Up, up and away...

Today I am mostly doing housework. It's not what I usually spend my blissful free Friday on, but the sprunging of spring made me shamefully aware of just how much dust and dirt was lurking in the flat. I do love the new sunny mornings, but curse them for shining light in all those usually dark corners! I can no longer live in denial. Something must be done.

So, while I dash round like a mad thing frantically swiping surfaces, nooks and crannies, I thought I would share a little piece of spring joy with you: 

I planted these last week on night after work, and they were so keen that by the weekend green shoots were looking promising, and by yesterday they were pushing against the lid of the propagator! All I need to do now is be careful and patient, and pray to the gardening gods that I can maintain some green fingeredness for the whole planting season. 

The large adventurous shoots in the foreground are courgettes and squash, and then coming in a close second with their delicate little offerings are tomatoes. This weekend the first potatoes are going in, and probably a whole load of chilies! 

What are you planting this year?

Summer salads...

...are on their way. Slowly.

First harvest

They may be tiny, but these fiery radish shoots are the very first harvest from the North London Garden this year!

The fruit bushes have flowers, as do the plum tomatoes, everything else is still in little pots and are really only seedlings, but they're getting taller everyday. Fingers crossed we're set to yield a little more this year than the two tomatoes and handful of potatoes of last year's rainy summer. Every day it feels like we get a step closer, ever so slightly better and more green fingered. It's been a very steep learning curve - we lost our entire crop of nine squash and courgette plants last year to mosaic disease - but we'll get there.

A posse of posters, and a posset.

I'm an obsessive postcard sender. I can go away for a weekend, to a place down the road, and my parents still tend to receive at least one card. When N went travelling for six months I sent him a postcard or letter a day, (sometimes three or four) even though I knew he wouldn't be able to actually read them until he returned. That was one helluva pile of post.

So when Molly got in touch to tell me that she wanted to add some excitement to our mailboxes how could I refuse! We are the Mavens of the Mailbox and we like real mail. Proper stamps, nice envelopes, handwritten messages. Au revoir emoticons and hastily rattled off emails. We're bringing the purpose back to post, the merriment back to the mail.

You can find us here.

I'm so excited, and I can wait to rattle off my first round of letters. A lazy bank-holiday evening, a class of wine, and pens and paper, what could be a better way to round off a four-day weekend?

We had a brief window of sunshine today and used it to finally get out into the garden and get our long-overdue planting and clearing done. A little later than we might have liked, but we have at least got some things going. Hopefully the yield will be more impressive than last year (two tomatoes, three raspberries and a handful of very small potatoes).
I did of course promise a recipe today. I've been pondering which of things I've made recently to tell you about. There are a whole variety of things taking up my "to post" file, but I think it has to be the Lemon Posset today. Why? Because it's the most simple dessert I think I've ever made, and yet one of the best. It's adapted from a Nigel Slater recipe and serves two. It looks like such a small amount, but believe me, it is just enough because it's so rich and delicious.

I am also dedicating this recipe to Sarah. I think she'd like it (it's not too sweet) and it's a cinch to make, which I think she'll appreciate, and it takes no time at all, which helps when you're a super busy person. So Sarah, here's a dessert for you to make on Wednesday when your boyfriend comes home!

Lemon Posset.

160ml heavy cream
50g caster sugar
25ml (or a little more if like me you adore sharp lemony goodness!)

Whack the cream and the sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring every so often to dissolve the sugar. Lower the heat so it is just bubbling gently and leave for three minutes, again stirring from time to time. Up the heat slightly and let it bubble steadily, but not boil over, for another two minutes. Stir constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Then let it sit and rest for two minutes. Then pour into two small ramekins, or espresso cups, or something suitably cute. Refridgerate for at least an hour, then serve.

Seriously, this tiny dessert packs a punch! I have no picture because it was so quick to make and eat that I didn't have time to grab the camera.

A photo essay: North London Veg Garden update

No kitchen garden would be complete without it's herbs. In the barrel are mint, rosemary, coriander, sage, thyme and bay, in the little pot is oregano.

