A late (but enthusiastic!) stab at Grow Your Own

One of the things I wanted to do this year was grow my own vegetables. I had seeds, I had a plan, and I had a book. However, I also had flu, from January until May, (seriously), and my seeds didn't get planted. However, given my new cheerful philosophy of, it is never too late to start doing anything (I just made that up now), today I got out my seeds to see if any could be still planted or if it was too late and I had to get rid of them. And, as ever, it is not as depressing as I thought it would be, because not only could some of the salady ones still be planted, I can just save the rest for next year. Hooray!

So I have been out with my compost and pots, I have cleared a little space, and I have planted my lemon balm, a strawberry plant, some lettuce seeds, some radish seeds, and some spring onion seeds. And I will wait eagerly to see if anything happens. You can see my lemon balm in that pot there, with a strawberry plant behind it. But, you say, why is your strawberry plant squashed to one side in that big pot? Does it have imaginary friends? Have you left room for the slugs? Well, no, it is even more exciting than that. Ialheg, of I Spy With My Altered Eye, is going to send me some plants! This is very kind, and I am thrilled. So I have left a space for the new plants, which are winging their way to me in the post, and when they get here I will take pictures. Thank you, Ialheg! And I will be putting yours in the post to you tomorrow!

Something else exciting arrived in the post today. After I searched for Borax in Homebase on Tuesday, I bought some mail order from Greenshop.co.uk. At the time I didn't think this was a very satisfactory solution, as I would like to be able to buy something like that locally as and when (although to be fair the postage wasn't very expensive), and the website seemed to say that it would take forever to come. Well it didn't, it came this morning, which is great, and I will be experimenting with making my washing powder tomorrow (the recipe seems quick and easy.) I'm not sure whether I have high hopes of this or not, but I think it's definitely worth trying. I have the other ingredients hanging about anyway, so it hasn't been a big expense.

And these are my roses, in full bloom, looking very pretty.