Tuesday 30 June 2015

Turnips

First of all apologies to anyone leaving comments, my laptop is being slow and difficult at present. I will try some clean ups to see if it loads pages more smoothly while its too hot to weed!

Went to tidy the root crops as they were the few veg that have germinated well and were much too crowded. The swede are quite small still but with lots of tops so I just took out the weak ones to get them better spaced.  The turnips seem to have had two germination's. Some were mature and some just seedlings. I pulled all the mature ones and had 9 lbs of good crop. The rest I left to mature, in my veg growing book it says they will mature in August.  I think I will freeze most of these and experiment with various tastes - books say chilli and other strong mixes go well with them.

Meanwhile squeeze between a wooden fence and the greenhouse I have planted a kiwi fruit plant I have had in a pot for a couple of years.. It had very small flowers and now has several very, very small fruit.  I have delighted in emailing an ex colleague who had a kiwi for 5 years and had not got anything from it!!
Will have to get a bit of weeding done taking care not to get sun burnt.



Saturday 27 June 2015

Grow your own bounty

Typical of growing veg; one day you are celebrating the odd bit of purple sprouting and a strawberry or two and the next it looks like a veg war has broken out in the kitchen!  All the cook  books are out and I am researching preserving and new ideas for cooking.
A daily picking of broad beans is a bucket of pods which is 1kg of beans when shelled (it takes an episode of James Martin's The Box cooking challenge to prepare that many!).  There are now 4kg in the freezer and still lots to go.
I had a good crop of broccoli.  I have experimented with freezing some as chunky florets and I made 8 pints of broccoli soup!
I tried a new recipe for chicken and courgettes which went quite a long way.  Gentle fry garlic and onions, add sliced courgettes and a teaspoon of oregano Add enough stock to cover and simmer, add some partially cooked pasta and some chicken pieces and simmer. Add a couple of tablespoons of cream cheese.
I stirred in some spinach - just because its going to seed in the sudden heat!

I could really do with some tomatoes - the price of tinned ones is unbelievable,  I popped into the Co-op and they wanted 65p for an ordinary tin!  Our tomatoes are struggling a bit even in the greenhouse and the polytunnel.


Thursday 25 June 2015

Boating and flowers

We collected our Drascombe Lugger boat this week and towed it to the Broads. Be scary as we have not done this for about 20 years and we were on unknown roads. It was hot but we arrived safely and launched the boat.  Our first voyage was just across the river and into the marina where we have arranged a berth for this summer.I managed to video a bit of the "passage" but things got a bit tricky so the camera had to be abandoned while I fended off another boat and held on to piling while my husband fought with the outboard.  Lesson learnt,  run the engine and do your own checks, don't believe the salesman!




We arrived home really late and I was glad I had prepared a shepherds pie the day before to have with the broccoli I had picked.  After the indulgence of buying the boat we will have to economize in other aspects of our life.

Today my husband found some flowers to cut and we ended up with 3 vases (plus a little posy for next door to cheer her recovery from latest cancer treatment).   He loves to grow these but could not decided which were his favourite - stocks, pinks, sweet peas or alstromeria,   My favourites this week were all the wonderful bright poppies swathing the cornfields as we crossed Norfolk and Suffolk yesterday (no time to stop and take photos when you have 20ft trailer on back!).  My husband calls them weeds and tries to kill them off in the garden!  I am not much of a flower arranger as you can see!



Monday 22 June 2015

More veg pickings

Vegetable pickings are increasing daily. Beside the lettuce, cue, odd courgette, bowl of strawberries I moved into substantial goods as today I found got a kilogram of beetroot and a nice head of green broccoli today.

We brought the broccoli as plants locally - 12 for £2. The first head is valued at £1.40 according to our supermarket web site and I can see at least 6 others coming along!  A good saving (£2/£3) on our fortnightly shop as I usually order 2 kg of broccoli each time.
 I think I have only ever brought beetroot (fresh, jar or cooked)  a couple of dozen times in my 45 year life as a housewife - happy to eat it when it is there but not something I would go out of my way to have specially. This bunch is priced as £3.50 (per kilogram). I will not put this in my "budget savings"  pot but call it a treat that cost nothing!

Our friendly local electrician came by late this afternoon and replaced the shower switch for £40. Only half my worst fears. Relief all round as hot shower needed after a day dodging showers while filling in the base for the oil tank with broken up concrete and re routing an electric wire away from that area.  I felt my back seize up a bit just before lunch so I went in to cook a quiche for lunch using up odds and ends and topping with a few thin bits of asparagus that came up suddenly after some rain freshened the roots. 

Started a new sewing project planning - its the British F1 soon so I shall need a distraction while the husband occupies the settee for hours!

