Put away your purse & become debt-averse

marionmgcars

Hi Foxgloves,  reading a little of the posts from last year and love the decluttering during June last year, might have to try that in July.  Also the posts motivated me to try making garlic flatbread.  I had bought some y/sticker yogurt reduced from £1.45 to 10p for 1 ltr pot.  we have had a few bargain breakfasts from it so used the rest on the flatbreads.   Oh my work !  they were lovely, just need to learn how to make humous to go with them, but they will go in the freezer till them.  Loving reading the posts,  x

1LuckyLady

Hi Foxgloves,  so sorry to read your sad news about your cat.  I've just caught up on your diary,  about 50 pages worth over the last few days.  Take care lovely

foxgloves

10p yoghurt, Marionmgcars?? I'm envious! I too would have turned that into garlic flatbreads. They are very useful to have in the freezer.

1Luckylady - Thanks for your kind wishes. It seems a very quiet house now, as our cat was a very vocal boy & we both miss him terribly. Nice to see you 'drop in' for a catch-up. Hope you & yours are all well. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Well, where is the big storm I was expecting today? On the TV weather map this morning, there was an ominous blue & gren blob the entire size & shape of our county kind of right OVER our county, so I couldn't see any way we would escape a thundery deluge at some point. Nothing so far, however. In fact, the sun has come out & I am going to crank up the coffee machine & disappear down to my pondside bench with my book. It's an Icelandic crime mystery which frankly I am no nearer to solving than I was about 10 chapters ago. Perhaps the caffiene will help!
I was up early this morning & in the veggie garden by 8a.m for a bit of hoeing. Isn't it odd how the most boring, repetitive & mundane of tasks can actually be quite meditative. I hoed both courgette beds, then the outside tomatoes, the squash & the herb bed. Nothing to it! No need to bend over as a hoe generally has a long handle, so you can work at standing height instead of folding yourself into a small plump piece of origami. Then it's just back & forth, to & fro, no need to go deep or to pick up the hoed off weeds, as they will shrivel in the sunshine & even add a little bit of nutrition to the earth.  I find it a restful task. I suppose some people might call it 'mindfulness' & write a book called something like 'Hoe yourself calm' or '10 days to de-stress with a garden hoe' or 'Finding inner peace with your hoe' (that one would maybe come with a link to a special 'hoe offer' costing four times as much as at the garden centre, but it would have little calming pink graphics on it & maybe a quote about being the best 'you' you can be.......... I'm running away with my own nonsense now......suffice to say that when weeds are small, at that naughty seedling stage where one day there aren't any & two days later about a million have popped up, then going out with a hoe is a very simple & calming way to spend a bit of time.
Oh, one thing I should add.......a hoe needs to be sharp. Basically, it is a knife on a stick. If it doesn't get sharpened (I do mine with an old fashioned whetstone which cost 50p on the market), then it won't cut & you'll just waste time & effort.
So, I had a good session of hoe-wielding first thing, then I made a start on cutting back a few plants in my flower borders which have flowered & are now looking a bit straggly. A chop-back now often means they will flower again this season, so it's worth doing, but the main reason I like doing it is that is clears the stage for some of the later-flowering plants still to come. The nicer I can keep it all looking, the less I'm likely to be tempted at the garden centre. We have one in the village which is within easy cycling distance (Mr F has the car for work on weekdays) & is even walkable if I am feeling determined to buy a new plant, so I'm determined not to go mad & to use what I've got. I can barely fit anything else in anywhere anyway, so goodness knows where I would find to put any new purchases!
Ah well, time for a coffee & to see if I can solve these Icelandic murders.
Take care, m'dears,
F x

Toni'sfriend

I love the stories of your garden. I would love a garden but I only have a porch/verandah type thing so I'm currently growing things in pots. Got lots of herbs coming along and it's looking nice and green. Also some sunflowers and cornflowers growing. We'll see if they flower. I've recently become fascinated by how you can root things from cuttings (mint and basil) and I've got plants sprouted from dried peas, the end of celery and spring onions. It's alchemy. I not too bothered about actually getting anything that I can actually cook with. I just love to see it suddenly grow. Any suggestions to help me along (I've actually taken over my neighbour's little space as well!)

