Monday 13 April 2015

A day to be treasured

I had a lovely day yesterday! The sun was shining and there was a warm breeze - perfect drying weather for an early morning load of washing! I had lots of time gently pottering in the garden and managed to sow and transplant loads more seeds and seedlings.


Aubergines just beginning to germinate

Not a great photo because of the strong sunshine, but an idea of how I'm growing my veg in amongst the flower beds in a potager style. 

I now have runner beans, purple mange-tout, garlic, kale, spinach, sugar snap, broad bean, shallot, onions, lettuces, courgettes, pattypan squash, butternut squash and potatoes in the garden and tomatoes, Romano peppers, chillies, coriander and aubergines in the conservatory.

I even had some spare tomato, pepper and chilli plants for Mr D to take in for his colleagues at work. 

Our garden bench developed a crack after Mr D sat on it (!!), but I had picked up some bed slats from a lady who was throwing them out, so we were able to fashion a free repair. Once I've 'tarted' it up a bit, the bench should last us a few more years!
We had a lovely roast dinner in the evening - roast chicken for the meat eaters (a rare treat) with loads of yummy vegetables - polenta roast potatoes, maple syrup roasted parsnips, broccoli, peas and sweetcorn and 'buttery' carrot and swede mash. To be quite honest, all of us love the vegetables the most anyway!!
After dinner, we played some silly card games and then Mr D and I sat outside for a while longer with the chimanea lit. It was lovely and cosy on our bench and I used it to start the process of destroying mum's private paperwork as I don't have a shredder.

  

Days like that, filled with simple pleasures are really special aren't they? What makes your days special?

8 comments:

  1. Your day sounds wonderful - the kind I like! Unfortunately where we live (Nottinghamshire) we had the total opposite weather! Very cold, wet and windy all day. We ventured to one of the local car boots first thing and I felt so sorry for the stall holders, all trying to hang onto their stuff due to very strong winds! We picked up a few plants. We decided to carry on gardening despite the weather and heavy rain (fools!). The most annoying thing for me however was that last year I collected a small lunch box full of poppy seeds from the poppies we had growing. I decided to randomly sow these in amongst everything else. I scattered a few and placed the box on the picnic bench - only to find the blooming wind took them, box and all, within a second!! So now I suspect we'll have poppies coming up everywhere this year!! (Mrs LH)

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    1. How very frustrating for you! I guess poppies are better than dandelions?! Bizarre how different the weather can be on our tiny little island!

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  2. Sounds like just what you needed. My mouth is watering reading the list of veggies you are planting!

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    1. They have to actually grow first, but I am hopeful that we'll get something from it at least! I do love trying to grow my own and I certainly enjoy eating it - my main problem is actually making it back up the garden before I've eaten it!

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  3. I LOVE Potagers. I grow flowers among my vegetables too.
    Gill

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    1. I like the look of it and we don't have a big enough space to do it any other way! Years ago, I was smitten with Geoff Hamilton's book "The Ornamental Kitchen Garden" - I think you'd like it too.

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  4. Sounds like a lovely day, relaxing and productive ..... the best sort.

    I think we are missing a chiminea on our patio, it would be the finishing touch once we have our new benches assembled. I'll blame you for giving me the idea ;-)

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    1. I was bought it as my leaving present when I left work last year and it's brilliant! It gives off quite a bit if heat actually so I'd certainly recommend one :)

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