First knitting, then gardening, now cushion-making!

So I’ve made my first cushion. Okay, not the fluffy stuffing part that makes it comfy but the outside cover of it, to be exact. And while I’m being exact, I haven’t made one, I’ve made three!

My very first cushion was actually a present. Why I thought that was a good idea I don’t know, but it turned out rather well. I wanted to make something for my nephew as a christening present as I was also becoming one of his godmothers. (My husband and I have begun a tradition of making presents for the family and now we’ve started there’s no going back.) It took a big of thought to come up with a present that he could keep for many years, is personal and that I could actually make. So a cushion it was. The fabric for one side was a sort of Hawaiian big leaf print in toning shades of yellow, green and blue. The other side was a plain grass green colour. I opted out of doing anything too technical for a closing and went for simple, if unimaginative, Velcro. Where’s the personal element? I stitched 13 buttons, none the same, on to the plain green side in the shape of an A. And the reaction? Well, I don’t think seven-month-old Albert has shown a great deal of interest so far but his parents seem to quite like it.

So, buoyed by my first success I set about making two cushions for my settle. For those of you who were clueless to what one of those is (as I was before I bought one) it looks a bit like a church pew but the seat is wider, the back higher and you’re more likely to have seen on in a pub. Made from reclaimed pine floorboards the seat is gorgeous but could do with a bit of cushioning. Although I would have liked to reuse fabric I’ve never found any I like (any top tips on this would be well received) I chose new fabric from good old reliable John Lewis. And voila! Ah, my top tip of the day, don’t buy cheap thread. I did and it kept snapping and drove me to the brink of insanity, which is ridiculous when you think I was only making a cushion.

John Lewis were selling smaller cushions in the same fabric for what I worked out to be twice the price of my bigger homemade cushions. Yes, theirs is neater and the pattern matches up perfectly (oops) but my cushions make me smile because I know that I made them.  

How does my garden grow?

It's been a while since I planted my veggies and it's going well-ish! 

I'll start with the bad news. The courgette plants. I had three, I now have one. Having just watched River Cottage and listened to Hugh saying you mustn't water the leaves because they'll get burnt, I think I may have found my problem. I try to aim at the base, but sometimes there's a bit of splashing, you know how it is. I'll be more careful with my remaining plant. My onions have also been a bit odd, some are flourishing, others just popped out of the soil looking mouldy! Not sure what went on there.

Potatoes in their tyres are doing well and are of huge interest to my neighbour's young son. The earlies have been in for more than 12 weeks now so is it not time to harvest them yet? My allotment-holding brother and Carol Klein's ace book Grow Your Own Veg say I have to wait for them to flower or turn yellow and fall over. No sign of either happening yet. I might strike out on my own and have a dig around in a week's time, just for the hell of it.

My purple-sprouting broccoli plants are getting v bushy (no sign of the actual broccoli yet), the pepper plants are growing v slowly but there are teeny little pepper buds which excites me enormously. 

But the prize for growing most impressively, and usefully, goes to my salad leaves. I had my second salad this week made entirely of my homegrown leaves, so satisfying! The tomato plants are about two feet tall now and have recently sprouted flowers so hopefully I'll have my own little tomatoes to go in the salad too soon. 

On a fruity note, I ate my first strawberry from my hanging basket today – it was so tasty and smelt incredible, definitely not like shop bought. 

More are turning pink so I might average a strawberry every couple of days!

Having worried about how my little veggies were going to grow, I feel a smidgen more relaxed. My sole attempt at companion planting was marigolds and on the whole they seem to be doing the job. I think keeping the strawberries up high in a basket has helped keep some of the nasties away from them. However, the hosta is being eaten alive and my attempt to surround the base in pine cones was thwarted by my puppy, who thinks they're her chew toys. 

So far so good, we'll see what happens in the next thrilling installment of my veg patch...

I'm planted!

So, I've launched myself fully into the world of vegetable growing. You've already read, in great detail, about the potatoes growing in tyres and since then I have planted a hanging basket, two veg beds and some pots! 

Deciding what to grow wasn't too tricky, we just went for what we like to eat that would work in our limited space. That means, as well as tatties, we have strawberries (in the basket), onions, salad leaves, purple-sprouting broccoli, sweet peppers, courgettes and a few herbs. Will be adding tomatoes to the collection once we have a window box in place.

