A lazy day.. how pleasant it is to just 'hang out at home' with my mum.
She went to the allotments aka garden yesterday. It took her hours to get there, the tubes were up the swannee, the buses from Hammersmith were on divert because of an 'incident' with a jumbo sized crane on King Street and it started to rain as she was hoofing it to where the diverted buses were coming back onto the route.
But the thought of asparagus and other such delicious green things made her persevere and by the time she unlocked the street gate and walked down the steps.. eureka.. it was a sunny day!
The leggy beans have done nothing, nothing at all! Silly things, this means their days are numbered for we do not have space for vegetables that don't or won't grow properly.
She remembered (finally) to plant the Pink Fir Potatoes, how I wish she could put photos on to this blog of mine, for we have a photo of one of these cute potatoes which looks exactly like a dog! It had a head and four legs coming off a long body, we ate it. Tasty it was, too!
Finally, the asparagus is starting to grow properly, this year she is going to leave a few of the fatter stems to grow and set seed before the end of the season. Usually she cuts everything that grows for the six week cutting season but has noticed over the past two or three years that the yield is much less than it used to be.
So she will leave some and at the end of the year is going to do a thorough hand weed, she will feed the beds with a seaweed manure and then cover the beds with a thick layer of mulch, hoping to get it back to producing a better crop.
But there was enough, she picked some for us and some for Tereza and her girls who live on the top of our house, a bag of chard for us for the week and some fresh herbs to eat as salad.
She must have known that we wrote about her, for one of the two Syringa Vulgaris 'Sensation' trees is in bloom, her sister is still almost fast asleep!
A few sprigs of this beautiful lilac came home along with a spray or two of the Clematis Montana 'Mayleen', she is the colour of almond blossom and smells of almonds too. They went to Tereza to say "thank you for the gift of Japanese tea and the
fan" she sent us.
Today was a stay-at-home day as Senorita Fortuna had to be re-potted and the outside area washed and scrubbed. A large round pot, which will give her ample room to grow, was found underneath our steps, a new bag of potting compost with slow release fertiliser was opened and in she went. She will be pruned this week.
There was an extra bag of single freesias that had not been planted earlier so they have gone in all around our new little orange. She noticed with delight that another tall skinny freesia stem has sprouted from amongst a few rather tatty leaves, this makes three flower stems that are growing in amongst the Joro rose, it would be lovely if the freesias she planted today come up as they have the most glorious smell.
Steps scrubbed and washed, windows washed, the two old Calamondins that have never really grown very well, we see something is eating their leaves and they both look a bit sad.
They have now been moved away from little miss Fortuna and the three Calamondins that are doing so well. She saw blackfly on the new growth of the Calamondins and aphids on the Joro rose, so everyone has got a dose of bug killer.
Potassium and Nitrogen are all that are on this week's shopping list, we don't need anything except nuts for me, the allotments are giving us our 'daily greens & salad leaves', there is some meat in the frost cupboard (freezer).
She has to go to the surgery on Tuesday, there is something on her back which is not 'quite right', best to have it checked out.
Work on Wednesday, off to north London to see Carolyn, her lovely dressmaker, on Thursday so it looks like gardening tomorrow and Friday.
Housework.. huhhum.. still has to be finished and cousin Bruce is coming to stay in less than three weeks.. Gulp.. and it is all down to her because, as you all know, I don't 'do' housework.
Silly seedlings, I bet she wishes they would hurry up and grow. Then the room could go back to being a sitting room instead of miniature plant
production centre!
Yum. Steamed chard and spinach with freekeh for supper tonight. I love chard stems, they used to be called 'Poor Man's Asparagus'. It is very high in vitamin K and is as good as spinach for you, however, because of its' high oxalic content, it should not been eaten raw but steamed and served with lemon juice which stops the formation of harmful nitrosamines.
She has been idle (blog wise) with her nose in too many books, so this week we have not a post a day like before, I'll see what I can do to encourage her along a bit but a book and she are very hard to separate!
Thursday is May 1st! Aka May Day. We have our very own little Miss Lily of the Valley growing right outside our front door!
PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.
GeeGee Parrot.
