The One Thing I Missed Whilst on Holiday

The one thing I missed this year whilst we were on holiday, (apart from having a private bathroom - sorry TMI) was most definitely my garden.  I kept thinking about it and wondering how everything was growing.

Once back on Monday night I managed to find half an hour to potter, harvest anything that was ready and just appreciate being back home.

In our absence, the sweetcorn had grown really well, with lots more cobs forming and some getting quite large already.

The rhubarb plants that I dug up from the allotment, seem to have settled into their pots and are growing lots of new leaves, which is encouraging, as I thought that perhaps they might not thrive and I'd have to buy a new plant.  This will definitely save me from making any further expenditure here.

In addition, the very cheap strawberry plants I bought from B&Q had also done well, had grown some flowers and were starting to bear fruit. They look a lot happier than when I bought them.

I mooched around and harvested some dwarf french beans.  They had gone over a little, so were blanched and frozen for use in casseroles and stews this winter.  There are still more beans growing on the plants though.

Before we went away, I was going to pull up all of the lettuce in one of the raised beds, thinking that it would go to seed whilst we were away.  I harvested a couple of muslin bags full and took them away with us.  They lasted all week in the campervan fridge.

In the end, I was so busy on the day we left, that I didn't even have time to pull up and compost the remaining lettuce and when we got back it was starting to bolt, but on tasting it, it didn't taste too bad. I harvested some for this week, will take it a week at a time and see if I can keep harvesting it and eating it for as long as possible, before it becomes completely inedible.

I did, however, manage to find time to sow some more lettuce and mustard seeds before we went away, and was pleased to see that these are now germinating and will provided a future source of salad leaves.

The only other things that were ready to harvest were one beef tomato and some spring onions, which I'm using in my salads this week. The rest of the tomatoes hadn't really ripened at all, so it will probably be a while before any others are ready to eat.

I'm enjoying it all being on my doorstep, although I've not any time today to spend out there, as I've been at the CS.  There had been a few changes in my absence, with regard to some aspects of working in the shop, which was interesting in some cases and in others time consuming, but who am I to question the whys and wherefores.

The manager is going on holiday in a couple of days, so today we were busy trying to get things done before she goes and it will no doubt be the same tomorrow, before she heads off on Thursday.  I'm pleased that she's getting time away from it all though.  She needs and deserves it.

On a different subject, I got bitten in the garden last night by some very unpleasant insect and my ankle and the back of my knee have swollen up quite dramatically.  It seems to be one thing after another at the moment in a physical well being sense. I've had to take some anti histamines and put antihistamine cream on the bites.  They are feeling a little better now though, which is good news. Hopefully, they will go down fully overnight.

I'm looking forward to Thursday when I've got some free time to possibly visit the allotment.  There's been no news on whether anyone wants to swap plots and I'm beginning to think it's a non-starter.  I'll keep you posted.