Showing posts with label Greenhouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greenhouse. Show all posts

10 May 2014

Growing Mushrooms and a Birthday

A Couple of weeks ago, it was my youngest daughter's 21st birthday ........ how old does that make me feel!! Ancient I can tell you. My daughter, being the efficient person that she is had sent me a recipe for a cake that she wanted me to make for her birthday, it was a three layer Victoria sponge with a strawberry butter cream icing. The icing was delicious and led to a massive sugar rush as I was icing the cake because I couldn't resist eating the leftover stuff that was in the bowl! The icing is made using strawberry milkshake powder mixed into the butter cream and is really lovely. Topped off with some home made cake bunting and some shimmery princess baubles and she was delighted with her birthday cake.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture, my camera battery was dead so I used my iPad and I think the lens was a bit grubby, despite me giving it a good wipe because, earlier that day, I was trying to get a picture of one of my dogs and every time I went near him with the iPad he licked it!  :-)



For Easter, along with some delicious choccie eggs I got a cute little mushroom growing kit and this week I finally got around to getting it started although, I couldn't resist showing you a picture of the Easter eggs, you see the feather and the straw ....... it's edible! It's made from rice paper and you can eat it, how cute is that :-)


Anyway, I got the mushroom kit planted and now I have a box of soil mixed with mushroom compost hidden in the airing cupboard and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some lovely mushrooms. 



I also have some progress to report on my tomato plants. I have some teeny tiny tomatoes on them. I love watching things grow and produce food, it never fails to make me smile.


You can just about make out the tomatoes in the picture above. They are about the size of peas but they are growing really fast and it's now time to start feeding them. It's a pity it's not warm enough yet to put them outside but the weather has been awful. Wet and windy and not very warm at all so, for now, they are on my kitchen windowsill being cossetted and kept warm and yesterday, I bought one of those plastic mini greenhouse thingies from the supermarket, a bargain at £6. It's specifically for tomatoes, although, when I bought it I didn't realise how big it actually is. It's 1.5m tall which is almost as tall than I am!! A bit of a shock when I put it together this morning but, once it stops raining, I will take it outside and find somewhere sheltered to put it and then as soon as I have potted on the tomato plants into bigger pots, they can go and live outside in their own special greenhouse. Oh to have a proper greenhouse but, hopefully, not long now until I can afford one so, fingers crossed :-)

19 February 2013

Greenhouse Envy

For well over a year now I have longed for a greenhouse and I get massive greenhouse envy whenever I ready blog posts about people planting seeds in their greenhouse or picking tomatoes from their tomato plants in the greenhouse, or simply pottering in their greenhouse ...... well you get the picture. Sadly, I have still not managed to get one because as soon as I manage to save enough money to buy one, something else comes along and I have to use my greenhouse fund to pay for it. The car breaks down or my washing machine stops working and before I know it, my greenhouse fund is back down to zero. So, for now, I content myself with looking online to find my dream greenhouse.

I love this traditional looking greenhouse.



And I think the rustic brick of this greenhouse is fabulous. Actually, I think it's my favourite out of all the greenhouses I have found. Darn my expensive tastes :-)



I found this next one in an article in The Telegraph. I think it's gorgeous. The article also came with a very useful piece on how to buy the right greenhouse, where to site it and lots of useful tips.



I am, however, a realist and I know that, short of a lottery win, when I finally get one, it will be a basic bog-standard aluminium frame greenhouse that I get. I don't mind that one bit.

I did find this one though. It was made entirely using free and recycled materials. It's gorgeous. I would be very tempted to stick a couple of chairs in there so I could sit and read a book after I had planted my seeds,  picked my tomatoes and pottered about. 


And this one is truly inventive. It even comes with a "How To" article so you can make your own. It's made from plastic water bottles. Amazing :-)

http://ana-white.com/2011/04/plastic-bottle-green-house-build-guide

I also think this one, made from windows, is ingenious too.

http://gardeningideasandmore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/recycled-window-greenhouse_27.html

Anyway, if I ever finally manage to get a greenhouse you can bet that I post plenty of pictures here on my blog but I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you as my greenhouse fund is currently, once again ...... Zero :-)