Neat and tidy: yoghurt tubs make ideal bear traps.
Following on from the success of her older sister last year, Little Mudlet asked if she could have a section of garden this year and so a couple of months ago, I paced out two equal areas at one end of my longest bed, marked the boundary of each with house bricks, and let the girls choose which bit they wanted.
Stumpy carrots and Middle Mudlets’ first place long carrots.
Following on from Middle Mudlets success at a local show in August, both girls have been preparing for another local show which took place last weekend.
Neat and tidy.
It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since I first agreed to help out with Gardening Club but in actual fact it has been 8 years since the day I turned up with my spade and gloves and started to dig over the vegetable bed area for the resident gardening club organiser. At THAT time the vegetable patch was quite literally that – a patch of bare ground in the middle of a grass play area which was dug over every year but plans were afoot and, following a successful application to the National Lottery Grants for All, the vegetable garden evolved into the raised bed, poly tunnel space that it now is, although even that space has since developed further with two of the raised beds being dismantled last year (2017) and used to edge a new long bed by the poly tunnel. Continue reading
A very proud young gardener
When Middle Mudlet asked me if she could have her own patch of garden this year, little did I know that this was to prove one of the most challenging growing years of my short home growing experience. What a year for my middle child to dip her toe into the vegetable growing world!
Middle Mudlet proving that you are never too old to dig for gold!
When Middle Mudlet and I planted out the first set of Pentland Javelin potatoes way back in on April 15, ten weeks until harvest seemed ever such a long way into the future and yet here we are, just over eleven weeks on and yesterday, Middle Mudlet went digging for gold and her teenage self was as excited at the discovery of creamy skinned tubers, as any of my younger club gardeners. Continue reading
Spot of working the soil can lift your spirits and restore your equilibrium.
There is nothing quite like a stint in the garden, working the soil, sowing seeds and planting out plants, to ease away the stresses of a busy week and so with Middle Mudlet in a full on teenage angst mood when she got home from school, I suggested that she change into some old clothes and go do some work on her vegetable patch…… Continue reading
Hard at work clearing her patch of garden
Middle Mudlet is really excited about having her own patch of garden to cultivate. She has her sights set on the young gardener platter at the local garden show in August and is nothing if not determined. For my part, if it gets her out of the house more than usual, I’ll be extremely happy. Continue reading
Middle Mudlets’ propagator
“Can I have my own propagator to look after, please mum?” Middle Mudlet asked me the other day. Well what could I say, after all my whole ethos with the school garden has been to encourage the children to develop a love of all things green and growing and so I decided that the next round of seed sowing could be given over to the girls, under supervision. Continue reading
All planted out.
“Can I go to Lewis’ for tea mum? Please? Please?” were Middle Mudlets’ first words to me, as she flew across the playground, at the end of school Thursday.
“Mum says it’s okay,” Lewis added, hot on her heels.
A glance towards said mum confirmed this arrangement was okay with her and, as she is actually a friend of mine, I didn’t have any misgivings about letting Middle Mudlet go on a visit. Frankly, after a week of year 6 SATs tests, she deserved a break and so after leaving her bag with me, she headed off with Lewis …….. Continue reading
