Veggie Update

Here is an update from our allotment. These pictures were actually taken a week ago...have been too busy painting and gardening to hang about on the net.
My tomatoes are tall and in all honesty either need more headroom or have to be cut. I hope that our polytunnel can be finished on time to move both the tomatoes and the cucumbers to a loftier environment. They have grown quite a bit in the week which has gone since the picture was taken.

 

I also managed to tidy up the shed bit and install a shelving unit. It is still quite a squeeze to get past the wheelbarrow, but at least I can find my things easily.

Outside my asparagus is still sprouting the very thin stems. It is only a year old plant and has been moved, so no surprises there. My strawberry beds are kept strictly for good rooting, so I have nipped all the flowers away as soon as they appear. I have let them make some runners, don't know whether this is a bad idea. In the front you can see my chamomile edging: as I would not have any crops there anyway, it is better to have something to keep the weeds down.

Behind the hut in still very messy area I have my pumpkin growing together with couple of courgettes. I have bigger courgette plants in the main veggie area. 

My newly planted black currants have started well. As there will not be any crops this year I filled the spaces in between with flowers and edged the whole lot with lettuce. Pretty!

The kales and broccoli and such are doing well. You can also see here the different contraptions to support beans. The runner beans along the tepee and the other at the fencing.

 I am holding my breath with these dudes. There is a rampant blight in the allotments at the moment and I can just hope that our potatoes won't get it. You can see our compost bins, the incinerator and if you squint the comfrey in the corner.

One thing, which has not gone brilliantly; the peas. I was too slow to realise that I was feeding pigeons...My peas suffered a BIG setback and I ended up putting some seeds next to the seedlings to fill the gaps. These will come much later. I also have some seedlings growing in the greenhouse and hope to plant them in the polytunnel. In my experience the peas are a dead cert crop in there!

I moved our globe artichokes with us and they don't disappoint. Despite moving and dividing them, they are making artichokes for us to eat. In the background you can see my plant collars hanging for storing. In this way they don't offer slugs and snails as cosy quarters as when they are stored on the ground.

Do you have a garden? What is happening in there? Leave a link, I would love to see!

Paper Carrier

 

This bag is a birthday present. I got the measurements for a bag needed to hold the old newspapers between a sofa and a wall in a small home office until they are ferried to the recycling bins. We had talked about the colours; black and white going well with the same colour curtains.

The handles needed to be relatively short to allow for carrying in the hand. I used an old IKEA canvas fabric and lined the bag with black sheet fabric in order it to not to look dirty after the first lot of papers had taken the residence.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the lining fabric for the bottom of the bag, so it was made of the outer fabric. Pretty, but no necessarily practical. So I sewed an additional plastic coated bottom, which can easily be wiped down.

The giftee was of opinion that the bag night be too nice for its purpose. What? Of course one should have nice recycling facilities, that makes it easier to recycle!

Busy Bee

I have been, lalalaaaa! I haven't forgotten you and my blog though. What I have been doing hasn't been awfully photogenic or just haven't had the camera with me. So this post is an odd cocktail of everything and nothing... In no specific order:

• I have been making birthday cards and gifts...cannot show as yet, but here are couple of peeks at how they looked while I was working:

 Notice the old enamelled Chinese pot. I love it as my desk tidy while I am sewing. The red creamer is for water I put into my iron. Rest will be revealed in the near future.

Another pressie under the construction...totally different colour scheme.

• I have used many a lunch time in our yard soaking the sunshine. I love, love, love the fact that I can just go out of the kitchen yard and plant myself into a yard enjoying the plant pots and the one bed I have there.

My hanging basket plants are not very big, just planted them, ehm. Well, I am sure they will prettyfy (not a word, me thinks) my yard towards the end of the summer. I like to have a real "Secret Garden" gate in a stone wall.

 

The corner bed plants are filling the space. I might have to think of thinning them out.

 I do not have a big bloom feast here, but I love the different green textures of the leaves.

Look away, real gardeners! I am so inordinately proud of keeping this fuchsia alive over two winters. It will flower soon.

•  My favourite piece of art at the moment is this mask situated in my kitchen, made by Elf Son.

•  Happy news: I found an icon I thought was lost in our move. It is only 10cm tall, so not big at all and I have not been able to find it. Suddenly it was in a draw I thought I had used aplenty...weird and wonderful. The icon has sentimental value for me and I think is beautiful as well.

So that was the miscellaneous newsround from me. Hopefully back soon showing something more interesting! If I am not back before; Happy Summer Solstice!