Prosperous soul in the making

ohdearhowdidthathappen

You're sounding really positive, which is lovely.  Well done on the weight loss!  Your garden sounds lush

Tahlullah.H

I wish I had your patience for growing my own fruit and veg.  It seems so idyllic but as much as I love the sound of it, Tesco beckons.  Looking forward to hearing about you cooking with your produce.

Honeysucklelou2

Sounds like a wonderfully productive day!

savingholmes

Thanks Drawingaline, Jwl, HSL, Ohsh...., Tahlullah
You may have noticed I go in phases - current phase is gardening so will enjoy it while it lasts - and it will set us up for the future anyway. I also have a great need for control and food security - so growing some of our own fruit and veg seems a way of alleviating that stress as we eat a lot of it normally. I've grown some fruit over the years although normally the birds get that. I've also grown radishes in pots before and cut and come again lettuce. In the past I've always killed my tomato plants (bought) but hopefully this year will be different. Radish or cress are some of the easiest to grow if you are starting. 

Last night I had one green leaf - this morning I have 6 from my seed trays/pots indoors. My bought plants seem to  have appreciated their drink and are standing more upright I planted a couple of blue delphiniums and a lupin in the front garden yesterday too. I think once the pink geraniums and blue forget-me-nots finish flowering I'll move some to a back corner and then sow some veg in the front garden too. Non-gardeners wouldn't recognise it anyway!

My diet is going well and I've lost a couple more pounds but will update my signature tomorrow. Planning to eat healthily again today. Yesterday I had porridge, lunch was baby leaf salad, tomatoes, tiny bit of beetroot, celery, carrot, coleslaw, ham and a little grated cheese, For tea I had strawberries, 2 small bananas, raspberries, blueberries and about 200 calories of chocolate trifle and some aerosol whipped cream. I ate a small amount of hazelnuts and a curly wurly as a snack. Strangely I didn't feel deprived LOL.

In less welcome money news DH's computer keeps crashing. He has just spent a lot of money buying new parts to fit it! eek emoji with blue hair needed at this point it was so much! 

savingholmes

I went investigating in my utility for some garden gloves I was sure would be there for DH - I found a treasure trove. Gloves - several pairs, a pack of mixed ranunculus bulbs, some more shake type butterfly friendly seeds and a 45 bulb pack of allium, oxalis and anemone. I was made up. Now just need to decide where to plant them. I'm sure I will find other stuff if I look deeper in our (over-flowing) house. I even found a spiraliser still in its packet which will come in handy now DH is trying to be so good low carb wise! Just in the last hour a load more seeds have popped their heads up.

MovingForwards

What a wonderful find! I'm sure you will sort out the perfect location for them all 🙂

savingholmes

Thanks MF. Well I am feeling less of a fraud about working part time hours. Trying to sit for even 4.5 hours work has caused major pain today. I obviously need to break it up and move around more and perhaps spread the hours out (rather than trying to get them over with). 

I have planted some more home chitted potatoes - official ones haven't come yet. I had the 'Doh!' realisation that I needn't have bought pepper seeds as I could have just saved the ones from a fresh pepper and let them dry for a few days and then planted them. Hope that helps someone else!!  I have now planted some lettuce seeds in ex strawberry, raspberry and tomato containers (for them to germinate on a windowsill). I have been inspecting me fruit patch and my raspberry, red currant and blackcurrant bushes are coming back up so all seems to be well. Wondering if I should net them in some way this year as it feel more important to keep the harvest! Also considering re-using the outdoor dog metal jointed hexagon type thing that we had when we first got the dog as a framework to grow plants against. Could then support plants on both sides of it. 

I have an escallonia (evergreen with pink flowers) that I'm thinking of digging up. I don't like it at the moment so may prune it hard and transplant it to the back of the garden and see if it survives. If it lives great - if it doesn't no real loss. That would then given me some more space for my veg patch. We have a black elder - I was going to  dump it - but I just double checked if it flowers (it's in a back corner) and it does and its fruit isedible or drinkable when cooked which I did not know! Think I will keep that now and keep the fruit - I thought it was poisonous!

MovingForwards

You have to try moving about after a certain amount of time to prevent seizing up, it's going to be trial and error until you find out what your maximum time limit to sit / not move is, but when you do, just knock a few minutes off it. A brief walk around the room is all you may need, to enable another spurt of sitting to work.

If you are on a certain social media site, join some local buying / selling groups. The amount of people who are swapping seeds / baby plants which grow into food is expanding very quickly up here, it may be the same by you too. They drop the things in the front garden, step away, the person takes it and leaves their swap. 

I think you can regrow carrots from the cut off top, spuds from the existing ones (hence why those who have a compost heap are advised to be careful with the spud peelings), possibly cabbage from the hard bit either side of the leaf. Fruit can be grown from the seeds, just have to have a few trees / bushes for cross pollination.

I'm sure there will be a stack of grow your own from food scraps videos on YT.

savingholmes

Hi MF - you've taught me something / reminded me about carrot tops etc. I remember my parents growing lettuce roots in water etc. Found a good site - F00d Rev0lut10n which lists loads of foods you can grow from scraps. going to give them a try. Pain got better after tea - I got DH to steam some veg to go with a jacket spud and some tinned minced beef. I was hungry today - so ate more normally. DH and I took pooch for a short walk. I've been struggling to resist C19 fear and anxiety tonight - still it is out of my control - so I need to re-focus on what is in my circle of influence.

DH is wanting to spend money on things like the drive and the patio - I am less keen but he's been wanting to do it for at least the last year. It would make the place smarter I'm just not sure it should be top priority right now. He says even if he lost his job he would still be pleased if we'd done it - as long as it was at a reasonable cost. I'd rather plant food and pay off more debt. Will let you know how that plays out. DH has someone coming to quote tomorrow. He's more bothered about the patio than the drive. At least we will get a price - can then make a judgement call. I wish I knew what was happening with our chairs. I'm worried they will suddenly say they can deliver and I will have to find the £ super quick.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow. It was a good enough day overall just tinged by pain.

savingholmes

I woke early but stayed in bed and my pain level is fine this morning. Another beautiful day here. So my plan is to start work in a moment - do a couple of hours - have a proper break at lunchtime and do a bit in the garden so I keep moving around and then come back and finish off my work. Despite eating more yesterday - I maintained my weight loss so have lost 7lb in 2 weeks. It would have been more if the banana loaf hadn't eroded my weightloss by 1.4lb.  I am still tempted to make it again though. W have some bananas currently maturing. DS has stevia which would lower cals and I could put in less walnuts - so may give that a go.