Mud Cakes and Wine

I am very much still learning about GYO, last year was our first real go, we had some success and some failures. A lot of the failures were down to my not planning the space properly.

I have brought a lot of very similar seeds to the ones I did last year, but have a much clearer vision about how to plant them this year and more planning has gone into it all.







Cut and come again lettuce was a total failure last year, I have got a wine create I will drill holes in the bottom, line this and fill with compost and use this for them, if this works I will get another one. Another post to follow about this idea.

The tomatoes were massive but took up so much room so will put them in the smaller planter this time and then they will not grow over the other plants.





I also think the courgettes I will put into pots next to the beds, as although designed for pots they took a lot of space. This leaves the raised beds for the beets, carrots, chard, sweetcorn, peas and runner beans.


All the plants I chose ar…

Ever so slowly the garden is coming back to life and here are a few highlights of what we are up to and plan to do.....

1. New Lawn beginnings, our lawn has been a right mess then last year our gardener did some work with seeding, scarifying and laying a layer of soil on top and it looked so much better. So they have been again this year and we have this, I am sure it will get better. Though the amount of mud walked into the house is never ending.




2. Seed arrival, our GYO seeds have arrived and can not wait to get planting




3. Prepared the raised beds and cleared out from last year. Now need to get a little more compost and we are ready to go





4. Forsythia is starting to bloom, the only time of year I like the plant.




5. Foxgloves, they had died down and I cut them right back as you can see the new shoots coming through.





6. The Viola's are coming back to life I am so happy about this and the wonderful Gill you were right they did. They really do make all these grey and dull days a little e…

We have been so busy this week with grown up things like mortgages and hospial appointments and work it has not been nice to us so i am looking forward to some comfort food

Friday - Fish, Chips and Peas for us all

Saturday - Meatballs with Spaghetti

Sunday - French Style Chicken with roast potatoes or mash if i am feeling lazy (yes from the freezer)

French style chicken with peas and bacon

Monday -  Bake in the oven Mushroom risotto with loads of cheese

Oven baked porcini and thyme risotto

Tuesday - Smoked Salmon and Celeriac Dish we have never had this before but it screams comfort food. The boys will have pasta

Smoked salmon and celeriac dauphinoise

Wednesday - Spag Bol

Thursday - Pizza and Salad - from the shop afraid we are not making our own this week

I love a gardening bargain and every now and again you can find a great one, I had to pop to waitrose as I was feeling rough so needed paracetamol and soup, as I was leaving I noticed they were selling these hanging baskets for £2.99. Despite my cold I went back into the shop with two hanging baskets to buy.




The reason I knew they would be OK was I could see the new buds forming and that would mean more flowers. I learnt this from the primroses I brought last year and was worried they had gone over so fast, but they had not and more and more flowers kept appearing.



This weekend I got out my snips, a pair of kitchen scissors would be fine, you just need to get into little areas and cut carefully. I cut back as close to the base of the plant all dead flowers, then carefully removed the dead leaves and one one a whole plant had died.





Now it is a wait and see and I am hoping these little primroses will give us some pretty flowers and then I will pop them in the garden and hope they will come…

Time is just flying past at the moment and yet again I am late with the meal plan for this week.

Lots of simple and easy dishes for us this week

Friday - Easy Chicken Burritos. Boys having sandwiches as having quorn burgers at school

Easy Chicken Burritos

Saturday - Lamb Burgers for Mr MC&W and I the boys wanted pizza

Herby lamb burgers with beetroot mayo

Sunday - The Busy Mum Cookbook homemade lasagna for us all. Its a bit of work but amazing.

Monday - Smoked Paprika paella with Cod and Peas

Smoked paprika paella cod peas

Tuesday - Spinach and Courgette Fritata from Gions Healthy Italian. The boys will have omelets

Wednesday - Bacon and Mushroom Pasta

Bacon and mushroom pasta

Thursday - Thai Chicken Noodles

Child friendly thai chicken noodles

The meal plan is a little late and last week did not go at all to the schedule. I ended up with a nasty virus that knocked me for six and only today did I even feel like thinking about food. 

Friday - McDonald's for the boys. Mr MC&W and I had fish, roasted new potatoes, homemade tomato sauce and roasted veg.

Saturday - Pizza and salad for the boys. We are having Peri Peri chicken with chips, coleslaw, corn on the cob and salad

Sunday - Sausages, red onions and mushrooms cooked in a beef style gravy served on a giant Yorkshire pudding boys will have sausages with gravy, Yorkshires and greens

Monday - Pasta with mozzarella and fresh tomato sauce for us all

Pasta with mozzarella, mint and fresh tomato sauce

Tuesday - Crispy chicken pancakes with creamy chicken and bacon as i can make this ahead of time and put together last min. Boys will have pancakes with ham and cheese followed by lemon and sugar

Crispy pancakes creamy chicken bacon

Wednesday - Spiced Salmon with tray bake sag aloo f…