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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The Animal Sanctuary

While browsing Facebook a few weeks ago I came upon a job vacancy with a difference. A voluntary position at Yorkshire Animal Shelter. I've always wanted to work with animals since being very young, I missed out on veterinary nursing college because I couldn't get the GCSEs required in maths and English, and now with my work experience only being in retail and creative work any job I apply for I get knocked back from. Working with animals is highly sort after work even if it's not particularly well paid.
So when I see I could gain a little experience I jump at the chance. Yorkshire Animal Shelter mainly takes in the over spill from the RSPCA basically saving them from death row. They have a horse, 8 sheep, 1 chicken, 1 rabbit and 6 cat currently although I'm informed this is a quiet time.

www.yorkshireanimalshelter.org.uk If you can help them do even if it's only collecting stamps.

So I meet the animals. Suzie a 15+ year old horse with arthritis and cushings disease and she's also retty deaf. Poor Suzie was bought by a naive lady wanting a show jumper of around 9 years old, when she found out actually Suzie was neither 9 or in a fit state for jumping it was either the rescue or the slaughter house for Suzie. So we start the day by feeding Suzie a mixture of feed, apples, carrots, biscuits and breadcakes as well as oil and cider vinegar (good for her joints). Suzie doesn't wear horse shoes but needs the mud and grass cleaning from her feet daily, she's not 100% happy about it because of her sore joints. By what is now my 3rd week I've learned to lift her feet by running my hands down her legs and grasping the wispy hair down near her feet and holding the hoof close to the toe whilst leaning in to her (although she ended up leaning on me.) Then taking the hoof pick to firmly but gently remove the mud from the hoof. Her back feet are a little harder as she finds it uncomfortable so we have to bend down lower (exposing gardeners arse crack to the world.) This week with help from Abbie I cleaned all 4 hooves. Result!

2 of the sheep also have arthritis but plod on in their retirement. The rest of the sheep including Larry and Baby Lambkins follow me round the field while I shovel poo into a wheel barrow. Picking the poo not only keeps the field from becoming a pooey mess but also the poo gets added to the onsite allotment. Can't go wrong with lotsa veg.

Then there's Queenie the only hen currently at the sanctuary, they usually take in ex-battery hens for their retirement but at the moment Queenie happily scatches around the allotments alone. Abbie tells me they will be getting more ex-batteries again soon which I can't wait to see. Chickens should be happy and free. Queenie is 8 and a oriental breed so produces greenish eggs. However being 8 she is past her laying age but this week she surprised us both, as I leaned in to clean the hen house I see a single egg in the corner. Amazing, just goes to show what a happy animal can do.

Anyway I'm learning already and I love it looking forward to my work week after week also lotsa wildlife around too. Next Friday I get to see the farrier at work, the way he handles Suzie might help me with her. Can't wait.

Appologies for the Instagraming taking the real camera tomorrow.

Spring Getting More Springy

It's now late March and things are beginning to happen, my roof is being done currently so little can be done outside as a huge pile of slate and timber sits in the middle of what was a lawn. However indoors there's a little action.
My mushrooms are sprouting away and I've had a few but probably not as many as I could, mushroom are easy to forget about I must admit but the soil NEEDS to be kept moist. Another problem is with their love for warmish moist conditions they do attract some tiny little flies, I can't think of a way to remedy this unfortunately so I just keep them as far away from us as possible while still being indoors. This is one of my chestnut mushrooms, I left it a little too long before picking, it's still good to eat but you should pick them before the gills underneath show.

Second the tomato seedlings have really took off and I've transplanted the strongest of the plants into a pot so I can sow more seeds in the propagator. The pepper seedlings have just started to show too, they take longer than tomatoes. No sign of butternut squash seedlings yet =(. We've also got microgreen herbs and Chinese chives from the James Wong selection on their way.

Now I'm very scatty and there are plants I plant and forget about. About 18 months ago I bought small fig tree only half a foot tall at The Range thinking oh well that'll be different. I re-potted it and it grew. It loses it's leaves in Winter and has to be brought indoors to avoid frost. When I moved house last Autumn I left the fig tree, lovingly named Phileas Fig with my mum. She looked after him over Winter and the other week tells me "that tree shot up and it's got new leaves." I took a look, now mum's hallway is very small and a bit gloomy so as well as getting in the way poor Phileas wasn't getting the nourishing light he needs so he's a little pale. But to my surprise there were 2 little green nodules growing from the tree. Figs! Wow unexpected he's still only small. He's gonna need some multi-purpose feed and when he's moved outdoors after any frost risk has gone I'll grab some manure from the animal sanctuary. Tomato feed once every 3 weeks helps too according to RHS. He's now in my hallway, alot more room and light till he can go outside.

