the green gal

I have a new nook

 

This weekend has been an exciting one for me as I moved into my new studio at the end of the garden! When we bought this house two years ago we knew we wanted to transform the brick built shed into a studio and my frustration at working on half a desk in the spare room was the motivation to get it done. The shed was solidly built but needed everything doing to it – new roof and ceiling, new window, brick up doors, replace other window with double doors, new electrics, plumbing to fit a toilet and washbasin, build a wall to make a cloakroom, insulate and plaster walls, insulate and lay new floor, and furniture! 

I love seeing and reading about other people's workspaces, nooks and studios so I thought I'd give you a tour of my new space. I only moved in last night so there's a lot more for me to do to make it feel like home.

 

The chair, table and bookshelves all came from Ikea. My faithful brother sewing machine was a birthday present from my husband a few years ago and serves me well. Leaning against the wall you can just see Gabs of the green gables created for me by Kirsty, as soon as I get her a frame she'll be in pride of place on the wall. Under the table is a picnic basket a friend found for me in a charity shop and of course there's a length of bunting hung up!

The suitcases were used by my aunty to tour Europe decades ago. I think my mum then went to college with them. The mannequin, wearing a mini pinny, was an eBay bargain bought from a school PTA. I think the kids may have named it as the underside of the stand reads Ben! The little bag in front is my sewing bag, yet another charity shop find, and the basket full of yarn and needles is a secondhand gem I found on eBay. You can see one of two ancient wood and wire birdcages here, they came from a charity shop too, not sure if birds were ever kept in them (I hope not). Are you getting the idea I like secondhand yet?

My fabric is a mix of charity shop shirts, remnant bin finds, vintage fabrics and new cotton fabrics bought locally. Scraps get chucked in the basket to be used at a late date. My storage is a strange mixture of baskets given by a friend, plastic Chinese takeaway boxes and crystal brandy glasses. If you can see my embroidery threads, they're in a Singapore Sling glass I bought from Raffles Hotel in Singapore! You can just see the gorgeous old Singer sewing machine peeking through the bunting, still haven't found the time to get it working…

The sofabed was given to us by a friend a few years ago, and with the studio having its own toilet (you can just see the cloakroom door on the right) and running water, the room can also be used as an occasional guest bedroom. The coffee table is actually an ingenious invention that can be raised to different heights, the top spun round and flipped open to make a dining table. My parents gave it to us as a wedding present when we lived in a little flat in London where furniture needed to multi-task. The cloth on the coffee table was beautifully embroidered by my aunty about 60 years ago. Oh and that's my dog, Georgie, on her blanket. She knows better than to come anywhere near my work or fabrics.

My Anne of Green Gables quote poster adds a much needed splash of turquoise and dose of inspiration.

The transformation of the little building at the end of our garden has been so successful and it makes me super happy. It's gone from being a place to dump stuff to a useful space that has added a whole extra room to our home. In case you're interested, those are my veg beds on the left hand side, the green stalks you can see are onions and you can just see some salad leaves in the corner. Several packets of wildflower seeds have been sown in the bed on the right so hopefully that won't stay a boring patch of dirt for long. 

I hope you enjoyed the tour around my new nook (and veg patch). What do you love about the space you create in?

Nature at its best

What glorious weather we've been enjoying! I hope it's been sunny where you are too.

This weekend my hubbie, doggie and I went to visit my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. Having spent a lovely afternoon at their allotment I was inspired to get cracking on my own veggies. So, I have now planted my second early potatoes in their stack of tyres, four rows of red onions, a row of spring onions and a row of leeks. I'll add more rows of spring onions and leeks in the next few weeks so we can enjoy our crops over a longer period of time, plus a few other veggies like beans, tomatoes and salad leaves, and hopefully some strawberries too.

Last year I had moderate success with my crops so this year I'm hoping to do better. I think I've learnt from the mistakes I made last year, we'll have to just wait and see how I get on! For those of you who are interested I use organic peat-free compost and don't use any chemicals to help things grow. If nature and I can't do it on our own, it isn't worth doing! If you're interested in finding out more about organic growing, take a look at the Soil Association's website.

If you've never tried growing your own food I urge you to have a go. There's something quite soothing about handling soil, planting seeds, watering and tending to them. And of course eating the products of your hard work is hugely rewarding. You don't need huge amounts of space (I don't), a windowbox is enough to grow salad leaves or herbs, most things can be grown in pots and, as I've demonstrated, potatoes can be grown in old car tyres! Growing your own food costs a lot less than buying it from the supermarket, plus you know exactly where your meal has come from.

