My turnips nearly died, but I gave them the kiss of life...

I forgot to mention that it was me that nearly killed them. Note to self - always do your research before you start hacking away at live things. Turnips - need - thinning. Just because they have gone all bushy and wild does not mean they are "bolting" (where they flower too early). It just means there are three or four turnips at the bottom of a bush that looks like one! I took away many leaves... thinking I was thinning them down a bit when I realised my turnips had baby turnips everywhere. By the time I finsihed my crude hacking... and realised my mistake... the poor things look like I had taken all their clothes off... fashionable gardening.. this is not. If in fact, we are to relate this to fashion, my turnips looked like Jordan on a night out - nekkked.

So - all has turned out well, they are growing their leaves back... and have been suitably 'thinned' and maybe a little traumatised.

I must apologise for the lack of writing, things have been rather hectic, I had to get my hanging baskets up, trim all the fiddly things off my sweetpeas, create some benches for my salads to sit on so they were not at the mercy of the EVIL snails and their twisted counterparts... slugs. Again - relating to fashion... these creatures are the doomsday police of fashionable gardening - they turn beautiful lush green leaves and preening petals into shaved, razored and disgustingly brown bits of gloop. So, in my battle to be organic... and not kill things I have used organic slug 'repellent'... and then I learned a lesson... and used organic slug 'killer'. Ok - now I feel like a serial murderer, but... I gave some lettuce and salad stuff to my neighbours as a karmic balancing of the scales - very Big Lunchesque.

My vegetable patch dear friends is looking splendid. So, in case you did not know... I am growing... Beets, Turnips, Leeks, Carrots, Spinach, Cauliflower, Potatoes, Runners, Peas, Egg plant, Sweetcorn, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Onions, Garlic and Rubarb (is that how you spell it?). Alongside this edible orchestra I am trying my hand at sunflowers and sweetpeas and hanging baskets and a jasmine climber (a smell that competes with the deliciousness of sunsets and freshly mown grass). The vegetables all had to have capitals to show the importance on the watering chain.

It's a real life lesson growing your own food, it's not just for Christmas... it's for a whole summer... and longer. It needs a babysitter when you are away, it needs feeding when the soil gets hungry - and most of all, it needs your attention, your skills and your love - they say not many things grow without love.

Toodle-pip

Jess