Saturday, 27 February 2010

sowing seeds...

I've had a couple fairly disastrous attempts at gardening over the past couple of years, but despite that I'm going to give it another go!  As I'm actually on time for starting this year (something that may have been biggest problem in the past) and as I'm at home most of everyday now, I figure this year should be much more successful than the years gone by!


gardening 26.02.10

This blog is mostly an opportunity to keep a track of my progress, to keep a record of what I planted when and how well it is doing!  But please feel free to add your own comments and follow me on my gardening adventure!  I don't actually have a garden as such, but I'm not going to let that stand in my way!  I have a very small patio area, a (dangerous for a crawling baby) roof terrace, a few window sills and quite a lot of pots, I'm hoping that will be enough for now!


gardening 26.02.10

Yesterday I sowed the following...




  • coriander

  • basil

  • purple basil

  • parsley

  • oregano

  • sweet pepper


I also watered the much neglected little chilli seedling (that seems to have been a seedling for quite a few months now, probably caused by the neglect) and an aloe vera plant I picked up somewhere, and placed them all on the lovely sunny windowsill in my lounge where hopefully there everyday presence will remind me to keep them watered and healthy!


gardening 26.02.10

I've covered each of the pots with seeds in it, with clingfilm, I read somewhere that would work as a little green house.  It's worked well for me in the past when planting seeds.

Wish me (and them) luck! x



Monday, 31 August 2009

I'm moving...

...a quick note to let you all know that as of tomorrow I will be over here...


A bit of a rash decision maybe, but so far I'm quite pleased (although it took me a while) with my typepadding.

Please come visit. I'll be doing a giveaway on the new blog (in an attempt to woo you over!) tomorrow, so please do follow me over!

More gardening...

It's been a pretty super weekend round these parts...Johnny had a whole 4 days off work. It's been great for me to be able to get lots and lots done, including crafting, cleaning, boring computer chores and the building of my very own indoor gardening space.


By building I mostly mean bringing a large cardboard box (the one from Milo's pushchair) into the kitchen and putting some pots on top of it!

But I'm very pleased with my handiwork.



Growing in our pots we have...

  • oregano
  • basil (green)
  • basil (purple)
  • coriander
  • parsley
  • rocket
  • hot chillies
  • sweet chillies

I shall be sure to keep you updated on their progress.

Happy bank holidays xx

Saturday, 29 August 2009

Friday, 28 August 2009

Beetroot Cake...

Since we've been having vegetable boxes delivered to us from these folks, we've found we quite often have bits and pieces which we wouldn't normally buy, or we're not quite sure what to make with. This led to one of my new favourite games being born, google dinner, where you simply pop into google the ingredients you have to hand and find a whole array of wonderful recipes using them.

Well when it came to googling beetroot, the recipe I found most was definitely beetroot cake, mostly chocolate beetroot cake, but I did find a couple of basic just beetroot cake. 'What a wonderful idea' I thought, 'just like carrot cake'.
As it happened I had all the ingredients I needed at hand for this recipe (which coincidentally is from the same website that we get our veg from). So as Milo was napping I set about baking.




It was lots of fun, mostly for the wonderful pink juice that bled pretty much everywhere! And it was a very easy recipe. Once in the oven it started to smell fantastic, and then, well, it started to just smell a little weird!




It came out well, to look it, and is pretty much the perfect cake consistency, lovely and light and moist, but, well, it just doesn't taste that great! It's not bad, we'll probably manage to eat it all between the two of us, after all cake is cake, but I certainly won't be making it again. Maybe I'll try the chocolate variety next time.