Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

vhalla1478

Grey Queen, I sympathise - I'm in exactly the same position with my tooth - back to the dentists tomorrow for measuring or whatever they do for a new one - in the meantime my old one is stuck in place with chewing gum - dentist's advice!

GreyQueen

I'd recommend evening watering, once the sun has gone off that area of the garden. You want to have the maximum benefit from the water, not losing it to evaporation.

I'm always gobsmacked when I see fellow allotmenteers watering with hoses in the heat of the day. One couple, who are excellent gardeners, and retired so presumably able to pick their own times, always choose to pop up and water about midday on the blazing hot summer's days. Plants not getting the benefit of much of that, hey?

I rarely water the allotment, didn't do any watering at all in 2014 and I never water the spuds, no matter how dry it is. My rationale re the spuds is that I couldn't get enough water on there to do more than encourage surface weed growth. I will slosh a bit of water around the plants if I've been using it for washing earth of other veg but I use my water butt water for this. It wouldn't affect my gardening if the stand tap was turned off.

misstara

Evening all,

OH is out this evening so just made myself a freezer tea - YS quiche, wedges and veg. No YS bargains to report from yesterday but did get everything we needed for the rest of the week for under £12 so very pleased with that. Plan for the rest of the evening is to watch a film and work on my knitting.

GreyQueen

Sounds like a plan.

I'm prepping leeks for the freezer, having washed most of the soil off them and trimmed them at the lottie (and then slung the water under the nearby blackcurrant bush).

Have harvested the 7 largest leeks and they are mahoosive. Had 168 when I transplanted them, have substantially reduced the numbers by now. Am having half of a frozen h.m. ready meal which I made last Dec when I got a lot of peppers and tommies cheapy-cheap from my Magic Greengrocer. Have cooked pasta and will have that tonight and then reprise the rest tomorrow with different veg.

Tiny kitchen is a blinking nightmare atm, stuff every which way, and things queuing up to go thru the colander, but the leeks can soak to get any bits of grit out whilst I have supper. I'm prepping them for the freezer in individual portions, so there will be some fast meal-making coming up.

Food miles for my leeks - 1.25 today.............:p

DawnW

GreyQueen wrote: »

Sounds like a plan.

I'm prepping leeks for the freezer, having washed most of the soil off them and trimmed them at the lottie (and then slung the water under the nearby blackcurrant bush).

Have harvested the 7 largest leeks and they are mahoosive. Had 168 when I transplanted them, have substantially reduced the numbers by now. Am having half of a frozen h.m. ready meal which I made last Dec when I got a lot of peppers and tommies cheapy-cheap from my Magic Greengrocer. Have cooked pasta and will have that tonight and then reprise the rest tomorrow with different veg.

Tiny kitchen is a blinking nightmare atm, stuff every which way, and things queuing up to go thru the colander, but the leeks can soak to get any bits of grit out whilst I have supper. I'm prepping them for the freezer in individual portions, so there will be some fast meal-making coming up.

Food miles for my leeks - 1.25 today.............:p

Do you blanch your leeks GQ, or just chop them up and freeze them? I have never frozen leeks.

GreyQueen

Me neither. I'm choosing not to blanch them on grounds that I have successfully been home freezing stuff without blanching for a couple of years. Hope it works out well!:rotfl:

I've got leeks coming out of my ears, so to speak. Tried to give some away to a fellow plotholder this aft but they've just finished eating theirs and her hubs is on verge of mutiny over leek-based soup products in their freezer.

There was only one seed pkt and I ended up with 168 of them at transplant time. Some of those beggars are as thick as my wrist, dammit.

bluebag

Shoes.... red ones, white ones, blue ones, any ones oh please to goodness high, high heels.


I dream, it's really sad. I wear trainers and flip flops, it's all my skanky trolls feet can manage. If I get to heaven, ( a crushing great IF, but that's another story!!) I so hope they have lovely shoes.

It's one thing I miss so much more than anything else in my misspent youth.

meritaten

Ive stopped blanching veg too - I find leeks freeze well if you just trim them, wash any grit out and dry well. cut into rings (then the salad spinner works well at drying them if you have one), bag them and freeze.

bluebag

Blanching!! Good grief, what would I do that for?? I thought I was great for putting stuff in a bag AND...get this!, a label.

vulpix

Hahahaha skanky trolls feet,me to mores the pity.I like the idea of high heels in heaven or alternative.

The quilt is finished.Quite an anti climax after 40 years,There should have been a brass band at the very least.

It is raining here so no pot watering for me tonight.My onion sets planted in old washing up bowls are looking a treat.Ever the optimist ready to transport to a new house.No call about our sale today.

Going to sort my Mum's garden tomorrow and take a load of cracked pots to the tip on the way to the supermarket.Getting topped up before my op on Wednesday.
Vx