rest of your evening!

Martin

Grab your popcorn..

2011-07-30T09:30:00.002+01:00

I love going up the narrow path to the beehive, it's discreetly tucked behind the shed, and can't be seen from anywhere in the garden. If you know where to look you can see it from the bridge which the main road goes over. I don't feel a threat from vandalism or anything like that because it looks like a pile of old boxes on the side of a slope.

I didn't don the whole outfit yesterday afternoon, I did that in the week. But sometimes I just like going up the path to take a look at the bees flying in and out of the beehive.

I've gone video crazy these last few days, and there is another one to follow tomorrow too.

You can just about make out the flighty bees as they come home...

I appologise in advance for the 'WHAT!' in the middle. Amy was shouting me from down the garden because Barbara thought it would be nice to eat the freshly sown grass seed.

Grab your popcorn now and sit back...

Have a good weekend.

I realise that this weeks post has been mainly chickens, and now bees. How about some fantastic, exciting and amazing vegetable news on Monday? Definately stay tuned!!

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Thirteenth Clue

2011-07-29T20:34:00.000+01:00

The end is in sight! Have you worked out the puzzle yet??

Have a good weekend!

Martin

Who is it?

2011-07-28T20:00:00.001+01:00

It's about time I went out in the garden and showed the girls what the roasting tin looks like. Not the bantams of course, they should be laying in 4-6 weeks time. But either Lesley and Geraldine are getting by on a joy ride...

One of them is not laying, but the thing is we can't tell which one. The egg is always nestled in the nesting box at 7am when we go to fill up their feed and water and collect the eggs.. I mean EGG! This has been going on for a few MONTHS now! They are only just over 18 months old, they should still have some kick in them. I know that they say that the chooks peak before 18 months, but I've had many hens before who have been laying in their 3rd and 4th year of freedom.

On the other hand, whoever is laying is very reliable. Every morning she graces us with a perfectly shaped egg which is equally perfect when it comes to taste.

Having the bantams might increase egg production by some degree, but bantams are quite seasonal layers and lay nowhere near the quantities of a hybrid bred purely for laying eggs.

We have a few options. Wait and hope that the other girl picks up her laying habit again, or maybe buy some more hens?

So one of these beauties is getting a rather easy ride. They were definately making the most of the sunshine this afternoon...

I like the later idea, but will need to discuss it with Amy first...

Have a great day!

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Twelth Clue

2011-07-27T11:00:00.002+01:00

Prize Giveaway - Eleventh Clue

2011-07-25T15:30:00.001+01:00

Bon chance!

Enjoy the sun!
Martin

100

2011-07-25T09:00:00.000+01:00

Since this blog started out in April we have now made a stagerring 100 posts. Don't ask us how, but we have quickly reached such a great milestone. We have already broke the record number of visitiors to our blog in a month in July and we still have just under a week left.

It is so suitable that the 100th post is a celebration of the harvests we have had from our own garden.

We are having home made lasagne for tea and to accompany it we have some of our delicious home grown potatoes, two lovely courgettes. We also have some broad beans and mange tout waiting for tomorrow's dinner.

How exciting.

We have really enjoyed the journey on our blog so far and we can't wait to write the next 100 posts too.

Enjoy the delightful sun. May this be the start of a great week.

Martin

Fascination

2011-07-23T09:30:00.001+01:00

A strange thing indeed.

It always amazes me that despite allowing chickens to have the run of the garden, which you think would be heaven for them. I mean, compost heaps, plentiful grass, weeds and worms to eat. Can't be too bad for a bird can it?

But still, you can't please them and they always seem fascinated to know what's going on inside... Inside the house that is!

If you leave the door open they will be straight in, pecking at the doormat, the curtains and the carpet.

I had the door open this morning, and low and behold something jumped on the sofa. First of all I thought it was the dog, turns out it was ... Barbara!

I wish I had the camera handy. She was quite happily perched on the sofa, and she didn't want to get off either.

Time

2011-07-22T13:30:00.001+01:00

Where the heck does it go? I've been working most of this week so I have not had much time to blog, so I am writing a few posts up now to keep me going over the weekend. I have not had anywhere near enough time to read the blogs I follow, I will be catching up with these from Monday. This weekend is such a busy one, my brother's birthday is tomorrow and we are having a family barbeque, so that should be fun anyway.

In the veg garden, everything is going pretty well. Apart from the fact I knocked a big terrocotta pot full of lettuce leaf seelings over when I caught naughty Margot eating all the tops on the carrots, everything else is good.

This week we will be eating so much homegrown produce. There are broad beans, mange tout, lettuce, raddish, courgettes and...

POTATOES!

Our first decent batch out of the filled up compost bags. Most of them are a good size fornew potatoes, there are a few mini potatoes and a few silly potatoes where the potato is no bigger than a drawing pin.

I can't wait to show Amy when she gets home. I had been leaving and resisting temptation to pull up these potatoes earlier, but the leaves had died back and were starting to go yello and the flowers had fell off over a week ago.

These should be delicious. I fancy a a few of them just plain with some butter and a sprig of mint, and then I think the others are destined to accompany a quiche.

I promise I will catch up with the blogs I follow next week, looks like a lot of reading.

Have a superb weekend!

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Tenth Clue

2011-07-22T12:25:00.000+01:00

We're almost there regards the clue.. not long to go now!
Hopefully this paving stone will help you...

Remember that famous saying, say what you see?

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Ninth Clue

2011-07-19T20:11:00.000+01:00

Looking back at number 3, may just be the answer for thee...

Comprende?

Good Luck!

Martin

Introducing the Bantam Babes!

2011-07-18T10:00:00.002+01:00

Ever since Amy asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year there was only one thing I really wanted. More chickens. Either Lesley or Geraldine are not laying, we don't know which one, but we are down to one egg per day, therefore an increase in egg production is imporant.

We wanted to get something a bit more unusual than a few more hybrids and after much contemplation we decided that Bantams were certainly a good move.

We thought three would be a good number to have. They will have plenty of room in the eglu, they should lay well during the summer, and having three then if one goes broody we still have two lovely playful chooks about whilst the other potentially sits on some fertile eggs.

Well, let me introduce them then. Does anybody know where we got the names from?

On the left is Margot, she is an absolutely gorgeous blue partridge brahma. Seeing as we had already decided on the names we thought that the posh character's name should be attributed to the rare breed amongst them.

In the middle is, Mrs.Weaver, a black Pekin bantam. Mrs.Weaver was Margot's posh neighbour in the T.V series, one of our favourite moments from the Good life is when Barbara throws an egg at Mrs.Weaver on her first day living in the avenue...

On the right is... Barbara, a lovely light sussex. I always fancied some large fowl light sussex but seeing as we had decided on bantams it was great there is a bantam version of this beautiful breed. Seeing as light sussex are a bit more common than the other two breeds and are a bit more sturdy too, Barbara was a good choice of name.

We thought that Tom was too masculine for a hen's name, and we already have 'Geraldine' so we ruled out Jerry because they are too similar.

They are all point of lay. Margot and Mrs.W are about 16 weeks old and Barbara is a couple of weeks older. It might be a few more weeks before we get any eggs, but I'd rather have young healthy stock than one year old or older layers.

The lady we got them from was fantastic and highly commendable. Her whole set up was truly inspiring and her Buff Orpingtons were really world class. National winners in poultry shows. If anybody in and around the Midlands wants any chickens then let me know and I will pass her details on to you.

We will keep you updated with their progress. They have settled in well today and they have been free ranging this afternoon. They may be posh chickens but they still found the compost heap pretty quickly..

Have an absolutely fantastic day!

Martin

Happy Birthday!

2011-07-17T09:30:00.001+01:00

I know it's not until October but...

The latest members of the our-good-life family have now joined us.

More to follow...

Martin

Sealed Pot Challenge - The only way is UP

2011-07-15T09:30:00.001+01:00

Today's post is on the subject of that sealed pot again...

This snippet from Disney Pixar's amazing film UP really sums up the whole sealed pot principle. It also demonstrates how difficult it is to not dip in to it.

This clip in general just about perfectly sums up the journey through life, but keep your eyes open for the pot!

If you haven't seen the whole movie, then it is definately worth a watch.

Don't worry, tomorrow's blogpost will be more vegetable growing focussed! Including some really, really exciting news too!

Have a great day!

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Eigth Clue

2011-07-14T15:26:00.000+01:00

This is probably the hardest one...

...Good Luck!!

Martin

Sealed Pot Challenge

2011-07-12T16:00:00.001+01:00

Do you have a sealed pot?

We do....

We have two in fact, one for each of us. Amy had hers bought for a birthday present by her godmother, and I was so envious of the idea and concept that Amy bought me my own, and it looks just like the one above. It is a ceramic pot with a whole to put coins or notes in. You can't get them out unless you smash the pot so it is less tempting to take a few quid out here and there. I often empty the contents of my wallet's coin pouch in here to lessen the weight.

Thanks to the wonderful SFT, I have found out that many other bloggers have a similar sealed pot. So, a whole group of us have determined a date to smash our pots to pieces. The date set is the 3rd December. Would you like to join us?

The great thing about the 3rd December is that it is just in time for Christmas and when your nearest and dearest ask you what you want for Christmas just tell them you want a nice, fancy, new sealed pot.

We hope our savings can go towards a nice treat. Maybe towards a holiday or something we really need.

Check out SFT's blog by clicking here to read more about the sealed pot challenge.

The next context clue will be revealed tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Seventh Clue

2011-07-11T09:30:00.000+01:00

Too easy, surely?

Martin

Hatton Village

2011-07-09T10:00:00.001+01:00

We spent an afternoon at Hatton farming world and village on Tuesday. We both hadn't been since we were children and with our seperate families. It was going to be interesting to see what we thought of this Warwickshire tourist attraction now that we are 4ft taller than the last time we went.

The farm village is seperate to the shopping village. The shopping village had a nice garden centre and some pleasant designer shops. The garden centre had loads of great things there and they sold chickens too. I can't believe how much garden centres charge for chickens, at £35 a time I certainly won't be buying any of their stock. All of my chickens I have ever owned only cost between £5 and £10 each!

The farm village was really good fun with lots of livestock about the place.

