More Progress

Hi again, well, things have been cracking on here in Cornwall. The new chicken enclosure is up and now in use. It appears, so far, to be rat-proof ....... fingers crossed for that one. The rats have once again become a real problem and although I hate to do it, I will be putting rat bait down for a few days to try and get on top of the situation. I totally appreciate that living in the country, with animals that live outside, there will always be an issue with rats but they have started to take over the garden and sadly, it's time to do something about it. The chickens love their new space but to be fair, they spend most of their time free ranging on the front lawn digging up my flowers! There are still a couple of little bits left to do, the house is going to be raised up so the chickens have even more floor space and there has also been the addition of a new nest box, again raised off the floor because our chickens do love to fly and hop and climb .... weird little things that they are lol.

The new nest box .... I call it the penthouse flat lol 

The ducks are now 9 weeks old and finally have names and are now big enough to live outside on a permanent basis. Big Bird the Aylesbury, Coco the chocolate Muscovey and Lulu the Mallard now live in this gorgeous little des-res. Woodworking skills courtesy of my daughter and hubby 😀

The chickens were quite excited at the prospect of a new house and were mightily miffed when they were turfed out so the ducks could inspect their new home. 

We also re-located their pond so all-in-all, I think they are happy little quackers. 

We have also had some of our first veg harvest. It's so exciting to be able to go and pick what you need for dinner. 

I am totally amazed at how well the aubergines have grown in the poly tunnel and the sweetcorn as well however we are having one issue that is really, really, REALLY annoying me. We have mice in the poly tunnel and they are eating the tomatoes. And when I say eating them, they're not just eating the ripe ones but the green ones as well!! At first we had no idea what was damaging them until I spotted this ...... 

Mouse droppings on one of the tomatoes. I am absolutely gutted. We have hundreds of tomatoes in there and it looks like we might lose all of them to the mice. They aren't even just eating the ones low down on the plants, they're actually climbing up the stalks of the plants and eating them at the top of the bushes. This tomato is about 4 feet off the ground!! I seriously don't know what to do about it. If anyone has any suggestions I would be most grateful. Again, I understand the countryside comes with it's issues and pests are a big part of that but it's actually quite heartbreaking that we nurtured the plants for so long and spent such a long time making sure they grew well and now we might not actually get to eat any of them. 

On a much happier note, last month, our middle daughter got married and we spent a lovely three days at the Folly Farm Centre near Bristol with family and friends celebrating with her and her new husband.

Home

Well, I'm back home in Cornwall after a very long 7 hour journey yesterday. The train was delayed by someone in a lorry running into a bridge that we were supposed to go either over or under, I forget which, and we had a bit of a wait to see if it was safe. It was, but it unfortunately meant that I missed my connection in Plymouth and had almost an hours wait for the next one. The animals were all thrilled to see me and Metro hasn't left my side since I walked through the door in case I sneak off and leave him again. My youngest daughter, who has been house/animal sitting, was pleased to see me too because she was getting a bit stir crazy having been stuck in our little valley for 5 days. She doesn't drive so it's either a taxi ride to town or stay put and although I had left her plenty of cash for taxi rides, she had elected to have a lazy few days to recuperate after finishing her first year of uni. Apparently though, 5 days in the quiet countryside is more than enough to get over a busy year of uni in London and she couldn't wait to get out of the house :-)

Metro looking at me as if to say ..... "No, I'm not moving, if I move you might disappear again"  :-)

My garden is looking a bit overgrown after 5 days away. The grass is really long so I'm going to have to tackle that this week and the path through my field to the llama field is now non-existent so that will need strimming and covering with the bark chippings that I was given my a neighbour who had some trees chopped down. On the plus side though, my veg are doing really well. Today, I will be able to chop and eat some spinach. I can't wait. It's gone mad in the 5 days I have been away and it needs to be cut and eaten. I also have a courgette flower on one of my plants and I have some pea pods on my sugar-snap peas ....... it's so exciting. Can you tell that I'm relatively new to growing veg :-) ??

Sugar-snap pea pods

Sugar-snap peas

French beans recovering nicely from a rather bad start.

