Well its that time of the year again, where I get excited about all the things I can plant this year with Joe and that we can eat!  Last year, I dug a little veg plot, half of it was used for strawberries and the other for veg.

To be honest, I didn’t realise just how small a plot it was and this year have already bought far too many seeds to plant for my tiny plot.  So, I needed somewhere to move my strawberries to.  I cant get rid of them, Joe loves to eat them too much so I had a search around on the net but could only really come up with strawberry towers or cheap pop-up planters.  Neither of which suited me, one being far too expensive and the other not ideal to keep my strawberries in all year round.  I found a forum online where they were taking about making their own strawberry planter, out of 3 pots in varying sizes (largest at the bottom, getting smaller as they went up) and what a fab idea it was!  So of to Asda I went and bought some of their ‘on special’ plastic pots (Im ok with plasticotta!) and today the tumbling tower was made.

Chris very kindly, used his Dremmel to put a hole through the middle of each pot so I could slot them together with a bamboo cane for stability really.

I then built them and potted up the strawbs – so very, very easy!

Cant wait for the strawberries.

I don’t seem to have time to fart these days so needless to say that I haven’t had much time to blog, take photos or do most things really.  Whats changed?  Well, I’ve gone back to work for 4 days a week instead of 2 and a half and boy is it busy.  My new job, Data Manager, is a new role in our school and a new concept so nothing is really set up, I don’t know the software (I’m waiting for a training course) and if I’m completely honest, I don’t really have a clue whats going on half the time but I’m sure that with time it will all become clear.

Joe is now at nursery for the days I am working and I’m really missing him, I think its mostly because we did so much over the holidays and I feel like Im missing such a lot but he really enjoys nursery and has quite a few little friends there so really, I know there is nothing to worry about.  We desperately try to squeeze everything in to a Friday, swimming on a morning then off into town to either meet a friend or two and then back home in time to cook tea and take out the dog.  Fridays are most definately my busiest day.

Oh, I am finaly coming to the end of my tomatoes – four bowls later, I decided to do something with them.  Chris’s Mum told me about Nigella’s Moon Blush Tomatoes and they sounded yummy so I gave the a go.  I altered it slightly by not adding sugar and I also allowed the tomatoes to cook a little before turning the oven off as they weren’t dried enough for me.

Moonblush Tomatoes

A tray full of tomatoes – halved

Thyme

Malden Sea Salt

Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to GM9 or the highest setting and leave for a good 15 minutes.

Chop tomatoes in half and place on the baking tray, cut side up.

Sprinkle the thyme and sea salt over the tomatoes – to taste.

Drizzle a light coating of olive oil over the tomatoes.

Pop the tomatoes in the oven and set the time for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, turn the oven off and leave overnight or for most of the day.

Remove from oven and enjoy.

While Joe had his nap today, I finally got around to sorting out the veg plot a bit.

The broccoli has been invaded by a colony of caterpillars, I gave up trying to get rid of the Cabbage Whites as they even outwitted my netting – who knew that they could get underneath the tiniest gap and leave a million eggs on every leaf!  Next year, I will definitely go for one of those more expensive butterfly netting systems!  I’m so annoyed that we wont have any purple sprouting broccoli.  I suppose, I really ought to dig them up and make way for something else.

The Butternut Squash have gone mad, I got really excited at the sight of about 20 little squashes on my two plants only to be distraught when they all started to go yellow and rot.  I then did a quick Google search to find that they were not pollinated.  So today, I have done a bit of hand pollination – for anyone interested you need to take the male flower (the one without the squash (ovary) on it) and gently pass the stamens across each other (it was described to me as “kissing”), if you see yellow pollen on the orange (female) stamen then it should be good.  I have also hung them up a little in between 2 poles on string, to see if they will self-pollinate or at least let the bees do it.

The tomatoes are doing really well, considering I planted mine really late on and didnt expect much from them at all.  Chris’s Mum very kindly gave me one of her plants too, just in case.  Mine are on the left and the plant I got from her is on the right – both are laden with fruits so there will be tomato soup (Joe’s favourite!) and pasta sauce a-plenty.  Oddly, despite Joe not liking tomatoes he thoroughly enjoyed the single ripe tom from the plant today and had a tomato with his salad for tea.  So, if we grow it he seems to eat it.  They had reached that stage where they sprawl out everywhere and branches snap off, so I have had to string them up on the fence and between bamboo canes with string.

Now I must go and finish off knitting that new baby gift for my friend!

Last year I had a little success with growing aubergines, courgettes & pumpkin in pots so this year I wanted to dig a little plot into our garden.  I started a little later than planned but ended up with a small section and was kindly given a batch of strawberries to start me off.  I popped into the Pound Shop and bought a pack of mixed veg seeds – I figured that if they failed, I had only wasted £1, I also sent off for the free Dig In seeds from Gardeners World too.  I ended up with peas, purple sprouting broccoli, butternut squash, onions, spring onions, and pak choi in the veg plot.

The onions failed miserably and didn’t even bother to show at all, the springers are there but are very tiny indeed, more like chives than salad onions!  Not that it matters now because the Butternut Squash have gone insane and taken over that bit of the plot anyway, at last count I had over 20 small squashes coming but I have noticed that a few are rotting now so will need to buy some straw.  The broccoli is coming along great but we seem to have had an influx of Cabbage Whites who insist on laying their eggs on them, needless to say the broccoli leaves are full of holes now but I’m still hoping for some broccoli!  Its comical really because everytime Joe sees a white butterfly he runs around shooing it.  Our strawberries were a huge success and Joe loved every one of them, hmpf, note to self: grow more next year!  The peas came up trumps but yet again Joe loved them and had peas fresh from the pod everyday for a few weeks.  I have planted a later variety but I’m not holding my breath with them.  The pak choi were a huge success but sadly, I planted far to many and had no hope of using them.  The rabbit that escaped from a neighbours garden did, however, enjoy them immensely.

I planted carrots, lettuce and baby spinach in pots – the spinach was yummy but didn’t last very long at all (get more for next year!), the lettuce was very easy to grow but equally easy to go soggy and brown near the soil and the carrots are still growing but Joe cant wait!  For someone who declares, “YUK!” everytime he eats a carrot, he sure does love the home-grown type!  We are patiently waiting for the many tomato plants to ripen, again Joe usually hates tomatoes but seemingly is very excited at the thought of eating them from the plant – he’s even tried a few green ones.  There’s beetroot in the borders which are slowly taking shape but I’m pretty sure that I wont get anything too big from them, baby beet anyone?

Oo I also have two Jalapeno plants growing in my conservatory which are full of peppers.  I’ve no idea how long they have to be on there before we can do anything with them though!