Spring Starting to Spring

Well the weather has arrived the bbqs are out and the sun has it's hat of hurray! And the signs of spring are everywhere. I spent yesterday at my local park because I heard the local wildlife had come out for spring and were getting busy in the pond. The rumors were correct, a corner of the pond sheltered by reeds was full of frogs and their spawn. Wow they had been busy froggies. I plan to add a pond to my garden, I don't expect masses of frogs visiting and having their young but any water source is valuable to all wildlife especially in the height of summer, I won't add fish to the pond as every Tom, Dick and Harry on this street owns a cat. Also fish need to be kept safe from ice in winter.

As well as the frogs the crocus beds were stunning. I plan of buy some crocus bulbs that flower in autumn, they are a different breed which produce saffron, a spice worth more than it's weight in gold.  http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Flower+Bulbs/All+Bulbs/Saffron+Crocus+Bulbs_MH2993.htm#230169. They're also great for bees and being late flowering they keep bees going through autumn.

My pots of joy and window boxes are looking good too. Mini daffs are out and looking fab just waiting on most of the big ones now, yes Spring is in the air.

PS The seedlings are starting to emerge and we have mushrooms on the way, more updates soon, in the meantime here's a dove that lives on the bowling green and eats at our bird cafe.

A Bit about my New Kingdom.

I realize since moving to this new house with it's 2 gardens I haven't posted on it. The house has 2 gardens a back and a front, the back is the biggest, it's south facing and where my Grandad used to plant all his greens. However as mentioned in an earlier post my Grandad left this Earth before I was born so the garden hasn't been producing veg for over 26 years. Instead my Grandma was a big fan of anything that flowers so both gardens are now full of bulbs, bedding plants, shrubs and one lawn the size of a postage stamp. As well as these there are 2 holly bushes which the birds love (but I don't) and an Ivy which started growing up a washing line pole but has now taken over the entire garden wall.



This garden is great for the wildlife and I want to keep it that way but more in harmony with the productivity I want to bring to it. It's gonna be hard work as it's so overgrown now. Currently I've began removing the bedding plants and daffodils, I don't want to get rid of them as my Gran loved them to I've found some neglected pots lying around so, with some fresh compost I've added the plants to the pots, they look lovely sat on the door steps.









The front garden is probably less than half the size, North facing and encircled by a privet hedge. It's pretty dark but looks out over a council bowling green where the staff actively encourage wildlife so we get lots of bird and of course Bill the squirrel. In fact at the moment we have a pair of blue tits looking at making their nest in the air vent next to or bedroom window. Anyway this garden is just full of snow drops, bedding plants and a hydrangea. To be honest I really don't know what to do here besides trimming the hedge and finding some shade loving crops, maybe I'll try forcing some rhubarb here. It would be a shame to make all the snow drops homeless though.

New Lemon Tree and Mushroom Growing too.

I hate Ikea, but the other day I saw some thing that didn't require delivery, assembly or an allen key. It was a lemon tree, just a couple of feet tall and costing £20. But something bothered me and that was all the signs around them saying "fruit is not edible" and "please do not  eat the fruit". I went home to read up on why this is. I suspected it was just to stop people stealing the fruit as I has never heard of a purely ornamental lemon tree. Reading on the Grow Your Own forum http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/  a person had the same experience at Aldi and the experts say it is because the tree and fruit has probably been sprayed with pesticides and other nasties but after the fruit growing in store has gone further fruit will be fine. Great we went out again and brought our lemon tree home and named it Jonny, after a friend who used to call himself Mr Lemon.

Something bothered me though and that was the size of the pot Jonny was crammed into, poor thing. It's roots had emerged on the surface, this is the sign of a pot-bound tree. So off I went to my local garden center (I tried The Range first but word of advice, they're useless) to buy citrus compost. You should plant citrus plants in special compost because they are very picky. A pH of 6.5 is ideal,they don't like acid or alkaline very much at all. It also needs to drain well. They also need feeding often especially in the summer. For now Jonny lives indoors in the corner of my living room but in summer He'll probably go live on the step outside the door.

My next little (indoor) project at the moment is mushrooms. Chestnut mushrooms to be exact. I bought a little kit from The Range for £3.99 which is a good price as they're usually about £8. Maybe you pay for what you get but we'll find out. The kit is basically just a box with a lid, wet compost and substrate covered in mushroom spores. Follow the instructions, keep moist, warm and dark and wait for the mushrooms. I tried one of the little kits from the pound shop before and they are good, mushrooms only take a couple of weeks to pop up. Can't wait chestnut mushrooms are great in a stir fry or risotto.

Photos will be added when the mushrooms grow but for now I thought this was funny ^