We decided that if we ever had a smallholding we would need to find out what breed of sheep these were because they were just gorgeous...

They were very wooly, and looked like they carried their fair share of meat too!

They used to have a really nice meadow with pigs roaming around, but this has been downgraded to a cheesy attraction called 'Pig Palace' which was basically a big, blue gazebo with some cardboard cut out pigs dressed as gaurds. I don't understand why tourist attractions feel they have to lower their standards to be more appealing. It is a real turn off. Any way this Gloucestershire Old Spot seemed to be enjoying himself....

We released our inner children when it got to the funfair and games part of the farm village. This skelter slide was real fun. I love getting in to those old potato sacks and whizzing down the tube. We did question our safety though because the whole thing was swaying with the wind, when you are high up and rocking it is not a great sign.

Amy was glad to be back on the ground. She made me retake her photo because she didn't like the first one I took. So here it is anyway... (Edit - She has been whining all night so I've had to change it to the 'articficial version)

They had one of those 'Gold Mine' attractions where you get a pan and sieve through the water and find little nuggets of metal which they call 'Gold'. Whilst pondering around the attraction I found my own little golden nugget...

I wanted to take this girl home, she was so friendly and inquisitive and only too happy to be picked up. Shame, we didn't take a bag big enough to smuggle her out through the gift shop!

We would reccomend this place for anyone passing. Especially if the weather is nice. We had a bit of rain, so the tractor ride was a welcome relief from the downpour. But because of the rain we had to forego the chance to navigate our way through the impressive Maize Maze. Maybe next time.

Have a fabulous weekend! You deserve it!

Martin

Unbelievable

2011-07-08T12:00:00.001+01:00

I put some chilli pepper seeds in four small pots about two months ago. They were cheap seeds, and unsurprisingly they didn't germinate. However, I transfered them over to the greenhouse when I got it and still nothing emerged.

To my utter amazement, they germinated a couple of days ago!

I can't believe it. I had wrote them off, but for some reason I hadn't thrown the soil back on the compost heap. We are already growing 'Cayenne' and 'Fillius Blue' so we won't be short of chillies, but we are now going to be growing these too. The thing is, I can't even remember what variety they are so I will have to post pictures if they eventually grow and bear fruits. They were an ornamental type with a mix of orange, yellow and red chillies.

I think that by the time they are ready to develop fruits it will be too cold to have them outside, so they may go on the window ledge, but the mini greenhouse might still be warm enough. We shall have to see. Well, I'll have to buy a digital themometer..

Have a great day,

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Sixth Clue

2011-07-08T08:00:00.001+01:00

These might have something to do with the discarded chest..

The Jubilance of July

2011-07-07T10:00:00.001+01:00

July. Probably the best month for being a veg gardener. All of your hard work during the previous months have lead up to this point. Over there the tomatoes are doing well, over there the potatoes are almost ready, over there the courgettes continue to come, over there the lettuces get bigger, over there the pak choi has bolted. Everything seems to be doing well (there is always one exception, stupid pak choi!!), and there is little maintenance to carry out.

In fact, it is very nice to pour a glass of homemade lemonade, sit back and look at what we have done. We have turned an old fenced off chicken run into a small producing plot, with plans to make it even better next year! (Hopefully)

We have enjoyed a few completly home grown meals. We used the saveable pak choi leaves in a stir fry last night, with some courgette, spinach, mange tout and some very hot chilli peppers. It was delicious. We've had a nice salad, and a vegetable fritatta, with some courgettes and mange tout in an omelette. It's been great.

We are just waiting on a few other things to mature and then there will be plenty more meals like that to come.

I said there was no maintenance on the plot. Well that is a lie. There are jobs to do, but there is nothing major really. If you afford yourself fifteen minutes a day then it is easy to keep on top of things. Although everything is going well, we need to be vigilant. At any moment, we could see blight overtake the tomatoes and potatoes, cabbage fly wip out the cabbages etc. If we keep a good look out for these things then we will definately be in a good place. Picking the odd weed from between the rows of veg is not particularly stenuous on our small plot.

Yesterday I spent a little while doing some of the simple jobs.

I've given the sunflowers and sweetcorn some support. The sweetcorn are planted in a triangle to aid pollination, but they were all leaning in to the centre and it looked a bit of a mess. So some bamboo canes have been added and I've loosely tied the sweetcorn to them.

The sunflowers are not in the sunniest spot in the garden, so they have decided to start leaning towards the sun, although they would benefit from a bit more sun, they are not in the world's worst position so these were staked back too. My Grandma and Grandad gave me the seeds for the sunflowers so I gave them three plants in return and these are now planted too..

Since the pak choi plan went bottom side up, there is a bit more space at the end of the plot furthest away from the shed. We have had our cabbage growing in pots in the greenhouse ready for transportation when some more space becomes available. I planted out three of the cabbage plants we planted a few months ago. They are in a good spot by the damson tree.

There is still time to sow some more salad leaves and lettuce so I did that to give us some late summer salad greens. We will definately appreciate them come late August and early September.

We are really looking forward to the sweet peppers we are growing in the mini greenhouse. I placed them more centrally in the greenhouse as they seem to be growing well. The middle of the top shelf in the greenhouse is the highest point.

I have always had fantastic luck with chilli peppers but not so much with sweet peppers. We have 4 sweet pepper plants and 5 chilli pepper plants this year, so hopefully there will be plenty of peppers of different shapes, colours and sizes over the next couple of months.

The flowers are going wild in those hanging baskets too..

I had to pick out a few dead heads, but nothing major. I am really pleased with these!

We are both really enjoying reading everybody's blogs and seeing what you are picking from your own gardens, allotments, window containers, greenhouses, polytunnels, smallholdings and farms. It is amazing that all of us bloggers have different sized growing area. From Rachel with her small city balcony to Mo and Steve and of course Sue with her much larger site. It is superb to see how we all grow things, both similarly and differently.

Have a great day, don't forget to check out some of the other blogs on the right hand side toolbar, and see what everybody else is doing this wonderful summer's day.

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Fourth and Fifth Clue

2011-07-07T09:30:00.002+01:00

Fourth clue

The fourth clue might have something to do with the Goblin's favourite childhood story. Not that he has many emotions left of course!

The cat was sat __ ___ mat.

Fifth Clue

The following picture was crammed in to a discarded chest...

...what could it mean?

Pak (of rubbish) Choi

2011-07-06T12:15:00.000+01:00

I am really dissapointed with our pak choi.

It has bolted...

Some of you may not be surprised to hear this as you are a lot wiser than me, but if I knew that they were so sensitive I wouldn't have consumed our valuable growing space with 2 whole rows of this crop. I wish I had grown more lettuce instead!

I have now read that they are extemly sensitive to a real mix of weather conditions. So with the the days of drought followed by periods of sogging wetness, the pak choi did not approve and decided to run to flower.

I was really looking forward to a good crop of this. The good news is that we can still eat the leaves despite it bolting so a nice homegrown stirfry is on the cards tonight. Courgette, pak choi leaves, spinach, mange tout, maybe one of the fillius blue chillies to liven it up a bit. Delicieux!

We are both really enjoying our really healthy home grown meals.

Have a great day!

Martin

Prize Giveaway - Third Clue

2011-07-06T09:30:00.000+01:00

You may have to to tilt your head for this one...

Good luck!

Martin and Amy x

Raddish

2011-07-05T11:00:00.001+01:00

I've never really had much luck with raddish. It always looks promising, but the root never seems to swell to a decent size. This year we are growing raddish in a plastic trough. We divided it into three sections and sprinkled some seed in each section at two week intervals. So we should have 6 weeks worth of raddishes.

The first lot of seeds are now a congregation of bushy leaves with the smallest pin head roots, seeing as this variety is supposed to mature in 21 days, it is almost 6 weeks now and nothing. Do I have a raddish curse? The third sowing are only 2 weeks old so are at the most basic stage of forming. However, the second sowing seem to be as far ahead if not further head than the first sowing, they have caught up nicely and really are beginning to overtake.

When inspecting them earlier today I spotted this thing..

A RADDISH!!

I couldn't believe it. I remember that even when I had the allotment I had little luck with raddishes, so to have one worth eating is a real bonus.

Amy loves raddish so this went down a treat.!! She could quite easily eat a whole bag full if they were in front of her, I always thought it was very strange because(..cough!) I don't really like raddish. But then again the feelings are reversed regards Beetroot!

We had a few more smaller raddishes, some salad leaves we have grown in a tub, some mange tout which we gently boiled, a few more small courgettes and some young spinach. With a freshly laid boiled egg, we had a nice homegrown salad yesterday night.

Delicious!
Enjoy the rest of your day!

Martin

P.S Don't forget that the first ever Our-Good-Life prize giveaway started yesterday. Work out the clues on the blog as they appear and you could win a gardening hamper worth over £20. You have to be in it to win it.

Click here for more details

Prize Giveaway - Second Clue

2011-07-05T09:30:00.002+01:00

Did you get it yesterday?

Here is the best way to keep a record of the clues.

1 PLAICE
2_______________________
3_______________________
4_______________________
5_______________________
6_______________________
7_______________________
8_______________________
9_______________________
10______________________
11______________________
12______________________
13______________________
14______________________

Yesterday's clue was Plaice. The picture was of a fish, but it was the type of fish that was important, do you understand the logic?

Good luck with clue number 2...

It's a bit easier than yesterdays!

Bon Chance

Martin!

Our Very Good Life Prize Giveaway

2011-07-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody.

It gives us great pleasure, to announce to you the start of our first ever prize giveaway.

Prizes

1st
The first prize will be an 'Our Good Life' vegetable growing hamper worth well over £20. It will include useful tools, seeds and invaluable equipment. It will be sent by first class recorded delivery.

2nd
Second prize will be thee packets of seeds.

How to enter
It is so simple to enter. All you have to do is solve the simple puzzle which we unravel over the next week or so, the puzzle is based on the story of the Dragonfly Maze at Bourton on the Water. It took us about half an hour to get out of the maze, but you won't have to naviagate around a maze in our contest. At regular intervals we will release a clue to help you solve the puzzle. Each post will only have 1 picture in it, and if you think logically about what the picture shows then you will be able to determine a word that will fit in to the sentence. There are 14 clues. Obviously, you don't have to log on every day, each post will be tagged with contest, and if you click the tag on the right hand side of the blog then all the relevant posts will appear.