foxgloves

Toni'sFriend - You can easily grow rocket in a container. Also, I like to grow watercress in an old washing-up bowl. I use 3 plastic flowerpots (as big asI can cram into the bowl). Fill with compost & sow watercress seed. Cover with a little more compost & water gently. Then fill the bowl with water so it comes half-way up the pots. Keep the level topped up. When it starts looking green, re-fill. I've grown lovely watercress using this method. It is nice to snip for salads but you only need a bunch for soup, so it's useful for that too.
Have you got strawberries? I'm currently growing mine in 2 plastic troughs & an old wooden under-bed storage drawer. Mr F punched the base of it out to make a small raised bed. You can grow them in hanging baskets & I once used a 3-tier metal vegetable rack. It's surprising what can be re-purposed.
F x

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Hello Sunbeams,
Well, where is the big storm I was expecting today? On the TV weather map this morning, there was an ominous blue & gren blob the entire size & shape of our county kind of right OVER our county, so I couldn't see any way we would escape a thundery deluge at some point. Nothing so far, however. In fact, the sun has come out & I am going to crank up the coffee machine & disappear down to my pondside bench with my book. It's an Icelandic crime mystery which frankly I am no nearer to solving than I was about 10 chapters ago. Perhaps the caffiene will help!
I was up early this morning & in the veggie garden by 8a.m for a bit of hoeing. Isn't it odd how the most boring, repetitive & mundane of tasks can actually be quite meditative. I hoed both courgette beds, then the outside tomatoes, the squash & the herb bed. Nothing to it! No need to bend over as a hoe generally has a long handle, so you can work at standing height instead of folding yourself into a small plump piece of origami. Then it's just back & forth, to & fro, no need to go deep or to pick up the hoed off weeds, as they will shrivel in the sunshine & even add a little bit of nutrition to the earth.  I find it a restful task. I suppose some people might call it 'mindfulness' & write a book called something like 'Hoe yourself calm' or '10 days to de-stress with a garden hoe' or 'Finding inner peace with your hoe' (that one would maybe come with a link to a special 'hoe offer' costing four times as much as at the garden centre, but it would have little calming pink graphics on it & maybe a quote about being the best 'you' you can be.......... I'm running away with my own nonsense now......suffice to say that when weeds are small, at that naughty seedling stage where one day there aren't any & two days later about a million have popped up, then going out with a hoe is a very simple & calming way to spend a bit of time.
Oh, one thing I should add.......a hoe needs to be sharp. Basically, it is a knife on a stick. If it doesn't get sharpened (I do mine with an old fashioned whetstone which cost 50p on the market), then it won't cut & you'll just waste time & effort.
So, I had a good session of hoe-wielding first thing, then I made a start on cutting back a few plants in my flower borders which have flowered & are now looking a bit straggly. A chop-back now often means they will flower again this season, so it's worth doing, but the main reason I like doing it is that is clears the stage for some of the later-flowering plants still to come. The nicer I can keep it all looking, the less I'm likely to be tempted at the garden centre. We have one in the village which is within easy cycling distance (Mr F has the car for work on weekdays) & is even walkable if I am feeling determined to buy a new plant, so I'm determined not to go mad & to use what I've got. I can barely fit anything else in anywhere anyway, so goodness knows where I would find to put any new purchases!
Ah well, time for a coffee & to see if I can solve these Icelandic murders.
Take care, m'dears,
F x

I'm another who loves to hoe the garden, I find it very relaxing. Nowadays  I mainly use my hoe to chisel chicken poop off the slabs in the chicken run 😀 It also came in handy last time we had snow and ice , I just pushed it along the ground and it did a good job of clearing my path and steps 

Toni'sfriend

Thank you, foxgloves. I've got some rocket and mixed salad leaves but I really love watercress in a salad or watercress soup. I think I'll have a go at that and the strawberries too.

foxgloves

I like my sorrel plant too, Toni's friend. The young leaves can be snipped for salad (fresh lemony flavour) & the bigger older ones make good soup. It's a perennial too, so it pops up again every Spring
F x

Baileys_Babe

I don't think I've ever eaten sorrel but I like the sound of it, I'll add it to my garden ideas book.