Ready for the Greenhouse...

 So after the party we had a big clean up job ahead but we soon got on top of it all. It's pretty difficult to keep chickens on fresh ground in the winter so we're allowing them to roam around the garden. This won't do the lawn any good but we can reseed it in the spring and it's really lovely having the girls follow you around the garden.

The wormery is going strong and I'm getting the first 'worm tea'. This is supposed to be a great fertilizer so we are using it on the last of the winter veg. It's taking a while for the worms to multiply and we still only have one level of the wormery in action but they seem happy enough.

The first of the 'worm tea'

We enjoyed the last of the parsnips and some leeks. We are definitely going to try both varieties again as they were delicious.

But at this time of year there isn't an awful lot to do so after the clear up we started to think about next year and clearing space for our next big project....a greenhouse. We picked a likely spot at the back of the garden near the hen enclosure. The beech hedges are beautiful but they take up nearly 4 ft around the edge of our garden so the plan was to take out a section of hedges to make way for a small greenhouse. It's just going to be a bog standard cold greenhouse but will increase our repertoire, lengthen the growing season and give us somewhere to work when the weather is awful...which has been most of the year in 2012! So it was out with the loppers! 

The girls helped us pick out a spot.

Charlie even managed to have a go with his new chainsaw (I know, don't worry, I'm not going to let Minion 1 go anywhere near it). Of course cutting the hedges down is just the beginning. There will have to be a base...and that will probably mean a cement mixer and all that entails. Minion 1 will be so pleased :-). But for now it's time to curl up infront of the fire with seed catalogues and wait for the Spring. Happy Holidays! 

Season of Mists and Blowing Stuff Up....

Yes, it's that time of year again...time to check the bonfire for hedgehogs, clear away the leaves...then gather together, burn an effigy and blow lots of things up. No, don't worry, we are not members of a terrorist organisation...we are English and the English on the 5th of November celebrate the attempted blowing up of the Houses of Parliament and the then King, James I by that rascal Guy Faukes and his cronies.  (I'm purposely not describing us as British as I'm not sure if they share this tradition in our sister countries of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In fact I'm pretty sure that there are lots of people in those countries who would only celebrate if the HoP HAD been blown up...come to think of it there are probably quite of few of those people in  this country :-) )

Anyway, I digress....the main growing season is nearly at an end, all the flowers have gone from the pots and the only veg left is the brassicas a few parsnips (which, by the way, have been a HUGE success and bloomin' delicious) and some leeks.... there's no escaping the fact that winter is nearly upon us. We decided to send the season off with a bang (yes, I went there) and have one last party to celebrate..well, the hideous death of a revolutionary over 400 years ago!

As tradition dictates we built our Guy. This is a strange tradition I've never fathomed as Guy Fawkes wasn't burnt to death but was in fact hung, drawn and quartered, poor chap....however, that was a very long time ago and it's all good fun so we just go with it....This Year, Guy's bottom half was made up of Minion 1's legendary 'chav pants'...

I should explain the significance of these pants to all those who have never had the pleasure of making my son's acquaintance. I might have mentioned that Minion 1 is at UCL studying medicine ;-). Well, despite the fact that he is really very bright he used to insist on dressing in these hideous, shapeless, tatty, grey tracksuit bottoms! We could never coax him out of them... He was even wearing them when he had a close encounter with our beloved Queen whose convoy was making it's way through Camden one day...Imagine what her Majesty must of thought when Shaun, sporting a russian hat and his chav pants gave her an innane grin and a two handed wave. He swears she smiled and waved at him...she probably thought he was a care in the community case and was fervently hoping he didn't throw a brick.

Anyway after nearly two years of putting up with them, of begging him not to wear them to a numerous gatherings and family events....Minion 1 foolishly forgot his pants the last time he was home and they met their end as Guy's legs. Minion 1, bless him, returned home to the sight of his pants sitting on the bonfire and he knew that their reign was at an end:

It might look as if Guy has had an unfortunate accident...which you couldn't blame him for considering his approaching demise, however, that is light fluid...Charlie swears blind he didn't do it on purpose.

Minion 1 took it on the chin and the burning of the chav pants caused much hilarity and,
for me anyway, was quite cathartic

Of course, what goes around comes around, and my punishment for burning the pants was another big hole in my lawn....and the other one had only just blended in properly. Oh well, we reep what we sow.

My friend Sam also said goodbye to some demons by ritually burning some notes from a horrible placement she had....

and Chris just enjoyed poking the fire...

