Harvests etc

Hello peeps, sorry I haven't been here in a while, sometimes I forget, sometimes I'm too busy and sometimes there's just not much to blog. While I've been away I've had a bumper crop of tomatoes, so many in fact I've been giving them away to friends and family. About 5 medium sized punnets in all, they ripened pretty late this year it was September when they all seemed to redden at once. Really tasty though there's nothing like the taste of proper organic tomatoes, in the supermarkets they're far too watery.

I've also had a few tasty raspberries off a very small plant and some strawberries too, I am currently raising rhubarb too but they are quite slow growing and even though I set them off indoors in August they probably won't be ready till next August and even then only a light harvest should be taken from the plants, in Yorkshire we have a tradition of "forcing" rhubarb which means growing it in the dark to make it grow faster and sweeter, it grows so fast in these conditions it can be heard growing. It's grown in a place called the Rhubarb Triangle in between Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford mainly around a town called Rothwell. I am undecided whether to give it a go, it might be a good idea for my smaller garden as it doesn't get any sun anyway. On a small scale the rhubarb just needs growing under a bucket.
Anyway that's all for now but I'll be back a little more regularly now hopefully.

Summer Distractions

I start by apologizing for the distance between my posts but Summer brings holidays, weddings and lazy days in the sunshine.

Well in the garden the weeds still pretty much have the upper hand if I'm honest but slowly I'm reclaiming the land, now the dandelions have gone to seed and planted themselves I have again dug them up, the main problem I have here is creeping buttercups which are buggers to get rid off, even with chemicals which I refuse to poison my soil with, so it's basically back ache or nothing.

I have had lots of progress in the tomato department, they have grown thick and very fast, until now I have only ever grown them in pots but they really are seeming to enjoy their free range life and the bees are doing a brilliant job of pollenizing them all. I'm now not just seeing little yellow flowers but little green tomatoes too. When I grow tomatoes I always grow too many for myself but it's great to hand out free food like this to friends and neighbors they'll love them so much more than supermarket stuff.

A week after my holiday in Wales I planted some butternut squash seeds and some more cucumbers, they grow great on windowsills with plenty of light and water. I can hardly believe the speed they grow and now just one month later I've had to separate them into bigger pots. Slugs and snails love cucumber plants as well as squashes so I'm keeping them covered for as long as possible so they'll have the best chance of winning the war with the beasties. Another problem was I planted them thinking for sure I'd know which was which but as it turns out the plants look pretty much the same at this stage.

 < Butternut Squash                                                                                     ^ Cucumber


I have also decided to plant up some flowers for my doorstep so bought some Nasturtiums from James Wong's range and some Phacelia I claimed for free from the Soil Association as they are supposed to be loved by bees. Nasturtiums as well as looking pretty go great on a salad as they have edible flowers which look lovely and colourful too. This is them not looking very colourful yet.


In other news my mum's eaten all the raspberries from my other plot outside her house and I've been handing out the herbs for free as they grow like wildfire. And I also have mini pepper plants growing on the windowsill and they are starting to flower so fingers crossed they do well this season.

Baby Birds

I love this time of year as everything springs to life, this year blue tits have nested somewhere roundabouts and I can hear their calls all day. The chicks have now fledged but mum and dad are still feeding them away from the nest. Although there should be plenty of food about at this time of year in the form of bugs and caterpillars I still choose to feed the wild birds peanuts and seed regularly. Really it's more for the parent birds than the youngsters as all that flying about looking after chick really takes it's tole so they need a quick place for a easy meal.

The chicks have been out and about for nearly a week now so the parents have brought them to the feeders too. I always make sure there's water for them too. Baby blue tits once fledged are the same size as the parents but have a yellow face rather than white, mum and dad look rather bedraggled now as they put all their energy into their chicks.

This is mum/dad and baby, you can see the parent's looking a bit un-kept. 

Oh and here's a coal tit who prefers seed to peanuts, it's always good to have a variety of food out, the collared doves love seed too. 

If you do have a garden no matter how big or small buy one of these feeders for under £20 from B&M or The Range, once the birds get used to it it's lovely to watch, and you may even get a squirrel.

