A Floral Bonanza

The flowers are out in full force this year and the Poppies are trumpeting the loudest. Last year wild poppies came up in some of my vege beds with no help from myself. They were the basic red colour with some opium poppies thrown in the mix.

This year there is a plethora of self seeded poppies (again in my vege beds) of all colours and fashions, here are a few pictures of them:

POPPIES GALORE

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These are recent blooms currently making an appearance around my garden

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Calendula
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Feverfew
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Corncockle in the mini meadow
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St. John's Wort
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There are mini beast too but (it seems to me) in much smaller numbers than last year.
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Shield Bug
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I went to the allotment on Monday evening for about an hour to water and also got chance to finish weeding the allium bed. We have since had a lovely heavy showery day on Tuesday so the plot should be ok till I visit again on Sunday.

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I also have to make time to finish planting out my other squash family plants, I would have done it sooner but we were waiting for a tree surgeon to come and remove a stump at the back of the garden and his machinery would have needed to pass right were I have air marked for them to be planted. Now that job is done I can plant them out and hope to do so on Sunday.

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Things are still quite hectic in my neck of the woods, my update on my other blog explains why, feel free to pop round for a visit. Hope life is treating you all well.

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Allotment Updates

Just a quick update, so you guys don't think I have abandoned gardening all together.
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Last week Sunday I made it to the allotment, and worked on preparing the are air marked for my bush winter squashes I plan on growing there.

I was greeted literally as I walked into the gate by this beauty, I think it is an 'Adonis Blue'

And this calendula is beginning to bloom, Maureen do you recognize it?

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First the few weeds and signs of nettle and bindweed growth from missed roots needed to be got rid off.
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Once that was done, I manured the area.

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I then proceeded to cover the are with some cardboard I brought with me, this should do a couple of things. 1. keep the weeds down and 2. help to keep the area from drying out. The chicken wire is only temporary to deter the foxes in the are from digging the cardboard up.
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I also saw this little critter, always a good sign in the fight against slugs.

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On Monday evening I returned to the plot to plant out the young winter squash plants, there should have also been sixteen popcorn plants in the center but like so many of my seeds this year the germination rate was so low it would have been useless to plant them out, so the center will be empty leaving the squash plants more space to spread.
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In this area I have planted

• 2 butternut squash plants, variety 'Hunter' which is a bush variety.
• 1 winter squash, variety: 'Celebration' I grew this one last year and found that it was a bush variety. the fruit was quite nice to eat as well. So I am giving it another go this year.
• 1 winter squash, variety: Cornellia Delicata (spelling might be off, need to check my seed packet). I grew this one last year but it was the only one to not fruit as the plants became stunted with mildew (it was in a very crowed spot and so air circulation was really bad) I am hoping this year as it is a more favourable place that it will do better and produce.

I have also started foraging for wild free foods but I'll leave that for another post.

Hope you all are doing fine, I'm sure all your food growing is going great guns, catch you all laters,

PS I recently updated Me But A Little Bit More In Depth and you are more than invited to pop along for a visit.

Allotment Updates

Early in May I was still managing to get to the plot....

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06 - May - 2010

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Hubby was on annual leave so I got him to come with me and the girls to the plot, his job was to clear the last rubbish strewn area and to also clear that area of the nettle.

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I on the other hand got stuck into earthing up the potatoes, which was just as well as we were then hit (if you guys remember) with a late frost which knocked a few unprepared gardeners spuds back a bit.

When I was done with the spuds I got on with weeding and watering the beetroot and carrot seedlings.

Ah! here is my hubby working on that area I have air marked for some bush variety of squashes (I just need to manure the are now).

Jobs all done for the day, a found window box was filled with some soil and some flower seeds were added. The black drum to the left was filled with all the nettle foliage and topped up with water to make some liquid fertiliser tea for the plants later on in the season.

Saw many mini beasts that day:

Lots of slowworms both adults (2) and babies (6)
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A poor casualty.

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Butterfly: Common Blue - Polyommatus icarus. During the month of may i saw many of these both at the plot and at home in the garden but they seem to have disappeared again (which generally means the adults are probably all dead and the young are all in their caterpillar/ egg stage).
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17 - May - 2010

Carrots - Beetroots - Onions

Garlic - Reemerging Spuds

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This was just a visit to check on the seedlings, water what needed to be watered and I also earthed up the spuds again which fared well with those late frosts.

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Then life got in the way plus some wet weather days, and the plot didn't see me for 4 weeks!!!

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13 - June - 2010

This is the scene that greeted me yesterday, I was expecting weeds but lordy, I wasn't expecting this!!!

So what is a girl to do but to whip out her kneeling pad and get down on her hands and knees and get to weeding, which thankfully due to all the recent wet weather (which caused the mass of new weed growth in the first place) came out remarkably easy.

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On the left is what was cleared first and then I cleared the beetroot's bed next.

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So after about 4 and a half hours things were looking much better. To the back on the right which looks terribly over grown is the spuds so that area is actually OK and the back to the left where hubby cleared last time he visited is barely overgrown with no signs of nettle regrowth to be seen so I'll manure that in the next week or so and cover with some heavy cardboard and plant out my squash plants (which by the way are my only seed sowing success for the year, well besides the allotment beetroots and carrots).

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14 - June - 2010
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This evening after dropping the big kid off to her guiding group, i took the time to visit the plot and get some more weeding done, worked on the carrot bed and half of the allium bed was also done (the garlic side), just need to complete the onion side.

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Carrots - Garlic
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Its Been A Yucky Week, Blech!!!!

OK gone is the confidence and bravado I felt in my last posting, this past week has been plain yucky with very little productive activities achieved.

So I'll just get to the point....

Monday

Started off promising and I was full of plans for the week but something was amiss, the little one seemed to be having trouble staying awake and kept wanting to sleep on me, somehow my mummy radar was a bit askew and I didn't really take stock of the situation till just after noon when I realised all I had gotten in her all day was a half cup of herbal tea and four mouthfuls of porridge (her favourite). Around 1:00pm I suddenly realised in her current state that she would not have the energy to walk with me to pick up her sister from school and was just planning to call the school to let my daughter know she will have to walk herself home (don't worry we have a password set up for these sort of situations). As I was about to make the call the poor thing woke with really bad stomach ache and crying for tea to settle it, so with this heavy writhing four year old in my arms I went downstairs to attempt to make a cup of tea (at the back of my mind with my mummy radar finally working at 100% efficiency, I knew what was coming). So while I struggled to get a tea cup out of the drawer I suddenly felt her tummy start to convulse against me, which had me quickly sprinting to the sink with me begging her not to throw up on my shoulder.

So that was her lot for the next few hours, not that she had anything to throw up as her tummy was rendered empty after the first to times. Sometime late evening I got her to eat a couple slices of dry toast and drink a cup and a half of fennel tea which seemed to set her right for a full night sleep.

One of the things I promised myself was to create one item per day for my Blogshop, I am pleased to say I did achieve this Monday night all be it quite late when I went to bed.

Oh!! I almost forgot to fill you in on the review of another saved winter squash which was opened this most eventful day for dinner.
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Crown Prince

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It was marginally hard enough to get into, had to ask hubby to help as I simply wasn't up to wrestling with a squash that afternoon. There was very little skin and a lot of flesh which was neither too wet or dry, It was beautifully sweet but not sickeningly so and held its shape when roasted. I also sauteed it and added it to stews later in the week and it also did not melt away. Everyone enjoyed it, it stored very well, changing its colour slightly during storage from a slate grey to more of a washed out peachy orange hue. I will definitely grow it again but from next year though as I have new ones to trial this year.

Tuesday

Not much to add except that I spent a lovely sunny spring day flat on my back on the sofa with listless four year old on my chest slowly getting back her appetite wanting mummy to cuddle and watch one inane Disney movie after the other, oh the joy that is being a mummy.

Thankfully little one was pretty much back to her old self by dinnertime, 24+hr bug confirmed and is on its way, wish I knew where it came from, (although I have a sneaky suspicion that with all the lovely weather we have been having and the resulting increased outside play and pretend tea parties that ensued over the weekend prior to tummy upset, something unsavoury may have been put in the mouth when pretend play may have become too realistic. Hmm! It probably won't hurt to have them wash all their tea party toys with soap this coming weekend).

I did get a photo of a cheeky squirrel sunning itself on the garden fence.

And here are the last photos of the early spring flowers, the resulting rain and wind at the end of the week have finished them off now.

Anyhoo!! I completed another item for the shop, yeah for me, I'm sticking to my schedule (gave myself a pat on the back, as I climb into bed after 1:00am again).

Wednesday

Spent all day in London with the family sorting out new passports, would normally be able to do this via the post but my government are issuing new machine readable passports so for the first reissue we needed to be there in person for an interview and to have our photos taken by some special camera.

The whole day was shot and so was I, the loft studio didn't see me that night.

