The plot in black

It's exceptionally cold here, but this morning I got dressed up like a seasoned arctic explorer and did some plot work. My broad beans got put out (in both senses of the phrase in all likelihood, although they still have their paper sleeping bags on to keep them warm).

And i finally got round to covering the majority of the earth in black cloth. Like Mr Cash himself, there's a reason for it wearing black, and that's to get it nice and toasty for for all my seeds in the coming weeks. But you all know that already and this paragraph was just a shameless attempt by me to integrate some coolness into Anything but sprouts. Sorry.

No mold on me!

So it's completely true. Chamomile tea has totally eradicated any mold on my paper pots. Fluffy Muppet was totally right. I've tried to find out why this has happened - a few sites has mentioned that it contains disinfectent properties, which i guess would do the trick.

My belief, however, is it's really just calmed my seedlings down. They're too relaxed to be bothered with fungus any more.

Comfortable planting

I got round to planting some seeds yesterday. I'd taken the example of a few other bloggers, and enjoyed the comfort of my living room in the process. I found it was a much more civilised approach, especially as I had to make the paper pots first. French beans, runner beans, two lots of peas, basil, rocket and some cayenne chillis are now in the mix and sat happily on our bedroom window sill. It will be nice and sunny for them there, and they'll thank me for it at some point.

Oranges

We've been getting a lot of these oranges in our veg box recently, and I can't help but be amazed by them every time I peel them open.

Good Hooking

And while I'm here, I ought to put a post about my lovely girlfriend Katie's new crochet blog. If you've ever fancied crocheting a mobile phone cover, with only a slight hint of irony, then Good Hooking's the place to go!

She'll love me forever now...

Milo wanting fame

And in the process of taking that photo, Milo wanted to get involved, so I thought he ought to get a post to himself. It's been a while hasn't it?

Life as a broad bean

Here's my broad beans geting used to life in the big outdoors. I'm holding off putting them in the ground just until this weekend's apparent cold spell hits. They seem quite happy though.

An unwitting fashionista

It seems like i've unwittingly caught the zeitgeist with my recent planting of Rhubarb. This morning in the Guardian was a short article about it rising from the lower ranks of obscurity and entering the public eye once more.

And Clare commented on it on my last post too. A sure sign that I'm lagging in the wake of the trendsetters and dawdling behind the times. I didn't realise gardening was as hard to keep up with as fashion.

Bread and rhubarb

The world of bread-making opened up before my eyes today, as i used my bread maker for the first time. Talk about easy. A wholemeal loaf popped out in three hours, perfectly formed and with a crispy crust. What more could you ever ask for? I can put as much salt as i like in, and rest easy with my arteries. Roll on summer, and bring on the tomato and onion bread.

And the rhubarb is in the ground, with a few sticks to remind me that it's there. I can't wait to look longingly at the sub-tropical leafage and wish that I liked the stuff.

My plot 2006

It's been a while since I put a picture up, so here's one of my new look, super-enhanced vegetable plot. Also noticeable is the squirrel-proof bird feeder. This really is impossible for them to get into, although the other day the string broke and I had to put it back up again. I have a strong feeling that they chewed it through, but they did it when it was empty, so they still failed to get any seeds. HA!



Compare it to last year, here: