I'm back!

Well sorry for the delay folks! Sick children, bad weather blah blah...

Anyway, I've finished digging the veg patch!!! I know I know, I thought it would never get done either! 

Just the rhubarb and strawberries in situ (plus a gardening fork and a random plastic bottle!). There is currently snow on the ground but hopefully the ground will be treated to some compost/horse manure in the next week or so, then I can plant some broad beans. Since we last spoke I have also made a list of seeds and constructed a chart of what gets planted when and so on and so forth, so all has not been lost over the last 10 days. However, I decided to get all technical (by my standards) and made a list of what sort of light each of my planned seeds requires – full sun or shade or... the one in between. Much to my distress EVERYTHING wants full sun, greedy seeds! Given that very little of my veg patch IS in full sun (next doors tree and my house are in the way and I can’t see either moving any time soon) they are going to just have to lump it! The patch is in the sunniest part of the garden though so hopefully as most things are planted around March-May when the sun is higher in the sky they should have little to complain about.

I have also been perusing the seed catalogues (Mr Fothergills, naturally) and am trying to decide whether to invest in blueberry bushes; the only think my youngest likes more than blueberries is kiwi (and after the last nappy we’ll be cutting back in her intake of those!) so I’m thinking it could be a wise investment... still deciding though!

Ooh, I forgot to mention in previous posts, I also have a few fruit trees in the garden:

 a cherry tree on the left, which didn't fruit at all last season and an apple tree (right) which produced a dozen or so apples, braeburns I believe.

In other news the girls have harvested their cress which was declared ‘yucky’, so no more has been planted, however I rather enjoyed the alfalfa:

 so more of that is currently sprouting! Looking forward to growing some lettuce and cucumber to add to my sandwich! 

However, the coriander plant I bought from the supermarket seemed determined to die and is currently rather dramatically draping itself across my kitchen windowsill vying for some sympathy from the neighbouring alfalfa (the alfalfa is way too busy growing nicely and behaving to give the coriander the time of day though) 

On the plus side my beloved pineberry is doing well and is even sprouting new runners despite the temperature which can just about be seen in the background.

 

I am also pleased to report that since the purchase of my funky pink gloves the incidence of splinters has been reduced to nil! Long may it last!