Kitchen garden update

All six vegetable beds are finally up and running and harvesting has begun.

The first two beds we planted are doing amazingly well, apart from a slight disaster with the broad beans. I thought I was spraying them with soapy water to get rid of aphids but it turned out the sprayer I used had weedkiller in it. We still have some to harvest but having given them a good soaking with the 'soapy water' we have lost a lot. At the same time I sprayed the artichokes that I grow for the bees and now we have no flowers.

Beds three and four were filled and planted with a brought compost but that burnt the roots and killed off the seedlings. We then had to dig all of that compost out and start again with new top soil, saving all the plants that we could. They are now also doing pretty well.

Bed six has only just been completed, filled and planted, so has a little catching up to do. 

The garden on the whole is a bit of a mess, but once the paths are done it will make a big different to how it all looks and now the stress of getting everything planted is done we will have more time to concentrate on this.

Bed six

Bed One update - from back to front:

• 3 rows of broad beans
• 1 row of rainbow beetroot (Rainbow mixed)
• 1 row red beetroot (Perfect)
• 3 rows of heirloom carrots
• 1 wide row of spring onions (Lisbon)
• 1 row of rainbow chard - only 2

Bed two - from back to front:

• Half a bed of onion sets - 40 onions (Sturon)
• 1 row of lettuces
• Down the length of the bed a trellis, two rows of peas (early Onward) - harvesting
• 2 courgette plants, to be grown upright, 1 green and 1 yellow
• 1 row of lettuces
• 2 courgette plants, to be grown upright, 1 green and 1 yellow
• 1 row of lettuces
• 1 row of spring onions (pink) - harvesting

Bed three - from back to front:

• 3 cauliflowers
• Purple sprouting broccoli 
• 2 rows of lettuces
• 1 row of 3 tomatoes plants, interspersed with marigolds
• a block of Florence fennel 
• a block of perpetual spinach
• Nasturtium 

Bed four - from back to front

• 9 sweetcorn - Ambrosia F1
• 1 mystery squash
• Cucumbers
• A block of leek
• A row of cabbages - Golden acre, planted with Borage
• 2 rows of Celery -Golden self blanching 3
• Calendula and marigolds

Bed five - from back to front

• Brussel Sprouts - Evesham Special
• Cucumber - Marketmore
• A row of radish
• A row of spring onions
• Runner beans
• Salad leaves

Bed Six - from back to front

• a row of Cavolo Nero
• Spring onions
• Climbing Beans - Blue lake
• Brussel Sprouts
• 2 short rows of Cavolo Nero
• 1 short row of curly kale

It's coming along.

It feels like slow going, but there's been some movement in the kitchen garden. We managed to find enough soil from around the garden to fill just over two beds and last week picked up a car full of quite smelly organic compost. We've now filled four beds and have three planted up.

The seedlings in the conservatory aren't doing too well, which is probably down to the poor potting compost we used, so we need to get them planted out as soon as possible.

First harvest

 Bed One update - from back to front:

• 3 rows of broad beans
• 1 row of rainbow beetroot (Rainbow mixed)
• 1 row breakfast radish - harvesting has started
• 1 row red beetroot (Perfect)
• 3 rows of heirloom carrots
• 1 row breakfast radish - harvesting has started
• 1 wide row of spring onions (Lisbon)
• 1 row of mixed salad leaves
• 1 row of rainbow chard - only 4 have germinated so will plant more

Bed two - from back to front:

• Half a bed of onion sets - 40 onions (Sturon)
• 1 row of lettuces
• Down the length of the bed a trellis, two rows of peas (early Onward)
• 2 courgette plants, to be grown upright, 1 green and 1 yellow
• 1 row of lettuces
• 2 courgette plants, to be grown upright, 1 green and 1 yellow
• 1 row of lettuces
• 1 row of radishes (round blush)
• 1 row of spring onions (pink)

Bed three - from back to front:

• 9 rows cauliflowers in 3 rows, interspersed with lettuces and spring onions
• 2 rows of lettuces
• 1 row of 3 tomatoes plants
• 1 row of radishes (round blush)
• 3 rows of, rescued from around the garden, strawberry plants

Bed two, ready to go.

The plan this last week was to get bed two set up ready for planting, along with moving bed three (the previous herb bed) into position next to it. This meant transplanting the herbs into troughs and into a small bed under the kitchen window, as well as moving and sieving all the soil into bed two. We had a glorious day on Thursday and I managed to get going with moving enough soil to fill bed two. Unfortunately the weekend weather, although better than expected wasn't good enough for us to finish the task and bed three remains in it original position for now.

Keeping Tulip out of the beds is a constant battle, the sticks laid out do not deter her.