It was a great night...Minion 1 cheered up when we let him set off all the fireworks.....Grandad even enjoyed a sparkler or two. Sadly, Minion 6 was in bed but all other minions had fun and even Minion 2 came out of his cave, albeit briefly. It was probably the last outside party of the year. We've had so much fun in our garden in 2012. From the Golden Jubilee to Minion 6's Christening. We're looking forward to having lots more next year. But for now, I've got a right old bloody mess to clean up! :-)

Under the Apple Tree

Its the time of year when everything starts winding down in the garden. The growing season is nearly at an end; the nights are getting colder and darker and it's a time to think about packing away the BBQ and covering the furniture. We still have lots to do in the minion garden and over the winter we will be pruning, sharpening and hopefully putting up a new greenhouse. But before I start the Autumn phase of this blog I wanted to share one of the last days of summer with you. It was just an ordinary day. Like many we have shared together as a family this year but I think that too often we overlook the day to day, so it's nice to stop and appreciate the small pleasures of ordinary life.

It's a rare occasion that we have all the male minions in one place these days. I've explained about Minion 2s aversion to being out in the garden (which I believe stems from a fear of being given a job, coupled with the fact that as Minion 2 delicately puts it: 'the garden is crap for playing football in') also Shaun, aka Minion 1, is reading medicine at UCL...have I not mentioned that before?!?! :-)...so to have all of them in the garden at once is a real treat. Last week Minion 1 made an impromptu visit and we all found ourselves chilling out under the apple tree. Here are a few moments from our evening in the sun....

All the male minions together...and even Grandad put in an appearence

Charlie stoked up the BBQ and we all relaxed enjoying a beautiful late summer evening.  We lay under the apple tree chatting and Minion 6 was fascinated by a beautiful dragonfly which was flying around the courgettes. 

A welcome visitor to the Minion Garden

Of course, Minions 1 and 5 being together meant that it didn't stay quiet and chilled for very long and their first escapade including Minion 1 using his little sister to pick apples for him....

Then he stole Minion 5s space hopper...

But it was recaptured near the parsnips...

On the way back to camp Minion 1 got lost in the corn jungle. The corn is HUGE some of it has reached 7 ft. I only hope we get some edible kernels off it!

 But he soon escaped and was looking for more trouble to get into...

Charlie starts juggling in a desperate attempt to distract Minions 1 and 5
from whatever mischief they had planned next but Cricket aka Minion 3
saved the day by getting their attention with a very large courgette.

Ooer, what a whopper! :-)

 All in all it has been a lovely summer in our garden and despite the rain we have really enjoyed this season. It's not quite over yet. The corn is still growing, as are the courgettes and tomatillos, and we have Brocolli and Cabbages for winter...but there is a distinct feeling that the garden is slowing down and getting ready for a long rest. In the meantime we will continue to enjoy the few last days of sunshine in our lovely garden with as much of our lovely family as we can muster up....and we get to do it all again next year....

We Reep What We Sow...

Anyone who has ever grown vegetables knows that although this may be true in a metaphysical sense it doesn't necessarily hold true for horticultural endeavours. This season has been a bit grim for all growers. A dry Spring followed by torrential rains and periods of scorching sun have done for many-a seasoned gardener's crops. We at the minion household have, however, faired reasonably well. 

Last year we were grabbed by the whole idea of planting traditional varieties as opposed to the F1 Hybrid EU approved varieties which have been heavily inbred and are the ones available in most garden centres. In our search for more eco crops we discovered 'The Real Seed Company':

www.realseeds.co.uk

They specialise in vegetable seeds for kitchen gardens and include both heirloom varieties and modern strains but no genetically modified or hybrids so you can save your own seeds. 

We chose our seeds from their catalogue last winter and, with the exception of our leeks, which were bought as plants and our potatoes, ALL our veg is from their seed. Perhaps our success had something to do with that...I can't be sure but we are definitely going to get our seed from them in the future (what we don't save this year that is). This year our shopping list looked like this:

Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli

'Placenza' Savoy Winter Cabbage

D'Eysines Fat Carrot

'Verde di Italia' Courgettes

'Tender and True' Parsnips

Sturon Onion

'Bijou' Giant Sugar Pea (Mangetout)

Serpette Guilloteau Pea (Second Early)

'Kaibi Round' Red Pepper

Golden Bantam Improved Sweetcorn

'Verde Pueblo' Tomatillo

Quite a nice mix we felt. Well, we said goodbye to the red peppers quite some time ago...no sun and too much cold rain (we will give them another go next year when we have our greenhouse). We can't comment on the Broccoli, Parsnips and Cabbage yet although they all appear to be growing very nicely. Other crops however are starting to make their way into the kitchen! Here is last night's veg..our 'Fat Carrots' which were short and delicious, and our 'Bijou' mangetout. 

Also in this picture are a weeks worth of eggs from our lovely chickens!

One thing we love about The Real Seed Company is the little stories that accompany some of the seeds. The 'Bijou' is a really old fashioned sugar pea that was very popular in the 1880s but is now almost completely extinct. It has now been reintroduced by TRSC from a handful of peas found in a cellar....from there it made it's way to the minion garden and onto our dinner plates last night...a little bit of horticultural history. The plants are enormous! In fact, if we grow them next year I'm going to grow them up 8ft wigwams. The other peas have done well but are showing a bit of mildew now. None of them made it into the house as they were too delicious. We ate them straight out of the pods. Minion 4 was particularly partial...

