The first mini forage..

This sudden snap of cold weather has reminded me not to get too over excited and impetuous in the garden , so we retreat back indoors under blankets and grab gardening books to read read and read some more ..we did however manage a quick run around the woods and grab a small handful of the first shoots of wild garlic to add to our soup ...come on Spring , we are waiting x

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Propagators..

We have purchased 4 propagator lids from Trago , dead cheap ,as my lovely little cheapy greenhouse has passed on to greenhouse heaven.. These sit on top of our trays in the new salad bar construction which in theory will start off some seeds for me in the next few weeks.. keep up the Spring type weather please ..  have only filled one at the moment with beetroot (boltardy) just to see if they germinate .. I hope so .. xx (oh and I have popped a brick on top in case of blowy weather )..

Wild Garlic time.. well nearly xx

We have a local woods that we go to , a lot, it's a calming kinda run free, cake yourself in mud type of place and just at the moment the wild garlic is starting to shoot up and there will be carpets of it .. I'm a keen , but not very knowledgeable Forager hence I have just signed up for a course in foraging once a month .. to learn about the free food around us .. On our walks to the woods I take a small basket with me and just grab a couple of handfuls .. It is so versatile (remember to wash it as doggies love to free wee) It can be used in salads , soups , stir fry , you name it .. More info here  and here.. Please remember to respect the Countryside and only take sufficient for you and never take off private land without permission x

Basil !!!!

I have planted some Basil in the kitchen in a wonderful pot that my step daughter made us .. Now , although I love Basil I have been put off it in the past because of it's smell , causing me to enter the kitchen and swear that a cat has peed somewhere !! but this year I'm going to ignore the smell as I love a pesto and it makes a wonderful addition to soups and salads.. It is a bit of a diva .. so may not be successful .. Find out more here ..

Three Sisters planting..

This is an idea that I came across on Pinterest (yes I'm addicted!) Its the Native American Indian Idea of companion planting . The beautiful beans climb up the tall canes of sweetcorn , using them as growing canes and the peas provide a living mulch around the bottom of the stems.. In the original three sisters , squash would also be planted in the tub but as I was over run by these last year I'm going to stick to the two and make the bean variety a bushier type .. I buy my seeds from here  and I'm looking at this sweetcorn variety and these beans , you will also need a large 50cm tub to grow these in and if you have any old pots laying around you can use them to line the bottom of your tub before the compost goes in ..Start the plants off under cover at the end of March or directly into the pot in May .. These plants when in the tub will need watering twice a day in hot weather  as they are thirsty blighters xx

Reflections on last year..

It was a terrible year weather wise so I'm hoping we will get a good year this year ..please? . We managed to grow lots of kale , before the butterflies came in .. and too many courgette/marrows/ huge footballs appeared in the garden , hiding under bushes and generally behaving in a triffid type manner, but we ate them and they were great . Thoughts now turn to this year and over the Christmas period I was inspired by this website .. What they achieved in a small garden was amazing .. and I started to make plans about maximising the use of space that we have even further .. My first plan was inspired by the chicken coop below .What if there was a way to incorporate storage areas with a growing space on top .. I drew rough plans and the Mr spent the next three weeks making the salad bar /bin store that now lives on one sunny wall of the house.

Inspiration..

The Front Garden

After such a successful first year , we then had a terrible following year , life got in the way , and with a small boy needing all my attention and more , seedlings died , plants got eaten and it just didn't happen , but with the following year brought plans to change our front garden , as I mention in the blog description , we live in a terraced house and , with the exception of a couple of like minded neighbours , most lawns are paved here , we had lawn and shrub , but the lawn was weedy and I felt it could work a little harder than that , also it gets full sun ( when we get some !) so off we went . ..

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more photos ..

So we had our circular lawn and our beds all done and then got planted and our first year was very abundant .. We had a beautiful summer and plenty to harvest ..(mother in law , was very impressed !)

Yes small.. very small..

When people say about gardening .. and utter the phrase .."Oh my garden is tiny , only to reveal that in fact it's mahoosive , I get a bit narked if I'm honest .. that's not small .. Our garden is small ..very small.

 We took the decision last year not to sell our house and move to the country .. Oh don't get me wrong ,we would love to but it isn't financially viable at the moment to do so .. So we decided we would turn our house into at least some way to producing veg to supply at the least a bit of food to our plates that we have grown ourselves and share our journey on the way xx

This was our courtyard and mid way .. 

Circular lawn space and raised bed going in .