Sunday 21 June 2015

Summer flowers

First few sweet peas made it into the house today.
And some snap dragons are starting to flower but what I have most admired this summer is the amount of ox-eye daisies on the road system! As we crossed several counties on our way to our grand daughter's party we saw this as a testament to the changes in how our verges are left to grow wild.
In our family these are called "moon daisies" after a scene in Oliver Postgate's delightful cartoon Noggin the Nog many years ago!

Our week has been very tiring physically as we have taken down an old shed made of tar paper and ex military packing crates (interesting stamped labels still visible), broken up the concrete laid in the 1950s (badly) and dug out a base for the new foundation for an oil tank for our central heating. Meanwhile, we have no running hot water system and have to rely on an electric shower with a dodgy switch!  


The whole replacement tank and boiler is costing a horrifying amount of our pension - the only consolation is soon we may be below the income and be able to claim poverty to the state benefit system!  

For a father's day treat I let the old chap collapse in front of Grand Prix/F1 and baked him a cake for fathers day to go with the toffees and best wishes from the children.



Saturday 20 June 2015

Early veg starting to impact on budget

The fruit and veg is starting to accumulate enough to make up 20% of our lunch and evening meals, Here is one afternoons pickings.




The swede is just thinning's but they made a tasty addition to the mash!  The blackcurrants are going black a few at a time so I am accumulating the pickings over a few days to make a big pie with some apples from the market. First cucumber - that saved 80p on its own this week.

We also had a nice picking of turnips one evening which I roasted with a dressing of honey. Was Ok but not exceptional I will have to look around for something more interesting for the nice young ones coming along,

Here is the following afternoon's pickings.

I will start to freeze some of the broad beans this week.

There are some flowers appearing on the peas and runner beans but progress is slow as some days have not been especially warm.

We have discovered another threat to the crops - my husband put his camera trap on video at the very end of the field and captured a deer early one morning. That explains the big bite marks in a sweetcorn leaf and the big pile of pooh on the grass.



Tuesday 16 June 2015

Dressing the scarecrow for summer

Our original scarecrow had a lime green top but it had faded over the winter and the pigeons were just ignoring it. So I dug out some of the old office clothes and gave it a new look including a skirt that flaps in the wind!
If I remember rightly the jumper was £2.50 in a charity shop and I had at least 3 years wear and the skit was £5 and I had about 4 summers occasional wear.

The carriers are very noisy if there is a wind, and I have just found a new wheeze. I was taking apart an old french blind which had thin plastic wires sewn in. I pushed these in the ground and used a cable tie to attach a plastic carrier; they bend and wave about as well as rattle.  Not quite as noisy as the constant bang of the bird scarer thing two fields over!

The pigeons/pheasants have just destroyed an entire row of cauliflowers!

Jam and blouse

Been away at Grandchildren's first birthday parties so no posts for a while.

Also this last week has been a motor sport fest for my husband, F1 and TT races, so I set myself some projects to keep busy.  Our neighbour still has loads of rhubarb which I have made into some jam.

I used a recipe that was equal rhubarb and sugar, plus lemon juice and bruised fresh ginger.

In my sewing room I used a metre of light polyester and a free pattern from my Sew magazine to make a blouse for the parties. I like this pattern the body is only 3 seams and some gathering and though the yoke looks complex I followed the instructions carefully and it was OK. It is sort of a double layer with interfacing so sits nicely. The back fastening is button and loop - I think I would go for something more firm if I did it again as it felt a little loose and I worried it would come undone, so I used quite large buttons to fill the loops!

Meanwhile back to weeding the polytunnel and veg gardens! Never ending tasks.


Tuesday 9 June 2015

Recycling idea to make a raised bed

Had to take car for some work, and we chose a place adjucent to Springfields on the edge of Spalding so that we could have another look at the Festival Gardens there which has various Chelsea style gardens by the major garden design names.  We discovered one plot labelled the "anti design"  and in it was a great idea for a raised bed - instead of expensive railway sleepers, cotswolds stone or rendered walls in the designer plots they had used old black drain pipes. Not sure my photo captures it well but they were varying lengths on 4" black drain pipes enclosing a coffee table size bed and some plants were in the tops of the pipes as well. It worked very well.



Had a look round at home and we have some old down pipes off the demolished sheds but they are washed out grey - wonder if that would work as well and would it be enough? 


Sunday 7 June 2015

Sunflowers and recycling the tool storage

Did you see those sunflowers Monty Don was planting on Gardeners World this week?  There was a quick 2 second flash on them and by the time I had exclaimed they focused elsewhere!  They looked long and straggly and should have been planted weeks ago as they were terribly pot bound! What were they thinking - not the best gardening I have seen?  No wonder we have started to watch Beachgrove gardening programme!! My sunflowers have been out for weeks and have made good  trunks having survived two major windy storms and thunder and lighting. I certainly wont be putting in 4" tree stakes Monty Don was suggesting!   Some of mine are about 4 ft high and planted against the fence over which I hope they will put there bright shiny heads and brighten the view for our neighbour as she recovers from her latest cancer treatment.

