More excitement from home

Pottering around the salad patch at home and pulling out all the leaves that had bolted to make room for the little lollo rosso that are being swamped by the spinach, I found the garlic that I had planted in the autumn. Last week we had been chatting to John (the Italian, husband of Maria and brother in law of Baptista) who was on his way home with a wonderful head of garlic that he had just dug. He grows over 200 on his plot, all from cloves saved from the previous year. In fact Maria never buys seeds she always saves her own, including tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, various assorted beans and spinach.

Anyway, I decided to dig one of the garlic stems to see if there was anything on the bottom of it and - hey presto, our first garlic bulb, and very impressed I am - not the largest ever seen but not bad for a first attempt. This was actually the smallest so a good indication of how well the others will be doing. I will leave them a little bit longer and hope that the rain over the last couple of days has done them good.

I have had a bit of success in the garden as well with flowers. Never having success with sweet peas I said that this year would be my last, but I did something slightly different. I sowed the beans in the autumn to over winter in the cold frame, and it certainly seems to have done the trick. Along with the pelargonium’s which were all from cuttings of last years and over wintered on the bedroom window sills, we have quite a display on the decking. The tin bath that you can see on the left is one that I found a the allotment and thought it would be ideal to keep the mint contained in the herb garden.

I have also grown nicotiana for the first time and would recommend it as it gives a bit of hight and a wonderful range of colours.