We’ve been taking a break from the blog for a bit. Too much to do in the garden, like building our deck and other activities are keeping us occupied. I may be here from time to time, who knows but I’m enjoying doing other things for a bit.

See you in September.

I’ve not blogged much about the garden this year. I mean, the weather’s been so rubbish, that it’s been very boggy or under water for the last 6 weeks and impossible to spend any time doing worthwhile stuff. I’ve lost lots of veg this year to pests and most of them have gone rotten in the ground. I’m left with one courgette, one tomato plant and two aubergines (but I’m not holding my breath on these)! The courgette’s doing well and the tomato has got some fruit coming on it.

I come from a long line of gardeners on both sides of my family. My paternal grandfather was a seedsman and nurseryman for Coopers in Bedford, England pre and post WW2. They always showed at Chelsea Flower Show and my father had the opportunity as a young boy to accompany him a couple of times. I’m sure it was very different back then compared with now. He recalls that dutch tulips were really exotic then and rather expensive and they always did well at the show with their display.

My parents have been farming and growing their own since the 70’s and are great proponents of all things organic and the late great John Seymour. Read his obituary here. We try our best to do what we can living in a city. We have a very successful wormery which produces fantastic liquid feed, a compost heap and anything else like rose clippings and weeds go into the green bin for the council. I don’t do any other pest control other than stomping on snails (sorry if that offends) and squashing aphids on my roses.

I’m in a crafting funk at the moment. There are lots of piles around but I’ve got the ‘can’t-be-bothereds’ at the moment. I started knitting a hooded jacket for Coco, a modification of a vintage pattern, which I hope to make available at some point, but I’m only 20 rows in………maybe I’ll take it to Cumbria this week………..Hope it doesn’t rain all week!

Ok folks, I need you all to look very carefully at this here..thingy. Well, what is it exactly? I know you’re asking how I came by this amazing piece of tack. Well, there is a lady who lives nearby who asks for some of my lavender from the hedge when it’s ready to crop each year. I happily oblige because I don’t do much with it and there’s always tonnes. Anyway, she very proudly presented me with this the other day to say thank you and that she had made it herself. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful for the thought but it’s definitely a candidate for Room 101 or the TACK challenge that took place in Oz a couple of months ago. Although, this isn’t tack from crap, it’s crap from crap. Is there a hidden meaning here? Is it symbolic? Could you honestly sell this? I have seen bracelets with the blue and white eye on before. Is it to do with the all seeing eye? All ideas on a postcard please……….

Our second ripe strawberry this season! Better eat it before the slugs do…….

I love my Christmas Roses! I only have three in my garden, two at the front and one at the back but I will be sorry to see them go for another year. They’ve made a beautiful display, especially the ‘Harrington Speckled’ (above). This has been in since November 2003 and has grown with very little attention but loves the morning sun.

This Helleborus Corniscus has green flowers. Several people have commented on how unusual this one is.

The Helleborus Orientalis didn’t cope too well with the winter and think it’s a been a bit too wet for its liking. But I trimmed back the damaged leaves last month and it seems to be doing ok. It was only planted last autumn when we redeveloped the end of the garden. Our new neighbour decided to cut down half our willow tree and replace the fence without telling us! Anyway, despite lots of grumpiness at the time, we are very pleased with the result and gave me a new excuse to buy more plants!

I saw these runs on the news this morning and they reminded me that exactly two years ago (I think when they were launched?) DH first mentioned getting an Eglu and some chickens. Mum and Dad have always had chooks and I’m well aware of the benefits BUT we do have a very small garden in a big city AND we have very grumpy neighbours. I can imagine there would be a problem. DH has been nagging me about this all that time and I have promised that ‘in the next house’ he can have his beloved chooks!

They’re a superb design but pricey £329 for the unit then you buy chooks and extras on top, working out to about £385. They even do them in pink!………go check it out at Omlet

We have been waiting for some decent weather to ripen these little darlings. We put in 6 plants this year in different places, some in the beds and others in pots. We had alot of hot weather in May/June then August was rubbish and it’s only just warming up again now. Here’s hoping we can get the others ripe before I have to find a recipe for green tomato chutney. :-)