Lovely Broad Beans

At last the Broad Beans are up and raring to go, well some of them anyway and the others are just starting to nudge the compost ready to pop out.  I look up my old posts on Broad Beans and on March 3rd 2009 the plants were much bigger than these ones that are now growing.  It's always exciting when the seedlings appear. I have also sown chillies ( a few varieties) red and white onions, peppers, and some flowers for my cutting bed, oh and some Lemon basil and sweet basil.

I feel that I'm a bit behind this year, but I have been busy doing lots of craft projects and the weather hasn't exactly been inspiring, but I think I am on my way now. Here's a peek at the Broad Beans (photo's taken today.

Parcel delivery and Purple Sprouts

The postman brought me a very welcome parcel on Thursday, it was from Stephen at Victoriana Nurseries  the Tayberry arrived and also the two Lemon Grass plants. There were also the Parsnip seeds 'Hollow Crown' and my tomato seeds as well.  The Globe Artichoke plants wont be delivered until April/May ready for planting out. This gives me time to choose and prepare the area that they will be planted in. I have to plan this wisely as they are perennial and will be there for some time (hopefully) Having only ever eaten Artichokes already prepared in jars from the shop I thought I had better buy some to experiment in preparing and cooking them. A friend kindly bought me and herself a couple each. We didn't have a clue what to do with them, so I turned to good old Google and found lot's of useful links and even video's on YouTube.

After chopping the stem off and taking off the sharp tips and removing the lower leaves, I them boiled them, I will steam them next time as I always steam all my vegetables.  When soft I then let them cool, cut out the heart and scraped the flesh from the leaves and then sauteed it all  in a little butter with garlic. I ate them cold the next day with a salad, delicious !! the only drawback was they were very small and didn't have much of a heart which is the part |I love the most.

The parcel which was well wrapped in straw and heavy polythene (which I then up-cycled and used to cover one of my raised beds.) the polythene that is !

As you can see the Tayberry is a really good size, I can't wait to get some fruit from it.  It also has loads of healthy buds.   I am so pleased with the quality of the plant.



The Lemon Grass, lovely for stir fries and so expensive to buy in the supermarket, so I'm hoping to get lot's of my own later on .

Purple Brussel Sprouts, at last a small harvest !

Just look at these beauties,they were more purple than this but I had to remove a lot of the outer leaves, so here they are ready to be steamed.  They were delicious and kept their unusual colour and well worth the wait. I would have had some before if  they  hadn't  been so badly infested with white fly. I had to reluctantly

spray them and just wait and see if they grew some more which they did and I have a good few more small harvests to pick yet and will be growing this variety again (Rubine)

I'm raring to go

I get very impatient at this time of year and can barely wait until February to start my seeds off. I went through all my seeds last week and there were so many that can be started in February, so yesterday (I know it's still January !) I decided to get started.

I sowed the Broad beans in my root-trainers using a John Innes seed compost. I sowed 12 each of 'Bunyards Exhibition' and the Red variety 'Red Epicure'.  Then I planted some Lemon Basil and  Sweet Basil and put these on the kitchen windowsill.  Also sown were some Bergamot 'Panorama Mixed' they are good for the bees and nice for cut flowers, so I'm hoping that they are as pretty as they look on the packet.

I also  got my order in to Victoriana Nurseries.  I ordered a Tayberry called 'Buckingham' which is thornless this will be grown in my soft fruit area on the allotment.  I ordered some seeds that I had from them last year that were so good I decided to get them again, which are Tomato 'Abraham Lincoln' and Parsnips 'Hollow Crown' both were very successful and delicious.
 Also ordered :-
Artichoke plants 'Imperial Star' and 'Romanesco' which will delivered  April/May  ready to plant out
and 2 x Lemongrass plants ' East India'. I grew my own Lemongrass last year but they never grew large enough for me to get more than a couple of small pieces from, so I decided it's not worth the bother. 

Don't forget that Stephen from Victoriana Nurseries is offering 10% discount on orders for readers of my blog, just click on the link on my side bar and your order will automatically get the 10% off.