A Bit about House Plants

I haven't blogged for a while but I thought that letting you know I've done more weeding and trimmed the bushes every couple of days was a tad unnecessary. Everything is just growing nicely in the garden and we should soon have strawberries but I thought today I'd make a post about my house plant collection who all have names by the way.

Many house plants have lots of other uses other than just looking good or producing pretty flowers. The peace lily (spathiphyllum) of which I have 2 is probably the best well known for it's benefits, my fella has asthma and reading up on what can ease his condition I came across the peace lily. This plant this plant can improve air quality by removing airborn contaminants like mold, lots of people put them in bathrooms, I do have one in the bathroom and it thrives there, both lilys are small breeds I think they're easier to keep. They need watering on a regular basis and now and again a shop bought plant feed and they're happy as larry.

Of course some of my house plants bare fruit so it's easy to see the benefits of both my lemon and fig trees. These plants are indoors rather than out because the make great indoor plants where they thrive as long as they are fed, watered and not allowed to become pot bound.
Lemon trees in particular are very hungry so Mr Lemon gets a special citrus formula plant feed as well as sugar water occasionally to produce sweeter fruits.

Most of the plants I grow indoors are easy to care for and grow happily, however there's always one isn't there? When I was dating Ash he bought me a Orchid (Phalaenopsis) which was beautiful with dappled purple/pink flowers. This was 3 years ago, I've never see a flower on Florance since. She gets fed with special orchid drip feeds and orchid spray, her water can't come fresh out of the tap it needs to be left to stand for 24 hours, her roots can't be left to stand in  water, orchids must be free draining. I've changed the position of the plant several times, from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen. I think we may have something with bringing it to the kitchen though, as yo can see there are new green growths 5 in all sprouting from the bottom of the plant, these are new roots which could go into the soil or hang around in the air to catch moisture in the air.
The roots grow fast when they get going so fingers crossed I wanna see some flowers soon.  






I have 2 cacti which can be hard to keep, I'm no expert on cacti and bought Bob (the round spiky one) because it looked like a nice cactus, but I've had him about 5 years now so must be doing something right. My newest plant is the Easter Cactus Ellie, Easter/Christmas Cacti are so called because of the time of year they flower. The Easter/Christmas cacti is also good at air purifying and removing toxins from the air and of course they release oxygen into the air.

I have 10 house plants in total not including the veg plants and herbs I start off indoors many I've bought reduced and looking a little sgraggley from shops like B&Q and Aldi and nursed back to health, so you don't have to spend alot and you can give a unwanted plant a second chance.

Onwards & Defiantly Upwards

Right the time has come for most of the little veg plants to leave the safety of the windowsill and head out into the outside world. However plants cannot be just thrown outside into the soil and left to survive. They need hardening off first, I have recycled an old china cabinet as a little green house, it doesn't get too hot like proper greenhouses and there's still a little draft that can get in so it's good for hardening little plants.

 After a week or so the tomatoes, which are now starting to out grow the cabinet are ready to go outside. I have put in alot of hard graft preparing the soil. Backbreaking weeding and turning the soil, the dandelions really have taken over but don't worry dandelions have their uses too and the rabbit at the animal shelter loves them. The soil could do with manure adding, I'll have to steal some from Suzie at the shelter.
For the tomatoes I have chosen a sunny a spot against a wall, this gives them the best shot at ripening off but as it's between 2 hedges they have a little protection from the wind. The plants need staking because tomato plants can grow quite lanky and are easily destroyed by wind. I've planted them in half a foot apart so they've got room to grow.






As well as tomatoes, the sunflower, peppers and cucumber need hardening off too so into the cabinet they go, it won't be long till they go out for real.

<-- Sunflower plant now needs a stake to hold it up, only one seed out of 3 germinated, I have no idea why.









In other news I have brought the potted strawberries from the courtyard at my previous plot and planted them out in prepared soil. Strawberry plants are fantastic for people without much time to garden, they are perennial (they come back every year I've had mine for 3 years), they survive frost and water logging and even do well in prolonged periods without water and if you want them to they'll spread so you get more crop. They are however hard to raise from seed so buy baby plants from the garden center.

Finally I am trying to raise funds for Yorkshire Animal Shelter and have crafted cards featuring my photography, I am trying to sell them on eBay without much success so far, if you're interested head here for a look --> Emma's eBay Shop. Or just text YASG18 £3 to 70070 to donate £3. Ta.