The contest is about to begin...

Scenario
A long, long time a go an old weaver lived in the mill at Bourton on the Water. You could say she was a peasant, but she had something that was the envy of the rich. The golden dragonfly which she wore around her neck. The golden dragonfly was stolen one day when the weaver had left home to collect a loaf of bread and it has been kept in the round house by the evil goblin ever since. There is high security in the round house, so you will need to crack the code to locate the golden dragonfly. It won't be easy!

The first clue is on the stone just ahead...

You will need to write down the word because it is the first word in the code.
When you have all 14 words you will need to EMAIL me with the correct code. My email address is blythm@aston.ac.uk . If you have revealed the code correctly your name will be put in to the hat for a chance to win the first prize. The second name out will win the runners up prize.

It may take a while to get your head around the idea, so if you have any questions then please do not hesistate to ask by leaving a comment.

I wish you the best of luck. There are no stingy conditions, you don't even need to be a public follower of the blog. Just make sure your answers are in by 11:59pm on 30th July.

I will post a clue tracker for you tomorrow. I will also reveal the solution to the first clue so that you can make sure you are on the right lines.

Thanks for your continued support. This is just a small way of saying thankyou to our loyal, followers, friends and family.

Have a great week!

Martin

Glamping

2011-07-01T09:00:00.022+01:00

Glamping is camping for glamourous people. You get dressed up in your best frock, buy a pop up tent and set off for the campsite. Ok, we bought the pop up tent but the night's sleep was far from glamorous. I had Amy whining all night, that the tent was leaking and she was cold. It was only spitting, so I said she was being silly. (By the way, I was snuggled up nice and warm and was also completly dry). I can only appologise for dismissing her concerns during the night when I saw how waterlogged her half of the tent was this morning. We are in need of some waterproofing spray before we go again in a few weeks time. Not comfortable to be sleeping in the wet. (Sorry!)

I don't have many memories of camping, other than in my back garden when I was a kid. So the whole experience on Wednesday and Thursday was very new and refreshing. All the simple things were such good fun.

We played games such as tennis, catch, football and boules..

What tremendous skill...

Getting back to the real basics regards eating and drinking was nice. Boiling the kettle on the gas cooker, and preparing dinner and breakfast in the same way too! The whistling of the kettle was lovely...

We had chilli con carne with pasta for tea and a fry up for breakfast. Divine!

The tent it self looked good, despite the rain problem later in the night.

The campsite was really cute. It was easy to find, and the location was stunning. The pitch was well shielded from the wind, we were surrounded by tall trees and bushes. The campsite was lovely and quiet. It was only us, an elderly couple and the members of staff on the whole site.

There were lots of walks to do. The majority of fields in the area were planted with either rape seed, poppies or broad beans. Some had a combination of all of them where seeds had obviously spread from previous or neighbouring crops...

We walked through a broad bean field which had a public footpath in the middle of it...

It looked like they were up for a good harvest anyway.

There was plenty of reading to do in the evening too. We bough almost every self-sufficient book/magazine we came across when we did a spot of shopping in Bourton itself...

We have definately extended our home library. We bought some great magazines, and some books about chickens, bees and home brew. We also bought some more books when we popped in to the town of Brodway on the way back home. Ooops!

There were no lights on the campsite so during the night it was nice and dark and you could see all of the stars. Due to the brillaint location and landscape we got a good view of the evening's sun set....

We've only been back a day, and we already can't wait to go back!

We'd like to reveal, that we will be running a blog contest from Monday, which will run for 3 weeks. If you would like to enter the competition for a chance to win a £20 'Our Good Life' hamper including seeds, tools and other great resources then please visit us soon. How to enter will be posted at 5.30pm on Monday!

Good Luck if you decide to enter!!

We hope you have had a good weekend.

Martin

The Bridges of Bourton

2011-06-30T18:02:00.000+01:00

I mentioned in yesterday's post that we were going away overnight to visit 'The Venice of the Cotswolds'. Bourton on the Water is only 30 miles from where we live, but there is so much to see and do. In fact, we've only been back home for just over an hour, and we have already planned to go back in three weeks time for a few more days in order to fit in everything that we missed out this time.

If you haven't been to Bourton, then you really should go. The buildings are made of the most georgeous Cotswold Stone and it really is the most pituresque town.

The reason it gets the name 'The Venice of the Cotswolds' is due to the beautiful river that runs through the middle of the town. The only way to get from one side of the river to the other, is via a gorgeous series of stone bridges. I absolutely love the river in Bourton. We stumbled upon Bourton by accident last year and spent an hour or so there and we couldn't believe how beautiful the place was, and this sort of place needs at least a day's devotion to even cover the surface of the town. The water is so clear, and the quantity of different species of wild waterfowl is amazing. You can also see the trout swimming in the water, and apparently the Christmas tree is placed in the middle of the river each year.

This picture shows a) Amy posing b) how clear the water is c) how beautiful the houses are and d)how you get from one side of the town to the other...

If you look closely you can just about make out the trout...

Just a tip, for if you do go to Bourton. Go for a walk by the riverside at 9am. It gives you ample amount of time to walk along the river (and even time to dip your toes in or just feed the ducks if your prefer), also it's not too long before all the shops open, but because the shops don't open until 10am, you will be some of the only people out and about. The atmosphere was so tranquil and relaxing.

Here are a collection of photos of the river and those bridges..

We saw some horses crossing the river this morning, it was quite a sight. We just about managed to capture some photos...

I decided to paddle my feet in the water this morning, and we soon attracted a group of ducks. What an idealic location this spot is..

The number of ducks was getting bigger and bigger, so we gave in and bought some duck food. Here is Amy lobbing the food at the ducks(and pigeons, and starlings, and blue tits and crows)

There are so many birds around, not only in Birldand (one of Bourton's main attractions) but on the river. So many, that for the first time in ages I saw one of these signs. BEWARE OF THE DUCKS!

The BEWARE OF THE DUCKS sign is the red triangle in the background, the sign in the foreground is for the Model Village, another one of Bourton's attractions. We visited the Model Village, which was quite expensive for the short amount of time it takes to view it, but nonetheless it was very pretty and very cleverly done too.

Look at the minature bridge..

The Church was the centerpiece of the exhibit..

I thought, it wouldn't be suitable for us to make a blog post without a hint of grow your own or do it yourself. Here is the minmal contribution (but still a contribution). The minature village was equipped with a small vegetable plot at the back of somebody's house..

There was an observation... bridge. (You guessed it) Therefore, you could view the whole minature village from a more aerial perspective...

The picture of the river and bridge in the minature village shows how accurate it really was. But for further comparison here is a picture of the town's war memorial..

Minature version....

Even all of the really small details encapsulated in the model village.

The next tourist attraction was definately up our street. It was called 'The Living Green' it was a lovely show garden with a shop which was 100% self supporting with it's water, energy etc. It had lots of nice bits and bobs in there, and when we get paid in a few weeks and revisit we will definately pop back in. It even had a grass roof! Amazing!

It even sold some nice beeswax candles..

If we hadn't just made our own, I definately would have bought some.

Bourton can definately rival anywhere for cream teas... Delicious!!

We had such an enjoyable time, and like I have said we are going again in three weeks time to fit in the other attractions and nearby attractions such as Cotswold Wildlife Park, The Bourton Motor Museum and a chilli and herb farm we had never heard of. The campsite itself was really nice, and the camping and walking write up will appear on the blog tomorrow morning.

I've just notcied how long this post is, so if you've read it all I can only appologise.

Have a great day and thanks for reading,

Martin

Plot to plate..

2011-06-29T09:49:00.000+01:00

In just under 30 minutes. We picked our own veg to accompany our dinner tonight. We are pleased to say that the mange tout is now ready for picking, and they looked extremly scrumptious last night. Such a divine tasting vegetable..

The mange tout seeds were the first seeds we planted this year. We planted out the courgettes on the same day, but we bought those from plants. In fact one of the first posts on this blog outlines what we did. (click here)

To see how far we've come when we simply look back on blog posts from a couple of months ago is very exciting! This whole journey started with a few pots and seeds and now we have tons of stuff that is growing at a rapid pace.

Mange tout alone would have been a dissapointing side to go with our lovely pork loin, so a few courgettes freshly picked from the flourishing bushes was a bonus too. They were delicious too, so both were a real success.

We had to cheat with the potatoes by buying them, our first 'harvest' resulted in a solitary potato but we are optimistic about the next lot of bags nonetheless.

Finally..We are going camping today! I cleaned out the car last night, and loaded in all of the things we needed such as sleeping bags,food, stove, folding chairs etc.

We are staying in Bourton on the Water for a single night tonight, and returning later tomorrow because Amy has work in the evening. Bourton is a gorgeous place to visit, and almost two full days will give us plenty of time to explore the quiet village.

Have a good day and happy harvesting!

Martin

It's all growing mad

2011-06-27T09:30:00.005+01:00

With the lush sunshine and nice sprinkle of rain that we have had during the last few days the whole vegetable garden is growing mad.

Everything is coming on so well.

We've seen ....

plenty more of these.....

the first tomato fruits appear...

(but the picture won't load, I will edit it in later!!)

the first pods on the manage tout...

the ripening of our own raspberries...

the flowers are appearing on the potatoes...

the cabbages are outgrowing their pots...

the first sign of a marrow....

and finally germination galore for the winter veg in the greenhouse....

This is the best time of year when you grow your own vegetables and fruit. To see all your hard work beginning to pay off, and the prospect of home grown meals are suddenly on the horizon. We've been harvesting courgettes for a long time now, but not much else, that will be changing in the next few days and weeks of course..

We both really enjoy reading every blog post that people put on (If we follow you). If you haven't already checked out some of the blogs that I follow on the right hand side of my blog then please do. If you enjoy reading my blog, then you will enjoy reading these too. They have many similarities to mine, but major differences which make it all so relevant and interesting.

Thanks for calling in on us again.

I hope your vegetables grow and grow and grow,

Martin and Amy x

Summer is here!

2011-06-26T18:56:00.000+01:00

Well, today has been absolutely delightful. The sun has been beaming down on us all afternoon and the temperature has reached 29 celcius.

I was unsure whether the good weather we had been promised all week would actually reach us when the sky was filled with grey all throughout Saturday. There was quite a blowing wind too, which added to our doubts.

We had been searching for somewhere to go strawberry picking in the local vicinity. Like I said in a previous post, the biggest ones in the area had shut down, so we were less than optimistic of finding somewhere really local. However, it was nice to see a sign for a ‘PYO’ in Dunnington, a very small village about 3 miles from us. We went yesterday and picked a bucket load of delicious, juicy strawberries. We enjoyed some yesterday with some scones and cream, and we are going to have some tonight after a barbeque at Amy’s house. The rest will be frozen for use at a later date.

You can see in this picture why I was quite doubtful about the gorgeous weather reaching us..

The wind was ripping through the open field!

Here is Amy with her ‘champion’ strawberry...

It was massive, and the perfect shape too!

Here is the final pickings...

Cost us £9 in total. But compared to buying the supermarket you can’t beat the flavour, freshness and the support to the local producers. When you work it out that Marks and Spencer’s strawberries cost £4.40 a kilogram, these were a bargain because we got almost 4 kilos.

The afternoon was very pleasant despite the grey skies. Picking your own is great fun, and gives you a real sense of getting back to nature.

I’m off now to enjoy the rest of this baking heat , and fill my face with some lovely barbeque food.

Enjoy the rest of your day, please think of me when I start work at 5am.

Martin

Let there be light..

2011-06-24T08:00:00.002+01:00

On the 17th June, we removed two old brood frames from the bee hive. These frames were quite old, and were currently not being used. The wax in the frames was really off coloured, it was a very dark brown, almost black.

I had read about candle making, but had thought it would be really hard to do. But let me tell you this, it is the easy thing in the world to do.

First of all we cut the wax comb out of the frames, and popped the frames in the sink for a good wash and disinfect.

Then we needed to take the wax and break it up in to bits. The original foundation was wired and therefore we needed to take the metal wire out of the wax before it could be heated.

We broke the way in to small square pieces which were about an inch in size. We then put them in to a jug. The beekeeper at Gardener's World told us to use a microwave safe plastic bowl, but we didn't have any of those so a glass jug had to suffice...

It's all then so easy.

We put the wax in to the microwave for 30 second sessions at a time. Each time we would give the wax a prod (early stages) and when it was starting to melt we gave it a stir. The liquid was black, and I started to envisage the worst candles ever created, and then have to face the humility on here.

You can make wax sheets to roll up in to old fashioned candles, but the easy way to do it is to pour the liquid in to those rubber cake moulds. We had some heart shaped cake moulds to use.

For the first one we cut the wick down to size and then I dangled the wick in to the mould whilst Amy poured the mixture in, and we reversed roles for the second attempt. I then stood like a lemon holding the wick in place until it began to set slightly.

We filled two moulds with our 2 frames worth of wax. We did think we would get a couple more with so much wax, but I suppose that it is hollow and looked like there was more than there really was. Never mind.

When both moulds were filled and beggining to set, we popped them in to the fridge to speed up the process.

It then came to the time to remove them from the moulds and we were pleasantly surprised. With the frame that used to contain stores of honey, the candle had set to a georgeous deep honey colour. Whereas the brood wax candle was much darker and almost an olive oil colour on the sides and at the bottom.

The only problem we encountered was that some debri and bits that weren't removed from the wax seemed to burn in the microwave and sank to the bottom of the melted wax, so the bottoms of the candles is black. However, this does not bother us at all. But in the future we may use a more precise filtration/debri removal technique.

Amy is so thrilled with the end product that she says that we can never, ever burn them. Which of course slightly defeats the object of the whole task. They are nicely sat on the bedroom windowsil now and are nice decorative ornaments.

Has anybody else tried making their own candles? We would love to hear about what you found good/bad and easy/hard.

Thanks everyone for reading, if you have access to your own wax, or know someone who keeps bees then this is definately worth a try. Good luck if you do try it!

I hope you have a nice weekend!

Martin

Hedgerow Heaven

2011-06-23T20:59:00.000+01:00

Well. My grandma and grandad have lived in their current home for almost twenty years, and yesterday I saw something for the first time that I had previously failed to notice.

Across the road, is a hedgerow with a mixture of different bushes, and in the middle were...

Raspberries!

What a delightful find. I am used to helping myself to plentiful blackberries and elderflowers but I have never come across Raspberries like this before. I am always keen to make the most of free food wherever I can.

Why not?

We are going to tuck in to these ones tonight, we also had one off our measly raspberry bushes/canes.

Talking of elderflowers I picked over 20 heads, to make some elderflower cordial. It's quite late in to the elderflower season, in fact I struggled to find 20 good quality, healthy heads. But I did. I've made elderflower cordial before and it was absolutely delicious. I read on the River Cottage forum that the best way to store it is in plastic water bottles (we have plenty of these lying around) and then you should keep 1 in the fridge for current use, and then pop the rest in the freezer until they are required, then you don't have any odd tasting stuff in a couple of weeks. We bought some cordial at Gardener's World/ The Good Food Show, if it tastes anything like it then I will be very, very pleased.

I'll update you with how it went as soon as possible. I know I still haven't posted about the candles we made, but be sure to find it here in the next couple of days.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Martin

It's all down hill from here..

2011-06-21T18:07:00.000+01:00

Well, today marks the beginning of summer.

Every day now until the 23rd December we will gradually get less and less sunlight. I've really been enjoying the long late nights in the garden, I recon we've still got a month or so of late nights though. It's not going to get really dark, really quickly now is it!

I don't think vegetables get the credit they deserve, they are much cleverer than you think. The 21st June is a significant day for the likes of leeks, beetroot and many other root carrots. Apparently, these delicious vegetables clock on to the fact that the amount of daylight is gradually reducing and therefore they begin to in take more and more water and nutrients in order to prepare themselves for winter. (Obviously, they won't see the winter in the garden, but they don't know that) With the increased intake of goodness the vegetables begin to swell up and then when they are at their prime we take them in to the kitchen to eat.

Following yesterday's post about the lack of strawberries, we've been searching for locations to go and pick our own from local strawberry fields. I remember that when I was a kid we used to pick our own all the time. But these days it is difficult to find any where to do it. It seems that the health and safety brigade have forced many small businesses to shut up shop. The strawberries still grow, but you can't pick your own. It's very sad really. I am going to do a bit of search tonight and see what I can find, but in the meantime I've found something that is equally delicious and free in the hedgerows, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them. I'll tell you a bit more about them tomorrow.

I couldn't post a blog post without a picture.

So I thought this picture sums up my day...

...tiring!

I took this picture at the Royal Show in 2007. Why did they have to cancel it, it was such good fun.

Have a great day one and all. I still have the candle post and hedgerow post to go up in the next few days so be sure to check back.

Thanks for visiting,

Martin

Just in time!

2011-06-20T11:54:00.000+01:00

It's that time of year again.The time of year I absolutely love which I inherited from my Grandma Margaret. It's Wimbledon! For two whole weeks we ask for bright, sunny days, bucket loads of strawberries and gallons of champagne.

People all across the country will be getting in to the spirit of things with the consumption of Tesco, Waitrose, and Morrisson's strawberries and the cheapest single cream they could find. Well, I almost was one of them people.

I've read blogs, where people have been picking punnets upon punnets full of the juciest and most delicious strawberries around. I have been so green with envy for weeks, but with just over an hour to go before the first racket hits the ball, we have been saved by not just one strawberry...

but our first raspberry too.

They look delicious don't they. Ok, that isn't the most uniform strawberry that you've ever seen. But nonetheless it is red.

I'm not sure how we are going to go about this. Half a strawberry and raspberry each? Maybe Amy will have the raspberry and I'll have the strawberry?

I'll let you know how it turns out. (and who wins!)

Have a wimbledon-tastic day.

I wish you full punnets of strawberries.

Martin

Green is the old... Green?

2011-06-19T13:06:00.000+01:00

When growing your own fruit and vegetables you can end up with a period on your plot where there is a lot of green, green and more green. The only things ripening fast enough are courgettes and they are well.. green this year. We did buy some yellow courgette seeds for next year though. Then there's the lettuce which is.. green. Tomato plants are.. green, although the yellow flowers are dwarfed by mountainous amounts of.. green.

Following our visit to Gardener's World on Wednesday, I was inspired by some of the show gardens where there is less.. green... and more... purple, yellow, orange, red and blue. I'll remind you of a couple of the 'Grow your own' style show gardens. Look at them closely..

and..

I've learnt my lesson this year. When you are in a small garden you need a bit more colour. We did buy some seeds for yellow courgettes, purple runner beans and purple sprouting.There is the Fillius Blue pepper plant too with the georgeous purple flowers. But what can I do immediately to brighten the place up a bit?

No... flowers?!?!

I am no flower expert. I won't pretend to be one either. Ask me about fruit and veg and I have had the input from my grandparents, I've read all the books, and I've read your blogs, and I've been experimenting with varying degrees of success and failure all my life. So I may be able to answer your questions. However, look at those photos again if you need to. What can you see? Yes, flowers. Look at the bizzy lizzies planted in the children's wellington boots in the second picture. Look at the rows of marigolds inbetween the tomato plants. Sunflowers too!

Amy was keen to get flowers but I consistently said to her 'they waste valuable growing space' which I suppose is still true. But she has twisted my arm, with the help of the endless amounts of green fly sat on our tomato plants.

We took a visit to that garden centre in our town that Amy didn't know existed two or three months ago (she is a regular now). They have a great choice of flowers. We didn't want too many, just a few.

So we bought 84 marigolds, two trays of labelia and two trays of something which I can't remember the name of (and two cheeky pepper plants of course!!). The marigolds are an ideal companion plants for tomatoes as they deter the ever persistent green fly. On sunny evenings at the moment, Amy only needs to go over to the vegetable patch to get swarmed with them, and then have to pick them out of her hair afterwards. I'm sure they get in my hair too, but Amy's hair is a really light blonde so they show up easily.

Well, you know that blue tubtrug we bought on Wednesday. Well we decided we would use it to store our tools. Until today....

