slight confusion

I think I’ve slightly confused my little garden!

Last week I decided to begin preparing my garden for autumn/winter.
I noticed that the nights were getting colder and I read an article about how we were expecting an early winter (end of October)

I had a spare few hours on Saturday so decided to begin preparation for winter.

It turned out that my veggie patch had been completely over run by snails (a lot worse than I originally thought) and the cats had managed to get in a do their business everywhere totally ruining what wasn’t destroyed by the snails.

So, holding back the tears, I dug the whole thing up.

At least now it will have enough time for the soil to recover for next years sowing.

I moved some flowers to the place I want them next year tidied the lawn and put down some more grass seeds in the patchy sections.

I also moved the blueberry bush to where it will spend the winter. I dug a large hole to fit the pot and am planning to cover the entire thing in muslin as the nights grow colder.

I thought I was well on the way!!

That was until London starting experiencing a late heat wave!!!

It’s so hot!! 26 degrees C!

I’ve been noticing a red colour coming from my tomato plants so it looks like they are turning!! The sun has brought them out!!

I picked a few and heard they tasted lovely ( allergy prevents me from trying :( )there are plenty more however that I can use to make a sauce!!

My little peppers who seemed to be unsuccessful this year have started fruiting

and my pund has been given a new lease of life!

To think I almost took the pond plants out to give to a friend who is looking after them during the winter!

As the weather is so good and my garden is so tidy I’ve been able to spend my (very rare) spare time enjoying it!

I went out today and bought a few evergreens for the containers in the front garden as the Lobelia didn’t survive, and also have added a lavender bush (bit sad looking at the moment) and a pretty Pieris Japonica.

I also planted a few more rockery plants round the pund.

Looks like I’ll be getting a lot out of the garden this year than I thought!

BBQ anyone????

garden diary

Well my garden is growing!!!

It’s been a great couple of weeks for all my Vege, grass and plants, they (and me) have loved the spring weather!

The last time I posted I had just layed the paving at the back of the garden and since then I’ve been super busy.

The seeds I sown at the beginning of april are now steaming ahead!
The only things now left in the propagator are some little tomato seedings waiting for Emma to collect and the chilli and pepper seeds I planted today, every thing else is out enjoying the abnormal heat we have had!

I pricked out the tomatoes and re-potted them using emmas great tutorial!

Under cover are my salad leaves, courgette, broccoli, and cabbage. Last week when re potting my carrots I realised I had too many to fit in the tub so I found some space in the patch and put them there, I just can’t bear not to use them all!

salad

courgette

brocolli

cabbage

carrots

Today, to the vege patch, I added some pepper and chilli seeds and two little pea seedlings which I couldn’t fit into the pea pot!

The peas are just shooting up!
I had them in quite a small container to begin with so I pricked them out this morning and gave them a new home!

My strawberry are pretty happy in their new pots but need a good tidy! I didn’t really do to much with them when I uprooted them from the Vege patch!

The new additions to the garden are a cute little blueberry bush, raspberry bush, and garlic.

Today I also tidied up my Borders and re arranged the container Vege.

I’ve tried to get rid of as many places as possible where the cats can do their business but my borders are something I don’t really want to lose.

The main chunk of soil in the borders now houses the containers, dug in quite deep to prevent the cats from pushing them aside!

I also moved some plants I put down last year and re arranged the lily tubers.

 

To the rest I added some more flower seeds, not sure what they are but I’m sure it won’t be long till I find out!

My lavender is growing so happily in the other border that I decided to add some more seeds around it! Fingers crossed!

It has been so lovely to get out here so much, pruning, potting and just relaxing, my grass is growing well too, only a few patches which I touched up today!

My next step is to get some pond plants!!!

pizza harvest

So I finally got to enjoy a large chunk of my late summer harvest by mixing it all up onto a giant pizza, which was enjoyed by me and my love. She loved it so much that she has been begging me to make another one ever since!

This particular harvest consisted of two juicy peppers, a handful of deliciously scented basil, numerous tomatoes from my never-ending supply and some spicy chilli peppers!

For the pizza bread dough I used the following recipe from the delightful Delia Smith.

Tomato and Basil Sauce

ingredients:

8 small to medium tomatoes
1/2 onion
3 cloves of garlic
handful of basil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato puree
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

method:

Make a small cut in each tomato; plunge them into boiling water for 1 minute, then into cold water; peel the skin and discard.  Roughly chop the onion and garlic and fry in a small amount of the olive oil in a sauce pan until the onions become translucent. Chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan with the tomato puree , a little cold water, the sugar and some salt and pepper.

Allow this to cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes stirring regularly. Tear the basil into pieces and add to the pan, continue to cook for another 5 minutes.

Allow the sauce to cool slightly and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth (or if you like your sauce a bit textured, blend until you reach the desired consistency).

