A OK

I was just about to grab my gloves from where I'd left them to dry yesterday when I noticed the sign that all was okay. All very good in fact as Jack Frost had thankfully moved on, so my first job was to water everything thoroughly. I was going to count just how many cans of water I applied but forgot to count after a few runs. Thank goodness we have a reliable free water supply on site. Growing would be a lot more tricky relying solely on collected rain water. Richard & Shirley arrived to water their patch. We always have a quick chat, I just need to see if there's anything I should be doing that I'm not, & Richard is pretty knowledgeable. I offered Shirley some Sweet William plants but she has grown a lot of Marigolds for her garden, & offered me a few to plant by my runner beans to help with any pests, blackfly in particular.Once the watering was done I stopped for a coffee. A few folks have portable gas rings for heating their kettle for a cuppa but I have a flask. I'm really pleased with the way the plot is looking, the bark chipping paths are brilliant, definitely worth the effort. I have a cheeky Robin for company, he/she is very tame, also very busy collecting food for the family. I had a chat with Chris, who gave me the tiger worms for my wormery. I've been patiently waiting for some of the 'black magic', liquid fertilizer to appear in the bottle below the tap on the wormery. He suggested I poured a litre water over the rotting veg waste & worms to get it moving. I tipped the last 3 bags of horse manure onto an empty bed that I've decided to grow tomatoes in, so lots of manure to be worked in before I cover it with polythene to warm it up in readiness for planting.  I planted 2 rows of broad beans, then the 6 winged bean plants that germinated, they need cane support so I rigged a mini A frame for them then some mesh bird defence. I'm quite resourceful, saving anything & everything that I think might come in useful at some point.  I sowed another row of peas, using some of the branches cut when I laid the hedge, for twiggy supports.  Then it was 1pm, lunchtime.

Some of the plants in the greenhouse can come out now for hardening off. I found a video on Youtube for growing tomatoes outdoors, something I've never done before.  The Cosmos, Honesty, & Black-eyed Susan plants can come out giving me a little more space. The first of my Turkish Pelargonium cuttings is flowering ..... I'm calling it 'Turkish Delight' as it's a fabulous bight pink. I'm thrilled. I've got lots of cuttings potted up so I think they will give me a good show all summer long.
I've had a baking afternoon ... a beef pasty for John, then I was planning to make Homity pies, I've not made them before so not really familiar with the ingredients needed, so did'nt have enough onion, plan B replace the onion with finely sliced leeks, then I threw in a scrap of bacon that needed using up. The beef pasty was  success, I think, as were the tweaked Homity pies, then with the bit of pastry left over I made a batch of Garibaldi biscuits. Okay they were'nt exactly the same as you would buy but they taste fine with a coffee, or without.

Thanks to admirer for hosting Silly Saturday