Starting Out - We're Finally on YouTube!

Well, the start of our new venture is almost here. A YouTube channel that will document what we are up to in all the gory details! From planting seeds and growing as much of our own food as we possibly can, to building the hay store, the chicken house, the poly tunnel and anything else my husband can get away with building (he's a man on a mission .... mostly a mission to buy power tools but a mission nevertheless!). The good and the not-so-good aspects of trying to live a simpler life on the way to becoming more self-sufficient. As soon as the first video goes up, I will post a link to it so you can have a look and you can let us know what you think. 

So, apart from that there has been loads happening. After such a long time dying to get some seeds into soil, it's finally March and everything I could possibly plant is being planted. I've been planting like a maniac and pretty much all my window ledges are full of pots and trays just waiting to burst into life. We actually have some seedlings already germinated which is awesome. I love this time of year, the planting and the getting ready for the growing season ahead. The nights are getting lighter and I no longer have to get up in the dark - which I hate.

The poly tunnel is now planted with seeds. They're doing really well and the radishes and lettuce I planted 8 days ago have already germinated.

So far this year I have planted

2 different types of sweetcorn, 8 different types of tomatoes, 3 different types of courgette, 2 types of patty pan, 2 types of spring onion, radishes, mixed salad leaves, 5 different types of basil, 3 varieties of potatoes, peppers, chillies, and some cat grass for my cats, which they totally loved and was gone in like 24 hours! Luckily, cat grass grows super fast so I can plant a pot for them and it's ready in like 10 days

Potatoes chitting before planting

Potatoes just peeping through the soil

Flowers on one of my fruit bushes. 

Trying to get sweet potatoes to grow slips

Broad Beans which were planted in the Autumn now full of flowers

Round courgette plants doing brilliantly

As you can see, I have plants growing like mad all over the place and the poly tunnel is gradually filling up with germinating seeds and plants getting bigger and stronger. Hopefully we will have a really good harvest this year and will be able to become a lot more self-sufficient as a result. I will keep my blog updated on the progress that we're making and you can also follow us on Instagram. There is a link in the right hand column at the top of the page if you want to have a look at some of the other pictures I've been taking and things that we've been doing and you can now also follow us on YouTube! We've only just started and we're total novices to all this so be kind. Here is a link in case you want to have a look. It's just the little introduction bit but please let us know what you think. If you like it, please subscribe and click on the little bell symbol to get notification of our new videos as we post them.

Wow, it all seems very real now!! Anyway here is the link of you want to have a look.

YouTube

A Spot Of Gardening

Well, the weather is lovely again after a few dank and miserable days so I have been trying to make the most of it by getting out into the garden to do a bit of weeding and a bit of planting. My gardener is coming today to finish off the lawn and the patio .... I know, I know, it sounds lazy and financially wasteful but actually it's not. My knee still gets sore when I'm walking on uneven ground and basically, my lawn is like a field so I have come to the conclusion that the only way to keep on top of it is to pay someone to come in once a month and do it for me. It might mean a bit of belt tightening but it's totally worth it to avoid the looks of disgust coming from certain new neighbours who seem to think that they have a right to express an opinion on how my garden should look. 

My veg are coming along nicely. I'm eating cut and come again salad leaves every day now and it's nice to be able to just go outside and pick a few leaves when I want them. I know that I cheated a bit when I bought my initial starter pack from a local supermarket but the ones I planted myself are now coming through so it won't be long before I can start eating those. 

Last week, I also bought some boxes of wild flower seeds that were reduced to 99p. So, after a spot of vigorous weeding, I sprinkled them all over the flower bed. I'm hoping for a riot of bee and insect friendly flowers to appear and magically transform my sad looking flower bed into a riot of cottage garden colour. I'm not holding my breath :-)

After I sprinkled them liberally over the ground, I raked them over and just as I was about to water them it rained, saving me a job and in between showers, I managed to get the two little rockery plants I bought from my friend Bridget at the market into the ground as well. I also planted what I think is a another rockery plant that has been sitting forlornly in a pot on my potting table. Initially I thought it was dead and was about to throw it on the compost heap, however, it's miraculously sprung to life again and although I have no idea what it actually is, I have a vague feeling that it gets tiny pink flowers on it so I popped it into the little wild rockery bed too. I built this little bed because when I had my two gateposts built, the men who build them just dumped a mound of soil there and left it. Rather than move it, I fetched some of the slate that I dug up from my field and built a wall around the pile of soil and levelled it off to make a cute little flower bed. I did one by the side of the other gatepost too .... I'm all for making lemonade when life gives you lemons 

The other one is kind of like a little woodland flower bed. I have no idea what the variegated plant is. It was a clump given to me by a friend and it's amazing stuff. It spreads like mad and gives fabulous ground cover which keeps the weeds down and it has lovely variegated leaves and sweet little purple flowers. There is also another plant that's popped up, I have no idea what it is ........ no doubt you're beginning to see a pattern emerging here! The thing is, I get lot of plants given to me by a friend from the market that are a bit too past it to sell but all they need is a bit of TLC to make them spring back into life again , which is great for me and my garden but, the trouble is, I can never remember what they are. 

Spring and Sunny Skies.

It's been a lovely couple of days here in Cornwall. Friday and Saturday were sunny and the skies were blue making the local produce market at Trerulefoot, a much nicer place to be than in the freezing conditions of a couple of weeks ago when I was wearing at least 4 layers of clothes, (including thermal shirts and leggings) and I was still blue with cold by the time I got home. I really love my three days at the market. Despite the sometimes cold weather, it's a really enjoyable place to be. The people are lovely, there is a fabulous atmosphere and the range of skills and products available is amazing. A lovely old couple, Penny and Brian, produce hand made wooden planters, bird tables and such like and they grow plants and herbs to fill them with. A couple of weeks ago, they were given a commission for a wishing well and because the people had a big garden they wanted a BIG wishing well. Brian did a fantastic job of designing and building it and here is the finished article, on display at the market, waiting to be collected. The handle even turns and the bucket winds up and down. 

There is a lady who does fabulous stained glass and wooden painted items and if you give her a picture of your pet she will turn it into a fabulous key rack or a hook for a dog lead with a picture of your pet on the front. There are local jams, jellies and chutneys, home made cakes, vegetables and plants, locally produced apple juice and cider and free range organic eggs and meat. Give me a local market any day of the week. I now do most of my shopping at the market. We eat locally produced vegetables,  free range organic eggs, meat that was running around in a field the week before and which was organically and ethically reared and I spend three days out in the fresh air chatting with people both local and from further afield and I even, on occasion, make a bit of money.

Pea and bean sticks and bags of manure at the market ready for Spring planting.

As the weather is warming up, everything seems to be coming to life. Flowers are beginning to bloom, birds are singing their noisy dawn chorus even earlier in the mornings and there are now lambs and calves in the fields around the house making a huge racket at 6am. It's lovely. I love the lighter mornings. I'm much more of a morning person. It's nice to have the lighter evenings too but, for me, the best part of the day is first thing in the morning when everyone else is still asleep and things are calm and peaceful and quiet ....... well except for the birds, the sheep, the cows and the owls hooting their way back to their trees to sleep until dusk when they go off out again to hunt :-) Whoever said it was quiet living in the country had obviously never lived there. 

So, here are some pictures of the things that are beginning to bloom in the lovely sunny weather.

Pink Tinged Daffodils.

Forget-Me-Nots in the border.

The pulmonaria that I bought from the market is flowering like mad.

And the fabulous evergreen Clematis called Wisley Cream that I bought from my friend Bridget at the market  and keeping one of my tea cosies company on my stall.