Note to self – Use warmth in the frame – like I tell everyone that visits the shows!

 So I have grown some chillies this year from seed, and bought some baby plants, and last week I bought a large chilli from Sainsburys from their living herb section.

 My Brother in law Andy is, in my opinion a very well respected and accomplished gardener.  I look upon him with admiration at his experience and superior knowledge to mine.

 He visited last weekend and I seized the time to ask him to look at my tomatoes and chillies!

 The advice I had been given last year was to keep my chilli plants restricted in smaller pots as they don’t like to be in big pots.  But I’m thinking I had taken that advice too much to heart. 

 Andy said that his chilli plants were in much bigger pots than mine and doing well. 

 So I have re-potted them.  He also said he sits the pots on sand and doesn’t over water them.  So I have put mine into 4’ X 4’ frame on top of the soil.

 They do look happy and I have picked some red fierce chillies this morning.

 Lesson learnt – I really don’t know, but listen to the people you know who know more than you.

 The really lovely thing Andy did say is that he also makes lots of mistakes and no-one is perfect!  That’s alright then!

 I spent some time looking at herb garden ideas at Chelsea Flower Show last year and Harrogate show this year, and wanted to make a herb bed, but without spending a fortune on plants.

 I had looked at the ornate patterned ideas, but I’m not really an ornate sort of person.  More the ‘that looks nice lets have a go’ person!

 Last Autumn I planted in a 1’ by 4’ strip a bad of red onion sets.  This was before I had properly decided what to do with the bed.

 Then I dug up some chives from the other raised bed, split them and made a row of chives on one side.  THEN! Big surprise, some potatoes started to grow in a square foot that I had used for potatoes last year!  I haven’t the heart to dig them up, they might be fantastic this year, can you see that by now I have no hope of a pattern here!

 So I went to the garden centre to see what was on offer, bearing in mind what herbs I want to use for cooking and what look nice and what will attract bees etc.

 So here it is, costing me £30 so far.  A mish mash of colour, smells, textures and hap hazardness that suits me!

 Top row left to right red onion.

Down left side chives in flower, right side new chives, different variety, still to flower.

Centre a purple herb given to me by a friend, thank you Bob! The name will need to be googled for you.

Front row red rambling thyme.

Behind the thyme is lavender Munster and a variegated thyme. Also in the middle, common thyme and a small Rosemary.

I can see that this relaxed attitude might annoy some gardeners.  Please try to resist getting angry with me.  I’m enjoying my relaxed no stress stance this year.  I’m just glad to be out there pottering and admiring the small wonders in my garden.

I want it to evolve and change, but am really excited at how lovely it looks, in its own way.

But when?  That is my problem.  I’ve watched  ’Jamie Olivers 30 minute meals’ programme.  I know he grows his own vegetables, but this programme showed how to cook good meals in minutes without compromising on taste, when time is short.

I thought my raised beds that are right outside my dining room and kitchen are in the perfect site for me to run out and pick something for dinner.  So I have tried to adopt the ‘I have five minutes to spare’ mentality and do a little bit of gardening in a spare moment of the day.

That includes not worrying about sowing seeds, when the garden centres and shops have plants ready to plant!  I was given a couple of trays of ‘living salad’ from Sainsburys and I have planted them in the 4′ X 4′ raised bed with a frame on top and have literally run out with my bread and butter and ham and cut some leaves and put them straight into my sandwich!  You can’t get fresher than that!

Also, my strawberries that I planted during my first year of using the raised beds and already supplied the most fantastic amount of huge red strawberries.  I hope I never get sick and tired of running out to the frame and eating huge ripe strawberries straight from the frame.  How fortunate am I?

I had a friend visit for a coffee the other day, whilst showing her around the garden, I lifted the cover to show her my tiny asparagus and to my utter shock found the 3” spears were now a towering 12” and looking very spindly!  Maybe they do grow that fast!!

So I had better find one of those asparagus cutters now and start to take this plant a little more serious.  I really will be having asparagus and pancetta grilled on my barbeque on the long summer evenings.

Because I have decided to sow in rows of 4’ this year instead of square feet, I thought it would be handy to measure out the seeds correctly.  A girlie excuse I can hear some men saying!

I used my plastic cover over the cloches to warm up the raised bed ready for sowing.  When I lifted the cover on a warm March morning the warmth drifted out into the chilly morning air.  I was so glad I had got this cover to use.

I decided to sow some spinach next to the Asparagus.  Using the stick as a guide it said to space the spinach 6” apart.  I check the packet of seeds and was pleased to see that the packet said the same.  Saving any confusion on my part.  I sowed three seeds in the row.  This didn’t sound like very many I thought, but plan to sow a couple more rows at 2 weekly intervals spreading the cropping season.

At the other end of the raised bed, next to the hoops used for the net cover I decided to sow ‘Sugar Snap Peas’ called ‘Sugar Ann’.

I had grown them last year and they were lovely.  This time the stick and packet said 2” apart.  Again, I will sow more of these in a couple of weeks time.

But once the sun came out and Mark mowed the lawn, I could smell spring in the air and I got up from my comfy chair and look at the ‘Marshall’s catalogue’ for inspiration.

With the raised beds weeded and the sun shining into my mini greenhouses warming them up, I decided to ‘get cracking’ again.