I went for the first time to the Potato Day in Hampshire on Sunday.  It was a last minute decision to go. I was disappointed to find that there was an entry fee of £2 each, so that was £4 before I had even bought any potatoes. However they were only 17p a tuber as opposed to 26p at the garden centre and as I don't grow many ( we don't eat a lot of potatoes)  that wasn't too bad.  But it cost us more to look at the poatoes than it did to buy them, so probably wont be going again.

I bought  6 x 'Ulster Prince'  to try as they looked nice and had a good write up.
 6  x  ' Chopin' they also looked nice so giving them a try
 10   x   Inova which is a cross between my favourite 'Nicola' and 'Impala'  the man there said they were better than ' Nicola' so thought I'd try these as well.   Now to start the chitting !!

So ! there we go the start of a new growing year albeit a bit early, but I couldn't wait any longer.  I have to take some kitchen scraps up to the allotment later and whilst there I will check on my brussels and Purple sprouting broccoli (can't wait for that to be ready) the garlic planted last year is growing well and I still have some 'Hollow Crown' parsnips in the ground, oh and some cabbages, I keep forgetting about them as they are hidden under a tunnel.

Have a good week  X

Manuring the Raspberries

I have managed to get up to the allotment twice this week YEAH ! the weather is getting better, although of course we could always get another load of snow.  We moved into our house many years ago during a February and I have photo's of us all making a snowman, so you never can tell !!

Anyway! this week I have managed with the help of my gardening assistant (Austin) to put wheelbarrow loads of manure (that we had delivered at the end of last Autumn) onto my Raspberry canes.  Because of  the cold weather I was unable to cut them back before now.  However I have finally managed to cut the canes right back this week.  They are a late fruiting variety (unknown) I always get lot's of lovely fruit from them, but not as large as the fruit from the canes on the plot where my young canes came from.  I checked with the person who gave me my canes who says she always cuts hers back and manures them.  This is the third year that I have had mine planted, so I thought I would cut them hard back, manure them and see what happens. I only hope I have done the right thing?

There are lots of things going on in the beds, such as flower bulbs peeping through, buds sprouting on the gooseberry bushes and the blackcurrant bush. The herbs are starting to look healthy again, but I have to either dig up and thin out or cut severely back the purple sage as it's far too big for my herb bed.

I am looking forward to growing Globe artichokes this year and I am going to order some plants from Stephen at Victoriana Nursery  who incidentally is kindly giving any of my readers 10% discount on anything you order from him.  If you want to take up this offer just click on the link on my sidebar as it takes you to his website and when you order the 10% is automatically taken off, but please do check your order to make sure that happens before hitting the final step in ordering. I have checked it out and it does work, but technology sometimes does funny things.

I am going to sow my broad beans in the first week of February and this year I am trying a different one called 'Red Epicure' ( Unwin's) which are chestnut crimson coloured beans which apparently if lightly steamed keep their colour, we shall see !! as well as these I shall grow my favourite 'Bunyards Exhibition' which are tasty.
I think this year I am going to try sowing direct on some things, as I find that keeping an eye on seedlings gets to be a bit of a pain especially if we want to be away for days at a time. There are certain plants that I do like to see that they are good and healthy before setting them in the beds, such as - broad beans, onions, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers,  come to think of it quite a few things, so maybe I wont be so brave after all ha ha.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope the New Year brings you all good health, happiness, Peace and an allotment full of lovely vegetables.

We went up to the allotment today for the first time in many weeks. Our visit was just to take bags of kitchen waste to the compost bins, whilst there I had a look around and saw that the garlic looked strong and healthy and the cabbages were looking small but pretty good too. The brussel sprouts had sprouted some more tiny ones at the top of the stems, so we may get some late ones after all. The sprouts at the bottom were horrid and not worth picking. The purple sprouting broccoli looks sturdy and healthy, so we are hoping for some nice pickings in the spring.

Speaking of Spring ! today was just like a chilly spring day with light clouds and some blue sky, and have you noticed how it's staying lighter for longer in the evening ? I can't wait for the better weather and after going to the allotment today I'm eager to get started on tidying up and adding the manure we got late last year onto the beds. My rasperry canes need cutting back and topping with manure too.
Have a good week.
M x

My Volunteering experience

Hi Everyone ! I hope you all survived Christmas and are looking forward to a lovely New Year.