Our boiler has finally given up the ghost and the plumber is preparing a quote. In addition to the inside work he needs to move the  tank and condemned the current one as too rusty!  When we retired here we deliberately kept money in hand for this and we did get the place quite cheaply due to some issues. After a debate and lots of thinking about how far from buildings, fences and access you can be we decided to reuse the concrete base of an existing shed. The shed was grotty anyway and blocks the kitchen light  So we negotiated some space in one of our neighbours garages for temporary storage of some boxes (in exchange for lettuce) and set to today to rearrange the most needed tools into a brick outhouse. When people talk about recycling they always forget to tell you pulling stuff other people have abandoned years ago out of old sheds and barns is dirty work!  Recycling starts with a hose!
Couple of hours later this old piece of furniture, some old shelf brackets and some lengths of wood and  old fencing which became shelves were installed at one end of the outbuilding/shed and tools started to get placed.  Not a penny spent on this project so far - if you discount the cost of the two Magnum ice lollies we rewarded ourselves with at 4pm.



Still a lot of work to do as we are demolishing the shed over the next week. But we are hoping to recycling the old metal corrugated iron to the scrap metal dealers with the oil tank and any wood will be cut up for firewood for next winter. by which time the plumber should have the quote at least!  Cant spend any longer than a week on this as it is the two youngest grandchildren's first birthdays in the following two weeks and we have parties to attend!


Friday 5 June 2015

Vegetabes developing well

The early areas of vegetables are developing well from the seeds sown fairly early.
Beetroot nearly ready for thinning (some baby ones for the pot), parsnips and carrots all filling out. We have put tagetes and onions along the carrot row to discourage the carrot fly - rather do that than have more sticks and net and string all over the place protecting the crop!

Further down bare earth is still visible between rows - but it has rained this morning and with some sun it should be a good growing day!
The swede is doing well despite early flea beetle attack but the turnips are patchy, I did re sow the row and the second lot are coming up well. More tagetes and then some celeraic - they are very slow growers!

Meanwhile, I have my spoon and cream ready in the kitchen for this first strawberry blushed with red in the poly-tunnel.
The first few pickings of beans, small cos lettuce and radishes (value £2) have not yet had much effect on the grocery spend but I am expecting a drop in the average £65 per week spend soon.


Wednesday 3 June 2015

Filling in some days

Been hiding from the wind for a couple of days and trying to stay calm as a family crises unfolded at the other end of the country. Eventually everything was resolved and the wind died down.  Not too much damage in the garden and had to spent a few hours tying up things.  The clematis blew off the garage roof again and buried the blackbird nests on the side.  My husband saw them trying to find more dried vegetation so thought they were mending their nest. He put some dried grasses on the flower bed, dug over some earth for them to find some worms and fed them extra meal worms! It was fairly quite this afternoon so we assume they had settled back on the nest. Meanwhile the starlings have fledged and are flying round in a group of 7 mobbing the bird feeder for seed.  Another blue tit fledgling got lost and spent an hour in the poly tunnel before my husband ushered it out towards the elderberry tree where the others are.

As I was hanging around the house I tackled some housekeeping jobs. The kitchen drain had not been checked  when we moved in so I was not surprised to find it needed the fat and gunge dug out. I try not to out fat down the sink and soak any oily or fatty deposits into kitchen towels and throw those into the bin but there was fair build up all the way down. I thought the drain grid was broken and had a new one to hand, but when I went to put it in I found the previous grid was deliberately "broken" as the pipe went below the grid. It is suppose to end just above the grid to stop the build up I had just dug out! Another job to cut the drain pipe at some point!

I then decided to clear some more drains with some hot water and soda crystals. Then keeping in the old fashioned theme cleaned the shower screen with a weak vinegar and water solution - it cuts through the soap scum build up nicely and leaves it shiny for some time!

Last task for the day was to start to tackle the white plastic window frame in the bedroom. At some point in the distant past someone must have left masking tape on it too long and painted very badly
I have experience with these frames! Our last house renovation needed all the frames to be rescued; one builder quoted £6000 to rip them all out - I spent £5 on cleaning materials and rescued all of them except 2. Armed with old fine sandpaper (you just need a slight key to break through the glue but not the plastic coating), a flat blade for any hard lumps, PVC restorer liquid and lots of rags. I set about cleaning off the flat bit of the frame for about an hour.

Still need to deal with the plastic beading on the side which is thick with emulsion paint but it is looking much better.

Better weather now promised so back out to help with the grass cutting and watering the vegetables! Phew - if I had stayed in any longer I might have to do the ironing!!!