Picture Update~ Grow your Own

Hello my patient fellow bloggers.. I am currently over this weekend working my way around to those who have left me such thoughtful responses over the last few weeks..  As I endeavour to catch up with many of your posts..  

How is your Summer going?

Mine has been very productive as well as restful in-between gardening, I have been resting, reading, oh and I finished off a knitting project also. And of course I have been keeping my eye on the ball in Wimbledon as the Tennis Season is in full swing.

I am learning to self Nurture!

I knitted this little Bolero too which is for a 3 to 6 mth old. It didn’t take long to make.

 You can find out more of what I have been up to when you click this next photo below of some of my harvest and other crops that are growing. 

It will take you to Dreamwalker’s Garden 

Harvesting Dinner

Enjoy your weekend 

And take care of each other

Love and Blessings 

~Sue~

One Potato ~ Two Potato

My Granddaughter showing the first lifted New Potatoes

I Promised I would update you on how the Allotments were growing.. All is coming along nicely. And as you can see, one little girl was delighted to collect the first dug new potatoes and bag them for dinner. 

Brassica Family and Dwarf beans. Curly Kale.

Everything is growing well now.. its just a matter of keeping the weeds down

More photos can be found in the gallery Here  on the Update of what else is growing in Dreamwalker’s Garden update. 

Oh and remember our little friend who came to visit and then disappeared some time ago.. Well he was back today. I managed to sneak up on him the second time.. The first time I saw him I walked right under the hanging nut feeder this morning as its positioned under an arch of trees where he was doing his balancing act .. I glanced up and I do not know who jumped first, me or the mouse.. As he jumped back into the conifer hedge. 🙂 I waited a while and he came out again. This time I crept up and he tolerated me and I snapped this picture  until I got too close  then he disappeared again into the hedge. 

He was as curious about me as I was about him. My little friend is back

Have a wonderful weekend all of you.

Blessings

Sue

 

Autumn Up date of Allotments ~ Grow your Own.

The weather here in the UK has taken a turn for the worse as Autumn is making her presence known. Last week we were basking in glorious Sun of temperatures in the 20’C  and this week its plummeted to average of around 14’C  going even colder at night.. So the jumpers are back on and the stew pot of veggies have been on the menu.   The weather really turned for the worse for those living just a few miles down the road from us.. As a Mini Twister tore roofs off homes in the Derbyshire town of Alfreton.  To see pictures of the damage caused the link is here....     These types of ‘Twisters’ are unusual in the UK..  We have been busy getting the allotments sorted and storing and freezing.. So lots have kept us busy. Below is a picture update.. 

The Allotments in October 2014 in Picture Format . 

Long view, Hubby walking towards the Sheds

 

Fruit Bushes, Black and Red currant and Raspberries, this is the view from the sheds looking back up the garden.

Leeks and Red onions. Freshly weeded and raked. by Muwwwww.

Butternut Squash, we have now gathered in.. And stored, Frozen some in cubes… Comes in handy for cooking that way

Parsnips and Purple sprouting Broccoli. These will be our over winter greens and veggies…

Brassica’s Curly Kale, Swiss Chard.. Enjoy your Greens.. They are good for you

Didn’t We weed Well! 

This is a new piece dug over next to the strawberry bed.. We are intending to plant some apple and pear trees along here.

At the Back of the shed the old rubbish heap is going to be levelled. This is where we intend to grow our Butternut squash next year. As the allotment next to us just put his squash on old soil and left them.. They were 3 sizes bigger than ours.. So here they will have room to spread out to their hearts content 🙂

 

Here is just some of the Garlic we harvested .

And for anyone wanting a Wonderful Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe.. Then you can find one I baked and demolished earlier

Here..

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Every Picture tells a Story..~Grow Your Own Update.

Not so many words in this post but A picture Update to how the allotment is growing.. Our Granddaughter is enjoying herself digging and finding worms and treasure.. Wearing her Granddad’s hat.

 

Here she is using the hoe to weed, with Granddad mowing the boarder verges in the background.. She is learning fast and so loves being connected to the Earth she sings all the time..

 

 

OK so the rest of the Pictures will be in the slide show with captions to inform you what is growing in July.. Have a beautiful Weekend and wishing you all a Happy Summer.. Enjoy and remember to Love one another

Click onto the photo’s to take you to an enlarged view within the slide show..