However, the responsibility of planting – is the soil okay, are they they right depth/distance apart, are they in the best spot etc – took me by surprise. But now I've planted most of what I want to grow, the pressure to nurture and cultivate them into

edible crops is weighing even heavier on my shoulders! I think I expected to plonk the seeds/sets/plants in the earth, water them occasionally and then, in a while, eat their produce. Just like that. I didn't actually stop to think what else I need to do! So, any idea on how to do the best by my plants would be thankfully received!

Adventures in knitting

I've finally finished knitting my tea cosy! I know it's not that rock n roll a statement to open with but I'm very pleased with the end product. I started it months ago so really it's about time.

For those of you yet to discover the joy of knitting, have a go! It's the secretly super cool activity that is no longer the preserve of the blue rinse. I ask you, if knitting was only done by the retired would there be a worldwide knitting community called Stitch n Bitch? Think book club with needles. Check out www.stitchnbitch.co.uk for more info.

I've been a solitary knitter so far but I've spread my little woolly goodies far and wide. Everyone knows that homemade gifts, even slightly ropey ones, are valued for the time and effort that went into making them. I started with a good ol' scarf, not dissimilar to Dr Who's. Following that I knitted 16 (count them) squares, half green and half cream, and sewed them together to make a blanket for my nephew/godson. The thing's big enough to keep him warm till college but better that than too small. I then branched out to make baby bobbly hats for another nephew and niece. Having made a little Innocent smoothie bottle hat, I just sized up their pattern. 

The obvious natural progression is a tea cosy! Well, it isn't, especially as I have a particularly smart-looking teapot, but cold tea is just not tasty.

So, what next for me and my needles...?

Settle for a settle

I've just taken delivery of a gorgeous new piece of furniture. It's a settle. Now, I had no idea that is what a piece of furniture like this is called. I thought it was a cross between a church pew and a bench you'd find in a country pub. But nope, settle it is. Sounds like it belongs in a pub's snug but instead it stands against a wall in my dining room. 

I happened across the shop I bought it from when I was looking around the lovely village of Petworth in West Sussex. Oakapple Trading Company sells a variety of wooden furniture as well as other various bits and pieces to adorn and embellish your home. One of their suppliers is responsible for the lovely settle I bought. He lives on the Isle of Wight, makes each piece of furniture by hand to order and uses only reclaimed wood. My settle is made from old pine floorboards! And when his van is full of his furniture he drives over to West Sussex to deliver it to the shop.

So, my lovely new piece of furniture was created by a talented, independent craftsman in the UK, without chopping down any trees! And for a very reasonable price, I might add. Good feelings included free.

For more info, check out www.oakappletrading.co.uk

(BTW the dining table and chairs used to belong to hubbie's brother and his uncle before that - a fully recycled dining set!)

Plant a potato in a car tyre

If everyone knew how easy it is to grow potatoes, I'm sure there would be potato planters popping up all over the place. 

Our garden is quite small so although we will have a vegetable patch, we're trying to use other containers to maximise planting possibilities. So, I had the bright idea of using old car tyres to grow potatoes in. I asked my local garage if I could have a few spare tyres that they had no use for. They were only going to end up in landfill so why not stick a couple if my back garden and grow some tasty tatties in them? Admittedly they're not the most beautiful addition but they're a talking point! 

The useful thing about tyres is that as the plants are earthed up, you can keep adding tyres to hold in the soil. 

So, I filled one tyre and planted in my chitted seed potatoes, sprouty bits up. I gave them a good watering. That's it. When stalks and leaves start to shoot out I'll add some more soil and let them continue doing their thing.

Mmm, already dreaming of bowlfuls of potato salad...

Join in, switch off

Earth Hour takes place 8.30-9.30pm local time on Saturday 28 March. WWF organise the event and the idea is that as many people as possible across the globe turn off their lights for one hour. It's only been going for two years and the numbers have gone from 2.2 million in Sydney to 50 million last year. this year they're aiming for the big one billion. 

At last count 1,760 cities in 80 countries had signed up to take part. In the UK 155 prominent landmarks or buildings will be plunged into darkness for the allotted 60 minutes. If you're anywhere near the London Eye, Tyne and Gateshead Bridges, Brighton Pier, MEN Arena in Manchester, Edinburgh Castle or the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, watch out for their lights going out. 

For more info check out earthhour.wwf.org.uk. Join in, switch off.