Thursday

Can't blooming remember what I did Thursday, I better check my camera and see if I took any pictures.....

Ah! Yes! I took some pictures and check to see what was germinating, which was nothing much to report, except a few radishes and an emerging bean in the greenhouse. I also cut and fed the lawn which was just in time for some afternoon shows that came later that day. I must remember to go over it soon and root out a few large leaf perennial weeds and maybe scrape out and make some sort of dent in the ever growing patch of moss.

Anyway here are some photos I took that day:

Forget-Me-Nots in full bloom

Lady's Cockoo Foot with no competition blooming as you would never see it in the woods.

Water Avens heavy with blooms.

I love daisies, these are growing in the lawn.

Ladybugs are still very much about.

The first of the Speckled Woods are here again.

Busy Honeybee.

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Pictures Of Things To Come:

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Iris in bud

Granny's Bonnet in bud

Wild Strawberries fattening up.

Apple blossoms in bud, not much on the tree though, so a poor harvest I think this year.

Weeds to come, all be it pretty ones.

Germinating Dwarf French Bean in the green house.

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Oh! I did make it to the loft and caught up with my quota and made two items for the Blogshop, plus made it to bed at 12.30, result!

Friday

Although being official laundry day, my hubby was home so while he looked after the laundry and the little one, I stole a couple hours at the allotment, my intentions were to plant out the young onion plants and water whatever needed watering.

On arriving at the allotment's parking area I found some discarded chicken wire and lawn surround, which after checking with the person who had thrown it out, I bagged it for myself.

I will use the surround around some of the beds next time I visit and I used the chicken wire to quite crudely cover the newly planted onion plants against bird and fox interference.

I didn't have enough young onion plants to fill the half a bed space but another plot holder had some extra onion sets going spare which I gladly accepted to fill the remainder of the space available.

Items made for shop = 0 :(

Saturday

My eldest and I woke with a sore throat, mine was mild and hers was not too bad, so off to drama classes the three of us went. Well by the end of the day the eldest was feeling a lot worse but mine still felt like just a tickle that I hoped would simply pass me by.

While at Drama classes I got this cool shot of a dandelion seed which appeared to be floating on the wind, (but it isn't anyone has ideas on how I got this shot, I'll reveal the answer after a few of you leave comments on your guesses).

Went to bed early ie 11.30pm as I planned on visiting the local carboot fair on Sunday with my eldest if she was up for it, (it was the first boot fair of the year in my area). So no items were made for the shop again, now down 2 items for my week's quota :( :(

Sunday

Both my eldest and I awoke by 08:00am with very sore throats but still wanted to cycle to the fair, the weather on the other hand had a much different idea, with very heavy rainfall forcasted and playing out all day, bummer.

My sore throat gradually worsened to a general feeling of unwellness and by the evening I was in bed with fever as well, thankfully my eldest improved as the day went by.

Shop item quota down by 3 :( :( :(

Monday

I awoke to a less sore throat but a general feeling of lethargy and some lingering fever spells, so spent the majority of the day asleep under lots of lovely covers. Thankfully my eldest had no further complaints and seemed to be over the worst of it. I also improved as the day went by and by the evening I felt a lot more like my normal self.

Decided to have an early night as I would have to wake early to get eldest off to school so shop item quota now down by 4 :( :( :( :(

On a happier note, I am pleased to share with you the news of a nesting pair of birds in my garden. I first noticed activities as much as three weeks ago, when I spotted a male great tit checking out this old terracotta urn I have sitting as decoration in the herb patch.

About a week later I spotted him again going in but I didn't see any nesting material in his beak so wasn't sure if he was going to set up a home there or not.

Then last week both my mom and I spotted him visit the urn at least three times in a 80 minute period and I deduced that he was probably feeding a brooding female partner.

Then yesterday while my mum stood at the kitchen window she said there were now two birds visiting quite regularly (which is just what i needed to force me off the sofa and into the land of the living - a good dose of wildlife watching).

I got a few pics of them leaving and entering the nesting sight, please enjoy them. I will try to get a recording of the chicks but can't make any promises as I don't want to freak the parents out. But hope to at least get a video or series of photos of the emerging fledglings in approx 10 days time or so.

Well its Tuesday morning and I am feeling much better, I'll take a wander in the garden later and see what has benefited from all the rain and hopefully sow some seeds. Maybe even visit the lotty this evening on my bike ride to water seedlings that are still covered and so would not have benefited from Sunday's downpour.

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Flower garden this morning, all green now that early spring flowers are on their way out.