I Wonder if there is anyone still out there?

Hi. I'm still here. I know it's been a while but things have been pretty hectic down here in sunny Cornwall. I think the easiest way to tell you how busy things have been is to show you. This will be a photo-heavy post so grab a coffee and maybe a biscuit or two and make yourself comfy. 

Ok soooooo, the poly tunnel is now finished. Not only is it finished but it's full of stuff.

The grow-your-own-pizza bed challenge :-)

Those pictures were taken a couple of months ago, this is what the poly tunnel looks like now, it's gone totally MAD!
The really huge plants in the middle are sweetcorn plants!

The front garden has gone from being a bare patch of not-very-nice grass to a productive area with raised beds and a nice circular lawn.

Before

After

There is still a way to go, including digging a wildlife pond, but we are slowly getting there.

The new brassica cage my husband built.

Now filled with brassicas

We planted loads of flowers

and loads of veg ...... and of course loads of bunting 😀

We also have some new additions to the family. They're super cute and totally fabulous to watch, in fact I could watch them all day if only I had the time lol.

We have already started harvesting our veg.

And we have even started building a new house for the chickens, which hopefully, will be rat-proof! We are having huge rat issues yet again so we finally but the bullet and have started to construct a new home for them with foundations and everything. Fingers crossed that it works. 

If you want to see more pictures of the stuff we are up to, then pop on over to Instagram and have a peep.

The button is at the top of the page or you can click the link HERE 

Dreaming of a Kitchen Garden

It's Monday, it's raining and I'm ill. I have had a stinking cold for almost a week now, I ache all over and I have a horrible sore throat. However, being the stubborn person that I am, I am resolutely refusing to give in to it ........ not that I have much choice. Some kindly, well-meaning soul at the market the other day, told me that I should go home and spend a couple of days in bed! As if I actually have the time for that!! However, when I got up this morning, my throat was so sore that I could hardly speak so, after yomping through the mud to sort out the animals in the pouring rain I decided to make myself a mug of tea, wrap myself in a blanket and look at pictures of beautifully designed, inspirational kitchen gardens on the internet and try and figure out how to do that to mine. At the moment, the chickens are doing a sterling job of ripping the garden to shreds and they have rapidly turned the lawn from grass, into something akin to a mud wrestling pit! On the plus side though, they are also doing a grand job of clearing all the weeds from the raised beds and demolishing slugs galore as the two of  roam the garden causing chickeny havoc all over the place. 

I found some lovely gardens to inspire me. Here are a few ideas that I would absolutely LOVE to put into my garden.

How cute is this, I love the cute little fence all around it. You can find the web source here

I especially love the brick paths, in fact, I am actually considering using bricks in my garden for the paths. Source here

Another fabulous re-purporsing idea Source here

I love this fabulous use of an otherwise useless steep slope. Source here

I love these willow raised beds. 

Source here

Anyway, the weather is still awful, my cold is still grim and my tea has gone cold so I'm off to pop the kettle on and put another log on the fire.