Me busy weeding… A great way to unwind and let the stresses of the world pass you by..

We replanted from cuttings last year and had some Raspberries given us by another generous allotment holder who was thinning theirs down… I think we will get more next year, but this is an early crop, we have others in flower for later crops in the autumn..

Picking the strawberries… getting to them before the slugs and snails do is a race… so I am picking when they are just under ripe and ripening in the kitchen window..

These hungry little snails and slugs are having a feast with our Strawberries, its a case of who gets their first eats. 🙂

6 rows of main crop of potatoes and 2 rows of earlies… we are already half way down our earlies, they are delicious ..

Peas coming into full pod,… and Butternut Squash.. This is the first year we have grown this squash, it has yet to flower, but its looking strong and healthy..

To the left you can see some of the outdoor tomato plants.. We have more in a covered large cold frame near the shed and in the greenhouse at home…

Cabbages laced with Marigolds… Last year we were inundated with white fly.. This year fingers crossed the marigolds seem to be working.. as its said their odour deters certain insects…

Kidney Beans and Beetroot .. Love Beetroot.. makes a great smoothie in the morning with apple juice..

A long view of the allotments.. Hubby walking down to shed..

Sweetcorn, Leeks to the right of it.. Onions in the foreground.

Take a break~ Smile you’re on camera….

 

 

Progress ~ Grow your Own..With Recipes

After 4 days and 3 nights of constant rain and cool winds, the Sun is now shining and so I went to the allotment with my Camera to show you how things are progressing.

Its amazing what some rain can do and then some warm sun, how it brings things along.. You wouldn’t think how in a matter of 2 weeks how things alter and grow..  Below was the peas and potatoes two weeks ago.

Now look at them… You can also see we have added French Beans and between the cloches are Courgettes, Also Runner Beans and sweet-corn. 

.

You can see my Hubby in the distance busy at work. I went into the allotments Sunday afternoon, and weeded out the Strawberry Beds and put straw around them to help protect the fruits from the soil when it rains so hard… Last year we didn’t have many fruits as these were only young plants that I had replanted from new shoots. But I was disappointed at how many had got spoiled with contact with the damp soil from all the rain.. So I hope the straw helps this year.

I also want to show you the Blackberry bushes.. these have grown wild and rampant  between ours and and our neighbours allotments. We Both love these fruits and so although hubby cut them back as they swamped the wood shed last year.. You can see how much flower is already on them.. So a Good crop I think this Autumn ..

Also this year I am going to collect the Elderberries from a tree which grows between our allotments on the other side.. I found a great Recipe for Elderberry Cordial Syrup .   This syrup is great for colds and flu and more Health Benefits of Elderberries can be found HERE . 

The tree is laden with flower at the moment, and you  could make Elderflower Wine with the flowers. My Aunt always made loads of it when I was a child and I have a memory of it still… Hubby used to do a lot of wine making at one time.. Parsnip Wine is good but the best wine he ever made was Rhubarb Wine and a Strawberry Wine. .. However if memory serves me well, and I asked Hubby it took a lot longer for the Rhubarb to clear.. around 2 yrs in demi jars.. But it was the very best of wine we ever tasted.. And that strawberry wine.. was brilliant too.

Now not everything in the allotments is weed free.. In fact there is a patch behind the shed that really needs tackling.. But even Nettles have their uses..

So here is our Nettle patch behind the shed.. Note how the Dock leaves grow among the nettles. And if crushed and rubbed on the sting of a nettle help relieve the pain of the sting… The reasons why are discussed Here I also read that bathing in Milk soothes too, but when walking in nature we seldom have access to milk straight away! So always look for the Dock Leaf!

I drink lots of Nettle Tea, so why not make your own? Here are several  different recipe’s made from nettles, The nutrition value is amazing in high concentrates of vitamins A, C, D, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium.

Below is a recent slide show of how things are growing..

Swedes- Carrots under Cloches and Beetroot

Courgettes

Sweetcorn

Onions-Shallots and Parsnip

 

Enjoy your week.. And thank you for reading.. And Welcome to all my New subscribers.. I hope you enjoy browsing. 

Blessings Sue

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Allotment Progress in May ~Grow Your Own

 

The weather has been just right for planting out.. I took these pictures over the weekend.. But since then Hubby has planted the sweet-corn plants and the runner beans have gone in.  As they have now hardened off from the green house..

