Coriander and Mint progress, garden plan and ideas for the future

So, it looks like winter may be arriving, now we are into January. This morning we woke to a slight frosting of snow, no more than a couple of millimeters but still, this is going to be an interesting period where I find out how successfully the Cloches I have put over the winter growth will enable them to survive a cold snap.

Inside the house, where the central heating is helping out, I have seen a sudden burst of growth from my coriander I am growing from seed, and my supermarket bought mint plant has also started flourishing, causing an emergency re-potting and staking as it fell over in it's tiny shop pot.

The coriander looking quite healthy, just over 2 weeks since first sight of shoots. They are sitting on a 50p plate bought from the second hand shop next door - classy :)

The mint, still looking slightly lop-sided but better than it was. Again sitting on a 50p plate from next door and yes, on the bin in the background you can see our light dusting of snow.

I have nearly finished my plan of the garden, currently without any new growth in it; it is just to help me plan where things will go etc. As you can see, it is a much smaller space than I used to have; each square is one metre

My attempt to hang the thai boxing punch/kick bag failed, however, as the bricks our house is made from appear to have been fashioned from titanium! My hammer drill made about a 2mm dent, and then the chuck slipped. No chance. Oh well.

At least that will leave me more space for growing stuff ;)

Another awesome thing, I got some more cool pressies at Christmas which I will be making a start on this week I think. The cup is most useful as I am clumsy (apparently) and it won't break if I kick it across the garden :D

This little watering can comes with lavender - I cannot wait for this to be flowering - I love the smell of lavender!

A nice pair of small pots, with (as you can see) orgenao and basil to attempt to grow.

Yes, I AM the head gardener, and don't you forget it ;)

Finally, this year I am not only going to be growing food, but also picking out some flowering plants that I can grow which will encourage bees and butterflies to visit. My current thoughts are:

• Globe Artichoke (as I can also try eating these)
• Foxglove (because they are gorgeous)
• Thistles (because surely they are easy to grow!)
• Honeysuckle (well, one's got to try!)
• Geranium
• Forget-me-not

I am going to try and put a load of hanging baskets up (I can drill into the mortar, and avoid the diamond-hard bricks) and also plant in the lower light areas below the trees.

Anyway, I thought this was going to be a short update but it doesn't appear to have been!

Cheers

Lamb Roast with Cabbage and (very small) Parsnips

Last night I had another great feed involving food harvested from the garden.

This is such a great payback of growing your own because food really does just taste so much nicer when you have grown it yourself, and have watched it first poke through the earth and then slowly develop until it is ready for eating.

This time it involved the cabbage, and a few VERY early parsnips, one pulled to check the development of the crop, and the other two pulled accidentally while weeding.

The Bearded Bastard selecting leaves for dinner

Lifting leaves ready for eating

A shot of the cabbage leaves mid-harvest

Reading for chopping

I have the habit of removing the tough central stalk

I decided to slice these leaves into strips, ready for the steamer (10 mins only required for these)

The (tiny tiny) parsnips, fresh out of the ground

The washed and trimmed parsnips. I cooked these for about 5 mins in the roasting tin with the potatoes and lamb joint.

DINNER!!! Cabbage bottom left (obviously) and parsnip peaking out between the yorkshire pud top right and the tatty.

Can I just say that, tiny as they were, those parsnips really REALLY packed a punch. So sweet and so tasty. I can't wait for the rest of the harvest to come in.

The cabbage was a slight disappointment, not quite as tasty as the rest of the food which I have grown. It was nice though.

Right, a slight bonus for you here. Last night myself and the girlfriend went round the outside tomatoes and chillis and counted up the current harvest (there are more flowers ready to become fruit) and I drew the following diagram, with counts of fruit per plant, and a total at the bottom.

Yes, 111 tomatoes are currently going well in the garden.

Another (final) interesting point to observe is the two plants with 27 and 9 fruits on them were both runt plants which I almost threw away and just at the last minute pushed into the earth in the herb garden. So, however small and runty your seedling may be, give it a chance. That runt is now the most productive of them all.

Cheers

What I am growing (plus a cracking link - facebook)

So I decided to do a quick plan of our back garden showing where things are growing at this stage (obviously this will become out of date relatively quickly so, yeah...)

I can't really dig up any more of the grass else my girlfriend will shout at me (and the landlord may have a comment to make too...)

Not included in this (yet) are the chillis, tomatoes, mint, peppers and mushrooms that I am cultivating inside.

Also a useful idea I picked up off a friend's facebook (sadly I can't find the link but credit where it is due for this) is this:

I am going to make one myself later today and I will update this post with a picture of the result (and whether it works or not!)

Also this idea is a particularly cracking one, and one I will definitely try next year (I have whisky cabinets to build this year so that will take all my wood working skills up for the time being) is this:

Again credit where it is due and I have a link this time: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=404405099572046&set=a.208688125810412.59759.195391367140088&type=1&theater which is on the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/ByzantineFlowers/195391367140088 along with a load of other cool ideas (though I really do think this one is the best) so get along there if you want.

Finally, a little technical tip picked up from a book that the almost-inlaws gave me for my birthday. If you are trying to do a compost heap, turn it regularly. I have not been doing this and when I tried to the other day it proved VERY difficult, especially as I have one of those plastic bin things with limited access and sharp edges (which shredded my hands while I was trying to fork the forking thing over)...

So there you are, top hot tip of the day.