Lilley's handcrafted lovelies

in my (new) garden...

...most of my plants did not enjoy moving house very much, or the lack of attention they have received as a result of the whole house moving process and are starting to reach the end of their little lives.  However, there are still lots and lots of tomatoes waiting to ripen (both on the plants and off due to a couple of plants developing some rather suspicious looking black spots, which I feared may be the blight), peppers a plenty, a variety of leaves and a very pleasant surprise in some late strawberries.

Way back at the beginning of the year I purchased some strawberry runners, they flourished, but then all the plants I purchased started to fruit my runners didn't, then they started to shoot off their own runners so I gave up on the idea of them fruiting this year and figured they would just fruit next year.  But I was wrong! They must be a late fruiting variety and now I have a whole fresh crop of really delicious strawberries!

I've also planted some bulbs ready for next spring and am already planning all the wonderful plants I hope to grow next year with all the extra space I have now.  It may still be a rather small outside space that is either decked or shingled, but it is a whole lot bigger than my tiny roof terrace in the old house! 

Also having shingle isn't all bad when you discover a little gem like this in there!

this moment...

Inspired by SouleMama

In her words...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Hapa-Zome...

...a couple of weeks ago quite by accident I happened upon on the utterly wonderful Alys Fowler and her Edible Garden.  Since then (thanks to the iPlayer) I have caught up on all the episodes so far, have reserved her book at the library and am eagerly awaiting this week's episode!  

In the episode juicy fruits she demonstrated hapa-zome, which is quite simply putting a leaf/petal in between two pieces of fabric and bashing it with a hammer to get all the dye out and transfer it on to the fabric.  You need to use natural fibres and when you've finished steam iron the fabric to get it to hold the dye.

Ever since I saw that episode I wanted to have a go at this, so whilst we were down at the park yesterday feeding the ducks I picked myself a few flowers and leaves and had a go a soon as we got home!  Single petals and leaves seemed to work better than whole flowers, but I expect it would depend what flowers you were using.

I'm really impressed and I have visions of a beautiful table cloth covered in leaf and petal prints (to go in my imaginary house where we have room for an actual dinner table to put this cloth!).  Also the hammering part was very satisfying!

this moment...

Inspired by SouleMama

In her words...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Spring!

It certainly feels like spring has really arrived today, it's March 1st, the sun is shining and it is even quite warm out there (I wondered out in just a long sleeve tee and baby strapped to my front this morning!).

Milo and I headed to the shops to get ourselves some shiny new plant pots and seeds, I can't wait to get them sown, hopefully in the next hour or so whilst he naps.

I've begun a new blog on my gardening adventures here, this year I hope to make a success of what otherwise have been fairly unsuccessful gardening shenanigans!

Indoor Gardening : week 2

It's going fairly well so far...the seeds are growing into seedlings which is a pretty good start, I guess!

We are encountering a few problems however, mainly with a little bug infestation we have at the moment.  I'm not sure what kind of bugs they are, but they're really small in the soil, I think these are the babies, but there are also lots of little flies, which jump around as well as fly.  They are creeping me out, I don't like them very much indeed, but I'm not really sure what to do apart from throw all my plants out and start again. 

Johnny did some research and apparently they don't like garlic, onion or chili...so he made up some horrific smelling broth out of these ingredients which he has consequently poured over the soil.  I have yet to see any evidence that this potion, that stunk out my kitchen, has actually done anything to get rid of the flies.

Any ideas?  I really don't want to get rid of my little fledgling plants, but I'm probably less keen on being infested by little jumping flies!!