Pets, Plants & Pants.....

 BC, gardening cat extraordinaire, brought me a present this week?  Oh no... I was wrong, it was her  'elevensies'!  So I took her lead, and made myself a much more appetising buttered cheese muffin and a mug of coffee, which I wandered round the Funny Farm Kitchen Garden with, deciding what to do next on my ever-growing list of jobs.  Why can't I be more like normal people and stop trying to reinvent the wheel every five minutes?  I see one job that needs doing.... start that, then spot another, then another, and another, and before I know it, I've done a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and frustrated myself to kingdom come into the bargain.

In the front wall of The Funny Farm, things are just as frenzied with the two bees' nests now..... A couple of dead ones on the inside of the house, but not the monumental graveyard so far that we witnessed last year.  Whilst at a later date I'd lurve to properly keep a hive or three, for the moment, there's sufficientt Mother Nature going on around me to keep things sweet, and I don't want to run before I satisfy myself that I can walk, if you get my drift.  And talking of Mother Nature, not only have I seen cutesy Spotty Woodpecker baby this week on the nut feeder, then yesterday the first Redstart of the year, and today I was cutting some scaffold netting (don't ask?!) in half lengthways from around my fruit bushes, in order to put a temporary windbreak between the sheep paddock and my newly-planted outdoor tomato plants (all 66 of them?... I know, I need shooting, but I'm hoping to sell some tommies this summer to help feed the Rayburn with oil so that we don't keep running out like last Winter!!!)  And guess wot? for the first time in the two years that we've lived here, I was close enough to touch the Treecreeper that was foraging for grubs in the contorted hazel bush.  Fleetingly magical moments such as that are so, so special....



 And today, children, I'd like to show you how things are progressing in the 'tidy' part of the kitchen garden...(Having prompted a couple of lovely comments from yourselves the other week, I just had to point out that my kitchen garden is a far tidier place than my house?) but at this time of year, Trousers is always an absolute Darling when it comes to just putting up with me and my seedlings all over the windowsills, conservatory, kitchen worksurfaces & Rayburn.

And with the temporary windbreak up now, my garden girls get a little respite from these chilly winds.  Whilst watering the cordons in, I was musing whether to buy a cheap late bargain of maincrop tatties to plant at their feet, and I plumped instead for the brilliance of planting the Roma bushy plum tommies at their feet instead.  For me, this was another Wellie 'ping' of an idea, because there's netting at the back to keep their 'sprawl' more upright, and I shall be protecting the soil with a mulch of some kind, which'll keep the plum tommie fruits off the soil.  And when the base of the cordons are a little bereft, the Romas will help to keep it looking Pretty Productive.

 Now then.... this is serious stuff, and I have posed a question on the Grow Your Own 'Grapevine' Forum, but if you looked at the above picture (just try and ignore the picture below for a while if you can?!)  The potatoes nearest to you are Pink Fir Apple (maincrop).  To the left of the birdbath are lst Early Vales Emerald.  To the right of the birdbath are 1st Early Lady Cristl, then behind that, a whole row of 2nd Early Piccolo Star, then a whole row of maincrop Mayan Gold, which are just about to start flowering.  Can you see just how Bonkers this is?

And didn't I predict last weekend that 'WonderWellie' would prolly fly in to weed the carrot bed for me Kids?

Thankfully, she did.  My bottom isn't as big as hers, obviously, and who gave her permission to borrow my Wellies?!

Have a good week my friends, and be sure not to take this mild weather for granted.  Keep an eye on the forecast, just in cases, because it would be a tragedy to lose stuff that you've nurtured for all these weeks and months, eh?

Thank you for gracing me with your valued company once again, and I look forward to being your hostess with the mostess again next weekend.

AND, I should be able to give you a sneaky preview of The Itton Village Produce Show Poster.X.