I Made Potatoes!

I planted and grew my first potatoes - they are Queen Elizabeth's and I dug 2 portions up on Friday. I was beyond excited to find they had actually grown and were proper, real life potatoes!

We washed and cooked them up and made a lovely Tuna Nicoise salad. Unfortunately I had never cooked such fresh tats before and so, I admit, I overcooked them just a bit. They were done so quickly!

They were still delicious and there's more out there yet to be dug up and devoured.

“A man who prides himself on his ancestry is like the potato plant, the best part of which is underground”

- Spanish Proverb

Spring is Almost Sprung!

The sun is here, the sun is here!! 

I spent almost all the weekend in my garden,clearing the leaves, pruning the plants and weeding, oh ma gosh there was so much weeding to do!

As a reward and incentive The Big One and I placed a rather large order with Crocus for all sorts of floral delights including some seeds for; plum tomatoes, potatoes and some amazing rare strawberries - yup we're getting productive!

Here's some of what we ordered, have a look at what they're supposed to look like and wish me green fingered luck that I can make them all bloom!

Pineberry Dream - taste like strawberries and pineapple!

Spencer Sweet Pea

Golden Margurite

Alkanet

Gladioli 'The Bride'

"Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization."
- Lincoln Steffens

How Does My Garden Grow?

One of the things I miss about being away from home is my garden. When we first moved in to our flat the garden was a MESS, with help from friends and a lot of patience we have turned it into a lovely place to be. When I'm home I love wandering around it every day to see what's flowering, growing, appearing.

I asked The Big One to send my pictures of my little garden so I could see any new developments.

Gary and Cooper, the other aspects of home I miss most, joined in the photoshoot.

Gary

Cooper

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature."
- Gerard De Nerval 

My Birthday Soireeeeee!

bit dark but it brightened up...

 Yesterday I had an absolutely gorgeous little birthday barbecue/garden party.  It was a casual, relatively last minute affair but I was overwhelmed by the amount people who battled the multiple tube line closures to get to us and boy-oh-boy I was showered with beautiful cards and gifts! Each indivdual card and/or pressie was so thoughtful and perfect.

I genuinely wasn't expecting anything at all - I always think the fact people come to toast your birthday with you is a gift in itself, everyone's so busy and nobody wants to travel across London at the weekend but turn up they did and I had a ball!

We had dressed up the garden with the bunting I had made, the lanterns and fairy lights my lovely friend L had lent to us and my wishes for sun seemingly answered, we fired up the barbecue.

I served 2 types of cocktails (Jasmine Delight & Gin Fizz) out of teapots into my new little Frost French glass teacups. The cocktails and cups went down a storm, I made several teapot loads throughout the day.

The Big One did one of his infamous quizzes and despite a controversial scoring debate 'The Asian Connection Team' won.

A round of ice-cream cones, complete with strawberry sauce and hundreds and thousands later we lit all the candles outside and R&K gave me the beautiful gift of a wish lantern. I wrote my wish on it, lit it then we all watched as the lantern floated away carrying my wish high into the night sky.

There was rain, making us each grab cushions and rugs and run in (several times), but that just seemed to add to the party spirit, people set up camp in almost every room and then would mingle. I just floated from space to space chatting to everyone I could.

It was one of those perfect parties where people drop in throughout the afternoon/evening making the dynamics in the group constantly change.

I am so very lucky to have (so many) friends from all different walks of life and each of them seem to love meeting and chatting to each other whether it be for the first time or not.

I love my friends, they are my family and when I have days like yesterday they each make me feel that I am family to them as well.

Thank you to you all, you made my birthday, each and every one of you!

"Friends are relatives you make for yourself."

  ~Eustache Deschamps

Plant then Eat your Greens

My little garden is growing vegetables....

Our ENORMOUS Pumpkin Plant, kindly gifted to us by R&K

All my hope rests on this little pumpkin blob

Baby lettuce anyone? Just wait a leeeetle bit longer...

And carrots, onions, potatoes and beetroot to go in this weekend - oh yes,there's a veritable feast of goodies growing in my garden!

"All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope"

-Alexandre Dumas Pere

Gary's Garden

I noticed today that Gary the Cat clearly approved of the garden's developments, he loves chilling out on his new lawn, watching....the wall.

"Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing."

- Dodie Smith

Green Fingers = Muddy Nails

When we moved into this new flat the garden was a WRECK!

It was so overgrown we could barely find it! Our previous home shared a garden with 2 other flats, one of our neighbours enjoyed gardening so much and he turned it into a stunning cottage garden.

It was gorgeous to be in but you did feel that you couldn't partake in the actual gardening as it was his baby, so when we moved in here, we I was delighted that I could have my very own garden to develop just the way I liked.

And boy did we have a job on our hands! After a LOT of weeding and pruning (thank you Phil, Penny and James!) we discovered that we had 4 badly done gravel pits, one ugly central tree and not a lot else so we decided to use as much of the gravel as we could rescue and make a seating area at the back, a path leading and dig the rest over to plant.

Plodding along with our plan we got a surprise call from HawkandFallow one Thursday - she was at a Pop-Up shop in Clerkenwell selling her delicious cards and the organisers had carpeted the shop with grass turf. At the end of the 3 days they needed to get rid of it so did we want some for our garden - YES INDEED!

I got there on the Sunday, wrapped as much as I could carry in bin bags, hailed a cab and took it home to lay and religiously water for 2 weeks, hoping that it would survive being on concrete and trampled on for 3 days.

After much TLC, a big garden centre shop for flowers and gravel we have a baby garden!

I've planted a few bulbs also which will hopefully grow up to reveal beautiful flowers next Spring. 

It's young and still a bit bare but it's full of promise.

"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.  My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.  The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful." 

~Abram L. Urban

Spoilt for Choice

We (moi et le Grand Un) have some of the best friends anyone could wish for!

One of our good friends....I shall name him....Espagne....has recently been assisting a landscape gardener and he claims he has caught the gardening 'bug'. Our new home came with a garden, our very own garden yet it is a horrible mess of gravel and weeds. We had been planning to somehow turn it into something beautiful when along came....Espagne! Having heard about our project he has offered his new and  invaluable services and skills and has been clearing out the existing wreck and prepping it for whatever we choose to turn it into.

He has been turning up, in his own time and getting stuck in. It already looks unbelievably better! He has pretty much returned it to a blank canvas and has now asked me to consider the type of garden I want, the flowers and plants to get and he will turn my vision into a reality!

What an amazing gift! I keep asking him if we can offer him something, anything! A fridge full of treats if not dosh but he insists he enjoys it and wants nothing in return.

So I have been thinking and mulling away to come up with my ideal garden. I kind of already knew what I wanted (cottage style with natural border elements) but having never been a green fingered one, frankly I was a bit intimidated by the task at hand, but now, now, I have someone to guide me through it. I couldn't be more excited!

These are a few pretties I saw today to add to my nursery shopping list.

"A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy."

- Luis Barragan 

Spring in full bloom....

I have been working away inside all day today and just stepped out into the garden to rescue some fallen washing, when I remembered to look up, SEE my beautiful garden and breathe in the lovely Spring air.


I have to be honest though - neither me nor the J are responsible for such prettiness, it's a shared garden and luckily for us one of our neighbours loves toiling away out there all year meaning that come Spring we get to spend time in the gorgeous results of his dedication. Don't worry we thank him all the time!


Gardening is one of those things I like the idea of but never seem to actually do....