Rhubarb + Seedling Update + New Bees.

Well Spring is well and truely under way and I'll begin this blog by letting you know I have now discovered Rhubarb, I know it's practically criminal but until the other day I had never tried rhubarb. I was put off by rumors of it being sour and strange but last week I was offered some from the onsite allotment so I picked a few stalks out of politeness more than desire to try it. When friends came to stay last week I bit the bullet and made them rhubarb crumble with a packet of oat crumble topping. It's so easy just boil rhubarb with sugar and water for 10 minutes, drain and add the topping and bake for 20 minutes. The results were surprisingly tasty but the rhubarb was not pick and attractive as the supermarket ready meals would have you believe but mainly a greeny colour with hints of pink. Just goes to show. Anyway I have now planted some rhubarb and am looking forward to my own Yorkshire Rhubarb in a years time (don't pick the first harvest the plant gets tired).

The seedlings are now moving along well and we have multiple money maker tomato plants, a sunflower, cucumber, lettuce, peas, mini peppers and very surprisingly a butternut squash seedling. The butternut squash was a experiment I planted 6 in all but squash prefer planting in Autumn and have a long growing period. After 2 months and out of 6 seeds just 1 has shot straight up so fast it must have took less than a week for it to touch the top of the propagator. In not very long many of the seedlings will be big enough to be grown on outside in the ground I an currently preparing for them.

Also after missing my little tree bee friends at my parents place I today discovered new neighbors on my patch. These critters were paying particular interest in the little holes made by old screws in my wall. My friend has suggested these are masonry bees, a solitary bee which lives in brick mortar. I believe they were carrying little clumps of mud to their new homes and arranging it, however I have sent this photo to the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust to confirm it for me, more info when I found out. If you want to do something to help bees in the UK sign the Soil Association's Petition to make the government listen to bee's plight and don't use un-natural pesticides and herbicides in your garden. Bees love fruit and veg plants but if you prefer lawns keep a unkempt corner of your garden where wildflowers can grow for bees. Bees are important to ALL life on Earth look after them.

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Young Gifted and Skint

My roof is finished Woo Hoo!!! Unfortunately this means I am flat broke =(. But it's Spring so I shouldn't let money put me off gardening. This is the time of year you can get out there and find bargains. Pound Land and Pound World should never be ruled out for gardening supplies and seeds (no matter how unprofessional it may seem) B&M is also great for bits and pieces, you've just gotta pick your way through the tacky solar lights and gnomes to the good stuff (I apologize to any gnome fans reading this).

The other day I purchased a couple of bits in Pound Land and got a voucher for 6 gardening items for the price of 5, exciting when you're skint. What are great if you know what your looking for are the fruit bushes that just look like sticks in bags, now you don't want the ones that are just sticks but the ones that have a couple of little shoots on them. I bought one 2 years ago and last Summer with the help of very busy bees it gave pots of raspberries. I have just bought another raspberry and a blackcurrant bush, they need potting as soon as you get them home and really over-watering to get them going. http://www.poundland.co.uk/home-and-garden/gardening/bulbs-and-seeds.



The plant pots are also better quality that places like ASDA and are just £1 for 5, can't go wrong. B&M Herbs have an offer on at this time of year where herbs are £1.99 each or 3 for £5, the other day I bought Oregano, Lavender and thyme all great for bees.  . Again these plants will probably be mass produced under stress so it's important when you get them home to give them a more roomy pot and a good watering. I like to put herbs in window boxes after the daffodils have died off.

The seeds at bargain shops my not be Unwin's, Sutton's or Mr Fothergill's but guess what? They grow veg just the same you just don't get the same choice in breeds of veg but if you're happy with gardeners delight tomatoes and black beauty courgettes then you'll save a lot of money. Bargain places are usually great for things like bird food, fat balls etc too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is gardening should be accessible to all on all budgets, it's important that families can grow their own and it's not always possible to go to the garden center and pay garden center prices. Children especially should get to know where food comes from but you don't wanna spend a fortune on teaching them, you can even get mini mushroom growing kits at Poundland. So get out there and get bargain hunting.

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