An update on the garden

As I mentioned in my last post, this year, Mr P and myself have been determined to have a go at growing our own veggies :) Last year in the old house we grew herbs on the kitchen windowsill but as we didn't have a garden we weren't really able to do more.

Here are the veggies I told you we were growing and how they are doing so far:

• spring onions - these have been great, really easy to grow and look after. We sowed them in quite deep pots and have just been pulling them up to use in salads etc. Really tasty :) I have some Winter Lisbon seeds so I am planning to sow some more of them this weekend
• courgettes - we bought a courgette plant from Wilkos for about £2 and it has been really productive. So far we've had about 5 or 6 good sized courgettes that we've been eating in stir-fries. I just had a look on the plant and there are 3 courgettes well on their way to being ready to pick :)
• tomatoes - we've had 8 plants but 3 of them were bashed to bits during the windy weather we had recently. The ones we have left seem to be doing ok. They all have tomatoes on, but they are still quite small and green yet. We're looking forward to seeing how these taste :)
• peppers - we have 4 plants which all have lots of green peppers on. The biggest are about 3 inches so hopefully these aren't too far off being ready :)
• coriander - this grew really well and we used it in curries etc. I have planted some more and am waiting for it to grow
• mint - this grew well for a while but seems to have died off. I think I might have to bite the bullet and sow some more!
• beetroot - these have grown really well and we've been eating this grated raw in salads. Yummy!
• brussel sprouts - the caterpillars got these :(
• kale - another veg lost to the caterpillars :( :(
• purple sprouting brocolli - and another :( :( :( Mental note to self - NETS
• strawberries - our little strawberry plant is in a large pot and looks like it has thrown out a runner. I'm going to keep my eye on this :)
• rocket - this grew fantastically well and we have some more on the go
• radish - again grew well and we have some more growing now
• runner beans - not sure how, but I managed to kill this off :( I've sown some more seeds but think it might be a bit late now :(

We've also sown some swiss chard and it looks like it's coming along well. This has all been a bit of an expreiment for us this year and as you can see, we have made mistakes but it certainly hasn't diminished our enthusiasm for growing our own. I've sent off for some seed catalogues and am already planning next year's planting plans.If anyone has any suggestions for varieties / veggies to try, please let me know! :)

This and that...

Since we have moved to the new house we have noticed that there are three families of birds that have also made their homes in and around our garden. We have two families of housemartins who have nested under the eaves of the house (one lot at the front and one lot at the back) and a family of sparrows who are nesting just under the gutter on the outhouse.

These visitors have not gone unnoticed by Missy and Mollie who have been watching their comings and goings with enormous interest! I'm glad to say that they haven't caught any of the birds as yet (although Mollie got stuck up a tree yesterday chasing a bird!) but I'm afraid I can't say the same for the wild rabbits as my neighbour spotted one of the kitties, she's not sure which one, trotting across her garden with a rabbit in their mouth!!!

I snapped this photo last week as one of the sparrows was bringing back more materials for the nest. Mollie was watching the proceedings (and probably watching me to see if I was watching her!) but didn't attempt to climb up :) We've also started growing veggies since living here. At the moment we have quite a few varieties on the go:

• spring onions
• courgettes
• tomatoes
• peppers
• coriander
• mint
• beetroot
• brussel sprouts
• kale
• purple sprouting brocolli
• strawberries
• rocket
• radish
• runner beans

We're learning a lot and are probably making loads of mistakes but we're really enjoying ourselves! We harvested some of the courgettes this week and had some very tasty fajitas with them. Here is a rather rude looking picture of one of the courgettes!

This afternoon I have been in my craft room having a bit of a play around and have made a card and a scrapbook layout. The papers on the card are from K and Co and I used my cuttlebug to emboss the green panel and my crop-a-dile to set the eyelets which I then threaded the velvet ribbon through. The message is from a little pack of stamps I found whilst unpacking.

I've never really got on very well with stamping but this weekend I went to a great craft shop (Horseshoe Crafts in Ellesmere for anyone who's nearby!) and after chatting with the owner realised I was using the wrong type of inkpad so it was no wonder my images came out all smudgy! I bought a varsafine inkpad and have been playing aroung this afternoon with it and am finding it much easier to work with :) I've also ordered a Magnolia Tilda stamp online and some promarkers as everyone on UKScrappers seems to rave about them and I've seen some beautiful effects on cards using them. I can't wait for them to arrive! :)

I also completed a layout using some of the papers I got from QVC in Shrewsbury. The pictures are of Missy and Mollie from when they first came to live with us. I can't believe how tiny they are! I used the crop-a-dile on this layout to set the eyelets for my ribbon (are you seeing a trend here?!?) and used another stamp I found whilst unpacking to write my journalling onto. I love the look of handwritten journalling but I'm not keen on my own handwriting, lol. I'm not sure if you can read the journalling but it says "Missy and Mollie Sept '08. When you first came to live with us, you always used to curl up together. You were the best of friends xxx"

I can't wait for my new goodies to arrive so I can have a play with them. I think I have the stamping bug!