Gardening Leave

It's been a brilliant sunny weekend and I've spent most of it in the garden.

On Saturday morning I joined the Grow Zones team in Niall's garden where I helped to plant potatoes and seeds while 'the lads' chopped branches for firewood and charcoal. Niall had gathered together an unusual collection of planters, including two old suitcases, a couple of Ikea bags and a few drawers! For photographs pop over to Steve's blog.

The rest of the time has been spent in our own back garden. Most of the seeds I planted in April have germinated (I'm still waiting for a couple of tomatoes, Thai basil and chili) and the seedlings had outgrown their tiny pots. The potato plants are growing rapidly and needed earthed up. The soil's almost up to the top of the container. One more top up should do it. Alan planted the two bushes we bought last week - a gooseberry and a redcurrant. They're the first fruit bushes we've grown and I'm looking forward to crumbles and jelly later on in the year.

However it wasn't all work, work , work. We found time to drink cups of tea, test the girls on their revision, admire the poppies and spot the frogs. This morning I made a frittata with chard from our rockery and this evening we had our first barbecue.

All in all it's been a very fulfilling weekend.