-
From bucket to demijohn.
Last week saw me starting off my first batches of wine for 2014. The gooseberries steeped in just a little less than a gallon of sugar water with yeast and other wine making ingredients has had a lovely frothy head for most of the week but today was stage 2 in the process where the initial fermentation has slowed down slightly and so the liquid has ( Read more... ) -
Calm Down Granpappy!!!!!
Quote of the day from my gorgeous two and a half year old granddaughter explains life at the moment ( Read more... ) -
April Fools!
We’ve had some lovely sunny days days this past week and apart from a tiny cold spell and some frost on a few of these nights, the coming week its only going to get better. But don’t be fooled! The night temperatures can kill tender plants as I’ve found out many times before due to my impatient nature.
Only by counting back the weeks to when you ( Read more... ) -
Success with seeds.
OH MY! Sorry people, not one post this month. Will make up for it with a few tips.
I’ve been ultra busy sowing all the seeds that need sowing this month i.e.. more tomatoes, cucumber, courgette and marrow, marigolds, sweet peas, cabbage, brussels, broccoli, squash…might have missed a few there!
I decided to use a new method for succesful seed ( Read more... ) -
Crazy February seed sowing!
Ever wondered why you don’t see many gardening blogs around this time of year? You’d be wrong for guessing that we were all in hibernation because the fact of the matter is that February has got to be the busiest month of the year.
Most of you out there are probably thinking its too cold to sow anything and seedlings are not going to survive but ( Read more... ) -
Avoiding out of date seeds.
I've just read a small article in the December edition of the GYO magazine entitled “avoiding out of date seeds” and although there was plenty to say about how seeds deteriorate quickly and that the usual shelf life put on packets of seeds is 2 years, there was nothing in the article telling you how to avoid this ( Read more... ) -
Planning this years garden.
My blog is a way of recording my own progress year by year but I hope it also helps those who are just starting out and maybe gives inspiration to other gardeners. This year I feel proud to have a slightly bigger audience for my gardening snippets as I’m not only blogging for Incredible Edible Wakefield on their Facebook page but I have been ( Read more... ) -
Help the environment in 2014 by doing some thrifty gardening.
Make a new years resolution for 2014 to help our environment and follow in the footsteps of a new breed of horticulturists who use what we would normally throw away to work with nature and not against it to help grow our own food. If you've never composted before, this is the perfect time of the year to start your own compost pile, as we tend to ( Read more... ) -
In praise of the winter salad leaf Mizuna.
I very rarely buy salad leaves these days! Most lettuce are tasteless and go limp as soon as you pop them into water and the leaves in bags don't last more than a day after opening, the only lettuce that will keep for a good week is cos lettuce, but even this can be a little bland and lacks colour and needs some pepping up! Because of this and my ( Read more... ) -
A no hassle way to use up your butternut squash.
Last weekend I purchased my third ever butternut squash. This buy was definitely a bargain as I found out when I cut it in half. My bonus was at least £25 worth in seeds.
To look and feel the squash with it’s slightly shiny, hard skin you’d think that it would be hard to cut into, but not so. Once you've carefully halved it and placed the flat side ( Read more... )