We filled it 3/4way with compost. Before placing a tomato plant in the middle. Then we placed 16 marigolds around the edge. This tomato plant won't be touched by green fly that is for sure. We've now put the planted tubtrug next to the tomatoes in the grow bags so hopefully this will work out well in fending off the invasion.

The one blot on our veg plot was the ghastly old hanging wall baskets that had been untouched for well over a year. So using some more of the marigolds and the labelia. The veg plot has had a bit of a much needed face lift.

We had a few left over marigolds so I have planted these strategically in the garden. I've just sown some wild flower seeds and we have 3 sunflowers that are ready to go in to their final positions.
The raised squash bed which I have mentioned before. Is now a seprated area of the garden. Last month I made a post called 'Windy' where I said that the old water feature had fell over thanks to the rapid winds and the top of it had smashed in to bits. Although there were many small bits that were not useable, I saved the large bits because I knew they would come in useful at some point. Well, they have and they are now the edging around the raised area which is the squash bed. I planted some more marigolds next to the edging to give it even more colour. There is also the giant yellow tubtrug and the Rhubarb in the blue pot.

Look at the sweetcorn in the yellow tubtrug. Because it is in the tubtrug it doesn't compete for root space with the squash and (soon to be planted) pumkin. Therefore because the squash plants should swallow the majority of the area and need the root system to support it, we are ensuring that the squashes, pumpkin and sweetcorn get their fair share of needed nutrients.

The green has definately been brushed over with the flower power and the introduction of the new brightly coloured tubtrugs and the yellow plant labels. Here is the new and refreshed view..

I'm hoping for a bit more colour soon when all of those fruit and veg start to ripen up nicely, ready for harvesting.

We are making the homemade beeswax candles tonight, so that's something to look forward to.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Martin

Winter

2011-06-18T09:30:00.001+01:00

It's strange to think that on a lovely, sunny June day the topic on my mind is the hard months of winter.

We're going to have a go at growing a range of brasicas including cabbage, brocolli and purple sprouting to name a few of the seed varieties we bought at Gardener's World.
We also need to get a move on with some of the root crops including parsnips and turnips, otherwise we really will have missed them for this year...

Don't worry, we're not only confined to the doom and gloom of the 'hunger months' but we are still preparing and sowing for summer and early through to mid autumn.

I transfered the lettuce seedlings in to the ground directly next to the leeks and then planted a row of beetroot too. The beetroot looks great, it's been sat in a pot up until now and they have come on great in the short time we've had the greenhouse. Amy doens't like beetroot, so it's only done a small row for myself. We can plant a row of lettuce each week now for a few weeks time so that we have a continuous crop in to the autumn.

The broad beans look really good, seeing as we only bought 12 plug plants that were a bit battered and starved and thus reduced at a local garden centre, we are both amazed how well they have come on. They are all flowering and we watched the bees hard at work on them. I noticed the first mange tout flowers today aswell which is fantastic. Here are a couple of pictures of the bees doing their business..

There are plenty of tomato flowers on the tomato plants, and the first sign on peppers on the pepper plants. It was great to have Amy back in the garden now she has finally finished her own exams. She helped me move the sunflowers on to larger pots, and they will be moved over to my Grandma and Grandad's house next week or just after. We are keeping a few for our own garden and I plan to save the seeds. She also got her infamous pink watering can out and gave all the plants a little sprinkle this evening. Everything seems to be thriving, even the scorched runner beans are coming along really well...

Have a good day!

Martin

Royal Sighting

2011-06-17T16:00:00.000+01:00

You'd have thought I'd met the Queen, I was so happy. Well, it was not her majesty as such, but Mrs.Queen bee!

It's the first time I've tracked her down since we got bees again. I am useless at spotting queen bees, there are so many bees in the hive and they are all jiggling about so it is very difficult to spot her for more than a few seconds.

As soon as I saw her I reached for my queen marking pen, only to realise my pockets were empty and the pen was in a drawer inside the house. How frustrating..

You can see why it can be difficult to spot her, I don't think I even managed to capture her in this shot!

An iphone is the beekeepers must have tool for the 21st century.

I took a couple of frames out of the brood chamber that were full of old wax which is currently not being used. I have some new foundation to put in them and they will go in tomorrow morning. We are going to be making our own beeswax candles with the wax, which is obviously very special and exciting.

We will keep you updated.

Wish me full supers!

Martin

Gardener's World Live Report - Best of the Rest

2011-06-17T09:00:00.042+01:00

Welcome to the final installment of our 'Gardener's World Live Report'. Don't forget that the show highlights are aired on BBC2 tonight (Friday) at 8pm.

These are the final photos we took of the event including the bits and bobs that didn't really fit in the other parts of the report.

To start off, probably the weirdest of all the gardens was the 'Honey, I've shrunk the garden' which featured a giant sculpted worm, and a lego character gardener. Being the proud owners of a wormery and fully appreciating all worms in our garden for soil fertility and chicken snack food, we thought this garden should feature in the report somewhere. So here it is...

After we saw this garden we spotted the GW team doing a bit of filming for tonight's show.

Over on the edible patches were some tasty looking cucumbers....

There was a big presence of the UK Cucumbers growers society (genuine society) who were on hand following the e-coli outbreak in mainland Europe. There was also the UK Tomato Growers association, who were running a competition to name a new variety of tomato which was shaped like a love heart. It was very cute. We tasted it and it was very sweet, just like the concept, and we entered the name 'Bingham' after Amy's surname. It's quite a bouncy name and sounds like a variety of tomato or soft fruit.

We are always trying to make the garden more approachable to living wildlife. This display by the RSPB showed how easy it was to make a multi-storey hedgehog/insect hide using everyday bits and bobs..

To finally conclude our whole report. We are going to revisit the show gardens where two more really caught our eye.

This hobbit hole style garden called 'Naturally Playful' was quite innovative and interesting...

This garden called 'Remember the Dream' by MacMillan Cancer Research was rather inspiring. It had beautiful pink obelisks which reminded us of Rapunzel's tower and a small pool too...

The garden was a real nice touch, and deserved it's high accolades. It wouldn't be fair not to include this garden following the support we got when Amy's mum was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. Any mention, large or small will hopefully spread the underlining message...

Well, that pretty much rounds up our four part report. Remember, that parts 1, 2 and 3 can be found directly beneath this post on the homepage.

We had such a great time and we hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Martin and Amy

Gardener's World Live Report - Part 3

2011-06-16T17:00:00.001+01:00

I hope you enjoyed reading parts 1 and 2 of this report. If you haven't seen them yet, then they should be directly under this post on the home page.

I mentioned in Part 2 that beehives and chickens featured prominently throughout the show. Not only was there a large presence in the show gardens and displays, but there were plenty of stalls inside that were selling or advertising related products etc.

This stand was by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA).

It really is a step in the right direction for promoting the hobby, it was one of the most bespoke and outstanding pieces in the whole hall. As you will all probably know, numbers of honey bees around the world are in serious decline following outbreaks of viruses and bacteria that thrive on healthy colonies. This stand really went the extra mile. There were many beekeepers on hand partaking in different activities. Some were taking apart hives and demonstrating to potential newbies. There were other beekeepers demonstrating candle making, which is something we hope to do soon and there were others manning stalls with honey and beekeeping products. There was a display hive too. It is basically a glass window with two brood frames in so that people can see how the bees go about their business. It is always interesting to see the bees even though we have our own, but because Amy doesn't go near the hive (yet!) it was great for her to see them up close. They also had 2 bee hives in the outside area with live beekeeping demonstrations taking place throughout the day. It did make me laugh how clever they were bringing two hives and plonking them in the middle of the show gardens. Think of all that amazing honey they will get now!

Before we move on, we will take a look back at the other gardens or displays with beehives on them.

This was one of the edible patches designed by local schools and charities.

This show garden was called 'Working with nature' it was a very tranquil looking garden.

There was also the show garden which we awarded the 'Our-good-life' silver medal.

Well, I suppose you are all bee-hived out. Well, here is a selection of gardens and displays which were based on the 'grow your own' theme.

The above display by 'Robinson's seeds and plants' was a breathaking mass of colour and texture. It was different from most other displays because it was a display of harvested vegetables and fruits rather than growing plants. It still scooped a Gold Medal, and we bought the lovely Filius Blue chilli pepper plant which was photographed in Part 1 from here. You can also see the 'Turk's Turban' squash in the bottom left corner, we bought one of these plants too because Amy was amazed with the shape and colour of them. The plant has now been planted in the squash and pumpkin bed. They had this display of beans too, I am very envious of them...

This next garden was very vintage. It had a cute little chicken coop/adapted rabbit hutch in the foreground and the whole plot was in 4 segments with the greenhouse in the centre. I thought the 'Dig for Victory' post was a really nice touch. This garden had lots of good information published on small placards strategically placed throughout the garden. Great idea!

In the past I've been to talks by Paul Kelly, James Martin, Jimmy Doherty and Carol Klein. But this year we went to see good old Alan Titchmarsh doing a talk about growing your own veg. Amy wasn't keen on the idea, but I dragged her by the hair all the way to the stage. (joke). She did buckle and came along, and we were both surprised at how funny he actually is and his whole talk was adapted around growing in smaller spaces which was very relevant for us. He did a questions and answers session at the end, which was good of him. The picture doesn't show a lot other than Alan and some stranger's heads...

We got a bit closer to good old Monty though who was filming for Friday's show...

Anyway, away from the gardeners and back to the gardens. Or displays as like to call this next lot.

The UK Bonsai society always make me laugh. People queue up to talk to the experts and their conversation always goes like this.

Person: ''I had a bonsai tree''
UK Bonsai Expert: ''..and it died''

It always makes me laugh at loud, the same thing happened again yesterday and Amy gave me a nudge in the side. The bonsai trees on display always look amazing, like minature pieces of precious woodland. But, if you have ever owned a bonsai tree like I have, they die, and fast. I've had four or five bonsai trees in the past and not a single one lasted more than two weeks. As soon as one leaf falls off the whole lot seems to go, the conditions your provide are always too hot, or too cold, too sheltered or not sheltered enough, too much light, or not enough! No matter what book I have read or what I have done, the same result is always impending doom. What sort of witchcraft and wizardry do they use to nurture these beauties....

