Garden Blogs

Hello again! Just back from super camping holiday at the Lizard in Cornwall - glorious weather, lots of walking, eating & drinking, definitely the life! Lots of spying on other peoples’ veg patches as well, starting to become a bit obsessed I think! Anyway, back to the real world (ahhhhh!!!!!!) - but back in the garden & it’s a wonder what a week can do! Everything has grown - that includes the bindweed unfortunately, & doesn’t include those pesky carrots, whose numbers are now down to twelve, which is about a weeks supply at the rate we eat them! But the toms are coming on nicely, the beans are well up their poles & the squashes have got baby squashes - I am very, very excited! Weather was nice enough on Saturday night to continue our outdoor eating theme, so we barbequed some steaks on the fire pit. We made the firepit ourselves out of some old night storage heater bricks, upended in a vague circle, surrounded them with rockery stone & have decorated them with shells that we’ve picked up on our travels to make it look pretty. The grill is made out of an old oven shelf, with an old microwave trivet wired to it. & it works! & it’s also portable - if we get bored of it where it is we just dismantle it & reassemble it somewhere else… I spent Sunday chilling - have planted out a few more purple sprouting broccoli, chatted to the leeks (still some way off the “pencil thickness” they need to achieve before I plant them out - I think I’ll pop them where the carrots were!) A few strawberries had ripened while we were away, & also the gooseberries on our one & only gooseberry bush. Not enough of either to do much with really, so I made Gooseberry, Strawberry & Elderflower jam. The strawberries add a nice colour & sweetness to the gooseberries, & the elderflower gives it a bit of that beautiful summer fragrance - lush!!!! Only enough for one jar, but I had it for tea on homemade scones (thanks to Jo at Henry’s Campsite) & some Cornish clotted cream & it was like being in an Enid Blyton book! I also made Caramelized Onion Marmalade from some of the onions I harvested last week - which caramelized a bit much I think, I’m not sure we’ll ever get it out of the jar! There’s no two ways about it, my cooking is very hit & miss….! Back to work today, complete nightmare….. Thank goodness the beardy weirdy had a glass of wine ready for my return….