Tingling the poppies

Georgi left poppies to grow round the rim of the veg patch.

Along comes this little darling

Tantalisingly humming and hovering above.

Just about to land

To tickle it’s way in.

Those little silver eggs underneath must be where the pollen is put.

Another bee was soon on the way (at one point there were 6 bees around these 3 poppies)

I made a little film with the digi too

Suck-singing tingling bees.

Crunchy Beetroot

We used up all our beetroot now (well almost, just a tidgy little un left)

Red as red can be. Deepest earthiest red.

I grated one beet into a salad with a carrot and sultanas.

You could dye your shirts with that!

It had a sharp crunch.

All hail to the kale

Did you know you can make a kale sandwich? We did.

You lightly steam the kale and stick mustard and balsamic vinegar and garlic on it (George added a sliver of mace too) then let it chill.

Pop it inside some pitta bread with pork and there you have it – yer kale sandwich.

There’s many interesting things you can do with kale. And we’ve got loads of it to eat up.

Kale soup or kale cake anybody?!

Sian and James had better watch out!

Spuds-u-love

A pot full of pots. Our very own.

There’s a kind of glee to digging up the plant and underneath are about 5,000 lovely spuds.

We ate them like this

With kale and green beans (they’re under the kale) from t’garden and creamy mushroomy chicken.

George loved those potatoes. They buttered in your mouth.

She saved hers till last.

Cauli’s are coming!

Georgi rang up excited – guess what?! – ” We’ve got a little cauliflower!!”

It doesn’t look like much, but to us it’s a little miracle!

We devoted the whole of row 6 to cauliflowers but they’ve been slow to grow. Maybe cus we didn’t plant them quite right (they like to be firmly bedded into compacted soil so that the roots can “take” – according to Georgi’s new Veggie Gardener book)

I’ve always been told that cauliflowers are buggers to grow – but if you can, that’s the sign you’re a proper gardener.

So we’ve got one tiny white head popped up so far.

We await the other little curds with bated breath.

Hotch potch of potpourri

I still call this the “herb circle” but it would be better to call it the “hotch potch” or the “potpourri”

Profuse with the scattered seeds of Kew Garden fragrant wild flowers.

As you can see it’s got runner beans too. And tomatoes going ” ballistic”.

(And there’s Sian’s little herb pot there)

Without any protection, fencing.

It’s just grown itself.

Done it’s own thang – gone whoosh!!

Packed full of goodies

The veg patch packed and stuffed with goodies.

Needing to be tidied up. Hoeing and pulling of weeds; the picking off of slugs.

Then you lob them high over the hedge. The little buggers.

They don’t seem to bother with this purple kale. Spectacular isn’t it?

(George likes looking at it more than eating it i suspect!)

The calabrese has recovered. There’ll be enough for a meal soon.

You lob butter on it.

Bedraggled Wild Garden

Here’s a couple of pics of the Wild Garden looking abit sorry for itself

Flopping over cus losing it’s strength I guess. Needing to be cut to renew vigour.

Get in there with the strimmer.

So i did.

But George had to stop me.

Too brutal and destructive.

Wild has lost its wonderful

George is saying that the long wavy grass is starting to look bedraggled.

A bit too wild.

Battered by rain and gales.

There’s a point when spontaneous flips over into chaos, when wild and wonderful starts to be more like pointless messy mess.

Seems like we’ve hit that point.

So strimmer needs to come to the rescue to cut the chaos back into shape.

Create order.

But not too much order.

We might have pictures to show soon.

Happiness is…..wherever you make it!

Someone rang today to ask about this house, as a swap… as i/we might be leaving….to go to devon and make veggies there! ….And then i come on here and see all our lovely lovely happy time spent in the wilds of the nesh end garden, growing veggies, flowers, wild parts and all the other miraculous things that go on right under our noses…….and how can i/we leave it!!! Do i/we want to leave it……oh my…its such a wonder of delightfull happenings and growth and pleasure.

But, wherever we be, there will be yet another ‘nesh end’ to love, cherish and nurture…!!! ….as we have loved this one.!