Lets Get Growing

Over the last few years I have tried to improve our front and back garden by growing flowers, fruit and vegetables by seed.  So far we have had mixed results but still love the challenge and achievement of being able to look at the things you've grown and know you've nurtured them from seed.  I took great pride in planting sun flower seeds last year with Nye and hoped to be able to show him the plant as it grew.  Unfortunately the gang of slugs and snails that live in our garden scuppered by plans but this year I am determined to win the battle.

Baby Nye's 1st Sunflower Seeds

This month Center Parcs sent all the family bloggers a pack of sunflower seeds to plant to get into the spring vibe.  As the end of the month nears, I have finally got round to planting up my seeds and I am hoping they will have sprouted by the end of the week.  I do love how the seeds discard their outer shell and twist up from the soil.  Sunflowers are actually one of my favourite flowers.  I even had them in my wedding bouquet.

Photography by Danielle Benbow

As I mentioned above I have had mixed results but here is a list of my top 5 plants to grow.  I can assure you  that if I have managed to keep these alive, you can too!  I buy most of my bulbs and seeds at £1 land and have found that they grow well but for more specific varieties (like purple sprouting broccolli) the garden center is probably your best bet.

Seeds starting to grow

1. Sweet Peas (Sow Seeds March - April)
2. Purple Sprouting Broccoli (Sow Seeds March - June)
3. Daffodils (Plant Bulbs October - December)
4. Gladioli (Plant Bulbs March - April)
5. Tomatoes (Sow Seeds March - April)

DISCLOSURE - I am writing this post as part of my role as Center Parcs Family Blogger. To be in with the chance to become one yourself and win a short break to a Center Parcs Village of your choice,  share your gardening experiences on your blog and tweet us a link to it.  You can take a series of pictures of your family sowing seeds or making plant pots or, simply write about the experience and share your gardening tips with other families. Be sure to include the Center Parcs and Tots 100 handles in your tweet, as well as the #CPFamilyBreaks hashtag.

Please find the full terms and conditions for the challenge here, and do make sure to be careful when handling certain plants if you are prone to allergies.

Good Luck!

Plants I've managed not to kill

Plants I've managed not to kill by jenni-clutten on polyvore.com

Z Gallerie - Phalaenopsis Orchid - white Set of 3
$57 - zgallerie.com

Gardening Beginner

I am somewhat of a newcomer to this gardening malarkey. I've been giving it a bit of a go for the last few years with mixed results. However, now I'm at home looking after Nye all day I notice the front garden that is persistently riddled with weeds and I've been slowly doing my best to add flowers and herbs when I can.

Money is obviously a deciding factor when it comes to making changes and limits being able to immediately make it look fit to burst with colour and foliage.  I have made some rookie errors mind you. Firstly, those of us who are not natural gardeners should steer clear of the clearance section where plants are past their best.  Whatever the discount, planting unhealthy plants that immediately die doesn't do much for ones confidence.

This post has been a long time coming as I fail to take photos which really capture how much it has already altered but there is still a long way to go! Here we are back in the day, June 2010 when we bought our first house.

DIY King and Queen

Well, good evening and happy weekend!  I barely know where to start to describe the mind numbing amount of work we have been able to get done this weekend. And now, 2 major things down on our list of things to do before the baby arrives. Yipeee

So, the major thing to get done this weekend was our poor flat roof extension repair.  When we first bought the house we were told it needed to be repaired in the survey of the property but alas it wasn't an 'essential' (comes well below house insurance that's for sure.)  We were given a quote of near £500 to have it re-felted and it has obviously since then (a year has passed) deteriorated some more.  So let's just say by yesterday it was looking like this:

And here's what we uncovered once we returned from Wickes with the new wood for the edges.

The photo just above was actually taken this morning around 9am but it shows the thoroughly rotten floorboard that we found in the middle. EEEK! But Neil was fully prepared to head off to Wickes last night at 7.30pm to pick up a final plank so we could do a proper repair.

Here he is working late last night whilst I pottered around with the lawn mower.  

I have to admit it has been somewhat interesting listening to him banging around up there with me banished to the ground due to pregnancy related risks associated with climbing big ladders.  Although I should point out that as I was leaning on our garden table taking measurements yesterday I managed to completely break the table and fell on bum! (I swear I am not a pregnant wale!!!) So really even a metre off the ground is dangerous enough for me.

Now whilst Neil was sizing up our roof repair I got to finally take a wire brush to our back garden wall.  We are in the strange position of being completely surrounded by walls but yet also living in an open area surround by acres of grassland. But I think it's clear to say that peeling paint across the whole of the back of the garden is a good look for no-one!

So after a quick wire brush of all the peeling paint I took to my tools!

We first saw this purple paint about a month ago and both really loved it and finally took the plunge yesterday.  I have to admit as painted the first bit I was somewhat alarmed by the colour as it's the first thing that hits you as soon as you open the back door.  But as I continued it really changed the garden from looking a bit neglected to looking like we were trying to make it look nice.

