Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

camelot1001

Isn't gardening amazing? This is the first year I have really tried to grow anything and it's all coming on well. I have had a few strawberries but we aren't getting enough sunshine to ripen them.

Courgettes are forming, just tiny and I bet they will be ready when I am away! Some of the tomatoes have flowers on, the carrots are quite tall now and the peas have gone mad - I put a net over them to keep the birds off but they are now starting to grow downwards again!

I have put my name down for an allotment but there is probably a 20 year waiting list!

I knitted some slippers a while ago and managed to get the decorative buttons and slippers together yesterday and sewed them together, DD is taking 3 pairs away so they can all have matching footwear!

Not going to be the scorcher you all seem to be having, but it's not raining - yet!

Bluegreen, I hope you enjoy your new home, you sound so happy.

silvasava

Camelot - do you have any Raspberries? They do like the Scottish weather & are well worth growing. Mine are in a shady spot in my garden and do well in spite of not getting much sun!

Floss

I must have picked over 12lbs of strawberries from my allotment, and still plenty to come. DH has snaffled 4lbs for strawberry wine, another 2lb have gone into icecream and most of the rest have been enjoyed either on DH's breakfast or by me with yogurt & granola or just plain

meritaten

can I give wannabe allotment holders a tip? go round and have a look to see if anyone is 'struggling' to use all their space. many older allotment holders want to downsize and would be happy to share the space with younger more vigorous gardeners - my son did this and 'shared' a plot with an elderly gent - they had a great time swapping veg and fruit and son gained a lot of knowledge as the old guy was quite happy to sit and give 'instructions' to my son. Son was told by the allotment committee that doing this would help any application for a plot for himself. but mums garden became free for him to use - so he uses that now.

jrtfan

camelot1001 wrote: »

Isn't gardening amazing? This is the first year I have really tried to grow anything and it's all coming on well. I have had a few strawberries but we aren't getting enough sunshine to ripen them.

Courgettes are forming, just tiny and I bet they will be ready when I am away! Some of the tomatoes have flowers on, the carrots are quite tall now and the peas have gone mad - I put a net over them to keep the birds off but they are now starting to grow downwards again!

I have put my name down for an allotment but there is probably a 20 year waiting list!

I knitted some slippers a while ago and managed to get the decorative buttons and slippers together yesterday and sewed them together, DD is taking 3 pairs away so they can all have matching footwear!

Not going to be the scorcher you all seem to be having, but it's not raining - yet!

Bluegreen, I hope you enjoy your new home, you sound so happy.

Hi, just a thought, but have you tried asking around the individual allotment holders to see if anyone might like to share their plot with someone else? My mum and I did this with our allotment because we'd been given one that was twice the size we needed or could manage between us.

Charis

HighlandLass wrote: »

I hope I can join you all. I have read through all 166 pages and found some fantastic advice and tips.

Fell quite proud of my self this morning - My DH offered to buy me a new laptop for doing my open uni course in Oct. I said that I would use the old one as there isn't really anything wrong with it. So he is going to wipe it for me and I will buy one of these stands with a fan to help keep it cool (£8.97 & free P&P)...it does tend to get rather on the warm side.


S xx

It would be worth your while buying a separate hard drive to use as a back up disk, much cheaper than a new laptop, but a godsend should anything happen to the laptop on the day your latest assignment is due in. I've got a couple of 1TB hard drives, which connect via a USB pen.
Good luck with the OU course, I hope you enjoy it. The student forums are a great support,especially those directly connected to your course.

jrtfan

meritaten wrote: »

can I give wannabe allotment holders a tip? go round and have a look to see if anyone is 'struggling' to use all their space. many older allotment holders want to downsize and would be happy to share the space with younger more vigorous gardeners - my son did this and 'shared' a plot with an elderly gent - they had a great time swapping veg and fruit and son gained a lot of knowledge as the old guy was quite happy to sit and give 'instructions' to my son. Son was told by the allotment committee that doing this would help any application for a plot for himself. but mums garden became free for him to use - so he uses that now.

My apologies! There was a 2-hour gap between me beginning my post and finishing it off, I didn't realise you'd posted about the same thing meanwhile!

Lynplatinum

Hello All

Have come back to earth from my rock n roll lifestyle weekend!

Hiya and welcome to all de lurkers and new to thread folks!! it is really great on here and if Martin has saved my finances these folk on here have saved my sanity and helped me to save even more money!!

Well, last week I painted the kitchen and this week I am making new bedroom curtains from some material I found when turning out that I had forgotten about!! I say make curtains - I have cut the material to 1 and 1/2 width of the two windows - have turned it up at each end and then turned one of those ends over again by 2 and 1/2 inches. I then thread them on the pole over the window. Since both windows are on one room the only difficult bit is ensuring they are the same length!! But very MM&M! Also use no electricity to do this - I dont own a sewing machine as they tend to run away with me and I sew curtains - my clothes and probably the neighbour's cat together when I am behind one!! So saying my needle skills are quite good - the last curtains I made for this place 20 years ago but they are a bit threadbare now and Miss Haversham - like so have had to get rid of them.

My weekend consisted of a Brewery tour (which included 2 pints in the tour!) followed by three pubs then a stop at our local Weath!rspons where someone bought me another pint! I admit, I lost count Then on Sunday my son and his lady put on a Cabaret show in Northampton so I got invited to that and ended up 'mucking in' as usual - washing tables; washing cups; putting out tea lights in holders etc etc. Had a chance to 'Glam Up' as the theme was 1930/40s. So long black skirt, black top, bright red nailvarnish! Managed all night in me high heels (well 1 and 1/2 inches - high for me!)! Was a great show - as it went to support the club all performers worked for beer/drinks - as most were driving this was not very expensive and entrance was £4 - to encourage local folk to see poetry/music/dance - they made money to support the community endevour and everyone had a good night 8 pm till 12 pm! Monday was back here, started fabric turnout and curtains! and a student in the eve!

Cheerfulness - great to see you back mate - word to folks re ice cream - I have a great recipe for coffe ice cream I'll dig out for tomorrow! Also L1dil's own mock magnums are great!! (and their coffee and strawberry ice creams!
Been v hot here - have 2hr drive to student tomorrow @ 12 in car with no air con! Gonna chill bottles of water to take with me! LOL
Nite!

wondercollie

Lyn: if you still have time, freeze some of the small tetra pack juice boxes. Pop them in a coolbag if you have one.


Survived many a road trip through the Okanagan Valley doing this over the years.

misstara

Morning all

Looks like it's going to be a lovely day again . I'm on a split shift today so will at least get to see some of the sun during my break.

We're eating out of the freezer tonight - I have some chicken curry to take with me to work and OH has a casserole of some sort (not great at labelling so it requires a bit of guesswork sometimes). It's not really the food for this weather but at least it gets rid of stuff that's been in the freezer a while.

I've got some bananas that need used up so will make a banana loaf at some point. It worked well with the gf flour last time and even OH said it was yummy.

Hope everyone has a lovely day and enjoys the sunshine