Minion 4 scoffing!

Elsewhere in the garden the courgettes are going bonkers. We are having to put courgettes in every meal we cook to get through the vast quantities the 3 plants we have are producing. The fruits of the 'Verde di Italia' are pale green and delicious. We also have some pretty potent little onions and tonights meal is a Bolognese that contains them both!

We're rather proud of our 'from seed' onions.
Watch it though, they make your eyes water.

Courgettes anyone?

No inappropriate jokes please :-)

So that's about it from the minion garden. Our sweetcorn is 6 ft high now though so we're hoping for more delicious crops. I'm going to extend my flower growing on the patio. I got a lovely little patio rose which has inspired me to plan a container rose garden and we're going to try to sow some 'quick cropping' veg to make the most of the Indian Summer we're hoping to have....well, we can but dream! 

Ready to Entertain!

Hello All,

We have been busy busy at Minion HQ and things are going great guns in the garden. Despite the weather's best efforts we are finally seeing some results Veg wise and this week we were scoffing delicious carrots and homegrown potatoes! The mangetout are also starting to pop out and we're hoping for lots more sun so everything gets the boost that it needs. This week however there were more practical considerations as I had to tackle one of the toughest jobs of the year and cut back the Beech Hedges and we had to tidy up our 'patio' area ready for Charlie to have a few friends round. 

Exhibit A, the hedges are going a bit mad. There's also been
an explosion of pink as Minion 5 is currently in residence.

As you can see from exhibit A the beech hedges were looking a bit wild and wooly. So I set to work. It really is a massive job and requires lots of precarious ladder climbing. The lady who lived here before us apparently broke her wrist falling off a ladder when cutting these hedges and I almost did the same. Shortly after Charlie took the picture, when I was overextending to cut the back edge of the hedge I went one way and the ladder went the other. Luckily my fat bottom broke my fall and I ended up with just a few bruises...phew!

That's some precision hedge cutting for you! To the Right is the
  aforementioned fat bottom that saved the day!

It took me all day to get the beech hedges under control but it makes such a difference when they are done. However, it is a truth universally acknowledged that you get one job done in the garden and there's another huge job awaiting, and after the hedge-cutting there were a LOT of clippings to clean up and the patio looked like this...

Minions 1-3 and Charlie are good for heavy lifting etc. but they are sandpeople (i.e they get the job don't but it's not pretty)...for aesthetics you need precision, you need a woman's eye for detail...you need the Imperial storm troopers that are myself and Minion 5. We set to work raking weeding and relocating and pretty soon the patio area and the rest of the garden was looking good.

I'd like to point out that although Charlie managed to sneek into this picture putting those candles back in was his only
contribution of the day :-)

So a good days work and although I had a sore hip for a few days I was relatively unharmed by the experience. The next day the table turned up. This was time for Charlie to come into his own and for me and Minons 5 and 6 to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labour. After a little self assembly the new table and chairs were ready to go and we enjoyed an impromptu BBQ before Charlie welcomed his guests.

The Master at work :-)

The prospect of food even smoked Minion 2 out of his cave!!

Charlie, with wine and snacks awaiting the arrival of his cronies...it doesn't get any better than this!!

It Doesn't Rain...

If you don't live in Britain you may be unaware of the appalling weather we have had so far this year. Quite comically we started the season with a hosepipe ban and this was followed with the wettest few months ever recorded. Now us Brit's are reasonably hardy folk when it comes to bad weather (that is unless is snows, only a few inches can throw us into the most awful quandary and general panic and disorder ensues). Don't get me wrong we like to moan about it, but a bit of rain doesn't, generally, stop us in our tracks...this is after all Great Britain and rain to us is like sand in the desert...a fact of life. This year however has been, quite frankly, bloody ridiculous. No sun = nothing is growing. Even the highest of land is surface flooding. It's a nightmare. I thought last year was bad when we were picking crops 6 weeks later than we should have been, but nothing is growing this year and as the months go by our veg growing efforts are looking more and more like a disaster. It's also impossible to get out in the garden. After two washed out weekends our garden was starting to look like a bit of a mess:

In desperate need of a good mow and a trim

Even though the veg side of things is grim, the chicken's have settled in nicely. They figured where to roost on the first night with no intervention from me and are now enjoying peck in around in the enclosure. We are also seeing the first eggs which is very exciting!! The wormery is going well too. We have discovered that they love carrot peelings. Here is a picture of our pretty girls and not so pretty worm friends:

Charlie proudly showing off one of our first eggs!

Back to the garden. We unleashed minion 5 on the weeds and gave the lawn a bit of a mow and it's looking a lot better out there. We're hoping for a late harvest and haven't given up on our crops! That said, we are sick of being slaves to our fickle climate and have decided to get a greenhouse. At least we can have a bash at controlling conditions in there. I feel another blog entry coming on :-)

Minion 5 hard at work

'I wouldn't have done it like that..'