There's obviously still plenty to do in terms of the actual planting of the garden but here we have a nice shot of colour.

And the finished rooftop taken from the nursery window, look at those neat and dry corners.  And with that all finished by lunch time we headed to the tip with the broken garden table and old roof felt before heading to our local pub for roast dinner. 

(Hard working toes, yuck)

Lovely grub! (And now back to Downton Abbey)

It's been too long

Wow, I don't know what happened there! I was away far too long, I think I was sick and feeling sorry for myself.

I want to say not a lot has happened but we are about to embark on big changes as Neil is currently packing his bags to head off for 6 weeks on his Teach First training programme.  I have put off thinking about it because if I think about it I know I will feel so lonely.  Neil does so much for me and it seems quite overwhelming to have to do everything for myself (Lol, I sound so pathetic I don't know when my independent woman attitude went out the window.  Maybe it was when I got a doting husband.)

In any case I know I will survive and that it will be worth it, he's actually only staying in London but it doesn't make much difference as I won't be able to see him as he'll have so much work to be doing.  He is hoping to keep Saturdays free though so maybe we can have some adventures then.

I'm making a promise to myself that I will keep the house really tidy and try and actually sort it out better than it is now. (These promises don't usually mean anything as I am a terrible at policing myself but great at telling other people what to do...!!)  But I would love to surprise Neil as I'm, sure he thinks the house will be a slum by the time he gets back as he does all the hoovering and the kitchen deep cleaning.

Yesterday I started to tackle the Garden which honestly was looking like a complete wilderness after all the rain and lack of lawn trimming.  The dog was too scared to walk on it for fear of not making it back to dry land I think!  In any case I've made a good start with the strimmer, I'll leave it a few days (or more likely a week) and go over it with the lawn mower and it should all look nicely spick and span.  Of course the weeds are also taking over the veg patches and needs to be sorted quick sharp.  This afternoon may call for something like a general tidy up and then a nice relaxing bath, sounds good to me.  I'll be right out after my baked potato is in my belly.

In other news I spent a lovely Sunday last week with the lovely Nicola where we went to see a comedy at The Underbelly on the Southbank. I found it strange that it was so overwhelmingly busy but had a really good time.  And, the very thoughtful Nicola gave Neil and I some amazing pregnancy gifts, a wonderful moleskin baby journal and some home made ginger biscuits which I had already started by the train home.

Garden Upkeep

As I disclosed earlier in the week, our garden looked a bit like a bramble hedge row when we first bought the house.  But, as previous occupants of a damp 2 bed basement flat we were pretty chuffed to have even a tiny bit of grass that we glossed over it for some time, dreaming of one day having a cute little courtyard garden.

Since last June we've gradually we've tended to it's needs, with Neil and I both learning that gardening is a joy. I think we've now realised just how rewarding it is, if a little time consuming.  But, it happy makes us both so happy.  I have to admit, even weeding seems like escapism these days!

I should add that the kitchen unit and the front loader are of our own fly tipping, we've since taken the excess junk to the tip and moved the loader to the side (we're still in need of a 1/2 shed).  So anyway, since the beginning I cut back and bagged up the brambles, then Neil removed the wood bark and laid some grass seed.  In a way, because the garden is so small it makes the jobs smaller and more manageable.

Here I am reclining stage 1, it still looks a bit rough and ready,  but I remember being very impressed with myself for clearing all those pesky weeds. Please ignore the poor photos, it was a grim day and these were the best available from my iphone!

So anyway, after that was done and the weather was a bit less grim the grass grew rather promisingly and it actually started to look like a garden.  As you can see we even purchased a table and some chairs courtesy of B&Q, naturally we bought them in winter in the sale. (This is actually a picture from this April but it shows that we now have grass where there once was brown rubbish!)  As the weather has remained dry, it's getting a bit patchy so we'll need to attend to that in the next few weeks.

The other issue we've had to tackle is the flower bed that runs along the whole side of the house as we are fortunate to live in a light and airy end terrace.  The bed itself has been full of god knows what, some of it seems to have been planted deliberately, there was a rose bush and we've had a few daffodils appear.  I say 'was' in the case of the rose because according to Neil thorny plants with flowers are 'weeds' and it died a quick death.  Please note, he did buy we a replacement so don't feel *too* sorry for me!

But, I am pleased to say that this weekend and last weekend I have made a concerted effort to tidy up the side of the house as a lot of it was just in need of a good sweep.  It has been strimmed on numerous occasions but it always regrows back in no time and really needed some time spent on it.  I've thrown in some pictures of our lovely veg for good measure.  I took the pictures last weekend and looking back the beds seem like they need a good weed. (Which it has had since).  Anyway, looking back I'm pleased with the transformation none the less!

Neil's Brocolli finally replanted in the ground

The random pea

BEAUTIFUL garlic

Slightly too fertile carrots

Pound lands finest shallots

And finally here's my little helper being cute. This is her spot on the top of the arm chair so she can keep an eye on me from the comfort of the house.