I’ve decided this year to have colour and to grow what I like to eat.  It’s ok having 10 tons of courgettes if you intend to eat 10 tons, but I don’t.  After one or two, I’ve had enough of them.

So this year I am growing more chillies, sugar snap peas, dwarf beans and lots and lots of different salads.

Asparagus is another plan to try and I’ll get back to you on that one in a few days.  I’m wondering if I have already made a mistake there – but time will tell.

So, I hope you will come on my journey with me this year, it was lovely to have so many of you making comments last year.  My Brother Simon, I’m sure will be making me laugh along the way.

Happy gardening.

Anne.

It was lovely to meet lots of fellow copper tool users who have had amazing results using copper tools and as I listened to Jane explain why she thinks they work so well, I learned so much. She talked about having iron tools that are always in a state of degeneration whereas copper tools are not. Better to use a product that is helping to put copper back into the ground and sweeten the water to help your plants to grow.

A lovely gentleman came along and chatted to me. He explained that his name was Charles and he is Joe Swifts ‘mentor’. Joe is one of the presenters of BBC’s ‘Gardeners World’. He said that he had won many prizes for his vegetables and especially tomatoes…..my ears pricked up!

‘I have had a terrible problem with caterpillars on my tomatoe plants’ I explained. He knew all about this problem and has had it himself in the past. They are from the ‘Slate backed moth’ and because of their colouring, are almost impossible to see in your greenhouse. He said you have to shine a strong torch into the greenhouse and you may see them. Shake the plants and watch the caterpillars drop off – then remove them to somewhere that they can’t get back onto your tomatoes. I tried spraying mine with washing up liquid solution, and although it seemed to get rid of the caterpillars, the tomatoes didn’t like this being done to them and some of them discoloured and didn’t look too appetising.

With the ones that were ok, I made ‘fresh and sun dried tomato chutney – with a few chillies – just to make it interesting! This recipe will follow.

Happy gardening.

Katie witnessed one of the Daves jumping from the roof of the hen house, which isn’t very far from the ground. Then immediately started to hop! Keeping one leg firmly tucked into her feathery under carriage!

Katie came rushing in asking me to come and look as she was worried about it.

There was a dilemma. Should I take this chicken to the vet and would the shock of the experience kill her or the bill kill me! Is the experience of jumping off the hen house and hopping going to kill her? Is she in pain, and do I need to do something about her? Decisions, decisions.

I didn’t want to over react if she was just resting her leg and would be fine again, nor did I want her to be suffering.

Judging how the other Dave had been when all her feathers dropped out, this Dave seemed very happy to be hopping. The other Dave looked very sorry for herself – featherless. This Dave uses her wing to balance and can get about and eat as normal.

So we have left her to hop, keeping a close eye on her. I spoke to my friend that I bought the chickens from who assured me that if a chicken feels ill or is in pain, they tend to drop dead! And that her leg should mend itself in time and with rest.

Have you ever tried to make a chicken rest? I couldn’t even begin to think how this should be done. They seem to have a pretty cushy life already in my opinion.

Well the good news is that after about 10 days, Dave is now walking on both legs with a gentle limp. As if she has had a couple too many if you know what I mean?!

So she lives to lay another day and is still enjoying her life in Crick.

2lb fresh tomatoes – skinned.

2 table spoons olive oil

3 medium size onions

2 or 3 cloves garlic

12 leaves of fresh basil

A wedge of fresh parmesan

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons Crème fraiche

• Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for a minute and peel off the skins.
• Peel the onions and garlic – chop finely and sauté in the oil until soft.
• Add the tomatoes that have been chopped, saving a couple of tomatoes to one side for later.
• Add the basil, salt and pepper and simmer on a low heat for 1 ½ hours until the liquid has reduced and it looks thick and not watery.  Then add the other tomatoes you had saved.  You can grate some parmesan in at this stage if you want to.

• Just before serving, add the crème fraiche and stir in.  Allow to heat up again and serve on the pasta of your choice.  Grate with parmesan and sprinkle torn basil to serve.

If chillis were ready, I would have added a chilli to make it a bit more interesting!

I think some crispy streaky bacon added would also be nice.

So with a hot mug of coffee in hand and not a child in the house washed!  I sat down with my ‘Marhsalls’ catalogue and read the heading ‘keep on sowing, keep on growing’.

Having picking and pickling in the forefront of my mind, it’s easy for me to forget that this food will all be over soon and I have to get cracking if I’m to enjoy anything more than lettuce this Christmas!

I had coffee with a friend the other day who was making a salad sandwich.  As I watched she sliced up a Chinese lettuce and I thought it’s been years since I had one of those, and they are delicious!

Jamie Oliver cooked fresh tuna on tv last night and served pak choi – another veg I like but have never grown – can you see where I’m heading here?

So, I have just ordered;

• Pack Choi – Green Revolution
• Chinese Broccoli – Kailaan
• Baby chinese cabbage – Wa Wa Sai
• Cavolo de Nero – Kale
• Carrot – Marion F1
• Pea – Douce Provence

That should keep me busy and get my raised beds nicely stocked with some items that will cheer up a dark night with a bit of a Chinese theme and some good old british veg to go with a casserole or roast dinner.

Lets hope autumn isn’t here yet with the Bank Holiday approaching, but changing to warming autumn dinners is something to look forward to.