April 27th, 2014.
She went to the allotments aka garden yesterday. It took her hours to get there, the tubes were up the swannee, the buses from Hammersmith were on divert because of an 'incident' with a jumbo sized crane on King Street and it started to rain as she was hoofing it to where the diverted buses were coming back onto the route.
But the thought of asparagus and other such delicious green things made her persevere and by the time she unlocked the street gate and walked down the steps.. eureka.. it was a sunny day!
The leggy beans have done nothing, nothing at all! Silly things, this means their days are numbered for we do not have space for vegetables that don't or won't grow properly.
She remembered (finally) to plant the Pink Fir Potatoes, how I wish she could put photos on to this blog of mine, for we have a photo of one of these cute potatoes which looks exactly like a dog! It had a head and four legs coming off a long body, we ate it. Tasty it was, too!
Finally, the asparagus is starting to grow properly, this year she is going to leave a few of the fatter stems to grow and set seed before the end of the season. Usually she cuts everything that grows for the six week cutting season but has noticed over the past two or three years that the yield is much less than it used to be.
So she will leave some and at the end of the year is going to do a thorough hand weed, she will feed the beds with a seaweed manure and then cover the beds with a thick layer of mulch, hoping to get it back to producing a better crop.
But there was enough, she picked some for us and some for Tereza and her girls who live on the top of our house, a bag of chard for us for the week and some fresh herbs to eat as salad.
She must have known that we wrote about her, for one of the two Syringa Vulgaris 'Sensation' trees is in bloom, her sister is still almost fast asleep!
A few sprigs of this beautiful lilac came home along with a spray or two of the Clematis Montana 'Mayleen', she is the colour of almond blossom and smells of almonds too. They went to Tereza to say "thank you for the gift of Japanese tea and the
fan" she sent us.
Today was a stay-at-home day as Senorita Fortuna had to be re-potted and the outside area washed and scrubbed. A large round pot, which will give her ample room to grow, was found underneath our steps, a new bag of potting compost with slow release fertiliser was opened and in she went. She will be pruned this week.
There was an extra bag of single freesias that had not been planted earlier so they have gone in all around our new little orange. She noticed with delight that another tall skinny freesia stem has sprouted from amongst a few rather tatty leaves, this makes three flower stems that are growing in amongst the Joro rose, it would be lovely if the freesias she planted today come up as they have the most glorious smell.
Steps scrubbed and washed, windows washed, the two old Calamondins that have never really grown very well, we see something is eating their leaves and they both look a bit sad.
They have now been moved away from little miss Fortuna and the three Calamondins that are doing so well. She saw blackfly on the new growth of the Calamondins and aphids on the Joro rose, so everyone has got a dose of bug killer.
Potassium and Nitrogen are all that are on this week's shopping list, we don't need anything except nuts for me, the allotments are giving us our 'daily greens & salad leaves', there is some meat in the frost cupboard (freezer).
She has to go to the surgery on Tuesday, there is something on her back which is not 'quite right', best to have it checked out.
Work on Wednesday, off to north London to see Carolyn, her lovely dressmaker, on Thursday so it looks like gardening tomorrow and Friday.
Housework.. huhhum.. still has to be finished and cousin Bruce is coming to stay in less than three weeks.. Gulp.. and it is all down to her because, as you all know, I don't 'do' housework.
Silly seedlings, I bet she wishes they would hurry up and grow. Then the room could go back to being a sitting room instead of miniature plant
production centre!
Yum. Steamed chard and spinach with freekeh for supper tonight. I love chard stems, they used to be called 'Poor Man's Asparagus'. It is very high in vitamin K and is as good as spinach for you, however, because of its' high oxalic content, it should not been eaten raw but steamed and served with lemon juice which stops the formation of harmful nitrosamines.
She has been idle (blog wise) with her nose in too many books, so this week we have not a post a day like before, I'll see what I can do to encourage her along a bit but a book and she are very hard to separate!
Thursday is May 1st! Aka May Day. We have our very own little Miss Lily of the Valley growing right outside our front door!
PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.
GeeGee Parrot.
April 27th, 2014.
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