Courgettes step 2

My Courgettes have been happily growing on the windowsill - now it's time to give them a pot each so they have more room to grow.


Basically almost fill a small flower pot with compost-make a well in the middle and transplant the seedling-be careful not to touch the roots too much-the less handling the better. Surround with soil and pat down. Then water.


I'm now going to leave mine in the greenhouse to get bigger and stronger before planting outside when all threat of frost has passed.


More on that when it happens.

Cranford has new beds!

At long last we now have fabulous raised beds in our own garden.


This weekend we shovelled 4 cubic meters of soil from the drive by wheelbarrow to the beds.


I bought blended soil and mushroom compost-it makes the soil perfect for vegetable growing.


A small patch of spare ground was looking a bit redundant so I've made a handy herb patch which is next to the kitchen door. I've planted: Parsley, Thyme, Oregano and Coriander.


The weather is looking pretty good-so if there is no frost due I'll think about getting my potatoes and onion sets in this week.


I've had a peep at the seeds I planted last week  and the Courgettes are just peeping through.


So exciting-I want the veg patch to be really abundant this year,I'm so looking forward to eating my own tasty vegetables again - roll on summer.

Planting Cucumber seeds

I've decided to do Cucumbers in the greenhouse again even though they were a bit pathetic last year-I think I got one fruit off each plant!


Alfie has helped me on this one-I'm planting 6 in individual pots-I probably only need about 3 but I always plant more than I need just in case some don't grow-and if they do I'll give them away as presents to my lovely friends!


So fill each pot with compost-make a hole with a pencil about 1/4" deep and pop the seed in. Cover over with soil and water gently-then label.


I've put mine in the office which is warm and light-then covered with cling film to make them extra cosy. They should come up in a week or so-keep moist but not saturated otherwise the seeds can rot.

That's it really-I'll move them out to the greenhouse when they are about 3" high.

Sowing some seeds

Today I planted the first seeds of the year!


I bought some nice big bags of compost and some new seed trays with lids.


I started by pouring my soil in and tamping down slightly. Then created a little groove to plant each row-one row at a time! Then labeled carefully-it's so easy to forget what you've planted. The best thing to do is read the plant packet to find out how deep to plant the seeds-the bigger the seed the deeper they go.


So today I put in about 5 varieties of tomatoes-always great to have a selection. Plus peppers, Chillis and Courgettes. Thought I had Cucumber seeds but couldn't find them so I'll have to get some more-then again I might not bother with cucumber-I only got a few last year, they were absolutely lovely though-nothing like the shop bought ones.


Once labeled I watered very gently then popped the lids on.


I've put them on the office windowsill in the house-They have everything they need: soil, water, warmth and light.


In a few weeks time I expect to see lots of little seedlings coming through-then it will be out to the greenhouse with them.

The greenhouse

Today is the day to sort out the greenhouse. It's looking a bit tired, full of cobwebs and things dumped in there over the winter.


I've also updated my garden diary-and have ended up with a list of things to do. What to plant, where and when.


My list has 5 headings:

1. Seeds to plant inside on a sunny windowsill - Tomatoes, Cucumber.


2. Things to plant in the greenhouse in seed trays - Courgettes, Beans, Broccoli.


3. Things to plant directly in the ground - Potatoes, Beetroot, Spring Onion, Peas, Radish, Spinach, Rocket, Lettuce, Salad leaves, Onion sets.


4. Things to sow directly into nice pots- Coriander, Basil, Parsley


5. Things to buy- Compost, Parsley seeds


I've written down next to each one when to plant it-so I know exactly what I'm doing and when.


This year I've ordered some new soil to fill my raised beds-this has mushroom compost in it and is perfect for growing vegetables. If I wasn't renewing my soil I would be digging in some well rotted manure from my friends horse or some chicken poo pellets from the garden centre.


My greenhouse soil is very tired-so I will need to dig this out and replace with some of the good soil. 

So my first job will be to plant tomtoes and cucumber seeds in trays and put them somewhere warm and bright-more of that in the next couple of days.

Perfect pancake mix

Ingredients for flipping marvelous pancakes

For the pancake mixture

• 110g plain flour, sifted
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 200ml milk mixed with 75ml water
• 50g/2oz butter

To serve

• caster sugar
• lemon juice
• lemon wedges
  
  
  Sift the flour and salt into a bowl then make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Begin whisking the eggs incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl.
  
  
  Add small quantities of the milk and water mixture then whisk once more until the batter is smooth.
  
  
  Now melt the 50g of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a cup and use it to grease the pan.
  
  
  Get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium. Use a ladle to pour into the hot pan.
  
  
   As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter.
  
  
  Flip the pancake over then once cooked slide it out of the pan onto a plate.
  
  
  Sprinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar.
  
  
  Alfie had-lemon and sugar, Nutella and sugar, lemon and Nutella, sugar and lemon and Nutella then to finish off - egg and ham.
  
  
  Ummmm...

Cotswold Farm Park-my second soap stockist.

I now have my second Easypeasy soap stockist!


I shall be delivering them on Tuesday. Very exciting!

Cotswold Farm Park LimitedCotswold Farm Park Limited Place page

Bemborough Farm
Kineton, Guiting Power, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 5UG

Chitting my potatoes

So today I was doing my favourite kind of shopping-seed potatoes and seed shopping with my dad.


I bought 2 varieties of potatoes-Romano (main crop) and Lady Crystl (first early). One is red and one is white-nice to have a variety. I've put them into an egg box - eye side up in a light but cool room to chit them-this encourages the potatoes to sprout and gets them into early growth.


I'll plant my early Lady Crystl first to get an earlier crop-once the soil has warmed up a bit, probably late March. I'll then plant my Romano main crop a few weeks later-so I have a longer eating season!

15 countries and counting....

...well I now have people from 15 countries viewing the blog! UK, US, China, Italy, Canada, Philipines, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Croatia, Austrailia and Russia!


It's great to think people from all parts of the world are taking a look. 


I'm going to buy all my seeds and get chitting my potatoes tomorrow so things should start getting more garden like!


See you tomorrow for a bit of garden talk.