Cripes. Nobody told me how much extra work sowing a vegetable garden from scratch is or how much space you need to put the little seeds/seedlings if you haven’t got a greenhouse (we haven’t,and we haven’t got deep windowsills either) OR how you’d have to find a babysitter for the sproutlings to water them sparingly if you go away for more than two days.
We took our seeds and five seedlings to blessed Janet’s house at pretty short notice before we went away for the long Easter weekend when I realised that they’d need tending to or they’d shrivel and die.
The list of small charges included tomatoes,chillis,geranium,lobelia,hollyhock,sweet pea &mini plants of onion,shallot and spring onion. Janet was kind enough to put them all in her posh front porch and back utility room. While we were there we said hello to the newborn lambs with umbilical cords hanging down,admired the Capability Brown folly on the hillside and squelched around in a large muddy pond.
I went back to Janet’s today with the kids to collect seed trays which now look like minature forests (apart from the sweet peas even though I lovingly soaked the seeds overnight to help them break through the tough seed coat).
Tomato Money Maker (left) and Garden Pearl (top right –these seem a bit sleepy at the mo a bit like a cat called Pearl I know and love) and onions plants
Eden’s Hollyhock 
My Geranium,Lobelia and Carnations
Apparently it’s time to prick out the toms and chillis out by using a pencil and holding the two leaves of each plant rather than the fragile stem. We need to plant them into individual pots which I bought today for 10p each at the local garden centre.
Luckily I haven’t planned anything for this Easter week with the children as we are managing to get loads done in the garden and the kids are learning so much about things growing.
he kids and I planted pumpkins and courgettes yesterday in little seed pots,today we did red cabbage,mini cauliflowers,carrots and parsnips. I still have to get the runner beans,peas and sweetcorn planted but will probably only do a few of each of those as they are such big plants and produce a lot.
Janet,as always had lots of top tips including a warning not to over water the tiny plants as they haven’t actually grown a proper root yet,and the fact that seeds will last in the packet for a good two years after purchase and I shouldn’t feel like I have to plant them all. Wise words from someone who knows how much work small children and growing a garden full of plants can be!
Janet’s garden is beautiful with spring flowers everywhere (primroses,forget-me-nots,small blossom filled shrubs which get pruned back after flowering each year to keep them the size they are just filling the garden with fluffy white against the emerging greenery),her vegetable garden is in amoungst the flowers and also has her bee hives with bees buzzing in and out by the big lettuces grown under an old glass contraption,John her husband was pruning away at one end of the garden and the kids played in the huge hammock they had hanging between two silver birch trees. Hot enough for a sit in the garden in t-shirts. Lovely.
Tonight we ate (as a family which is unusual):Big salad (lettuce finely chopped,red peppers finely chopped,carrots,french beans),tuna mayonnaise (but get this,I realised I had no mayo after opening the tin,so decided to make some as had just bought some fresh eggs from the farm –had never tried before but Nigel Slater’s recipe for ‘a lovely wobbly mayonnaise’seemed about as straight forward as you can get &it was although I overdid the pinch of salt at the beginning so it didn’t taste as nice as it might have done),ham,wholemeal pitta breads and cream cheese.
For lunch the kids ate: Tuna pasta baked with a whole tin of sweetcorn as I let Edie tip it in.
For lunch I ate: Small portion of left over pork casserole as I really do love leftovers the day after. Had it with some very brightly coloured purple sprouting broccoli.
Tomorrow we’ll eat: I’m going to attempt a wheat-free version of this Weight Watchers fish &chip recipe. With flour swapped for cornflour and using the gluten free rice based ‘breadcrumbs’I’ve seen at the nearby health food shop.
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Isn’t it scary how much room they take up! My greenhouse is full of seedlings,but nothing is ready to go out yet,and I can’t plant anything else,as I’ve a) run out of pots and b) run out of room!