3000 Plus New Visitors

Just wanted to thank all those who have recently visited and read my blog and an extra special thank you to all my loyal readers who keep coming back to follow what I get up to in my garden and allotment.

Last time I achieved a similar milestone I gave away some homemade produce, so I think I will do something like that again, so stay tuned for a celebratory giveaway, for all you lovely readers out there.

In the mean time please enjoy some pictures of what was blooming in the garden yesterday when I was doing some pruning maintenance to my living willow bench.

Willow buds beginning to show (so soft).

I think this is called Forsythia, which is grown as a hedge in our garden, all twiggy at this time of the year except for a riot of tiny yellow flowers.

The mini daffodils are cute as always.

And the crocuses aim to steal the show.

The lungwort can not decide what colour it likes best.

The first of the celendines are opening.

And some lazy ladybugs are still tucked in.

Just had to share...

The first I have seen for the year, ain't it a beauty :)

Arrgh! My Head!!!

The dreaded winter flu bugs have hit my family home and has made it's rounds to everyone at least twice in as many weeks. I was somewhat spared early on and so was the designated nurse maid but though my heart was willing my body gave up and properly succumbed to a chesty cough, a nagging headache and a general feeling of roughness these past 4 to 5 days now.

The kids are still playing musical spells of night fever, hubby and I can't sleep as we are both keeping each other awake coughing and my mum even took a sick day and if you know my mum, you would know she never takes sick days.

Well with all the nursing and being unwell myself the garden has had to wait. So I have no news regarding that development.

Today though the sun was shinning ever so beautifully this morning, that I had all plans to wrap myself up and go clear a few vege beds but I'm afraid once I had the girls breakfast sorted I was just to knackered.

I did venture out and took some photos of what new blooms are opening, I hope you enjoy them...

I told you the sun was shinning.

Still signs of last night's rainfall.


Told you the yellow crocuses would be making their appearance soon.

Doesn't the signs of spring just gladden your heart, I just can't wait for the spring to come and blow away the winter bugs.

Anyhoo, toodles for now, hope all is well and healthy in your homes,

Yikes!! I Almost Missed It: Its My 2nd Blogoversary

Well I was giving my blogs a face lift and happened to notice in all the shuffling around that today is my blog's 2nd anniversary.

.

I almost missed it and as such I didn't have anything planned to mark the occasion but I won't let the moment pass without a thank you to all my readers and for the warm welcome back I have had thus far.

.

It's kinda a nice to have the anniversary near to the beginning of a new year and I look forward to the next blogging year ahead, I do hope you'll keep coming back to keep me company :)

.

Toddles,

7 months is just tooooooo long, me thinks, hmmmm?

So as I type this I wonder, is anyone still out there, I wouldn't be surprise if that answer was a resounding NO!!

Life has been crazy for me these last 7 months but then whose life isn't filled with ups and downs and ups again :)

I hope all my blogging friends are all doing fine and that life has been treating you all well. I am hoping for a more succesful year in the garden and the allotment and look forward to catching up on all your gardening adventures as well.

Well I don't know if you have noticed but the year has certainly started much more balmy than how it ended. And it seems nature has decided to go along with this unseasonable warm weather.

One thing hasn't changed and that is my love of taking and sharing photos of what is happening in my garden, so here are a few of the early blooms this year.

These lilac crocuses always make me smile and opened over the weekend, the yellow ones will open next.

.

You know spring is on its way when the first snowdrop pushes it's head up out of the cold soil. The first one showed itself early week before last and they started to open and share their pretty insides mid last week.

.

I could barely believe my eyes when I saw the dwarf iris has also made an appearance, I'm hoping the damaged petals are due to birds and not slugs/ snails, cause that would mean they are up early too, hmph!

.

I hope to get some sowing done this week, what are the rest of you planning to get up to this week, anything gardening related?

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

.

These are recent blooms currently making an appearance around my garden

.

Calendula
.

Feverfew
.

Corncockle in the mini meadow
.

St. John's Wort
.
There are mini beast too but (it seems to me) in much smaller numbers than last year.
.

Shield Bug
.

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.

.

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.

.
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.

.

Allotment Updates

Just a quick update, so you guys don't think I have abandoned gardening all together.
.
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?

.

First the few weeds and signs of nettle and bindweed growth from missed roots needed to be got rid off.
.

Once that was done, I manured the area.

.

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.
.

I also saw this little critter, always a good sign in the fight against slugs.

.
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.
.

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.

Yep I Am Still Here

So here I am sheepishly returning to the blog world after my unannounced and I should say unplanned hiatus.

I won't go too much into detail but will say life has been very crazy for us here in Maidstone and well something had to give.

My gardening exploits this year have been challenging and that is stating mildly, for the first time ever I feel a bit like a failure in the garden and this is taking into account I have been growing things for as long as I can remember my life. It actually feels like someone has lopped off my green thumbs with a pair of secateurs and buried them deep in the compost bin.

Everything I attempt to grow seems to want to die or not grow at all and so after weeks of bitter disappointment I have conceded defeat and decided to simply look on the bright side of life... The flower garden is looking absolutely great with minimum care, the wildlife seems to relish my practically empty vege plot and are enjoying the overwintered now flowering vege plants of last year (which weren't removed as there was nothing new to put into the beds), some self sown vege plants will give me some small harvests and my gardening friends in the area have passed on a few of their extra plants to me so I'll at least have a few homegrown tomatoes this year.

I also would like to explain my apparent lack of visits to all the gardening blogs I follow but like I said Life has been very hectic and my addiction to the PC can border on chronic at times so I had to go completely cold turkey to ensure I got jobs done and deadlines met. Things are finally feeling a little less crazy around here and I look forward to catching up with all of you on your blogs (though I am sure reading them might cause me to spiral again to a low point when I see what you all have been achieving in comparison to what I haven't).

To help not make the updated post reading too long I will break them up into three smaller postings, which are under this post: The Allotment Updates, The Garden Updates and The Floral & Mini Beast Gallery.

.

I'll be updating my other blog as well which will also help to give you an insight into whats been keeping me so busy.