The greenhouse is serving us well. Despite a snail invasion we have some strong tomato vine (back row) and are attempting a second batch of pepper (front row) having killed the first lot off in the colder weather earlier in the year.

Hanging basket "Tumbling Tom" tomatoes on the top of the boiler cupboard (and to the far left our resurgent lemon tree)

Pots of courgette and pumpkins currently sitting on the table to keep the slugs at bay until we get more copper tape

In the foreground our butternut squash, one of which is doing so well it flowered today! In the background our uber potato "tree"!

Our collection of berry fruits. (L-R) Raspberry, blackberry and blackcurrant.

Despite being harvested once our rhubarb is well on the way for another crop.

Everyone's a winner!

After trawling through all the entries to my blogging competition I have decided to announce the winners!

First prize goes to L who successfully (and speedily) deduced that the two miscellaneous plants are indeed potatoes. We thought we might have planted some!

D is the lucky winner of the bonus prize for his handy tips about what to do with them next. As soon as we make it to the garden centre we'll be buying bigger pots so we can "earth up" the plants. How exciting.

So, it seems that everyone's a winner. L and D on the blog, and us because it looks like we've got some nice healthy potatoes on the way! Prizes will be on their way once I decide what they're going to be *ponders.*

In other North London Garden news, the pesky slugs eat our lettuce and had a good ole bash at the courgettes. N's hurried move to put the pots in the greenhouse one evening (after I stupidly left them out after dark) was coupled with the shout back into the flat of "eurgh, it's slug-city out here!" Needless to say on the aforementioned garden centre trip we will also be buying gravel and little dishes to rest our pots in, with the hope of being able to sustain pre-ventative measures rather than more cruel, but possible more deserved, death-based techniques.

Anyway, the slug attack has at least prompted me to get back on the planting case, and now it's a bit warmer (and we're actually here to look after them) the need seeds I sowed today will grow up nice and strong. I planted new courgettes and lettuce, pumpkin (a variety called "Becky" - I couldn't resist), peppers and spinach. Fingers crossed.

Whilst on the subject of flora and fauna, I did promise some tales and photos from our trip, which I haven't managed yet. I will get around to it, I promise. Until then I will leave you with a couple of photos in the plant and animal theme. Firstly a view across the Mojave desert showing the Joshua trees in the aptly named Joshua Tree National Park.




Then a cheeky lizard perched on the rocks in Joshua tree, who was perched quite happily bobbing up and down in the midday sunshine.

A photo essay: North London Garden veg update

It's competition time! Name that plant...

Before we went away N and I eagerly started the planting for our modest North London Kitchen Garden. The plan being to try growing some of our own veg, fruit and herbs. We dutifully sowed, propagated and labeled a whole series of plants in the hopes that despite neglecting them in one of the key months we might return from our trip and still have some potential successes. During this potting up phase we clearly got a bit blaze, planting a few things and saying to ourselves "yeah, of course we'll remember what they are, we don't need labels."

Yesterday whilst enjoying the gorgeous weather and sorting out all the plants that have made it (a remarkable amount considering) N pulls two huge plants from the depths of the greenhouse and holds them up looking perplexed. "Which ones were these again" he remarked. I, of course, had no idea. They were both in big pots, which means we had planned for them being large plants/vegetables, and clearly expected them to be recognisable. Oops!

So here's you're chance to win a prize! I am going to post pictures of the two plants below (neither of which are the same, or at least we don't think they are...bear with us please, we're very new to all this!) and if you can successfully identify them you will win a prize. I haven't decided what it'll be yet, but it will be somehow veg/garden related, easily post-able, and no doubt hilariously witty and apt (yeah, right!). Bonus points will also be awarded to entries that tell us how best to continue dealing with these pesky prolific plants. And what do points mean?!...Prizes!

Ladies and Gentlemen I bring to you my first blog competition "Name That Plant!"

Plant A:




Plant B:

Spring in North London?

The apple blossom clematis has begun to flower and the seeds we planted a few weeks ago have begun to grow; could Spring finally be here? Hurrah!

A photo essay: yesterday we were mostly...