Early First Blackberries

Blackberry picking the first weekend of August in Yorkshire is unheard of, usually it's the bank holiday or even September before it's time for the first fruits.

Here's our first crop & the bush is heaving with green ones & more flowers.

Think it'll be a bumper harvest this year....

Where have I been?

I know it's been a very long time since I posted anything...apologies but it's been a very busy summer!!

We had a wonderful road & camping trip to the Black Forest in Germany to see my brother, sister-in-law & 3 nieces. The youngest nieces are twins that were born earlier in the year so it was our first time to meet them & have lots of cuddles. Plus my brother & his family hadn't yet met our youngest neither. We also became Godparents to the twins & had a lovely day with all the family at the Christening at a little chapel high in the mountains.

Heidelberg

Heidelberg

Black Forest

Only a few weeks after returning from our holiday my mum suddenly passed away, which was quite a shock for us all, but meant I was very pre-occupied with all the arrangements & grieving.

In memory of mum

August brought my return to work after nearly 7 months off, which has been a big adjustment for us all. 

Hence, I'm sure you can now understand  why the blog has been a little neglected. But I now have some wonderful new recipes to share with you, especially as we have now all become vegetarians I have even trying out lots of new foods & recipes.

Peas in a pod

Green tomatoes waiting to be made into chutney

On top of that I've been:

• Enjoying the garden & more recently harvesting
• Learning lots about essential oils & their benefit to health & wellbeing from my sister-in-law Maria in the Wood
• Started doing some Christmas crafts in preparation for December coming around much quicker than I'd like to admit! 
• Looking after my 2 gorgeous little boys  :)
• And a last minute camping trip to Northumberland enjoying the last of the summer sun in September.

Bamburgh in September

Garden Flourishing

Spring Seeds

This was my conservatory windowsill a week or so ago...

...lots of new growth and potential for the summer garden of 2016. Now, it is beginning to look a bit like a forest. I am looking forward to the end of this cold weather & the frosts to be able to begin planting out in the garden.

Back to the Garden

So, now spring is showing signs of springing I've been trying to get out to do some tidying up especially since the horrible wet weather hampered my attempts to clear some plants in the autumn. I want to grow a bit more this year so I have put in a new raised bed, with the help of my hubby who constructed it for me.

On these photos you can see still how wet the bottom of our garden is, it's a bit of a quagmire but can you see all the new raspberry shoots in the bed I put in last summer?

I can't wait to fill my beds with fine home grown produce.

:)

More Hogan Harvest

For my first year of gardening we have done quite well, we had lots of peas, we have quite a number of tomatoes, many are still green but here was my first red tomato.

I also have a toddler who arrives at my side regularly with a proud smile on his face and a handful of freshly picked green tomatoes, which he says are apples! So we shall see how many manage remain on the plant until they are red.

My herbs are doing really well after a slow start and I have started to use them in my cooking.

Do you remember the photos I posted of the basil in June (What's Wrong With My Basil?) well these are the same plants, you would never guess how healthy and green they could look after starting out in the garden so brown & yellow.

And this is my first red raspberry, which is a surprise as I only planted the canes this year and had read that it can take a few years for them to bare fruit. Well, we have a number of flowers and small fruits beginning to grow on the plants now, so we have done quite well with our first season.

The blackberries which have grown over from next door are also feeding us well, with 2 apple and blackberry crumbles made this week with the produce.

I am looking forward to trying some different plants and more of the same as well next year.

Peas in a Pod

My pea harvest has began, they're so beautifully sweet and succulent...

Also you remember the photos of the basil I posted a month ago What Is Wrong With My Basil? well . . . after moving the plants outside, removing the browned leaves and repotting them, the plants have sprouted some beautiful healthy green leaves which I am looking forward to using soon in my kitchen.

First fruits

Carrots

Red Strawberries

Peas

Peas

Green Tomatoes

What is wrong with my basil?

Ok, calling all fellow gardeners...

...what is wrong with my basil?

It had been in the conservatory & I wondered if the leaves were burning cos it was getting so hot in there with the beautiful weather so I put the plants outside and browning leaves appears to be getting worse. Is this some kind of basil disease?

My Growing Garden

My garden is growing, much to my delight!

Coriander

...I usually manage to kill plants but so far I am doing quite well with only a few casualities...

Spinach, Peas, Beans, Carrots and Raspberries

...a late frost caught some of my bean plants and also my tomatoes :( 

Blueberries

I also have some basil, parsley, more beans and tomatoes, a butternut squash plant and others still in my conservatory, waiting to be planted outside

Strawberries

I am looking forward to harvest :)

My First Raised Bed in the Garden

The weather has been glorious and it has been the holidays which means more time to spend in the garden.

I have been wanting a bed to grow some vegetables in this summer and seen as I had planted the seeds already and many were beginning to germinate I needed to find somewhere to plant them out. There was an area at the bottom of our lawn which was south facing and gets lots of sunlight, but it gets rather waterlogged in heavy rain and is full of weeds. A raised bed seemed to be the perfect idea for this area, to avoid the it becoming waterlogged. I knew that I did not have the time to build a permanent raised bed and then I saw this at Tong Garden Centre . . .

. . . it was the perfect solution to my problems. This afternoon was spent digging up the weeds and their roots and turning the soil in preparation for my raised bed - it was hard going but my little companion helped out by getting muddy and enjoying the taste of soil EUGH!

Once it was assembled and secured in the correct place we filled it with 3 bags of compost and watered it, although we're now hoping for some rain to water it more overnight. Once it has been adequately watered we will be ready to get planting :)

The completed bed (excuse the corrugated plastic my husband thought it might help collect water off the shed roof and channel it to my bed for watering purposes!)

The completed raised bed

Spring has Sprung in the Garden

Daffodils

Violas

Spring has finally sprung, which is allowing me to get out in the garden. This is the first spring I have lived in a house with a garden, so I am very excited about what we might grow this year. We visited the local garden centre a few weeks ago and I spent lots of my Christmas money on garden equipment including a raised bed, seeds and plants, etc (my husband says I can't go back for a while as I spent too much money!).

Carrots

I have planted:

• herb seeds - coriander, basil & parsley
• daffodils along the edge of my lawn
• blueberry bushes
• raspberry canes
• runner bean seeds
• pea seeds
• butternut squash seeds
• spinach seeds
• a tomato plant
• carrots
• violas

My windowsill

Many of the potted seeds are sat on my window sill in the conservatory whilst they germinate and I am really enjoying watching new shoots appear most days with the beautiful warm sunny weather we have been having. I cannot wait to get them planted outside especially if this beautiful weather continues.

Blueberry bush

Previously I have not been so successful at growing plants and keeping them alive so this year is my year to prove myself wrong and harvest bumper crops to feed the family!!!

Tomato 

Daffodil

Strawberry Harvest

Ok, so it's been a little quiet on the blog front - for which there are many, many reasons...

...but I'm back.

Do you remember I planted some strawberries & also some lavender...?

Well, my lavender was stolen just as it was coming beautifully into bloom   :(

But, my strawberries have done very well...

...although the squirrels and slugs also seem to enjoy eating them too!