The other great thing about gardening is that it gets you out in the fresh air and (hopefully) the sunshine. Studies have shown that being in nature lifts the spirits and makes people feel happier. So, now nature is well into its stride with flowers blooming, bees buzzing and butterflies swooping about all over the place, I thought I'd give your eyeballs a treat with some images of nature doing what it does best…

1. Parade Magazine, Nature Conservancy Contest Winner, 2. Fields near home, 3. Nature pearls, 4. Blossom close-up, 5. Conch (or Whelk) Shell- Nantucket, 6. Spring Lamb, Spring Flowers

Breathe in the spring air

It's a beautiful day here, I hope the sun is shining where you are too. And, as is only fitting on a sunny spring day, I have been behaving in a most typically Sunday way.

1. Took the dog for a long walk in a nearby wood. Saw lots of little tufts of green leaves so hoping they'll turn into bluebells soon.

2. Went to the garden centre and bought lots of organic peat-free soil for our raised veggie beds. Last year we totally underestimated how much soil compresses down over time and our vegs didn't have enough soil to grow in. I've learnt my lesson, have thrown on lots more soil and will wait for it to settle down before sowing.

3. Planted my chitted first early seed potatoes in a low stack of tyres. This worked really well last year as you just keep adding soil and another tyre as the plants grow. Plus, it frees up the beds for other crops. I got my tyres from our local garage. The owner told me that all of their old tyres are recycled but growing potatoes in them sounded much more interesting! You can read here how I got on with my veggie endeavours last year.

4. Hung a load of washing outside on the line to dry, wind blown dry clothes are somehow lovelier than those which have air dried in the spare room.

5. Completely unrelated but I just spent a v enjoyable half hour photographing the reels of thread I bagged at my favourite antique/secondhand store yesterday. I already have wool that matches perfectly (no prizes for guessing my favourite colours) so snapped them too. I may not have photographed them outside in the spring air but the warm sunshine was flooding into the room making the light the best it's been for photo taking all year.

6. Will soon be off for another dog walk, then a read of the papers with a drink or two in the local pub, followed by a bowlful of homemade leek and potato soup at home. Pretty much a perfect Sunday! Hope your weekends have been equally or even more lovely.

What have you been doing with your time?

Well, in between working, digging myself out of the snow, crocheting on a train, watching Glee and My Dream Farm, and making my nephew's apron, I've made a few things and found some marvellous bargains:

I embroidered a birthday card for a dear friend…

…found this gorgeous clock hanging in a charity shop, and they sold it to me for a couple of quid…

 

…then I found this gorgeous bowl in my favourite colour in yet another charity shop and it was even more of a bargain. Can't quite decide whether to use it to store things or to plant some spring bulbs in it…

 
…made some more bunting from old shirts and lovely fabric my mum gave me…

 …found a funny website about making your life greener – Do The Green Thing, plus the easiest recipe in the world to make banana ice cream at Love Food Hate Waste, and tried this tasty recipe for Sausages and Mustard (veggie sausages of course) by Nigel Slater straight after watching him cook it on TV…

…used an old map to make a few envelopes and cover a peg (why a peg? no reason, just fancied using my new pot of decopatch glue and thought I'd pretty up a peg)…

…after spotting a few tulip bulbs shoots emerging from the soil in the garden I've been poring over seed catalogues trying to decide what to plant. Trouble is, even though last year I managed to squeeze two raised beds, two towers of tyres for potato growing, a window box for tomatoes, a hanging basket for strawberries and various pots for garlic and herbs into our little garden, I still want to grow more, and rescue a couple of chickens (hah!)…

… and that was how my first month of 2010 ended, wonder what's in store for us all in the next 11 months…!

The finishing line

So, the store cupboard challenge is over!

We ate well, most of the time, not too weirdly and a bit more thoughtfully. I've discovered that we keep quite a substantial amount of non-perishable food and my trips to the food shops needn't be as frequent as they have been. With a bit of thought we've made use of what we already had in the cupboard and the freezer and have actually had a more varied diet for it. It's easy to get stuck in your ways and rely on a handful of familiar ideas and forget what lovely dishes you could have if you took the time to think about it. 

The hubbie, who is head chef in our household, says he's quite enjoyed the Ready Steady Cook Challenge, as he named it. I think he might have blanked out the memory of the choice words he came out with on Friday night when he discovered that sour cream is no replacement for double cream. Separated cream doesn't look the best but the potato boulangere still tasted delicious!

Yesterday was a bit of a cheat as we were out all day with friends so only had popcorn with a movie when we got home. (Don't bother watching Iron Man but do pop your own corn, kids and adults alike love the exploding sounds coming from the pan.)

