More veg...

Another burst of vegetable gardening! 

The results:

Mini poly tunnel where lettuces are hiding from birds, I hope

Broad beans

Runner breans

Also planted spinach seeds and fennel seeds.

We've had three warm and wet days so ideal for getting things going.  I have also got some butternut squash seeds that have just germinated.  We shall be selling veg at the gate!

Massive attack on the vegetable plot

My friend who allows me to share her vegetable patch is away at the moment so I decided I had better get on and plant some veg.  After a weeding session last week, kindly assisted by her gardener, a lot of ground was prepared. I bought plants on Sunday and on Sunday afternoon and this morning worked hard putting them all in.   

In addition to planting, I had to create two protective nets, one for the purple sprouting broccoli and another for the kalettes which are going to grow quite large.   Both of these brassicas are a magnet for pigeons and butterflies.   The structures are not beautiful, but I think they will work - as long as they don't blow over.   I also invested in a poly-tunnel to give the lettuce a hiding place from the slugs until they get bigger.   The lovely gardener is going to put up some poles for the runner beans, so they can go in in a couple of days.   I also planted broad beans, three rows of beetroot and three courgette plants.  We won't be able to eat all the courgettes from three plants, but one is an insurance in case the slugs do their worse.   

The potatoes are doing well, so I gave them a good watering.

Now I'm feeling tired, satisfied and nursing a back ache!  I forgot to take my camera with me this morning so there are no pictures of the things I planted this morning, but here's Sundays introductions.

Sweet corn

Courgettes

Potatoes

The contraption

Kalettes

The latest project...

This weekend Peter started on a new project...there's still a snagging list for the bathroom decoration but that's boring and not urgent.   Much more interesting and stimulating to get stuck into something new!

The project is to turn the previous owner's 'dressing room' into a tool store and work room for future projects, minor mending and fixing etc.   This involves removing one of the fitted cupboards to create a space for a work bench in front of the window, removal of the cupboard doors and fitting shelves to one of the cupboards.   A good start was made.

Tools at the ready.  The mallet looks ominous!

One cupboard removed, probably with aid of mallet!

Space for the work top

Trimming up a side panel

 Meanwhile I was busy in the garden, watering and weeding.   The herbs are amazing and the wallflowers are still flowering after several weeks.  They were good value.

Monster mint!

Rampant parsley

Tulips and aquilegia

Feeling virtuous

Today I decided to roll my sleeves up and tackle the back garden in Norwich which has been neglected in favour of the garden at Southwold.   Oh dear!   These first world problems.

There are several plants that are out-growing their pots and need to be split up and some new plants to pot up.  And a general tidy up and a sweep was needed. So I worked solidly for 2 hours and managed to make some progress.   It doesn't look like much though. 

I'm quite pleased with my Kalette seedlings.  They look healthy.   I'd never heard of them before but I suspect they are fast becoming a new superfood or super-fad!  Apparently they are a cross between kale and a brussel sprout.   Should be interesting.

While I was working the window cleaners arrived with their long hose and water squirting brush.   I rue the day that health and safety led to the demise of the ladder, bucket and cloth.   Now the hose snakes across the garden and knocks over plants and my cup of tea, perched on the window sill, was diluted with window water!  Thanks!

Now the front garden needs some attention and my potatoes over in the veg patch need to be hoed and the soil mounded up.   Work, work, work!

New geranium plants

Purple primulas split and repotted

Hostas split and repotted

More hosta

Kalettes.  A new vegetable.  Grown from seed and almost ready to plant out.

May bank holiday weekend

Hard at work on finishing the bathroom.  There seems to be more finishing off than actual decoration!

Bathroom window with curtains

The curtains have been made and hung from the new curtain track.  Truth to tell, they are hardly new curtains having been roughly adapted from curtains made over 37 years ago for our first flat in the Barbican.   They pre-date Rupert!  In that first flat we had very high ceilings and a window across the complete end wall of the flat.   The fabric was then used to make curtains for our North Norfolk cottage and some of it ended up in the loo in Chester Place.   Now the last remnant has found it's way to Southwold, with just a bit left over.   What to do with this last piece of history?   Maybe a matching laundry bag for the bathroom?! The strips go well with the royal blue tiles we inherited.

Waiting for toilet seat and bath panel

Peter is eyeing up the shower rail...or shower wire and thinking about how to fix it.  All the walls have been dry lined so there is not much to fix into.  Then there's the new fangled toilet seat to fix and the bath panel to make.   Some of these jobs are being put off in favour of tackling the floor.

Before and after (top three and a half rows)

We have been puzzled by the state of the black tiles in the bathroom.  At first we thought it was dirt that was making them look grey and ashy.  Then we thought it was lime scale.  After much experimentation we have decided they were finished with some kind of product that over the years has hardened and gone off.   Nothing dissolves it so the only solution that we have so far come up with is to scrape it off!   We have so far tackled three rows.  Eleven more rows to do.   It's very hard work and as I type Peter is at the DIY store buying more blades for the scrapers.

Today though as a break from scraping on our knees we have friends coming for lunch.   I have made a Nigella Lawson tray bake: Chicken, sausage, chorizo, red onion, potatoes, oregano and orange zest.  And a pot of lentils. And a green salad.   Just a light lunch!  I had every intention of taking a photo before serving, but the glass of wine completely drove it out of my head.   It was delicious though!

Before cooking

Meanwhile, in the garden, the tulips are still putting on a show.

Been flowering for over a month!