the green gal

My weekend

There was some pondering and musing and tea drinking but on the whole my weekend was quite active. I was so glad to see the sunshine I walked into my local town for a change, enjoyed some lovely dog walks with the hubbie and we turned our neglected, weedy garden into a neat, ready to plant space. I'm wondering if we're a bit late with planting our veg but it's been so very cold I didn't think anything would survive the frost! Have you been sowing seeds and do you think I should just get on with it?! Any advice is very welcome!

My weekend

I got lots of non-work 'stuff' done this weekend. Like many self-employed, small business owners, I can get absorbed in my work so I find myself with no time to do chores and jobs around the house. But then they build up over time and nag at the back of my brain until I just need to get on and do them! So, this weekend, as well as the usual chores, I did some gardening including transplanting leeks, and sorted through the mess that is my wardrobe. After filling four carrier bags of shoes and clothes for recycling and another four bags of clothes and, er, bags, for the charity shop I have a much tidier wardrobe. It feels like I've created a bit more space in my head too. I wanted to get some jobs done before Christmas really starts to kick in and I feel like I can concentrate better now that I've got them out of the way. Perhaps the weather is making me want to do the autumn version of a spring clean!

Above is a snap of some personalised fabric bunting I made for a friend this weekend. I haven't sewn in quite a while so it felt good to flex my creative muscles in a different area. She's giving the bunting to a relative as a gift so I just hope they all like it! 

My weekend

I've had a lovely weekend pottering about. On Saturday I found Anne of Green Gables on a random movie channel and watched that in between doing some work, baking cupcakes (as demonstrated above) and weeding the veggie patch. And on Sunday my mum came to visit so we had lunch in a fabulous new cafe by day/wine bar by night that's opened in my village (it's only been open two weeks and we're considered regulars already, oops) and a walk round a beautifully picturesque nearby village. Lovely stuff.

My weekend

A certain little dog wandered into shot of my Pimm's

I know it wasn't a scorcher across the whole of the UK but blimey it was hot in my little corner of the country! I'm not great with the heat so I kept moving around the house, studio and garden trying to find a coolish spot to work in. The combination of blazing sunshine and torrential downpours has been good for the remaining veggie plants in my garden. We've finally been able to eat our homegrown tomatoes and green beans, and the pumpkin plant is coming along a treat! And what are we to do with our flourishing mint plant? Why, make Pimm's to go with it of course!

How many foods can you grow in one small garden?

That's what we shall discover this year! This year we have decided to try growing a wider variety of vegetables but all in tiny amounts. Because of the rubbish weather we've had in our patch of the UK we're really behind in our planting so, a couple of evenings ago, we took a trip to the garden centre, and then got busy! (That's my studio at the far end and our dog, Georgie, not posing for the picture.)

So, we have a courgette plant, a pumpkin plant and a few French beans in stack of tyres. Usually potatoes grow in these but we've decided to try something else this year. In the two beds we have salad leaves, spinach, carrots, parsnips, red onions, salad onions and leeks. There are a variety of tomatoes in three pots, plus spare carrot plants went into an old watering can. Two hanging baskets hold strawberry plants and lots of herbs are in various containers too! 

On the mostly shady side of the garden we have our wild flower patch (throw a few packets of wild flower seeds onto soil and this is the result). I'm not great at identifying flowers but I think we have poppies, buttercups, pink campion and nettles, among other pretties. We keep the nettles because they provide aphids for insects to chomp on, plus I might try making nettle tea this year. We also added lavender, chive, mint and borage plants a few years ago which are happily mixed in with the wild flowers. And I can tell you the bees and butterflies LOVE this patch! Which is one of the reasons we planted it, but my word, they can't get enough of the lavender and borage!

I dream of having a big enough garden for chickens but this will do for the moment. Are you growing any food this year? Perhaps you have some top tips you can share, would love to hear if you do!

Five lovely things 4

Oops, I'm a bit late with this week's five lovely things post, I was distracted by a certain event which took place on my usual five lovely things posting day!

source

And that event is at No1 – the gorgeously wonderful Royal Wedding. I don't think I need say much more, or show lots of photos, it exceeded everyone's expectations and I loved watching it with my friends at a Royal Wedding house party. The modern take on the traditional Royal Wedding with the vintage inspirations were just brilliant, sigh.

For No2 I want to say how touched I am that so many people entered my competition to win an extra-long length of paper bunting. I'm sorry I can't give you all a bit of free bunting love!

No3 is that my love of pinterest continues and inspired by the Royal Wedding I've been busy pinning pics of style icons from a bygone era. You can see the above board and more of my pins here.

At No4 is the fact I have a week off the day job so can spend days and days working on the green gables and hopefully soak up a little sunshine too. 

And at No5 is the joy of being in the garden planting veggies! As well as my first early potatoes I've also planted some mixed salad leaves, red onions, spring onions and leeks in our two veg beds. Our garden is v small so we don't have room for much more. On the shady side of the garden is our wildflower bed and that's sprung back into life in the last couple of weeks. We have lavender, forget-me-nots, marigolds, some other plants I've yet to identify, as well as some herbs – I've even got some chive flowers in bloom! And although it feels a bit weird I'm letting a small patch of nettles grow as I know they're really good for bees, butterflies and insects. I may even try making nettle tea…

In case you're interested, you can find out more about how to help butterflies and bring them into your garden here, and the same for bees here.

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…!