Toppings

ball of mozzerella cheese
handful of mushrooms, sliced
pepperoni, sliced
2 peppers, sliced thinly
chilli peppers

Constructing the pizza

Once your pizza base is ready cover the dough with a layer of the tomato sauce,  slice the mozzarella and space it out over the sauce, now arrange your remaining toppings anyway you like!

Drizzle the pizza with some olive oil and cook at 220 C / gas 7,  for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

pumpkin promises

At the beginning of the week I finally found some time to get out into the garden to do a bit of tidying up. It was well in need of it, although I don’t think the frog that sat and watched me was too impressed!

I cut back a couple of the bushes along the side fence and as I did I found both of my pumpkin plants winding their way through the bushes and up towards next door’s apple tree! I could not believe how long they had grown! I managed to untangle them and lay one of them out along the back of the veg patch and round to the back of the garden, and the other one is now being trained to grow along the fence. They each must be over 7 feet in length! Once I managed to get them under control I searched for any sign of fruit and to my surprise found one baby pumpkin on each plant! I am praying that they will do well, as I am a big pumpkin soup fan!!

Unfortunately, my squash plant is not looking as impressive in length; however, it does have a little squash growing!

And another courgette is fighting for pole position on the size chart, but I think it is still being beaten — just — by the monster I picked a few weeks ago!  I ended up using that one as a substitute for pasta sheets in a lasagna and it was scrumptious!

Tomorrow I am planning to harvest some peppers, chillies and tomatoes to use as toppings on a nice crispy pizza!

how wrong was I?

For a while now I have been complaining to Emma about the lack of courgettes on my plant. Every time I heard about or saw a fruitful courgette plant I was overcome with jealousy thinking that I had let mine grow out of control therefore preventing it from growing veg.

However while rooting through the overgrown foliage the other day I was confronted by this huge, and I mean huge courgette hiding away!

How wrong was I?!

The rest of my garden is progressing beautifully — including the weeds! — and Emmms is taking good care of Chillimena after her trip to the craft fair, I am missing her dearly, though, so need to go and pick her up on Friday!

Peppers

carrots

cabbage

broccoli kicked out of bed

So after reading Emma’s post about companion planting links and a lot of google searching I came to the conclusion that I should definitely move my broccoli plants out of the shared bed.

They were sharing with peppers, strawberries and courgettes and even though some websites said that this was OK, the main bunch of them said avoid so out they came.

The broccoli went into a large trough.

At the same time I also moved the peppers as I think they could do with a bit more sun and also so in the winter I can move them inside.

To replace the huge gap in the shared bed I have just sown some more carrots, some parsnips and two pumpkin seed! These combinations I have researched and it turns out they can sleep very well together!

Today the tomato plants got re-potted and placed in the sunniest position, the front window!

Two are now living in pots of their own:

and one is continuing to live with the basil.

I also re-potted my spinach and planted some more rocket as my last lot died a horrible death.

I thought if I just left them to grow then I could harvest a hugh amout at once, this does not seem to be the way! Emmms said with her last lot she did the same with and it died too so this time she just cut a few leaves a day and now it is flourishing! That is what I will do!

p p p peppers

My peppers are finally turning!

peppers and rice, please

On Saturday I picked my first pepper! I could wait no longer for it to turn red and as we were making rice, a green pepper was perfect. I was so proud of myself with the results and I still have four more where that came from!

I made my love stand with me while I cut into it. Im not sure what I was expecting but I needed her there with me while I did and the results were amazing: it was an actual pepper! And it tasted great.

I have always been bad at making rice, it was either too hard or too soggy and never tasted right after I boiled it to the edge of its life! All of this changed when I started going out with my love, the greatest rice maker ever. It turns out that making rice was easy, you just needed expert advice!

Perfect Rice

ingredients:

1 c. basmati rice per four people

1.5 c. water ( one and a half times the amount of rice!)

2 tbsp. olive oil

a pinch of salt

1 bell pepper

1 chilli pepper

1 average-sized carrot

(you can add other veg, too, like peas or cumin seeds and tumeric powder or whatever you like really)

method:

Always wash the rice gently and leave to soak while you chop the veg. Treat it with love!

Chop the carrots, chilli and pepper into roughly 1-cm cubes and fry in a flat-based frying pad with some olive oil until slightly softened. Drain the rice and add to the pan stirring into the veg very gently as not to break the grains. Add more oil if necessary.

Sprinkle salt over the top and let fry for about 30 seconds, stirring gently, then add the water. Allow the water to come to the boil then reduce the heat. Cover tightly with tin foil and add a lid if your pan has one.

Leave the rice to cook for 7 minutes on a low heat then turn the heat off and steam for a further 5 minutes with the lid and foiil still on.

Enjoy!