And so it all ends!

Well here we are four days after Christmas and I have managed to bake 160 cupcakes for a beautiful wedding all finished off with a handcrafted rose. I am not going to lie it was tough especially with the kiddies running around high off life and Christmas chocolates. But thank God I did it and the wedding couple were very pleased. I will defo be posting some photos soon, it's just that I tend to post mostly off my fantastic spangdoodili flashy IPad. It was my birthday gift and I must say it is never too far from my side. It was funny actually, I was using it when I went shopping once and ended up giving a lady a demo in Tescos. It did draw quiet a crowd.

But back onto gardening and the likes. I have finally got round to planting my fruit bushes, me and my little clone ( pretty little daughter) popped upto the plot on Monday (yes boxing day!) and popped them in. I had to mentally prepare myself for the task of doing the cupcakes so I needed some outdoorsy time although it wasn't as peaceful as I would have hoped. Don't get me wrong I love having the kids up the plot teaching them about the plants and soil and nature but sometimes its the only me time I have and I do value it. I went up again today as I had some ponging composting to take up and we also put up a bird feeder, I have decided that I am going to really get the environment working in harmony on the plot this year ( not that I know how!), but I am going to put the bit between my teeth so to speak.

Now let's talk planting! I know that most books, web pages and the likes say that there is not much to plant this time of year and it's true, however I have decided to plant another crop of garlic and onions this month and after watching Clair's allotment I shall be popping some into toilet roll middles in the greenhouse. I am also excited about growing some mushrooms, like I said before I am no expert and each season I try out new things and so this new season I have opted for mushrooms and sweet potatoes. I currently have a sweet potato sprouting on my windowsill and I am very surprised in how quickly it has come up there has to be at least ten sprouts already! I am expecting it to go crazy on there. So after reading up on the 'sweet potato', it turns out its not actually a potato after all in fact it belongs to the bindweed family. Imagine that the dreaded weed we all spend days and even months digging of our plot (yes that one!), well we are now encouraged to plant it out there! So after much deliberation I have decided to plant one anyway, but there is method to my madness.

It turns out that although we can grow sweet potatoes here in this climate they still need a good amount of sunshine and warmth after trailing through YouTube (as I am a visual learner I have discovered) I noticed the small crops of other growers, and so here's what I am going to do....

I have learnt that you need to grow them under plastic and that they need warmth, they are also very invasive so I will be planting them in a large black bin with a black plastic lining, before I plant them I will also try to warm the soil by covering with plastic too. A great fertiliser and plenty of horse or cow muck should do it and a wire support system because the vines like to travel and hopefully all that hard work will pay off with some tasty sweet potatoes.

So musing this is and my attention turns to the kids going back to school and oh I can't wait, to be honest I don't think the kids can either....