Chopin Nocturnes
It has been very heavy on the medical front here so I am taking solace in my new project...My Little Bucket Garden. I have a sizeable yard right outside my kitchen window and I have been thinking and plotting for some time about utilising the space to grow some of the vegetables that I find it hard to buy around here. Spaghetti squash, rainbow radish, chards and an array of kale for example. I am on a extremely tight budget so buying the suggested containers that all the specialists recommended was definitely not going to happen. Then just by chance we were visiting a local DIY store and in the front of the store were hundreds of bright orange 'container' sized buckets and they were being sold off at £1 each. Perfect! And I loved the bright orange which really cheered up the yard. I also picked up a large red box for my carrot experiment at a good price and then some smaller troughs at various budget stores. I have to confess when I first started pricing up the containers I nearly passed out...for a brand new trough in the smallest sizes...£5! I haven't spent that collectively on the troughs I needed. Geez.
I have to say now that I know bucket/containers aren't ideal and in a perfect world I would 1. Be well enough to take over the substantial vegetable garden ML started a few years ago..although it's buried under a neighbours Willow tree now and therefore deadly to ML 2. Buy stoneware containers that are more eco friendly. But sadly that is not my lot....so buckets it is.
I've been delighted with my make shift green house (in my bathroom window!!) and I have been extremely excited to watch my Fizz Kale seedlings grow from tiny little green specks into sun and water hungry shoots. This weekend they will be thinned out and planted out into buckets. I also have Shiso seedlings and oregano seeds in my 'green house'. I know, I know I did promise I wouldn't turn into a gardening bore but a little update now and then can't hurt, eh? Oh hush now...I'm happy..
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| My little |
In the garden I now have various radish seedlings, other kale seedlings, yellow courgette seedlings, spaghetti squash seedlings, various beetroots and finally some signs of life from the carrots. My herb garden is coming along nicely with beautiful lush greenage from thyme, curly parsley, oregano, fennel, chives and mint. I hope to add some borage to that mix but I've never grown it before so I'll have to be patient and wait and see if the seeds take. I'm loving this project...
ML used to spend a lot of time down in the garden and I would try and understand the peace it used to provide in our chaotic world. But now I can say I understand completely...although the actual work is exhausting to me...I do enjoy every single second of being out there..soaking up some much needed VitD. I sit at the old table, that we rescued and stripped down and made good again, with my afternoon coffee and feel such a sense of relief. Although it's been very confusing for the four-legged fella who cannot understand why we have moved everything around and brought such stinky plants into his little world.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that I can bring you a food based blog in the next couple of days...
~Red~ the green fingered...who knew? :-)
