Protected fruit

What do you think of my new fruit cage? It's great isn't it? My lovely Hubby built it over Easter, I'm really pleased with it. It's high enough for me to walk in and work in comfort, it pays to be small sometimes!

The bees can still get in through the mesh to pollinate the plants but the birds can't, so hopefully WE will get all of the fruit this year. 

I managed to get these photos in between the rain/hail showers today. I also managed to do a bit in the garden. I built the bean support using the trimmings from the Silver Birch which we felled earlier this year. Hopefully it stands up to the winds we get whipping through the garden, time will tell. 

I planted out the broad beans that have been ready to go out for a couple of weeks but the weather has played havoc with my planting plans. Talking of playing havoc- I was hoping to show you a couple of rows of Swiss Chard seedlings that had sprouted in the veg patch, but Hazel has been a bit of a pest lately. She keeps flying over her fencing when my back's turned and scratching all my seedlings up!Matilda watches her from the other side and shouts loudly until I come out of the house and put Hazel back in her coop. I don't know what to do about the situation at the minute because I don't want to have to keep them locked up, but I would like some veg!

Things are growing well in the greenhouse even though it's been so cold. I've potted on the Tomatoes,the Dahlias and the Cosmos. They are still only tiny but I don't heat the greenhouse and it has been incredibly cold and frosty, so they aren't doing too bad.

These teeny tiny seedlings are Nicotiana Sylvestris, and they will eventually grow into huge plants with white trumpet shaped flowers. They are beautiful and smell fab.

It always amazes me to see how small they are and how big they become, it doesn't seem possible as the seeds are so tiny.

The tatty, dead corner above has been transformed into this enormous empty space, with loads of growing potential.  

The shrubs and Pampas grass that were in there were killed by the bad weather last year and needed to come out, but it was such a big job that I got someone in to do it, and he had cleared it all in a morning. It would have taken me weeks, sometimes it wise to just pay someone to do the horrible jobs.  

Before I go I just wanted to show you my latest potato print picture that I got from the Country Living fair. I've already got three and I wasn't going to buy another one, but I fell in love with this little wren and I couldn't resist. He was made by Julia Burns who runs Red hen originals and is very talented, check out her website  sometime.

A catch up

Hazel finally laid her egg this week after 6 weeks of waiting and checking every morning. It was a bit of a performance. She kept escaping from their fenced off area and running behind the greenhouse into the wilder area of the garden.She seemed quite frantic and kept squeezing behind plant pots, I didn't want her to get into the habit of laying in the garden so I locked her in her coop and waited. I sat on the bench for about an hour like an expectant parent while a lot of banging and scrabbling went on. Eventually Matilda ambled over to the coop and stood outside calling encouragingly to her, and then she emerged triumphant and desperate to be let out. Squealing to myself (luckily there were no dog walkers passing by ) with excitement I opened the nestbox and there it was, a perfect egg.

What a clever girl.

It's a lot smaller than Matilda's as you can see but they always are when they first start laying.

Geo decided he was going to have it fried for his breakfast the next morning, which he did and declared it delicious. She will lay most days now maybe having one day off a week, their first year is the most prolific, she is likely to lay over 300 eggs! Phew. It's great to have our own eggs again and not rely on shop bought.

Things are romping away in the garden now after that week of hot sunny weather. There are 2 rows of peas under this netting, hard to distinguish from the self sown calendulas, but I will leave them there for now and let them flower only removing them if they get in the way.

I've popped some herbs into this veg bed this year, I usually edge it in Marigolds but the herbs don't do so well in pots so I've given them a permanent spot. The other veg bed isn't suitable as we have a bonfire on that every autumn and I would have to dig out the herbs.

I've been busy in the greenhouse sowing seeds. I did these this week, there are Cleome, Cosmos, Borage, Sunflowers and Clary sage,

and I did these a couple of weeks ago, more Cosmos, Dahlias and tomatoes,and they have already sprouted and are doing really well. The broad beans (in front of picture) will be planted out next week and covered with a fleece tunnel to keep any frost off. The sweetpeas (next to beans) have germinated fine, I never bother to soak them or nick the seed case with a knife like the books tell you to, there's no need really just sow them like they are and they will be ok. 

The rather dull, boring and overgrown border I showed you a while back has really come into its own now. The Daffodils are flowering and the Tulips are budding and all the Aquilegias are growing.

This Clematis has started sprouting, it will have lovely blue flowers. 

I've got loads of self seeded Forget me nots in the borders, I just pull them all up after flowering and every year up they pop again.