And tonight could be considered a bit sneaky as we ate last week's leftover veggie bean chilli from the freezer. However, we freed up space in the freezer and the accompanying brown rice came from the cupboard!

All in all the week was a success and I think we'll make it a regular every few months. We saved money, we made some space in the kitchen and used our brains a bit more. I hope that everyone taking part at myzerowaste.com and frugal-life.spaces.live.com enjoyed it too!

Store cupboard challenge

Inspired by Mrs Green at http://myzerowaste.com and Piper Terrett at http://frugal-life.spaces.live.com the hubbie and I have embarked on a store cupboard challenge!

The challenge is to make meals only from food we already have, for one week. Only fresh fruit and veg can be bought, all accompanying ingredients have to come from our home. Seeing as we only have two ripe tomatoes (but 47 green) so far, that limits us to the store cupboard.

Last night we had veggie fajitas.

Tonight it's pasta salad with stuffed peppers.

What will tomorrow's feast be I wonder?! If you've done anything similar or have any suggestions, let me know!

(PS You can still win a veggie-growing book if you comment on my post Gardening Lessons Learned!)

Gardening lessons learned

Hello and welcome to my new look blog! It's a bit shinier looking than the last one and I've added a couple of extra things including some pics of things I have made. Does what it says on the tin. There's not a lot there yet but it will be added to in time! Hope you like it! BTW, anyone who had an RSS feed, I didn't manage to carry you over from my old blog so you might want to set that up again, sorry!

So, to gardening. As you will know I have ventured into the land of veggie gardening, with mixed results. Thought I'd give you an update as to how my little crops are doing and sum up what I've learned so far.

• Maincrop potatoes in their tower of tyres are still growing, had a few pretty flowers that my dog hasn't quite managed to jump up and bit off, little madam. They're hardy things as she REALLY wants to chomp her way through the leafiness.
• Onions are a bit sad, I'll come to that in a bit.
• Salad leaves were doing well till a few white cabbage butterflies laid their eggs and now the leaves look more like Swiss cheese than salad.
• Purple-sprouting broccoli are doing a great job sprouting enormous leaves but no actual broccoli. I'm reliably informed by veggie grower extraordinaire Emma Cooper (http://coopette.com) that they probably won't sprout till spring. 
• Peppers are growing v slowly, paint dries at lightning speed in comparison.
• Courgettes, only one plant left but that's got lots of little dinky courgettes growing on its very long stalk!
• Tomatoes, 43 of them to be precise, are okay, took some advice from Tuesday's Gardener's World and lopped off the top of one plant above the fifth truss (get me with my lingo). Two are turning orange so I have high hopes for the other 41.
• Strawberries served me very well but are now on their way out. Most of the leaves are red and the last two strawberries will be gobbled up tomorrow.
• Garlic is nearly done, stalks need to go a bit more yellow.
• Last three aren't technically veg but let's not be rigid!

So, what have I learned in first foray into gardening? A lot! To the experienced out there the below will seem pretty obvious but remember back to the first crops you planted, did you get it all right first time around? (Shush if you did.)

• A hanging basket is ideal for strawberries, no nasties get to them and they look pretty dangling in the air.
• When you fill a bed with compost, press it down because in time it will settle and look like you put in half the amount. Because I didn't do some bed squashing my onions don't have enough soil to grow in, hence their sad look.
• Purple-sprouting broccoli takes up a lot of space. I mean a lot. Courgette plant kind of amount. A lot.
• You have got to cover up salad leaves. Otherwise they will get eaten by the wildlife. For definite. (Any advice on the best and most practical way to do this gladly received.)
• Tomatoes look good, and grow well, in a window box, just be sure to fill it to the brim with soil.
• Growing potatoes in tyres works! Okay I haven't dug them up yet but look at the piccie, whatever's going on in there has to be good!
• You really do use a lot less water with a watering can rather than the hose.
• Growing your own veggies is fab. It's rewarding, it's cheap, it's interesting, it benefits you and your environment (local and global), you learn loads plus you get to eat the efforts of your labour. 
• People who don't garden are easily impressed with anything you have managed to grow. Or I have polite friends.
• Gardening books are inspirational (see below) but you can't beat advice from real-life humans too (thanks bruv!).

On the subject of tasty gardening books, I'm going to give you the chance to win a gardening book, hurray! Grow Organic is a sumptuous DK book (see here for an Amazon link http://good.ly/a82bt) and I shall give away a copy to a randomly selected person who comments on this post before midnight (UK time) Wednesday 12 August.

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!

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...