Batten down the hatches!

It's like winter here, it's blowing a hurricane, monsoon rain and really cold. I put the heating on for an hour of so to dry the house out. I've pulled up some more carrots and I'm picking two or three courgettes a day and my butternut squash plants are laden.
As it's so cold, we've had a cheapy winter warmer supper. One bag of Quorn mince, mixed with a jar of Asda cheapie casserole sauce (only 68 calories for half a jar with no fat - 1 point) and a couple of small cooked and mashed sweet potatoes on top and then baked in the mini oven. 5 points for half a casserole dish.
It's a terrible photo, but my beans have had a bashing, so I've moved them close to the house, and I've re-tied up all the tomatoes and closed the little green house. It's a terrible night and I'm glad to be off to be tucked in with a hot husband and a good book!

Beans in a bucket - 1, Beans in a bag - 0

My homemade upside down tomato planters are faring well and the plants are covered in flowers and I hope for some toms in the near future. The rest of the garden is a bit hit and miss. My Bramley apple and Victoria plum trees have doubled their yield since last year and there are two fruits on both of them!!! However, the strawberries in the hanging basket are thriving and I keep picking strawberries; it's lovely to leave them there until they are completely ripe and eat them straight off the plant!
I am growing climbing French beans in: a donated large pot, an old Habitat bag and an Aldi bag. The beans are thriving in a pot but the beans in bags seem to have been eaten by insects and their leaves look like lace. I have searched the plants and the bags and I can't find any flies or insects so I can only assume the beasties fly in, eat it and fly off.
My buckets full of courgettes and butternut squash are doing well too. I have to keep watering everything as it's so dry and I must find somewhere to plant my broccoli so I have plenty for the winter. I'm going to try growing it in the potato sacks after we've eaten the potatoes, which I think will be ready in two to three weeks.

The onions are just about OK, they are growing in flower pots. We had an amazing time tonight as one of my potato plants was looking a bit dead. I emptied out the growing bag and it was totally filled with little potatoes. I found out how dry the compost was and have increased the amount of water to my potatoes. It's hit and miss and I'm not sure how growing things in buckets and pots will work in the end, but I'm having so much fun doing this.

Heaven on earth.

Liskeard has been in chaos today. It's not helped when incompetent numpties decide to dig up all of the roads on the same day, in the middle of the school holidays when tourists venture into Liskeard to get a bit of shopping. Old Road, is being patched. West St is being patched and the Parade is getting a new water main. So that's it! Liskeard is officially closed and those of us who live here can't get out either! It's a good job then that I actually live in Shangri-la!

We cut back a lot of dead shrubs at the weekend, which means Bobby Dazzler can see next door's garden and he's already tried to limbo his tiny frame under the fence. We've had to use what we have, a few bits of wire mesh and some floorboards to block his route to freedom. He's not happy today as I put him on the lead in the garden and he can't understand why he's not free to snuffle in the borders as he normally does. Dearly Beloved has fortified the garden tonight and the dogs are free to wander in all they survey.
Everything is growing! Courgettes and Butternut Squash is thriving. I didn't label them so I can't tell which is which until/if they grow fruit.
Spuds and blooming with lovely purple flowers and looking promisingly productive.........we may get spuds soon!
The currant bushes don't promise us any fruit this year but they are bushy and beautiful.
The beans in a bag are shinning up their poles and the onions are filling their pots.
The strawberries are growing strawberries............not that I needed to have bothered. The wild strawberries are all over my garden, the street, the hedges, the park and have spots of tiny red everywhere that I have walked today. Although red, they are not ripe yet.
The carrots are bushy and need thinning again!
The lupins and rhododendrons are just heavenly and I love the colour.
I've walked the dogs twice today, I sat in the garden and read and was happy to go no where but my own garden and I really live in heaven on earth.

Cornish Spring garden.

My garden has woken up.

Reinvented itself.

Burst into action.

Showing off.

Dazzling me and giving beauty to wander amongst. Thankful for simple pleasures.

Pure joy!

I've truly found paradise. I opened my back door and there it was. I came home this evening to waggy tails and a garden full of evening sunshine. The fruit bushes are getting bushier. The courgettes and butternut squash have shown signs of life. The window sills are ranged with tomato seedlings looking lively and healthy.
The pot of herbs is beautifully green and capable of being cut and used whenever we want. I'll make stuffing at some time with fresh sage and onions from my garden. I loved just sitting on the patio steps with a mug of tea and a dog at either side and surveying all I could see and thinking, I planted that, I grew that and I felt so amazingly peaceful, even after a busy day at work.
Best of all are the £1 Poundland windmills that wizz in the spring breeze and glint in the last of the evening sunshine. They make me smile and feel true pure joy at such a silly sight!

Garden vlog....my first attempt

We have patiently waited for weeks for the weather to improve and yesterday we managed to plant veggie seeds. Here's our container garden in my first attempt at vlogging. (rhubarb was £1 from Mole Valley Farmers and not Poundland = amazing how I couldn't remember the name of the place, the potatoes were £1 a bag too) The drone in the back ground is the A38!

Fruity pots and blogger's mates.

I am home early today as my conference finished after lunch and I came straight home and it's a joy to be home with some day light left. The conference was held at St Mellion in Saltash so I came home via Lidl and bought four more fruit bushes. I have six plants altogether and they cost me £8. I have planted two blackberry canes, two raspberry canes and two red currant bushes. The patio stays much warmer at this time of year so I hope they will be safe there. I planted some rhubarb last weekend and it's already thriving. Dearly beloved usually does jobs like this but he's been brilliant to me lately whilst I've worked late and I know he'll be late home, off a crowded train tonight so I've done it for him.

I blog daily on my dinky laptop; usually sat in my lounge and wherever I am the blogger's mates keep me company and listen with cocked ears as my fingers tap at the keyboard. So as I blog, this is what I can see.