Amazing aren't they!

Well, I have to admit that I am pretty bad when it comes to flowers, my knowledge is not as extensive as my knowledge of fruit and vegetable growing. I often forget the names of the flowers like with the following displays which are actually rather beautiful...

I can just about say that either side of these flowers there are some alliums. But I'm not sure what these are. I like the white and pink ones near the top.

Here are some more outstanding flower displays..

Some foxgloves...

Amy liked the display by the company that provided the trees for the Royal Wedding on April 29th. A couple of the trees from the wedding were on display...

I have been writing this post since 9:30 am and it is now 11:39 am. Time flies. There are a lot more photos left, so I am going to do a fourth part to this report called 'Best of the Rest' It will got live at 9am tomorrow Friday for those of you who are interested.

We had such a good day, I really envy all of those people who have been today too. Can't wait for next years show, Amy did joke that we should do a show garden because she recons I could do a better job than some of them.. Don't even want to think about all of the work that goes in to that!

I really thankyou for your support once again.

Martin

Gardener's World Live Report - Part 2

2011-06-16T09:00:00.002+01:00

I was really unsure how Amy would react to a whole day at a gardening event, and I am really pleased to say that she absoutely loved it as much as I did. The whole enjoyment of the day was helped by the favourable conditions. Nobody wants to be looking around the show gardens when it is really gloomy and raining at the bucket load. So thankfully the skies were relatively clear in the morning, and it was a bit overcast in the morning. The only time that the heavens opened was when we were walking back to the car with armfuls of newly acquired bits and bobs, typical. I'd rather it rain as we were leaving rather than as we walking around the amazing show gardens.

The Royal Horticultural Society and the Gardener's World team did an amazing job of allocating the gold, silver and bronze medals to all of the exhibited show gardens. However, we had our own personal favourites too. We are going to share with you our top five gardens from the show. There were some outstanding 'displays' too, but you will see in part 3 of our report where we draw the line between 'show gardens' and 'displays'

In reverse order....

5th

Heart Healthy Garden designed by Paul Baines and John Woods Nurseries is inspired by healthy and pro-active lifestyles. The garden was sponsored by 'Flora Pro-active' and had a very modern and comfortable feel to it. The main features of the garden were the georgeous seating arrangements and this gentle pool on one side. This garden was a real celebrity hot spot, we spotted lots of famous people browsing this particular garden.

4th

They say you always remember the first and the last and this is true in the case of 'The Edible Classroom' by Hannah Genders as it was the first garden we saw at the show. Hannah is a local desinger and her last show garden which was for received a gold medal at the Malvern show is permanently on display at a local farm shop. 'The Edible Classroom' is a burning desire to roll out a nation wide use of allotments and growing spaces in schools. This show garden was a real novelty with fruit and vegetables being grown in old style desks and the show garden had chickens too. The ladies were a real hit....

3rd

Bronze medal time now. Our third favourite garden was the 'Grow Your Own' garden which was also the 'Grow Your Own' stage. There were many talks on growing fruit and vegetables during the day, and we attended one hosted by Alan Titchmarsh. The garden had two stunning green houses, and a row of delightful raised beds with some great demonstrations of companion planting and natural pest avoidance techniques. The varities displayed were very colourful, with sunny yellow courgettes, red cabbage and purple runner beans.

2nd

Our silver award goes to a garden which for me would be idealic. Each night before we go to bed, we are currently watching an episode per night of the Good Life TV series from the 70s. This garden really did look like it belonged to Tom and Barbara. It had a georgeous light blue chicken coop with a white fenced area for them to free-range in. It also had a WBC bee hive in the middle of 8 or so apple trees. At the end of the garden was a small vegetable patch. The garden was perfect. It was quite romantic in a really odd way. I just loved everything about it. If that was my garden I would be so proud. It is not the most practical thing, but being self-sufficient is not always practical. If you had an allotment in conjunction with this garden then you really could be on your way to self-sufficiency. Delightful!

1st - Gold Medal

This garden called 'Gorilla's Plight' was compiled by Birmingham City Council. It was simply amazing. People were on their mobile phones saying 'it's like something we've never seen before' and 'it's breathtaking'. To be perfectly honest it was all of those things. We can give it the prize of 'Our-good-life Top Garden' but you really need to see this garden to believe it. There was so much going on, you didn't know where to look at any one time. A huge waterfall and pond was incorporated in to the centre of the garden, and the exotic foliage was breathtaking. There were recycled metal animals too, including Gorillas (obviously) and turtles and beetles. This was the most deserving winner. Not only a RHS Gold medal, but ours too. Congratulations!!

_________________________________________________________________________________

You can probably see some sort of theme in our selections. Fruit, vegetables and growing your own! After all this is what we are all about, and this is why our blog exists, so it is only fitting that these were the gardens we enjoyed the most and took the most from. The other mini theme was water, Amy loves water features and anything to do with water in gardens. She could be the next Charlie Dimmock! In reality there was no chance of anybody beating 'Gorilla's Plight' it was unbelievable, so she didn't need to twist my arm on that one. But we agreed that 'Healthy Heart Garden' did fit in with 'Our-good-life' theme as we do strive to be healthier and more pro-active in everything we do. The Cabbages for Classrooms idea is lovely, I remember that anything to do with gardening in science at school really made my academic year more worthwhile. Beehives and Chicken Coops were really 'in' at this years show. I remember that in the past only ornamental chickens and beehives have been used, but now there are real hens, cockerels and buzzing bees in 'live hives'. This must be a good sign of the population's trends...

We have so many photos and annecdotes to share, so I will be busy writing the next installment during the day and it will be published at 5pm, so be sure to check back.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.

Have a great day!

Martin

Gardener's World Live Report - Part 1

2011-06-15T21:33:00.001+01:00

Last night, I couldn't sleep. I was like a child at Christmas. I just kept thinking 'I'm going to Gardener's World tomorrow, I'm going to Gardener's World tomorrow etc.' I think we were both so excited.

We were up early this morning and left home at about 7:45 am to make sure we were amongst the first throught the barrier and in to the event. I'm going to do this report in three parts. This one now is about all the amazing and fun things that we bought (because that's what yo uare all really interested in) and then tomorrow morning will be a feature on the show gardens (including our own rankings) and then finally tomorrow afternoon/evening you will get all of the rest!

There are so many problems with this event. The first problem is that you spend a lot of money on gardening products, and then secondly they add the Good Food Show to the event too. Therefore you spend a lot more money in the Good Food Show. The third problem, which is a genuine problem is that you buy so much stuff and then you soon realise that one more piece of straw will break the camel's (your) back, therefore everybody buys a £12 trolley and you are constantly getting hacked with it. (We bought 3 tubtrugs to carry things in, they will have a use after today!)

Well here is what we bought. Quite an array of useful bits and bobs...

I mentioned in a previous post about how we are rapidly preparing for winter. We scoured all of the great seed offers available and bought loads of seeds, you can just about see them laid down on the table above. When it come to seed buying, I have a real addiction and don't know when to stop. I think 'that one looks good, and that one, that'll do too', then you have more seeds than you realise to add to your already massive seed collection. Oh well. I love it. I discovered a few great varieties too which look like they are ideal for smaller plots and gardens. The whole list of seeds is as follows....

Vegetable and Fruit Seeds
Courgette - Zucchini
Cauliflower - Igloo
Kale - Dwarf Green Curled
Turnip - Oasis
Aubergine - Orlando F1 Hybrid
Strawberry - Woodland
Climing Bean - Blauhilde
Sweetcorn - Hark F1 Hybrid
Brussel Sprouts - Brilliant F1 Hybrid
Swiss Chard - Bright Lights
Swede - Brora
Broad Bean - Aqua Dulch Claudice
Courgette - Foleil F1 Hybrid
Tomato - Gardener's Light
Lettuce - Little Gem
Brocolli - Purple Sprouting

Flower seeds
Mixed Wildflowers
Dwarf Topalino

The ones that are in bold have already been sown in to pots! How good are we! We got home about 4:45pm and we were in the garden until about 7:30. So much to do today, and even more to do tomorrow.

We also bought a great book about allotments called 'The allotment source book' by Caroline Foley, but in general it looks like a great book about growing your own (more reading...) for only £5 too. It was marked up at £20 originally. We both love an impulse buy and bargain!

In the photo you can see the lovely planter we bought. It was very 'rustique' and we have filled it with potting compost and scattered various herb seeds. It will look great as a mini herb garden.

Amy also bought a fat ball maker for making our own fatballs for the birds.

Here are the 'growing' things we bought...

You can just about recognise a few of the things we bought.

The last few years at Gardener's World they have had a 'plant swap' stall, where you take a plant you don't want or need and swap it for one of the others that somebody else has brought in. This time, they changed it a bit. So you donated your plants to Children in Need and then if you wanted one of the other plants you simply donated what you thought it was worth to charity. From this tent we bought three sweetcorn plants that are very well established. Remember our sweetcorn failure when we planted the seeds earlier in the year. We also got a butternut squash plant that was at the top of our shopping list before hand anyway.

Well. The sweetcorn have been transported in to their final growing position too...

......in the large yellow tubtrug next to the rhubarb. We have had such great success with growing the courgettes in a tubtrug that we had no hesitation putting the sweetcorn in one too. Well we did have 3 brand new tubtrugs to use up too...

One of my favourite buys was this georgeous 'Filius Blue' pepper plant. The plant is full of small sized chilli peppers with the most indulgent purple colour, however they apparently turn red as they finally turn ripe.

Amy is very busy in the background labelling all the plants. We bought some funky yellow plant labels and we have now labelled everything.. and have abruptly ran out of labels for future use.

Look at the purple flowers too. This is a really ornamental type, it certainly brings some lovely colour to the veg patch especially with new tubtrugs and the yellow labels...

Simply georgeous!

I mentioned earlier that we bought the butternut squash plant, well Amy was intrigued when she saw a Turk's Turban squash in the show gardens... so we bought one of those too! The area that used to be where the eglu sat has been raised up with some well rotted home made compost and some multi purpose compost from left over bits from one place and another. The two squash plants are planted here, and are waiting to be joined by the pumpkin plants which I am going to leave for a little bit longer in the greenhouse...

We can't wait for our own squash to grow.

We bought plenty of delicious food at the Good Food Show but I'll put that all in part 3.

We've had the most amazing day, and I hope you've enjoyed reading about what be bought!

Part 2 will be up at 9am tomorrow (sharp!).

Thanks for reading.

Martin

Growing your own is on the up...

2011-06-15T09:00:00.006+01:00

I found this wonderful chart on Sue's blog. It is a fantastic illustration of the increase in the trend to grow your own fruit and vegetables. Some very interesting statistics too.

Martin

Gardener's World Live

2011-06-14T12:00:00.000+01:00

We are going to Gardener's World Live at the NEC in Birmingham TOMORROW.

Is anybody else going?

We can't wait. We've saved our pennies to stock on some gardening gadgets and maybe a few more veg seed varieties or plug plants.

I've been three or four times before and have absolutely loved it.

Tickets are still on sale for the whole week.

Martin

Bookworms

2011-06-14T10:06:00.000+01:00

Morning all,

First of all a quick sorry because I have not wrote a blog post for a while due to exams but i am glad to say with a big smile on my face they are all over now for summer ! So I can sit back, relax and get back to some work in the garden!

Yesterday Martin and I went to our local libary for the first time in what seems like for years and we both realised how brilliant it really is and really how sustainable and environmentally friendly it is to share books within the community and not just to all buy the same and not share, then have them sit on your bookshelf until they eventually reach the bin.

We managed to pick up a lovely book about beekeeping which caught our eyes on the shelf. It has some brilliant tips and information in a colourful, fun, easy read book. We were also tempted to borrow the many other brilliant books they had to offer on gardening, diy and self sufficient living, however we thought we ought to read the ones we did borrow first!

Hope you are all well and we hope to keep you updated about our future reading and any useful tips we come across!

Amy

Thankyou!

2011-06-13T08:30:00.003+01:00

I would just like to thank all of my readers and followers for their continued support. Starting a new blog from scratch was a rather daunting prospect, but I do not regret it one bit. Thankyou for all your lovely comments, suggestions and general feedback about our blog. Both Amy and I read every single comment left, and although it is very tough trying to get back to each and everyone of them, we will always reply to a question or suggestion.

Thankyou to those of you who replied to this post the other day. You all correctly diagnosed the problem with the bean plants as 'sun scorch'. With this terribly volatile weather that we have at the moment it is easy to understand why and how they were scorched. One moment we have had blazing heat and delightful sunshine, but the next minute we have had downpour after downpour followed by some more sun. It really is crazy. We now officially live in a 'drought' zone, so we have to be vigilant with our water useage. Thank goodness that yesterday's torrential rain will have filled up the empty water butt.
It was meant to be the annual street market celebration in Alcester yesterday but the elements meant that the whole event was a non-starter. It must be devastating for all those people who have put lots of time and effort in to preparing the event.

Well, I really wonder what the weather is going to do today! The five day forecast for our post code doesn't give too much indication, the whole week looks like it is going to be fairly inconsistent.

Thanks again,

Martin

We're going to the zoo.. zoo.. zoo

2011-06-12T18:00:00.002+01:00

Well that's a lie. We went to the zoo last Friday for a well deserved rest following constant work, exams and general business. We're now entering our third consecutive year of being members at Bristol Zoo. It is one of our most favourite places to go. It is so relaxing, the zoo is sculpted around a large lawn area and the gardens are amazing, hence their accreditation as Bristol Zoo Gardens. The animal enclosures are really spacious and very modern, no bars and wire, it's more like open enclousures with manmade moats and tall bushes. Being only 12 acres in size, they don't keep the larger species such as Rhino, Elephant or Giraffes. They have lots of smaller animals such as lemurs, gibbons, red pandas, penguins and tapir. They do have Asiatic Lions and Gorillas though!

They are celebrating their 175th Birthday this year, and this post is a little tribute to the wonderful zoo which we first visited on Monday 23rd February 2009.

Happy Birthday Bristol Zoo Gardens!

Martin and Amy x

What is this??

2011-06-09T10:00:00.000+01:00

This is rather bizzarre..

Anybody know what it is or what has happened? It seems to have happened to the majority of the runner bean bushes I've been growing. The leaves have shrivelled up and are now really crisp and they break/crumble/disintergrate instantly when touched.

Answers on a postcard (or via comment) and thanks in advance!

Martin

What's going on in the vegetable patch?

2011-06-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

Well, so much is happening at the moment.

We rather embarassingly had our first potato harvest of.. one potato, but never to give up we have hope with the others. The plant seemed to be dying so we pulled them up a few weeks before they would normally be ready, and all that was in the bag was one solitary potato. Oh well. Hopefully the others will provide more...

The 'barrow of berries' as I like to call our strawberry patch is full of fruits, none are ripe yet, but it won't be long now. They are in the front garden and this area has a lot less sun than the back garden. Most of the blogs I follow are already proudly displaying their finest, juciest, red strawbs.

In the veg patch, most of the tomato plants are establishing flowers. Harvesting tomatoes is one of the best bits of growing your own and so easy to do too!

The next picture shows that we have 5 MORE tomato plants that I need to find some room for. They've come on leaps and bounds since they've moved in to the greenhouse. The sunflowers in the foreground likewise. These are going in to Grandad's garden as soon as they are big enough! There also some pak choi sowings, some lettuce seedlings, beetroot and pumpkins.

The growbag at the bottom of the greenhouse is now planted up with 3 courgette plants. I'm hoping they'll grow rather wildly in the bottom of the greenhouse and we'll be harvesting courgettes well in to the autumn.

A quick snap of the jungle as a whole...

Remember, that arched structure we made for our runner beans? Well we've put the runner beans in and some of them are starting to make the long, winding journey to the top. I'm sure some of you will be familiar with the '3 sisters in a bed' form of gardening where you grow courgettes, runner beans and sweetcorn in the same area and thus maximizing the useage of your ground. Well we've adopted a similar idea and put a marrow plant at the bottom. I Will be happy if we can grow a few marrows to stuff with minced meat later in the year.

It's great seeing everybody elses blogs and seeing similar things going on. I am very proud to say that we are in the middle of a massive courgette glut. We've had about 8 or 9 lovely courgettes from only 2 plants. I see that some people's plants haven't even started producing yet, and they are green with envy at my harvest.

The raddishes should be ready very soon and most of the potato bags are full up. So much going on, just off out to give them a sprinkle of water due to the huge amounts of sun we've had already this week.

Have a great evening!

Martin

Hanging Baskets with Grandad

2011-06-08T09:00:00.001+01:00

I spent Thursday making some hanging baskets with my grandad. I've spent a good chunk of the last week sorting out my granparent's garden and it is now complete!

Here are a few pictures of the hanging baskets...

(We bought the last one)

I'll take some more pictures of the ones we made when they settle in a bit more and establish themselves.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

More to come later!

Martin

Starting them young..

2011-06-07T18:00:00.003+01:00

I found it very amusing the other day when Amy's younger brother, Jordan told us that he wanted to grow his own cucumbers because he didn't want to get E-Coli. He said that he would never eat a Spanish cucumber again in his life.

So off we went to the garden centre and we brought him a grow bag. He decided that he wanted to grow a different thing in each of the holes. So we bought him a female cucumber plant, a tomato plant and a strawberry plant. You wouldn't normally grow strawberries in a grow bag but he insisted, and we can take them out at the end of the season an re-pot them then! It's hard to find a strawberry plant that doesn't have fruits on at the moment so we bought one with flowers emerging so he could observe the whole process.

Under our supervision, he undertook the whole activity. Cutting the grow bag, planting and watering. Amy was obviously very proud...

Here is the final product and one very pleased 11 year old!

You might be able to see the 1p coins around the base of all three plants. Well, I know that slugs love cucumber plants in particular, but they don't like copper. I thought it might work, and 4 days later the plants are still untouched. Fingers crossed if continues to work..
It is really enjoyable for me to pass on my knowledge of growing just like my grandparents did for me when I was younger. I remember my Grandad Ian would grow delicious tomatoes in his greenhouse, and he had the most gigantic compost heap. My Grandad Fred was an inspiration on the allotment and helped me greatly in getting in to all of this. Hopefully Jordan will take some inspiaration from his brief encounter with 'growing his own'

Have a superb day.

Martin

P.S I've been quite busy during the last couple of days so will be reading all the blogs that I follow tomorrow, and no doubt I will be leaving comments too!

P.P.S Thanks again for visiting, and finally a welcome to the blog to my Grandma and Grandad who are now reading!

(Hi!)

Extending the veg patch!

2011-06-05T16:29:00.000+01:00

We got the greenhouse on Wednesday which increased our floor and growing space. But now we have increased the plot considerably. We have sold the rabbit eglu that was at the top end of the patch and...

We have all the fenced off area to sort out!

Very exciting, lots of seeds to be sown and plants to be planted.

Can't wait!

Martin

'The organic pedicure'

2011-06-02T17:10:00.001+01:00

Well..

I had a go..

..and.....

it was strange..

..it tickled....

but I liked it...

.. and so did Amy (for the fourth time)

It was very fun indeed. How organic? Well, it's better than putting a load of gunky cream etc on your feet. Not that I normally pedicure of course (!!!), but I was interested to have my feet nibbled by fish. Once in a lifetime experience I think.

Would definately reccomend it to all you bloggers!

Martin

Our application to join the composting elite!

2011-06-02T07:30:00.006+01:00

We have a wormery!!

Well, it's not like it turned up today. We won it on ebay over a month ago and it was located near to our cousin who picked it up and brought it down last weekend for us. We went to collect the worms today!

The worms were bred only 7 miles away, can't get more local than that for a worm breeder!

Here is how the process went:

First of all we put the bedding block in 6 litres of water as stated on the packet...

I have used this stuff before and it is amazing how it turns into such a large quantity of material after it has absorbed the water...

We then put the 1st tray on top of the base. You have to put a cardboard disk in the tray and then put the bedding (pictured above) on top.

They say that if you just left the worms in the coco bedding it would be too sterile for them and they would look to seek pastures new and escape! Not what we want. I read on the internet that adding a handful of shredded paper and a small shovel full of dirt straight out of the flower bed will make the worms a lot more comfortable..

