Looking Good!

Well after a couple of productive weekends and lots of hard work the veggie plot is taking shape. It really has been quite satisfying, even if we can't move afterwards! Digging over a very compact and stony soil  has been hard to say the least - lots of radox baths for my husband...

The main plot has been finished and manure added today, the soil is in pretty poor shape. In the last two weekends I have also cleared the area for the herb garden and this is now complete and stocked with a selection of herbs.

In the main plot I have placed three sets of canes to support green beans an runner beans and have planted beetroot, lettuce and rocket. Even though we have dug up more garden there still doesn't seem to be enough room! I still need to plant out my main crop potatoes - that will have to wait for the Easter break. I have just over a week off, so plenty of gardening time.

For the past three weekends we have also been playing at being lumberjacks. A tree had fallen down in my dad's garden into a field next to it and so I have been helping clear this and taken the wood we have cut. We have taken a pretty good haul over the three weekends and nearly filled our wood store. We still have some more to cut but that should fill it. Free wood for the winter :)

We had a great morning out today at Calke Abbey, a national trust property, at their fine food fair. We bought a number of things for a ploughman's lunch namely rosemary and rock salt bread (baked in a flowerpot!), red onion chutney, pork pie and some fantastic cheese. The bread and chutney were delicious. Red onion chutney is my favourite yet I still haven't made it myself. Over Easter I will experiment with the bread and chutney. We have a bread maker and will modify an Italian recipe with oregano with rosemary! I'll post the recipes if I'm successful :)