Bed two

Bed One update - from back to front:

• 3 rows of broad beans
• 1 row of rainbow beetroot (Rainbow mixed)
• 1 row breakfast radish
• 1 row red beetroot (Perfect)
• 3 rows of heirloom carrots
• 1 row breakfast radish
• 1 wide row of spring onions (Lisbon)
• 1 row of mixed salad leaves
• 1 row of rainbow chard

Bed two - from back to front:

• Half a bed of onion sets - 40 onions (Sturon)
• Down the length of the bed a trellis has been added awaiting the pea plants (early Onward)

We also have 3 bags of second early potatoes planted (Sally).

In the conservatory come greenhouse, we now have:

• indoor sown broad beans
• cabbage
• purple sprouting broccoli 
• lettuce
• spring onions
• tomatoes
• radish (Blush)
• basil
• peas
• beetroot
• courgettes (green)
• Hollyhock

On the kitchen windowsill:

• Courgettes (yellow)
• Zinnias
• Aster
• Gazania

Bedroom windowsill

• Brussel Sprouts
• Leeks
• Celery

New Year, New Start, cont.....

I find it amazing, having done so much research that I haven't actually committed wholeheartedly to a new way of eating/living, even though I know it will benefit me in many different ways. 

I would have thought being locked down for most of 2020 it was the perfect time to get my act together, to cook healthy meals and exercise regularly, but I've actually found it much harder to be healthy at home, than in an office. 

My husband is a sandwich, crisps and chocolate bar or biscuit kind of lunch person, whereas my lunch of choice was usually hummus, sauerkraut and crudités packed for work, but now I'm home it's become a mixture of the two. I'm still having the hummus and sauerkraut, but on top of that I'm also now having the crisps and chocolate. It therefore comes as no surprise that I've put on quite a lot of weight. But its a New Year and no more excuses, time to pull my big girl pants up (and they are quite big) and get on with it.

So back to the research. As well as internet articles, documentary films and blog posts, I have also read, amongst others the following books;

• How not to die - Dr Michael Greger
• The China study - Dr Colin Campbell
• Eat to live - Dr Joel Fuhrman
• The starch solution - Dr John McDougall
• Forks over knives - Founded by Brian Wendel  

All of these books and many others conclude, through years of separate scientific research, that eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet (WFPB), SOS free (no salt, oil or refined sugar) is the healthiest lifestyle to adopt. Not only can it help with losing those excess pounds, but it can also stop or even reverse many deceases, from heart decease to Alzheimers. For me personally if I can avoid or reduce my chances of ever getting Alzheimers, having watched my mum deteriorate daily or heart problems like my dad, then I'm going to have to start now, no more dilly dallying around and I haven't got time to put it off any longer. 

Even though I am plant based 95% of the time, I haven't been truly committed and the odd bites of cheese and what has become the regular milk chocolate bars most certainly do not count as vegan or whole food.

So from tomorrow I will be starting my journey to a WFPB life, dragging my husband along for the ride. 

It is my hope that committing to making regular updates, through this platform, will keep me on the straight and narrow and help me reach my goal of becoming a happier, healthier individual by the end of 2021. 

But it's not all going to be about diet and getting healthy this year, I also want to get art projects up and running, whether in the form of printing, mixed media or painting. I want to do this to build up my confidence and portfolio, with the hope that I will be able to start making sales by the end of the year. 

New Year, New Start

Thank goodness 2020 is out of the way. 

2020, the year I got to leave work to finally do fun things with the grandchildren, spend time with my mum, go on a cruise, enjoy Black Deer festival and get fit and healthy.....well it didn't turn out as planned for any of us, but we've got through a year that will go down in history and be remembered as possibly the worst year in our lifetimes.   

But looking forward; apart from the obvious hopes of life returning to some sort of normality, for me a major start to my new year has got to be about gaining control of my health and fitness and I need to do this both for my physical and mental wellbeing. 

I want to try to avoid, halt or reverse any further chances of developing deceases that I may either inherit or develop with my current lifestyle. It does include losing weight, quite a lot of weight, but it means more than that. It means putting into practice all the knowledge I've gleaned over the last couple of years through much research, reading and learning along the way. It means having more energy and not feeling like I'm dragging myself around all the time, it means not needing afternoon naps because I'm exhausted from doing nothing all day, it means sleeping through the night rather than just a couple of hours at a time and it means just being happier in my own skin. 

Having lost 2.5 stone 4 years ago on a low carb, low calorie diet I find myself not quite back at where I started but definitely on my way, overweight, sluggish and miserable, but not quite miserable enough to go back to the low carb plan, rather this time around it will be a much healthier way of eating (WOE) and I will be adopting a Whole Food Plant Based diet (WFPB).

To be continued......