Spring.

Well, spring has arrived and quite unlike England the day has turned out to be quite beautiful.

I've been at work all morning, meaning I had to get up very early, so I'm really, really sleepy now. I got home around 2 pm and I've just got back from walking the dogs so now i'm going to take it easy. I'll have a look at some new jobs to apply for and make myself some dinner and that'll be it for today.

Mashua.

A very lovely lady from Ireland sent me some mashua tubers, completely out of the goodness of her heart, back in about November last year. As you can see, one of them is growing beautifully. And I really hope that I'll be able to keep it protected whilst we still have the risk of frosts outside. I am looking forward to trying this plant once it's much older and out in the ground. I wonder if its reputation as an anti aphrodisiac is a true one?

I'm trying to get all of the parsnips dug up before the new growing season really gets going. The only problem is that they're all so big that even the smallest are enough to feed me for three meals. 

Thai food (my style)

I've really, really been going nuts for my attempt at vegetarian Thai food, for the last week now.

 For one of my first attempts I picked kale, purple sprouting broccoli, pak choi and sorrel leaves out of the garden to add.  The next day I actually managed to add purple sprouting broccoli florets to my stir fry. The whole stir fry was lovely but the florets where incredible!  

I added eggs to the wok too as the chickens are all laying right now. I thought Yellow had stopped laying eggs now entirely! But she's proved me wrong.

I bought the rice noodles from Tesco, I've been switching from rice noodles to egg noodles just to keep things interesting, both were bought from Tesco. I used bean sprouts, toms and a frozen veg mix. Obviously I can add more of my own food later on in the year. 

For the sauce I threw together soy sauce, water, apple cider vinegar, sugar, honey, BBQ sauce, polish vegetable stock mix and Chinese five spice mix. 

For something that I made with whatever I had in the cupboard at the time, I think it was amazing. :D :D :D  

Second trip to the allotment.

I managed to spend an hour at the allotment right before dark today. :) The BF drove me over with some compost and after removing the rest of the weeds and covering this bed with cardboard I covered this bed with new compost. It should rain tonight which will help it all settle and once my eight lavender plants have arrived, been potted up, and grown on a bit, this bed should be perfect to hold them.

 And perfect for attracting bees. 

March 7th 2017

This is my garden today March 7th. It still needs a lot doing to it. I DID poo pick but those pesky dogs keep on adding to it. :/ The chickens in the back have been given a way to get to the rest of their run now and only run back under the tarp when it rains. The purple sprouting broccoli is forming flower heads. The rhubarb is coming up. The parsnips are growing again so I need to dig the rest up.

 I've got things growing in the side border now and you can really see the improved light levels compared to the garden a little less than a month ago. (see photo below) 

Yes I meant to move the shed and get the lawn mowed but I've been at work most days for a while now and whenever I had a day off it rained. I can't say the lawn looks too bad to be honest. I think I can leave it for a little while longer really. I think the house work is a little more overdue. :P   

The garden a month ago. 

First trip to the allotment of 2017

I managed to get up to the allotment with the dogs after work this morning. Its really, really muddy and I sank a good few times. I worked, digging out the worst of the weeds, for a good hour and a half before the dogs got too bored.

Plans.

 I still have a lot of weeding to do, digging to do and I want to add compost to the very furthest bed before I build a bean row and set some peas with sticks and string to hold them up.

I want to finish digging the empty bed closest to the camera, cover it with cardboard and compost and eventually fill it with Lavender.

After that I want to add more compost to the third bed almost to the back of the photo, (the one with sand on top) before squash planting time. Then I want to remove the netted bed furthest from the camera and fill that bed with manure ready for next years squash.

Ok so I'll try to explain what is happening with the beds this year (subject to change) The first bed which is the partially weeded bed closest to the camera, will be the lavender bed.
The second bed (next to the first) is strawberries.
The third bed (about a foot left from bed two) will be flowers.
the forth bed (below bed two) will be potatoes.
bed five (left of bed four) Jerusalem artichokes, globe artichokes, rhubarb and mint (which is in the ground! Not planted by me)
Bed six (Right of the bottom of bed five) Will be a three sisters bed. Squash, corn and beans
Bed seven (right of bed six) will be empty but covered with manure
Bed eight (below bed seven and six) will be legumes. A bean row, pea row and dwarf french beans.

I am feeling much happier now that I have a plan of action. :)

Mrs Wigglesworth. Eggs?

I've put an egg container in with Mrs wiggle today, just because she's looking pretty darn large around the middle. We'll have to wait and see if any eggs materialise. 

If they do materialise they will be eggs fathered by butters, and I'm really, really hopeful for a little yellow snake baby. :)