Free seeds! Yes please.

Lovely laid back day with the family at Bluewater. Had a lovely lunch at Wahacca, Mexcian restaurant. Nice surprise came with the bill at the end of the meal...

Dave got the bill, I got the seeds and a big smile on my face.

If it was down to me and me alone, I would in all likelihood fill the garden with raised beds. As it's not just down to me, I have to be inventive  and am always looking at ways I can grow more stuff. Here's some of the things I found secondary uses for (I'm sure there's a better way to explain that but it's been a long day and that is the best my brain can do at the moment).

Ikea bag, now a home for carrot seedlings that have just errupted in the past day or two (Early nantes seeds I bought in the summer for 50p from River Cottage cafe Axminster (blatant name drop!).

Chris's old wheelbarrow (about 10 years old) now a home to some spinach.

Leah's old wellies. It's weird, I've always found it hard to part with the kid's wellies, this is my way of hanging on to them and I get to grow some wild flowers in them (I hope).

My precious seedlings (sungold and moneymaker toms, aubergine, banana peppers and jalepenos), currently residing in my kitchen by the back door. The weather has been so amazing that I've been popping them out in the sun during the day, they are thriving.

Water is my worry. At the beginning of the month I ordered a second water butt and just missed the last rainfall so never got the chance to fill it. My old water butt is now almost drained and we are days away from the deadline for the hosepipe ban on April 4th. Gave everything a good watering with grey water for the first time today. I'm on a steep learning curve but just so excited about the gardeen and all the good things we will hopefully be eating through the summer. Leah was jumping around on one of the empty raised beds (her favourite pastime at the moment, followed by digging over the squashed down soil) tonight and we were joking about how I plan to send them out to graze in the garden saving me having to prepare dinner. I love my garden!

I decided to try growing some cosmos and some marigolds to grow along side the tomatoes. With everything I'm growing, I have to think where am I going to put it, space for growing is not something I have alot of.

The two raised beds we put in place last summer. With Leah, I sowed some green manure a couple of months ago. We had fun digging it over and trying to avoid the garlics that I planted in the winter. This is my second attempt at growing garlic. Last year I pulled up all the bulbs too soon (need to work on my patience, very lacking in that department), giving them another try. I have to balance what I grow with what space I have (did i mention, it's not alot!) and if I can't get the garlic to work then I can use their space for something more productive.

Our garden is small, it has not alot of soil to speak of, we are overlooked and I'm sure the garden would look a whole lot better if we threw a load of money at it. That's not going to happen. I just want to grow stuff and get dirt under my fingernails, so it's just a case of making the best of what we have. Last year, we tore down the old shed (and when I say we, I mean my friends son in law) that sat pointlessly at the bottom of  the garden for the 10 years we've lived here (and before) and I came a step nearer to being able to grow stuff. We put in two raised beds, chucked in some soil, grew some peas that looked ropey, grew some kale that lasted the winter and gave us a regular yet small supply of fresh greens, had 5 wonky plants of purple sprouting brocolli which gave us something special to go with the Sunday roast. In other pots and containers, I grew tomatoes and as they struggled to ripen, we had an abundance of green tomato chutney (yum!).

15th February I began sowing seeds for what I really hope will be a fruitful and vegful summer. Bring it on!