How Does Your Garden Grow - Part 2

Ok, so admittedly there should have been another post before this but things have been ludicrously busy with our new business venture.

To begin with I had the strangest feeling that the seeds weren't going to grow or were going to be seriously slow...boy was I wrong.

Our parsley, coriander, onions and lettuce took on a life form of their own and began sprouting left, right and centre. Whilst the tomato plants equally we're really taking shape. 

When the weather perked up a bit I started putting them out during the day and bringing them back in for bed! Eventually we felt brave enough to plant them out.

Wow, our tomato plants have gone from strength to strength 

 The coriander is ready to be ised(and will be in tonight's salsa!)

As is the parsley

The lettuce will be ready in about 2 weeks

And the forgotten strawberry plants have made a welcome comeback!

The onions are doing their own thing and the chilli plant is yet to sprout but we do have basil and more parsley putting in an appearance

Overall I'm very pleased with how everything is growing so far and am on the look out for things we can still sow now.

How happy are you with your garden at the moment?

                             M xx

The Simple Life

On Friday we made our annual pilgrimage to Grays Pick Your Own Farm in Wokingham.

Since discovering this PYO farm by accident one day a few years ago it has been one of the days out the entire family looks forward to most during the summer holidays.

"Mum, can we have lunch now please?" Were the first words out of the children's mouths once we had arrived. So we set up our picnic right by the raspberry hedges and enjoyed a lovely lunch.

I felt like a kid in a candy store; raspberries, runner beans, blackcurrants, courgettes, marrows, sweetcorn, I couldn't wait to begin picking. I had no particular list but what I did have was hundreds of recipes running through my mind that would taste delicious with these fresh ingredients.

The kids had other ideas, raspberries, strawberries and sweetcorn was what they had their sights set on and between the 3 of them they filled their baskets to the brim.

It's so heartwarming to see their faces alight with real enjoyment without a computer game, arcade, mobile phone or amusement park in sight.

It's days like these that make me realise that our dream of moving out to the English countryside and becoming more self sufficient are not just dreams but a reality that we are working hard to achieve and as hard as it can be at times is definitely worth pursuing.

Until next time...

                            ...M xx