So today I am taking you on a different walk.. As I take you down to our allotment garden

Above you will see there  are two rows of parsnips then shallots and onions..

On the left here are the Swedes and under the netting is Curly Kale, cabbages and broccoli..

The nets are in place to stop the White Cabbage butterfly from laying her caterpillar eggs.. which last year had a scrumptious feast on our mature cabbages…

We are hopeful this year our Strawberries will yield more fruit I moved the strawberry bed last year and replanted the new shoots out.. We only had a few helpings of strawberries .. But this year by the look of the flowers. I hope to have enough to make some jam too .. Fingers crossed …  I need to get some straw to put under the forming fruit to help keep clean and to stop rotting if we get lots of rain.. 

 

In the cold frame lean-too on the side of the shed.. are some outdoor Tomato plants..  you can also see a tray of leeks..

 

 

 

 

Below you can see how we showed our Granddaughter how a seed started to grow.. Thanks to Jack for this idea too..We used a Runner Bean on a damp paper, also a Potato in a jar of water to show how it would sprout and know how to send roots down and leaves up!.. Amazing even now if we think about how each cell knows how to multiply into being a leaf or a flower.. Even more so when you think of the Human body and how each cell splits and knows what its going to form into! .. Makes you think about the Miracle Life really is..

 

Below is the Gooseberry Bush.. Looks like we will have enough for that Gooseberry Fool too this year.

 

 

We also have 6 rows of potatoes in this year.. 2 row of early ones and 4 main crop.. We have grown less potatoes this year, as last year we planted 10 rows.. and although none got wasted, last year and they saw us right through winter, ( We gave loads away ) This year we are planting other things such as chard, squash and Spinach. So  we have not used up as much room..  In this next photo you can see the potatoes, 2 rows of peas and the sheds at the bottom of the allotment.

 

On the left is Runner Beans and below is Sweetcorn

 

Below  you can see the sheds and the shrubs of fruit, the Raspberries Redcurrants, Logan Berries, Blackcurrants.

Above you can see pot plants such as Gladioli, and lupines also dahlia’s mixed in is Marigolds.. Which we have planted too among the Vegies ..

 

I hope you enjoyed your walk in the Veggie Garden..

Thank you for reading

~Sue~

 

Walking, and Working in the Peace!.

This last week has been so full as it was a short-break Bank Holiday last weekend  here in the UK and although I worked through half of it, I made the most of the other half as I connected back to Earth through digging in the soil. Ok well not digging, Hoeing out the weeds.   I can not believe we are already here at the weekend again!.. 

When we go out into nature, whether that be walking or just in your own back garden or in my case in our allotments this weekend, its amazing how refreshed you feel after connecting back with Mother Earth. 

Making the most of fine days to plant  and knowing too just when to plant out those tender shoots which often can get caught out in those last days of frosts can be a bit of a gamble especially as the weather has thrown us some surprising turns as we’ve had some cold days and hail storms in one of our coldest springs in 30 years here in the UK.

Here is how all things in the Garden grow and you can see how Herbert is doing.

Click onto the photo’s to enlarge and start slideshow. 

Herbert on Duty among the cabbages

Rows of Peas each set has 3 rows and will eventually climb the wire netting. We have 3 such rows as these,

Sunflowers growing near the Raspberry Canes..

Swedes, Onions, Shallots and in the distance Beetroot then the Peas.

Early Potatoes all through the late ones in the foreground coming through ..

Bottom left are parsnips, Runner Beans climbing the poles with 2 rows of carrots between the bean poles.

The Peas are growing well, The Sweetcorn went in this week.. the spare plot at the sides are left for the Leeks.

Another view of Herbert keeping the pigeons off… Our neighbouring allotment holder said he is doing a fine job! 🙂

