Now all I have to do is wait!

And for those of you that know me well, you will be aware that patience is definitely not one of my virtues ( if I have any at all.) 


The reason for my wait? Well yesterday I planted the final seedling from the greenhouse into the beds outside. The beds are well and truly full now, so its no longer up to me what happens, now I am relying on Mother Nature. 


After my last post, it was time to give the leaning tower of Barton a bit of company, so with my newly acquired tower building skill I set too. The last experience showed that 4 stakes were not enough to keep it upright, and using gardening wire just pulled it out of shape. So this time, five bamboo canes and string, it was certainly much easier and quicker. In no time at all there were three cane towers in the bed. 

The Peas were soon in and next was the Rocket.

Next on the list - Spinach

Closely followed by Tomato's 

A nice green hairnet, to save the Spinach from the Pidgeon's 

A random planting of Kos Lettuce

A couple more hairnets, 

and it was done. My project started in the depths of winter is now established. My first ever fully planted Vegetable Garden! Cue trumpet Fanfare!!!! 

What a difference to the header picture on this blog. No longer a clean tidy sterile garden, now a living, growing thing. Once it gets a bit more established I shall change that picture. 

Don't think that's the end though, Oh no, I have lots of other things to bore you with. Of course, I have to share the first pick of everything with you, and on that note, I have had more success. The first 6 strawberries were wonderful, and we have had quite a few more since then, but now it was the turn of the Italian salad leaves. 

By Saturday, they were of sufficient size and quantity to make the ultimate sacrifice. A quick snip with the scissors and they were in a bowl on the way the the kitchen. 

A very vigorous wash, to ensure there was no lurking protein in the form of slug, snail, ant, etc and then a quick spin 

They looked lovely, so an hour or so in the fridge whilst I did other things .

and then onto the plate for Dinner.

Delicious. Shame the tomato's in the greenhouse aren't ready yet, but we have them to look forward to.

On to the Animals. Margot is continuing in her efforts to escape on a daily basis. I have given up now. If she wants to be out then I let her, its usually not long before she is trying to get back in with Bab's and Geri and as all the plants are now established, she can't do too much damage. Because of her frequent escape attempts, I am considering renaming her after Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape. He was called "Hilts"" but was known as "The Cooler King" I think if I start calling her that instead, she may begin to think she will be joining her pre packed relatives, that I get from tesco, in the freezer. That may cause her to think a little before she heads off down the garden!

And then the Puppy. I know he is growing but he is still a baby. This has been his first experience of warm weather and he has found it a bit hot. So the other day when I was watering the plants (No we don't have a hosepipe ban) he decided to cool off a bit and have a nice cold drink.

 

And finally we had a day out on Monday and went to Exbury Gardens . The gardens are in full  bloom at the moment and it was a beautiful sight, here are some of my highlights. 

Hope you enjoyed the blooms as much as I did. Oh well time to do some inside jobs, Banana loaf in the oven and washing ready to go outside. Enjoy your week and don't work too hard!