My Tiny Plot

Well, I don’t know about you but I’m raring to go with the sowing already! I’ve ordered my seeds, polished my dibber and I’ve even cleared up the leaves. It’s show time. We’re fast approaching the time of year that every vegetable gardener loves, Spring. The weather is sunnier, the garden is calling and it’s all down to you to get to the seeds sown so that you can reap the rewards later. I’m so excited I could pop!

This month’s photo mission is all about sowing. So get out there and take photos that say ‘it’s nearly Spring so get your booty out into the shed and sow my friend’.

Whether it’s a photo of you actually sowing seed,

preparing the pots,

or sorting your seed tags. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that your photo says ’sow’.

Our prize this time comes from the super-cool, urban gardeners over at Seed Pantry. It’s a mega-stylish Window Salads seed kit worth £14.99 each, with eight packs of seed including: Rocket, Radishes, Chillies, Lettuce (Lolla Rossa & Salad Bowl), Basil, Parsley and Spring Onions.

As we can’t send seeds outside the EU winners from outside that area will receive this set of coir pots instead. Still very cool! And don’t forget to sign up to the Seed Pantry newsletter for great hints and tips on how to sow and grow. Again thanks to SP for their generosity and making our competition just a little bit (erm a lot…) more competitive :)

Send your entries to gill@carsonified.com by Friday 19th March. GOOD LUCK!

The ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ Photo Mission is over and it’s time to choose the winner. The quality of photos this time was AMAZING. I was truly wowed by some of the photos. You guys are good! But after some deliberation I chose the photo above, of some snow covered Kale, as the winner. It’s by Lisa over at Pot & Box who walks away with 10 (not 9 but 10) boxes of the brand new Figo frame system. Provided by our friends at Bau Outdoors. Well done Lisa!

The other entries were just as lovely though. Like this beautiful photo of snow settled on a tree by Emma Bartram. Sublime.

A close contender for the prize was this gorgeous photo of a frozen seed head by Liz Early. Precious.

Stephanie from Narrative Self has been busy with the two photos above. The first one is a photo of her overwintering Onions covered in snow and the second is of her shivering Leeks. Both lovely photos.

And of course Toby Bunting’s entry made me laugh as I did specify a photo of some ‘frozen veg’. Ha ha, very funny Toby, but ‘no soup for you!’ as my husband would say.

Well done to all. And watch out for February’s Photo Mission with another, very cool prize.

Ooooh baby, it’s cold outside. We’re having one of the coldest spells we’ve ever had here, with hard frosts at night and lots and lots of snow keeping the landscape looking more wintry than ever. Ahhh just what I like.

It’s time to don your bob-hat and brave the cold because it’s photo mission time again!

We’ve got a fab prize waiting for the winner and so it’s any excuse to get out there and snap your freezing veg. That’s right, this mission is all about photographing your veg patch in the grip of Winter. Whether it’s frozen Broccoli, snow-capped Sprouts or icicles on your Leeks, photograph it and send it in to gill@carsonified.com.

Here’s some photos I took earlier to get you started. The top photo is mtp after the recent snows. Then my Box hedging - brrrr! The next one down is my Broccoli braving the frosts, the next one is of my Leeks huddling together for warmth.

Take the best photo and you could win 10 (yes that’s 10) boxes of the hottest, newest, brilliantest invention the veg gardening world may have ever seen - Figo. It’s a neat connector that let’s you build your own frames with just normal garden canes. It’s fast and cheap to build things like bean wigwams, netting frames for Brassicas and even fruit cages.

Our friends at Bau Outdoors and Figo have kindly supplied the prize and the competition is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. The closing date is next Friday, 15th Jan. Good luck!

Here’s your next photo mission. Take a photo of your favourite summer pairings. It has to be something you grew (edible of course) paired with your favourite accompaniment. As you can see I like to settle down on my deck, in the evening, with a massive bowl of Strawberries and a glass of chilled rosé. Ahhh!

But you don’t have to go for Strawberries and wine, you could choose New Potatoes with Mint, Salmon with Dill, or even Radish with Yoghurt - whatever floats your boat.

Send your photos to gill [at] carsonified [dot] com and I’ll make a post of the best photos. I might even choose a winner this time!

‘Squash Seedlings’ by Heidi Lewis

Thanks to everyone who submitted photos for the Photo Mission: Your Garden from the Ground. I received quite a lot of photos. I have chosen the best four and posted them below. I’m sure you’ll agree they are quite stunning.