Spinach

Courgette flower

Blossom

The weather is lovely again, the sun is out and things are starting to grow in the garden. I also now have blossom on my trees. More to the point, not only do I have blossom on my apple trees "Katy" and "Christmas Pippin" but I also have blossom on my Conference pear tree. I am thrilled. The trees have been in the ground for about 3 years now and each year I have had fruit from both the apple trees but I have never even had blossom on my pear tree before in fact, last year, some of the branches went black and broke off and I almost dug it up and chucked it on the compost heap! I'm very glad I didn't, there is loads of blossom this year and I'm very much hoping for a pear or two later in the year.

Delicate creamy Conference pear blossom against the bluest of skies

Beautiful pale pink "Katy" blossom

Gorgeous deep pink Christmas Pippin blossom

I also nipped off to see my friends at the market. It's so nice to see them and I do miss my market stall but giving it up was the right thing to do in order to try and get my knee sorted out. As always, I came away with more than I intended because Bridget always has such lovely plants at such great prices that I can never resist. I bought two beautiful phlox plants for the little rockery that I'm making, a couple of "Gardeners Delight" tomato plants and a couple of "Ambassador"courgette plants to add to my growing stash of plants for this years veg growing attempt.

They joined my lovely sugar snap pea plants sitting patiently on the patio waiting to be planted. I really need to get on with it. Over the weekend I found out all my nice big buckets and pots ready to start potting them on but sadly, I need to wait until pay day to go and stock up on compost because unfortunately, there is no cash in the budget for compost this month. I did also pick up some cut-and-come-again salad leaves from my local supermarket for 99p ..... total bargain ...... they are now also outside enjoying the sunshine in a tray of water so they can have a nice long drink.

And finally, I managed to catch some picture of the cute blue tits collecting the dog and cat fluff to line their nests with. Sooooo cute :-)

Nest Building and My First Veg Plants of the Year

The sun is out, the sky is blue ...... there's a song in there somewhere ..... and the birds in my garden are busy building their nests. This morning I spotted the tiniest wren with a beak so full the poor thing could hardly move and at this time of year I do like to do my bit to help the birds make a lovely soft nest for their chicks so when I brush my animals, I carefully put the soft fur from the brush out on the gate post by the food I put out for them. I wedge it half under a rock to hold it in place and when the birds come to get their breakfast, they usually leave with a beak-full of soft fur to line their nests with. I love watching them. Not a brilliant picture I know but it was very bright this morning and I couldn't see a thing on the screen.

I have also now bought my first veg plants of this year. I have been giving some very careful consideration to what I'm going to grow this year because, as I live on my own, growing things like big lettuces and big cucumbers seems such a waste. I never manage to eat a whole lettuce but I absolutely hate to throw things away. So, I have come to the conclusion that growing things that I can harvest and freeze if there is a glut, like carrots and cabbage and cauli and stuff is fine but things like cucumbers, lettuce and easily perishable things need to be things that I can eat in one or two sittings, better yet, they need to be things that I can pick and eat as I need them.

So here are some of the things I'm hoping to grow this year.

Cut and come again salad leaves. 
Mini cucumbers
Perpetual spinach
Rainbow chard
Sugar snap peas

Dwarf French beans

Lots and Lots of tomatoes

Potatoes

Carrots

Shallots

Cauliflowers

Kale

Beetroot

Courgette

And whatever else I can squeeze into my little raised beds. I also like to grow things in big pots and tubs because I can stand them off the ground and keep some of the evil, plant munching slugs and snails away from them. I would also love to grow things like squashes and pumpkins but I don't really have all that much space so it's not something I have ever grown before. Anyway, here are the first of this years plants ..... some sugar snap peas. 

Will any of you be growing your own veg this year and if so what will you be growing? 

