A bout of productivity...

At last the rain has stopped. That was scary for a while eh? For nearly 4 weeks I woke up fearing I would see the chickens floating past my bedroom window. The rain has had an impact on my seed sowing. It's been too wet and I have been too miserable to sow much. In the short bursts of dry we have had I have done something I rarely do and bought plants- actual proper little plants, not seeds. I have stocked the allotment (for the time being)and nearly nothing I have planted has been mine from seed. The exceptions to this are flowers,I have grown my favourite flowers, sweet peas, from the seeds of the beauties I had last year and some extra packets I bought online during the dingy winter months. I have also had a go as some cosmos and asters and some lupins, we'll see how they go. On the home front things are looking promising. During a particularly miserable Sunday afternoon I commandeered the conservatory (much to my mothers pleasure) and bought a selection of tomatoes to grow in it.I have never seen tomatoes grow so fast or so strong. They are doing marvelously in there.

However, now they are nearly finished growing up, and starting to grow fruit they looked a little sad. I resisted the urge to chuck some shop bought fertiliser on them and went nettle picking instead. The neighbours already think I'm mad so me fumbling through nettle patches on a Sunday afternoon is nothing new. Having retrieved a bag full of lovely nettles I chopped them up a la Jamie Oliver and a bunch of basil and have left them to steep in a bucket full of water. Hopefully they'll start to rot and once it warms up a bit the toms can go outside and enjoy the stinky fertiliser and all its goodness.

The cut and come again salad is good eating already, I keep promising myself to grow more as it really is one of the most cost effective things to grow.

I have also been on a bit of a cutting rampage recently. It started at school where I had my eye on a rogue lemon balm plant for a while- last week the caretakers strimmed it so I had to think fast and dug up some root cuttings (they were transported home in my lunch box- much to my student's amusement!)I've also managed to nab a cutting from a friend's beautiful peppermint. Can't wait for them to grow!

Now I have had too much gardening fun- it's time to get back to this pile of marking I've been neglecting... do you think I could buy a little more time with the promise of a nice mint tea?