Spring Gardening

With no allotment to fret over, my garden is in much better shape this year (as is my house but that's another story). Although it's been wet and chilly over Easter, the rain is good for the plants and they are growing well, although I'm banking on the walled south facing garden providing some protection from any late frosts. 

French beans are growing well against the wall and the courgettes, rainbow chard, mizuna, spinach and amaranthus look bright and healthy amongst the flowers. Peas, wild rocket and a multitude of different lettuces are sprouting in pots (I'm only growing the peas for their shoots so the pots are tightly packed). 

My two fig trees are showing signs of fruit that will hopefully ripen late summer and my little kiwi vine is holding up well against the slugs and snails (most of which I think are coming over the wall from the neighbours as my nightly collection of these gastropods must surely have decimated the population by now). The tomatoes, pumpkins and cape gooseberry plants need a little longer in the warmth of our new conservatory and within a couple of weeks I hope to plant up a large pot with fennel seeds. Hopefully, I'll be able to sit outside in the warmer summer evenings with a glass of vino in hand and pluck my dinner from amongst the flower borders, which is very much more the type of gardening I'm aiming for rather than the blood, sweat and tears that went into keeping the allotment shipshape.

There are a few clumps of flowers dotted amongst the vegetables, including this very pretty viola, which looks like it's been splattered with ink. Whilst it's been raining I have finished knitting a cardigan which has been languishing untouched for a number of years, made a shawl from odd balls of wool and have started a new project using recycled sari silk, as well as catching up on long neglected DIY projects (book shelves on the landing so we can finally empty the boxes we moved here with and actually hanging some of the many pictures we have on the wall as well as the constant repair work that comes with a rather old house). With a little more organisation in place I have time to plan some recipes for future posts for which I hope to feature some local produce, so please pop back over the next few months.