Easter Gardening On the Plot

Hello to those whom are still following here on my garden blog… Its been a long, long while since my last post in November…. I usually fill in my winter blog with stories of my travels, but as for all of us this past year, that has not been available to many. And to be very honest with you, my heart as not been in the world of blog…. As much as in my creative world of crafts… So I have been spending more and more time Off line, during my absent months, and more time within my creative world.. Both with my knitting, my art, and crafts.. My crafts and artwork I will share with you next time.

And look!…. you turn around and EASTER is now here…. Time as we know it is certainly going faster and at times you blink and a week has past…

So how are you all… Have you been keeping busy, and I hope all of your own gardens are thriving..

We have been lucky in that we have obtained another greenhouse by an allotmenteer who was finding his plot too hard to maintain due to ill health in his old age.. At 82, he did remarkably well and has had the plot next to ours for over 30 years… The last year he never came to his plot and that is the first year he has missed in all of his allotment days… We shall miss him and wished him well with his health issues..

Before the glass was put inside..

So hubby was busy in moving the greenhouse and setting up next to ours… Its funny how when you send out a signal to the Universe how its heard… Last year we both said we could do with a bigger greenhouse because of all the things we were finding to put in ours and not enough room…. Then this year we get one… Thank you Universe..

The greenhouse now with glass in and the cold frames and raised beds now moved in line.

We started early with setting onion and shallots sets in January, these are now in the ground but here they were before being put in the ground in the cold frame with the green mesh on top.

We also started our peas this way… And they too are now in the ground… We have two rows now set.

Peas two rows of three each… You can also see Apple trees starting to sprout shoots The

While hubby was busy doing that, I was trimming back the late raspberry bushes dead wood, and clearing out weed from places, along with hoeing over where hubby to putt in the potatoes. We have two and a half row of early potatoes which are Aran Pilot and six and half rows of main crop, which is Picasso..

More of things we are growing are in this gallery.

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So Spring is Here….. And I am so pleased to be digging back in Mother Natures earth again…. This gallery is a little different than in the Classic edit.. I thought it would show you the headers of the plants here.. They are from left to right cauliflower broccoli and Cosmos flowers, Leeks, Lettuce.. Peas, and onions and shallots now in the ground, and Asters flowers. These will go in my front home garden this year.

Hope you all of you have a very happy, Easter… and Happy Gardening..

When Your Garden is put to bed. Get creative.

Another month has flown by and Christmas will soon be upon us. Just where has this year flown to?  They say time flies by when you are having fun, well, it’s certainly flown. And I have been having fun creating. 

In my last months post I shared my finished knitted cardigan with you, Well I have since been knitting some more.. I knitted a cardigan for my granddaughter and she wanted a pair of finger-less gloves. 

Then using the wool which was left over I knitted a snood, and another pair of gloves.  a I started a scarf last year which had sat in the knitting bag for ages unfinished. So I decided to make that into a snood too. The results of these below.

Then you may remember in January of this year I started model making a greenhouse, which was so intricate, you just had to be in the mood to concentrate with all the tiny fiddly pieces you cut out and pasted.. The flowers were made out of tissue paper and fine wire. 

 

  Its vases were beads, the flowers I cut and pasted and well, you will see when I add the photo’s just what went into it. The flower pots and watering can and little seed bags each made individually out of paper.

Watering can pieces out of paper

leaves and watering can made

The furniture I made and glued together. including making the tiny pencil and paintbrush, to teasing out the frill on the cover on the box with a pin in the pieces of cotton. Even the handles on the draws I shaped out of metal were glued in place. 

Furniture, plants, bird box and seed packets including the cloth on the box which had the fringe teased out in the cotton fabric

Model furniture

What was my proudest achievement was my own bit of electrical work in the form of making a bulb terminal and light fitting, So minute.. I had to wire the bulb, and do the fiddly connections. And the bulb works  😊.. Yes, that put an even bigger smile upon my face.

Diagram of how to wire and fit the light inside the greenhouse.

Here you can see the stages that were required and I included the plan so you can see what was involved.. The bulb came separate with two prongs which I had to wire and cut to size and insulate. 

All the furniture was then glued onto the base and the items glued and put onto the shelves.  

Next I had to create the plastic casing for the greenhouse. Glue and fold it into its shape.

Now I know you Male readers out there may think this is simple, it was once I knew what I was doing.. But it was like me presenting you with a knitting pattern and expecting you to understand it at first glance.. 🙂 lol.  

All the sages now ready for assembly. This required LOTS of Patience..

 

Door frame and wooden base struts were added. If you look closely there is also a tap I made out of copper and eyelet and hose pipe out of tubing and thin metal I bent for the hose.

It still had a few more bits to add and the roof of the greenhouse needs black card strips yet to stick in place to cover the joints. 

Covering the joins with black card which was glued in place,

In the gallery below I will put more pictures of the Greenhouse making stages with LIGHT on.. 🙂  I glued some greenery around the edges for climbers. 

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to comment and like my post.. Many thanks to all who follow here, I wish you all a wonderful Festive Holiday Season of Fun with your family and friends..

But most of all I wish each and every one of your Peace, Love and Joy along with Good Health that takes you into 2019 and Beyond..

I am taking a blogging break, so comments may be pending for a short while..

~ Love ~Sue~

🎄Happy Christmas🎄

and 

✨A Happy New Year✨  

 

Clearing and Creating

As promised I will tell you what I have been up to this will take the form of Two posts over the next couple of days,  and I will let the pictures tell their own story. 

The flag stones were dug up from near the shed and moved to form the base.

We were lucky enough to buy a second hand greenhouse recently, it had a few panes of glass missing.. but it was a great bargain not to be missed.

Both Hubby and I erected the frame.. The sides are up!

Roof now on and some panes of glass are in on the roof

Hooks placed between flag stones to help secure frame

I now have 3 trays such as this ripening in the greenhouse. These tomatoes were grown outdoors among the veggies, and as its going colder would not finish ripening without help .. Looks like chutney is on the menu 🙂

The Greenhouse complete the roof window in, with glass and sheets of hard plastic which hubby cut to size to fill in the 5 panes which were missing. Also we added a water barrel.. Tomatoes are ripening in trays at the bottom. These were just grown in the allotment and there will be lots for Chutney I think 🙂  You can see Hubby put a fence panel up behind the greenhouse.. This is because the  shared path has an almost 1 and a Half foot drop onto our allotment side and if you were to slip!!? So Health and Safety first!.. 

Long view of the allotments looking back on my hoeing weeds all morning.. The greenhouse can now be seen a third of the way down on the right .

The Dwarf beans the seeds are drying out for next years planting on these that are left over Also Red Cabbage

The allotments are looking bare, in the foreground are my wallflowers which are for my home garden. I just hoed through this.. Isn’t it weed free!  🙂

 

The last of sweetpeas I saved a lot of the seeds, before dismantling and composting

 

Happy Gardening to you All 

Have a wonderful Week 

~Sue~