Our Two and a Half year old Granddaughter digging in the allotment with me.. Finding worms for the home compost bin 🙂 She found two.

~~~

Walking is also another Passion. Seeking out those silent places to walk and gather in the Peace in the  environment allows us to pull in our energies and reflect upon the beauty of creation.. We see so much beauty as we look at the cloud formations, the woods,  wild flowers along with the animal and insect life we encounter.

We all need time out to spend in Nature or just sit in our own space. And I am sure we can all find our Sacred Groves to gather and be closer to Nature and our own spirituality.  In the past a Sacred Grove consisted of Native Trees chosen for their wisdom. Oak, Rowan, Hazel, Elder, Silver Birch, Willow plus many more. There would have been a special connection to Spirit of the place through the Earths energies..

Have you a special place you enjoy to visit as you absorb in Natures peace?

By eating plants, we are linked to the plant Kingdom, the cycle of Life. Plants like trees hold their own healing properties.. How many of us are drawn to give flowers to someone who is feeling ill.. or as a tribute as a mark of respect or to give to show our affection and love..

Flowers give their life to enrich ours, have you thought of that?..

For when we pick them, we end their life cycle.

If you have flowers that have died why not compost them as they can once again be added to the cycle of growing. Flowers give so much that we can admire them for a few short days indoors…. So please resist picking the wild flowers and let them reseed in their natural environment so more who walk by can take in their beauty.

When we work with plants we are participating with Nature, we are interacting with Mother Nature. We regain our balance as we blend and feel that Oneness within ourselves again.  We must try in our Modern day world to take time out and give our thanks for Natures Larder and  growing your own veggies helps give something back as we nurture seeds and see just how marvellous Nature is in her wonderful miracles of life unfolding from those tiny seeds. We not only  see those plants we eat as vegetables, but those which we have long forgotten  how to use as medicines, such as the wild flowers and bark… All which science today substitutes with chemicals….. Plants work in harmony with our bodies.. and those ancient tribes of long ago knew so much about natural healing with plants.. 

Below are some places I went this weekend this was the picture of the woods with the stone cross,  along with some other favourite places of Peace I visited.  Please click each photo to enlarge and read the heading. 

Shillito Cross was one place I went too on Ramsley Moor Derbyshire this Weekend This Ancient Latin Stone cross is hidden in Shillito Woods was used to help guide early travellers across the moors… it could date from 1880 but the date on the cross has been weather worn..

Bluebells are late flowering in many parts this year with the coldest spring in the UK for 30 years on record.. Taken on 26th May 2013

Walking an old coach path along Ramsley Moor.

My Garden a place I often spend in quiet reflection

Woodland walk near our home

A quiet spot in Hardwick Hall grounds

Hassop Bike Trail Nr Bakewell Derbyshire

A patch of rapeseed on top of the cliff top at Flamborough Head Cliffs, planted with Corn and Wheat and Oats.. I think mainly for the birds as it is a Bird Nature Reserve.

Yellow Clover Humming with bees I was in heaven when I saw this.

A beautiful find among the long grass

 

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

 

Enjoy your time in Nature this weekend.. 

Love and Blessings 

Sue 

Scarecrow in the Making.

 I thought of making a scarecrow to help keep the pigeons from eating the green shoots of the brassica family such as the cabbages…Which many were stripped to the stalks last year.

So an old  pair of jeans and shirt were put to good use. I started first by sewing the shirt in the jeans and sewing closed the cuffs and the hems of the jeans except for a small opening. 

The next step was rummaging in my sewing box I found some odd large buttons, The gloves were dug out of the garage. The Hessian  sacking fabric was left over from when I ran a craft group with those I supported a few years ago with learning difficulties.  It was left over from backing a pegged rug I helped them make.  Anyone remember them? I well remember helping my Granddad make a wool one and cutting the lengths of wool.. And Rag pegged rugs were in his home from his Mother.  In fact I still have one of his home made rugs but its now stored in the loft or else I would have shared its image with you.

The next step was to sew the shape of the head this was attached to the collar and the gloves were sewn on.

“Hi there!!!!! Can’t quiet see who is looking at me yet!  It seems my Brain is some old stuffing from some old cushions.” Anyone got a Brain??

 

“Hi there!!! That’s better  at least I can see you now.. “

Buttons sewn, mouth in place and Hat sewn on too,that too was a freebee found in the back of the garage!

Smile for the Camera!

“ Rhubarb!!!, er-hem sorry Cheeeeeeeeesssssse!!!!”

 

“Well Enough of this Yoga Practice………. “

“I may be smiling but I can’t rest here for too long, I need to find my  Brain, and although my legs are filled, I need some extra Stuffing for my body.”

“Has anyone any spare Rags?”

“Oh by the way my name is Herbert! for future reference. When they put me on guard duty!. “

“I hope you will join me soon as I meet the Veggies on the Plot!…..