My Tiny Plot

There’s very little gardening going on these days. I wander down to the wood shed with my basket in hand and collect the wood for the fire. On the way I might check in on my coldframe Lettuce or peruse the slow progress of my blanching Chicory (it’s painfully slow!). But other than that I’m mostly dreaming of gardening, reading books, checking out seed catalogues. Nearly, signing up for a half plot at the nearby allotments (am I mad?) and then thinking better of it.

It’s the week before Christmas and so we’re hanging out at home with the fairy lights on all day, watching snowy films and drinking coffee. My dresser says it all really. Sinking in a sea of handmade decorations that vaguely resemble Santa, and regretting that I didn’t get my act together earlier and reciprocate all the lovely cards that Jackson got from his school friends (must be more organised next year!).

The kitsch Reindeer lights are a taste of what the rest of the house looks like, my ever present Homemaker collection just waiting for the big day, the Santa jug and mugs also waiting for some eggnog to be made. And of course the gin, it wouldn’t be Christmas without the gin. KitchenAid’s at dawn and champagne glasses twinkling in the light – we only have three but then we only need three since Granny is visiting.

The days before Christmas are my very favourite days of the year and I cherish every second of them. Infact, I have way too many Christmassy things I want to do and not enough hours to do them in.

But I did find some time to snuggle down and do my annual reading of ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales‘ by Dylan Thomas. It’s the most perfect Christmas book in my view, not least because he could be describing all of my childhood Christmas’s rolled into one – remember when you used to go out and play with the other children in the street on Christmas day?

Tags: Christmas

It’s about this time of year that the snow village appears.

It’s come a long way since I started it back in 2008. Since then I’ve been adding to it every year.

Since the boys were too young to join in I’ve been making the houses myself. I’m not suggesting they are fantastic craftwise. They are really just painted up grocery boxes and glitter and spray snow.

But this year I had a little help, from my three year old. He wanted a house with a ‘snowy garden’ and ‘glittery roof’ the other stipulation was that there was ‘mist’ coming out of the chimney and a wreath on the door. So that’s what we did!

Tags: snow village

I have given Jackson a bigger patch in the garden and we have been busy digging over and raking in manure. We have also done some planning and deciding what he will grow in his new garden. The conversation went like this. “So Jackson what would you like to grow in your garden?” “I would like to grow Carrots.”
“Okay, what else?”
“Just Carrots Mummy, nothing else, just lots and lots of Carrots.”

So… with that brief we took a trip to the garden centre and bought lots of Carrots. Rondo – a round variety. Rainbow – just for fun. Caracas – a Chanteney type. Early Nantes 2 – for super sweet early Carrots.
We might also go for an Autumn variety later.

Here’s a little idea for your Christmas mantelpiece. It’s really simple, just some old wine bottles filled with twigs that have been sprayed silver. With alternate silver candlesticks and tea lights to give everything a nice Christmassy twinkle.

And… this idea was totally stolen, as all the best ideas are :)

Houston we have a problem. The Chicory that I put into storage last month is starting to sprout. Now, that is not supposed to happen.

I can only assume that the mild weather we’ve been having has confused them into sprouting, or possibly the sand was too wet that I stored them in. Either way they have come out of storage early and are now in their final forcing positions – in a bucket of compost with another pot over the top to block out the light.

This is a little earlier than I was planning but I’ve got no option as I can’t have them happily growing in their horizontal positions!

There will be a part three to this story. Hopefully with some nice photos of my lovely blanched Chicory. Hopefully.

Tags: chicory

In our house, as soon as it turns 1st December it’s pretty much time to put up the Christmas tree. So this being the nearest weekend we brought our tree home. A nice 7ft Norway spruce (the bluish looking ones with thick bushy branches). I tried to get my husband to go for a Scots pine but he dug his Coloradan heels in so we went for the fir tree look.

I was reading in Which? this month that there is a shortage of big trees (some sort of planting error eight years ago!). And therefore large trees are at a premium this year. They reckon you should be paying no more than £35 for a 6ft Norway. Umm… but hey, we got free delivery and a fancy net…

The vegetable ornaments are in there, somewhere. Top middle is my London bus ornament, and on the left is a new crown one that says Bath 2011. My favourite is still the empire state building one which is just below the bus and the banana split always makes me laugh. While the most quirky one is still the little red fire hydrant. I love my Christmas tree!

Tags: Christmas tree

I harvested my Coriander plants at the end of the Summer and hung them up in the shed window to dry. They have been there ever since and are currently providing a nice little home for my resident shed spiders – of which there are many.

About a week ago I decided to harvest some of the seed and started to pop them off the plant and collect them on the bench. I was amassing quite a little pile when, oh I don’t know, something happened to distract me. Could have been a waking baby, that’s mostly what distracts me these days. Anyway, I went back into the house and forgot to put the seeds in my seed box. Huge mistake.

I went back the next day and the seed were, you guessed it, gone! Only slightly gnawed at seed casing had been left behind. I could also hear the mice groaning from the weight of their full bellies. Darn it.

Well, at least the mice are happy. And at least I have more back-up seed hanging in the window. Contingency seed, that’s the key.

Tags: 'Gotta love those meeces to pieces'

This ornament was a present from a friend but I’ve decided to make it the basis for a Scandinavian theme tree made from a fallen branch that I found in the woods near my house. Once it’s all done I’ll post a photo here.

While on my internet travels – and there are many – I found this cute little grow sign. It’s the kind of thing I might hang in my shed (the one that I’m planning to fix up one day), or better still in my kitchen, or in the living room, on the mantle.

Grow is an interesting word. It’s a command – ‘grow’ you little blighters. Or it’s a suggestion ‘grow’ and further your mind. Or it’s a reminder that all of this is passing like the seasons and before I know it little hands will have grown too big to hold mine.

But still… I like this.

Believe it or not this weekend saw our first Thanksgiving celebration at home. Despite 50 per cent of our family being American. Umm…

Usually if we celebrate it’s because we happen to be visiting family on one of our very well timed visits.

But this year we thought it was high time that we bit the bullet and admitted that actually we should really do something. So we did.

And here is evidence of Parsnip peeling.

We even brought in the wood, invited friends around and assembled the cheese board. The boat was pushed out.

We also thought it was high time that the children started to learn about American history, those pilgrims and native Americans, that feast and naturally how to make silly hats.