This Primrose is rather beautiful I think it is called Hose-in-hose,not sure will have to check.

My Alpine strawberries that I grew from seed last year have started to flower, looking forward to eating those ,we got a few fruits off them last year but hopefully we will have a better harvest this summer.

The Redcurrant leaves are starting to unfurl, we had a bumper crop last year and I have planted another one and another Blackcurrant. Now my fruit patch has extended I have decided to build a fruit cage to protect them from the pesky birds.For the last couple of years I have just covered each bush with netting, but the birds still manage to nick all the currants and it makes picking the remaining ones difficult. Hopefully Hubby is going to have a go at that next weekend, he has done the measuring, so we just need to get the wood and netting now. I will try and get photos of the progress but I'm guessing that I will get chased away!   

It has been so hot here this week and we have all been enjoying the welcome sunshine even Poppy and Daisy( couldn't entice Rosie out for a photocall) who have been moved outside now into their summer residence.

 Hope you have all had a good week. Back soon.

Flowers and plans

Just a quick post today to show you the beautiful flowers that Geo bought me for Mother's Day. It's the first time he's bought them himself. He is growing up too fast. He is staying at home this weekend entertaining the Grandparents, as we are off to London with good friends to visit the Country Living Show. So plenty of opportunities to purchase nice items, plus a visit to Loop may be on the cards. Hope you have a good weekend.

A Mother's day trip

Yesterday we ventured out to Harlow Carr, the RHS garden in Harrogate.It was my choice for my Mother's day treat and we were lucky as we managed to dodge the rain showers. The alpine house was full of colour.

This bug hotel looks like a 5 star residence for all types of creepy crawlies, unfortunately it is obviously too luxurious as they didn't want to come out for a photo.

I love to see a neat well prepared empty veg bed, so much promise of good things to come.

I do enjoy going to Harlow Carr and this time Geo decided he wanted to go off exploring on his own. He came back when coffee and cakes were mentioned and he was covered in mud, -don't ask! On the way home we stopped at Wetherby for a wander round and a spot of lunch, and Geo bought me a bouquet of flowers( which I have forgotten to take a picture of).

Inspired by my garden visit I have taken photos of my own garden before everything bursts into life. It looks very unkempt and overgrown but it wont take long to get it into shape. 

I have been cracking on with my African flower blanket and have started to join them together as I go along, I thought it was going to be difficult to do so I had opted for sewing them all together at the end, but I tried it and it was surprisingly easy so that's the way I'm going to do it.

And finally before I go I spotted this heart shaped scar on a tree yesterday and wanted to send it to my own special mum on mother's day, love you loads mum.xxx

An exciting delivery

We have been away for a few days and something exciting arrived in the post whilst we were away. Hubby was left to unload the car whilst I opened the package. Do you want to see what it was?

It's beautifully wrapped.

Ta- dah

Isn't it gorgeous? It's very colourful.

I ordered it from Julia Crossland a very talented artist who has done some fantastic work. I couldn't decide which print to go for as they all caught my eye. I thought this one was just right for Spring, I may indulge in another one or two in the coming months, luckily Hubby liked them all as well that there probably wont be much argument. Next job is to take it to the framers, while I'm there I will get my potato print owl done as well as it is sat patiently in the bedroom waiting to be properly displayed.

Did you spot the nice chicken jug?

I had a lovely day out in beautiful Southwell last week and treated myself to it. It's handmade by Racheal White in a little pottery shop in the town and decorated by her exclusively for an independent shop called The Henhouse. I thought it would come in useful to store my crochet hooks in. It lives on the mantelpiece in an arty way but Hubby is very aggrieved because he thinks his paintbrushes should be allowed up there and I completely disagree after all it's me that does the dusting and home making so the dirty, untidy brushes are banished to his untidy study.

A quick update from the coop, both Matilda and Hazel are now best of friends. Matilda has really picked up although she still isn't laying but her feathers are growing back and she's more interested in what is going on around her. Hazel hasn't started to lay yet but she is getting bossier and a bit harder to catch when she escapes from her run. Here they are sharing some melon, a little treat as we have been away and abandoned them ( they actually get spoilt rotten by the neighbours when we are away.)

Frosty morning

We woke up this morning to this white wintry scene. There had been an incredibly heavy hoar frost overnight. Absolutely everything was covered in beautiful ice crystals, so wrapped up warm ( it was -10) I dashed out to take loads of photos before it all melted. So take a look at Mother Nature at her most beautiful and delicate.

Stunning isn't it? Needless to say the chickens are not chuffed, it's far too cold and they won't come out.