Amy got her hand dirty and mixed all the bedding up..

Well, it was time to add the worms! They came in small tubs so we emptied them a tub at a time...

Here is the first pot of the little wriggly wrigglers....

After all the worms were in we had to leave the lid off for an hour. Worms are light sensitive so will burrow in to the substrate if they are in contact with the light. After an hour, we went back to check and there was only one worm in site (Amy has declared this one as her favourite), so I presume everything is all good. We have now fed them their first kitchen scraps ( the ends of the courgettes and peppers and some teabags).

Here is the proud wormery owner...

Back in April I said in this post that Amy wanted worms and I wanted bees and we now have both! So that is a nice little achivement.

We will try to keep you updated with how the worms are doing. I follow quite a few blogs where people have wormeries and I do enjoy reading about them.

Can you believe it! Vegetable updates to follow later today or tomorrow.

Have a good day!

Martin

Welcome to June.

2011-06-01T20:50:00.000+01:00

Almost half way through the year, today is the beginning of the sixth month.

Bought myself a treat today to welcome the month in.

A new mini greenhouse!!

I made it at Amy's house and then popped it around to my house to pop it in and amongst the vegetable patch.
I've popped a grow bag on the bottom shelf. I haven't decided what to put in there yet. Maybe some courgettes or some more peppers.

The other three shelves have all the sowings and small plants that were on the old rabbit hutch. That ghastly old thing is now gone.

I've penned it down with some tents pegs and stakes, so hopefully it won't blow over in the wind!!

This mini green house will really increasing growing space...

Another update tomorrow!!

Martin

Moody Monday

2011-05-30T18:11:00.000+01:00

I can't believe the weather at the moment. When will it make it's mind up?

The picture doesn't illustrate just how much rainfall we've had today..

Not much chance of getting on the sunbeds today!

I don't mind the rain, but the battering winds that are accompanying it are a real nightmare. Some plants have been destroyed by them!

The melon plant is going on the compost heap tomorrow, I gave it a chance to revive itself but it's really had it now.

The apple tree is making an ok comeback, some of the remaining apples are really getting big now.

I've just been out and covered up the potatoes with some more compost. The potatoes seem to be really enjoying this weather. I have no more space to dedicate any more bags (well I will find some somewhere) so there may be a gap in the 'continous harvest' method. But we shall see.

The tomatoes and the rest of the grow bag crew (except the melon) are also thriving which is great news. We might have found a nice new area to grow some more tomatoes. I will update you on that shortly. The first flowers are now appearing on the majority of the tomato plants.

I could do with some sun tomorrow so that I can get out there and make some more progress. I dashed out to plant the marrow out today whilst the ground is moist.

Enjoy the rest of your bank holiday and half term!!!!

Martin

We're having twins!

2011-05-29T20:10:00.000+01:00

Oh how I love the mis-shapen vegetables you will see when you grow your own veg. On one of the courgette bushes we have this odd-ball...

It looks like two courgettes which are physically stuck together to form one and each half has it's own flower!

You would never see anything like this ending up in the supermarket, the quality control processes these days are too vigorous, and hybrid vegetables means that all crops are identically perfect. That's why it is always such a novelty when you see a potato shaped like a love heart in Tesco. Never mind a carrot shaped like a dog, or twin courgettes or a raddish shaped like a fork...

I am definately a member of the mis-shapen vegetables appreciation society!

Are you?

Ooooh... and we just enjoyed some more home grown courgettes in a meatball pasta bake! Homegrown salad leaves for sides too!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Martin

War with the weather..

2011-05-26T21:21:00.000+01:00

Well..

What is this bizzare weather up to at the moment?

The whistling winds, the downpours, then drought. I have no idea.

Freezing and frosty at night, baking heat in the day, a bit more wind...

I wish I was writing to say we've had a nice windfall of delicious fresh apples, but we've a windfall of the whole apple tree. The powerful wind knocked the apple tree over and snapped a few branches and has removed at least half of the budding apples. I thought it was in a pretty safe place, but this wind really, really is something else.

I can not believe that I am having to water the plants every day when it is tipping it down with rain at night. The heat during the day is evapourating the rainfall so the plants are needing a bit extra during the day. I'm starting to give some of the plants some feed too in order to prolong harvesting. The courgettes are really coming along, the tomatoes have flower buds too!

Talking of the tomatoes, the tomatoes and the other member of the grow bag family really have needed some more support in this weather. We planted another small chilli plant and that really got a bashing. The Melon doesn't seem to like the cold nights and the cucumber is still recovering from it's frost bite from the other week!

Fingers crossed for some stability with the weather!!

Martin

First Pickings...

2011-05-26T11:00:00.001+01:00

Courgettes!!!

We baked these courgettes the other day and served them with some sausages, asparagus, mashed potato and carrots. Amy said they were 'the best courgettes' she had ever had!

The tiny one on the end made us laugh. We left it for a week and it did not grow at all, whereas the other courgettes were growing noticeably each day! So we decided to pick it and eat it. It was very sweet and really lovely!

We've also been eating the salad leaves we sown out at the same time as we planted the courgette plants. We've been enjoying the fresh leaves in our sandwiches on a regular basis. When we've been picking the salad leaves we've been sowing a few raddish seeds directly in to the freshly vacated soil. The first ones have germinated so we will be enjoying fresh raddish in about 24 days! Brilliant! They are Amy's favourite too!

Well, there are plenty more courgettes where those three came from..

I am going to have a productive day today.. I hope!

Martin

Jammy

2011-05-25T21:45:00.000+01:00

I love making Jam!!

We made some delicious Blackberry Jam with some Blackberries that were reduced in our local farm shop!

Normal blogging will resume tomorrow...

Exams are over now!

Martin

Deliver-bee

2011-05-22T13:00:00.001+01:00

Don't you just love getting things in the post?

One of my hobbies involves me receiving a lot of things in the post, however I am going to share with you what I got in the post today.

I made an order from Omlet (the company who made the eglu) and some important bee keeping bits have now arrived. I bought a queen marking pen so that I can mark the queen to make her easier to see when I inspect the hive. The queen is approximately 3 years old I believe so I bought a green pen as this matches the internationally recognised code for marking a queen of approximately this age. I bought some foundation and a good book about keeping bees. Some of the older 'beekeeping bibles' are a bit tedious to read and are a bit mean on the eyes, this book by Paul Peacock seems to be quite quick to the point which is great, it has received some great reviews so fingers crossed I'll get along with it!

The brood chamber of the hive is full of ageing foundation which is browning and this means that it needs to be changed. The bees are focussing on the middle of the hive at the moment, and some of the old brood frames at the edges of the hive can now be removed and filled with some of the brand new wired foundation.

The bees at the moment are not going in to the super at the moment, so I am seeking advice on how to encourage them up. I have had some great help on various forums, and I have removed the queen excluder to encourage the bees up. If I catch it right then the bees should have started drawing out the wax to make comb and the queen should still be in the brood box and then the queen excluder can be added again. If you don't keep bees then this last little paragraph might not mean a lot to you... sorry.

Another exam tomorrow but the end is in sight!! My last one is on Wednesday!

Really looking forward to our impending camping trip (next week) and just a general break.

Before I forget, the vegetables are rampant! The weather has been perfect again this week. Lots of rain during the night and plenty of sun in the day, a lot warmer than last week too. The courgettes are swelling up nicely, the salad leaves are just waiting to be picked (we had our first in a sandwich the other day), and the mange tout is really flourishing. The first bag of potatos I planted are now growing beyond the final covering of soil, so a week after they flower we will have fresh spuds!! We also planted out some broad beans in a trough and I picked up a blackcurrant cane from poundland.. for a pound! Can't wait for the first harvests to emerge.

Have a great day!

Martin

Question of the day..

2011-05-21T08:00:00.000+01:00

How long will a ball of twine last you?

The stuff is never ever ending....

Have a good day!

Martin

Sack of potatoes

2011-05-20T09:30:00.003+01:00

Good Morning!! Just planted another bag of potatoes. Having such a restricted space for growing in, it is very convenient to grow potatoes in a bag. We have 6 bags and 1 pot of potatoes on the go at the moment. I have always criticised garden centres who sell a 'potato in a pot' that has almost reached harvest. The plant is flowering so the potatoes must be almost ready. I saw one garden centre sell this sort of thing at.. wait for it.... £7. Ok, granted you got a terracotta plant pot but then again they are the most expensive potatoes you have ever had, but realistically how many potatoes will you get in a small pot. 3 or 4? That works out at over £1.50 a potato.

I was intrigued to see a particular blog post the other day. They grew 7 perfect new potatoes in a plastic plant pot. I hope they doesn't mind but we've nicked their idea!! (I can't remember who's blog it was, so if you're reading, remind me and I will put the link in) Seeing as the whole sack of seed potatoes cost us 50p (for about 30 seed potatoes) and the pot is just one that was lying around it's a bit of a saving on £7. We are just open to seeing what works well when growing in a small space. Remember - Kaizen is Japanese for 'continuous improvement'.

I documented in a previous post about how that when growing potatoes in old compost bags like we do it is important to make sure that the bags are effectively covered so that no UV light can reach the potatoes and give any potatoes touching the surface a green tinge. However I've now manouvered a few things and the potato bags are now being sufficiently covered by other growing things. The courgette plants and tubtrug are covering two of the bags, the courgette leaves are really offering a lot of protection. Also the wigwammed mange tout, combined with the runner bean plants, the rhubarb, the fence and the eglu are offering more protection.
Here is the picture from wednesday's blog post..

It is quite hard to notice, but the potato bags are at the back of the courgette's foliage and are on the edge of the eglu run. (Please note, this eglu is empty.)

Things are looking really, really, really good for a continous supply because all of the bags are at different stages, so fingers crossed.

It has come to that point where all the summer crops are blooming and I know it's only May, but it's time to think about Winter..

..well maybe tomorrow!

Have a superb day!

Martin

Cheeky Cows

2011-05-19T22:10:00.000+01:00

Just been for a walk in Haselor.

We stumbled across these cows in a field. They certainly were very curious...

Amy is not the world's biggest fan of cows, but I think they are great.

Would love to have a house big enough for a couple of Dexters in the future...

Enjoy the rest of your evening!

Martin