Nature + Nurture = One Mad Old Bat

My post yesterday, about the joys of sniffing home grown tomatoes got me thinking. Mainly about how I got to be the way I am today....... a nutty old bat more comfortable in wellies than in heels, with not a dress or a skirt to her name but with cupboards full of practical, boil-washable clothes and snuggly warm fleeces and a drawer full of thermal undies! Odd really because this hasn't always been the case. I have, in the past, attended more balls, cocktail parties, parades and garden parties than I can even remember and for many, many years my wardrobe consisted entirely of smart clothes, ball gowns and cocktail dresses with not a pair of wellies in sight, just dozens of pairs of fabulous shoes that would have been ruined by the merest sniff of a puddle. In the past, I would never have dreamed of leaving the house looking anything other than well-dressed and well-groomed. Today, the only things well-dressed are my salads and the grooming is reserved for the dogs although, if it's a special occasion, I will, very reluctantly, brush my hair. It's very liberating and I wouldn't change it for anything.

When I was a child, my Grandparents had an allotment. It was a fabulous place. It had a fabulous greenhouse filled with tomato plants and cucumbers, it had apple trees and rhubarb plants, rows and rows of beans and peas, cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, and potatoes, in fact it was full to the brim with rows and rows of fabulous fruit and veg. It also had the cutest little shed in the world. It had a little camping stove for making tea, a table and chairs and a little built-in bench along one wall. It even had little curtains at the windows. I always wanted to live in that shed, it was my idea of bliss. Still is. I spent many hours at the allotment grubbing around in the soil, helping with the planting and harvesting and loving every minute of it. 

My Granddad was an amazing gardener who could pretty much grow anything and all our fruit and veg came either from the allotment or from his back garden. My nan baked delicious bread. She baked amazing cakes and perfect pies (although my dad always used to tease her by telling her that the filling didn't go right to the very edge of the crust), she pickled cucumbers and onions and red cabbage and like my nan, my mum is also a lean, mean, baking and pickling machine. She is also now the gardening-guru of the family and her veg production, from a few raised beds, grow-bags and planters puts mine entirely to shame. So, it's not too hard to see where I get my love of gardening and baking from. Sadly though, at the moment, my green-fingered enthusiasm completely outweighs my actual gardening know-how but, I'm ever-hopeful that in the not too distant future, my gardening skills will magically improve and I too will become a gardening goddess. 

So there you have it! I totally blame my family for the way I am today ..... Thank god for family! They stand you in good stead when things get tough and luckily, that's what mine did for me and it's apparently very true what they say, we eventually turn into our parents! As I get older, almost certainly because of them, I'm finding myself, more and more, drawn to that simpler life. I don't care if I have the latest gadgets, the biggest, flattest tv or the newest model of mobile phone in fact, as long as it works I don't care how old it is or what it looks like and more and more, I seem to be reverting back to the fabulous spirit of thriftiness of my parents and grandparents and quite frankly, I am so much happier for it. 

 Having said that, I wouldn't give up my perfectly formed, beautifully shiny, ridiculously gorgeous new mixer for all the nature and nurture in the world :-)

Ready .... Get Set ..... Grow

Well it's almost that time of year again. It's almost planting time. Today, while I was at the garden centre looking for some garden vouchers for my Mum for Mother's day, I came across some tomato plants and I began to get excited. I love growing tomatoes. Nothing tastes like a home-grown tomato. Shop bought tomatoes never seem to taste the same and there is nothing like the luscious smell of tomatoes on the vine, a sort of rich, earthy smell that for me, is everything summer should be. In fact I love growing veg full stop. Any kind of veg. It never fails to amaze me that you stick these tiny seeds in some soil, water them and give them some sunshine and up pops teeny tiny plants that turn into food. Amazing!

A couple of years ago, in true nerdy scientist fashion, I did a few experiments by planting some of my veg using Biodynamic methods, with some interesting results. (You can read about it here and here). I Definitely had a better crop by planting biodynamically but, last year, because I had much less time on my hands, due to my market commitments, I went back to my tried and tested "bung 'em in the ground and cross your fingers" method which, quite frankly, works almost as well and is a lot less faffing. This year, I think it will probably be a bit of a combination of the two but on a much, much bigger scale. I'm going to be planting much more this year, in the hope of filling my freezer and cupboards with things from the garden.

Well, to cut a long story short ...... I just couldn't quite stop myself from buying some tomato plants. They were lovely, strong, vigorous plants and at 99p each .... well .... how could I resist.

I had £8.00 in my purse so obviously, I bought 8.