I thought I would fill you all in on my brilliant experience with Crisis at Christmas (Finsbury Park, London centre) It was far and above my expectations, I can't put into words the enjoyment and satisfaction I and all the volunteers got out of it. Myself, my son, his girlfriend and their Australian friend (living here without family) loved it so much that we are up for it next year too.
If I hadn't had family commitments on Boxing day I would have gone back again before my next shift on the 27th, and again after that ( the centre closes today 30th) but I had to head back to Hampshire on 28th sadly.

The lovely veteran actress Sian Phillips, who was once married to Peter O'Toole was there at the centre as a volunteer, she was so lovely and mucked in doing anything asked of her, apparently she has been doing it for a few years now. All the shift leaders running the centre were friendly and amazing to work with. I met lot's of lovely like minded people from all walks of life and all nationalities. I never heard anyone moan about the tasks given and everyone I spoke to intends to go back.

My favourite tasks were washing hair ready for haircuts and serving food in the 'guest' dining room. Our 'guests' were so polite and thankful and believe me they were so well fed.  The amount of fresh veg and meat donated by businesses and shops was awesome and kept arriving throughout the days the centre was open.
There was also all sorts of luxurious donated as well, such as biscuits, cakes, chocolates, shampoos, shower gels.  The generosity was wonderful.

Although we four arrived together we split up to do our days work which was great because we all had our own individual experiences to tell each other. One task was normally done for around 40 mins to an hour and then we were relieved to go and have a cuppa and a snack in the volunteers area. ( I met some great people)
 We then waited for calls to volunteer for the next tasks. One task which we all thought would be boring was sitting in pairs minding 'gaps' this was because there were certain areas of the college that were out of bounds and if they weren't covered by anyone 'guests' would have been wandering all over the building and we wouldn't have known were they were or indeed if they were doing any damage (never happened yet !) but because the college has generously loaned the building for the third year running we have to make sure it's handed back in the condition it was taken over in. fair do's !! Anyway this task turned out to be great, as we got to be with another  volunteer to chat and get to know, and the passing 'guests' liked to stop and chat to us, so we had plenty of interaction with them as well.

CRISIS are doing a wonderful job and this was just at one centre. It is well run, catered for everything the 'guests' could have wanted. Showers, hair wash (if not showering at time of haircut) massage, healing, yoga, dance, (the Salsa class went down well ) optician, doctor, dentist, Internet and P.C classes, Bingo which was called out by a Cross Dressing 'guest' in a bright pink lurex dress who also played a mean game of football in the sports hall, I know this as she/he was on my son's team when he volunteered to do the sports. I have to say this particular guest was a gem and so grateful to be there.
I could go on and on but wont ! I would like to ask that you sponsor me though ( I won't be offended if you don't) please help Crisis to carry on their work all year by donating any amount no matter how small.
Here is my sponsorship link :

http://community.crisis.org.uk/page.aspx?pid=592&tab=0&frsid=2788

THANK YOU xx

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

P.S next time I see a person sitting in a cold doorway I will always offer to buy them a coffee or a sandwich ( I never give money) that's one of my N.Y resolutions. My daughter saw a couple on Christmas Eve in Winchester go into a shop and buy a chap in a doorway a duvet. There are Angels among us even the Human kind !!

Happy toasty warm feet

I was a bit naughty today because I opened a Christmas present from the hubby, but it was because my feet were freezing and indoors I never wear slippers, well that's until today ! you see I fell in love with a funky pair that I saw whilst out doing our Christmas shopping a couple of weeks ago. I just had to had some, so they were on my Christmas list.   I was complaining about how cold my feet were today and that I could do with those slipper now instead of waiting until Christmas, and he indulged me ! ( he also said it saved him having to wrap them up, typical  !!!!)  So here they are and they are so toasty and warm, but best of all they make me smile everytime I look at them.  I love them they are so eccentric, shame they aren't leather as I think I would wear them out !!!