I’m currently sitting on my back doorstep, sort of wishing it’d rain (although my washing would get wet) as that would mean I could drag Boy Lacer inside and then get on with finding Girl Lacer’s tap shoes (class in 1hr50mins and counting) but Boy Lacer rarely went out in the garden over the summer so I don’t want to spoil it now.
I was going to let Boy Lacer loose in the garden on his own (with me staying in the kitchen where I can watch him and try and ignore all the grubby little boy things he was getting up to) but Boy Lacer likes his mummy where he can see her.
After a spot of whimpering and “I’m tired” (from him, not me, although I could do the same thing), we’re back inside, so I guess I better go find those tap shoes! And load the dishwasher and find a kindly house fairy to deal with this chaos and so on and so on. Back later . . .
I never did find those tap shoes, it’s like some cheap budget murder whodunit, ‘What happened to the tap shoes?’ dum dum daaaah! I’m getting clear flashbacks to Girl Lacer coming out of tap last week with her tap shoes off, her handing them to me and then what? So fair cop, it’s my fault, I hope I find them, she only wore them once! I’m sure now the dance school owner thinks I’m even more of a clutz, as I had to explain to her why I was sending in my daughter to a tap lesson with no shoes, it’s not the first time I’ve had to admit my ‘failings’ to her. I just have this giant dance shaped hole in my head where dance related information just escapes. Then after class, during which me and Boy Lacer had the option of either waiting in the church or the poky vestry lobby, I opted for the lobby option after we tried the church option and Boy Lacer started to kick off just as a non-dance mum person, i.e. an actual worshipper walked in, I seemed to be somehow implicated in a missing pair of cycling shorts drama which had nothing to do with me, I was just sitting on an empty seat that had just been vacated by someone else, as Boy Lacer who’d been on the floor with me, needed containing a little as he was getting a bit over excited but apparently there were some cycling shorts on there. Actually I’m sure they even weren’t thinking I was implicated, it’s just my paranoia at my clutz status.
Anyway, you know this post was meant to be originally about gardening? Whilst supervising Boy Lacer out in the garden this afternoon I did get a chance to do the rather sad activity of emptying out some of my plant pots, which has prompted me to write a final post about how my vegetable gardening went this year and my plans for next year.
Chillies - pretty much the only crop I’m successful at growing I’m afraid and even then I eventually lost a large number of my plants. I’d had a massive problem with greenfly earlier in the season and that damaged some of my plants beyond repair ultimately and the leaves started to fall off. They did survive long enough however to produce a reasonable crop of chillies (more than I could use actually) and I still have my two ring of fire chillies and one of my other chillies which miraculously seems to be sprouting new leaves. I brought those three plants back inside today as I’m worried about frosts, I’m almost equally worried about the creepy crawlies that probably took residence in those pots over the few months they were outside (sending my plants outside ultimately helped control the greenfly) and are now resident on my window sill.
Salad plants – These were actually a success to, but I had purchased them as a set of baby plants and it was just too much, so they bolted incredibly quickly. I will do it again (I have to, can’t face bagged salads now and I like my exotic leaves) but will grow small amounts from seed every few weeks.
Carrots – mmm, the world’s smallest carrots! There is still some debate about whether they were meant to be that small or whether it was because I planted them in a too shallow a container. Again I had purchased them as baby plants so I don’t know what they were meant to be, next year I will plant from seed, in a deeper container.
Herbs - my coriander bolted incredibly quickly, so that will be another one I’ll plant every few weeks from seed. I loved my greek basil plants which grew really well indoors but then suffered from greenfly so I moved them outside and they didn’t do so well. I also attempted to grow ‘normal’ basil from seed which as Boy Lacer would say took “aaaaaaaaages”.
Aubergines - I’m glad I saw a piece on Gardener’s World about how they’re really difficult to grow, so in a way I’m a bit proud that I at least got them to grow aubergines to conker size! My poor aubergine plants had a tough time, their leaves were the snails favourites and hence they got really damaged and this summer I don’t think has been ideal, would have helped if I had fed them to! May grow them next year.
French beans - no problem except the entire harvest was used up in one small batch of pasta sauce, probably will not grow again, but may try another type of bean.
and finally
Cucumbers - nooooooo, not doing that again! They’re high maintenance, take up too much space, bend too much and hence grow a funny size and don’t loose their prickles! All I’ve gained from my cucumber growing experience is an appreciation of cucumber farmers!
So, I will do this again next year, with more grown from seed I think, as ultimately it’s a lot cheaper and hence a lot less riskier if things go wrong. Next year I want to grow more salad leaves, increase my herbs (should be doing this over winter in the kitchen really), carrots again, possibly aubergines and definitely potatoes. Hopefully by the time I get to the allotment waiting list my fingers will at least be a slight shade of green!
