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Category Archives: growing

Happiness Calendar, Fungi and Jobs

Today at Roots there were countless small plants to be potted on. I did dozens of Aubergine Long Purple! Among the little plants were some tiny fungi.

At coffee time we always go over the Jobs List – those done and those that still need doing. There is always a job to suit every individual.

For those of my readers who ‘knew’ that my lovely Mr S was going to have a new knee today, it hasn’t happened, for a variety of reasons. We hope for a new date not too far away.

 

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Tomatoes, A Dog and Visitors

Today a team of us potted on dozens of tomato plants. We only planted them a few weeks ago. Mine were the variety Mango Lassi. I’ll be interested to know what they taste like.

A beautiful dog, called Tala,  came along to Roots today.

I love seeing children visiting at Roots, playing, learning, having fun. (Parental permission given for photo)

New beds being prepared – no dig

 

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Plants, Automata and Pancake Day

What a beautiful day in every way! The sun shone and the sky was blue. I met friends at Community Roots where we potted on lots of celery and celeriac, admired our growing tomato plants and laughed along with the team. Later I visited the Contraptions exhibition, we met two enthusiastic young gardeners, a friend called round with some books to swap and finally I made pancakes, both savoury stuffed and, to finish, Crêpes Suzettes.

Salad leaves

Baby tomatoes, many varieties

 

We have a couple of Esther Smith’s pieces – I love her work.

The last remnants of the pancake batter made a rather pretty lacy pancake pattern.

 

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Tête à Tête, Poly Tunnels and Rainbow Chard

There was just one little Tête à Tête in flower near the shed, braving the bitter wind.

A very efficient team of three, today we planted all sorts of seeds for summer harvesting, such a positive and hopeful job. Seeds included lettuce, chillies, peppers, aubergines and tomatoes, several varieties of each.  Not much photo opportunity there so I went for a walk around the poly tunnels to see how everything is coming on. Brilliantly is the answer. Many more braver Community Roots volunteers were out in the field, clearing ground and preparing for planting out later. I forgot to take a photo of the gluten free Lemon Cake I made which went down very well at coffee break..

Two very happy volunteers, D and G

All sorts of salad leaves

Rainbow Chard

 

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Wolf Moon, Seeds and Sea

I missed the full moon last night but it greeted us as we drew the curtains this morning, still full and in a pinky sunrise sky.

Last year, on onion sowing day, I was the only one in the polytunnel and planted all 8000 seed alone. This year there was a brilliant team of four of us, weighing, counting, sowing and in a couple of weeks we’ll be potting them on as here, just two weeks after sowing!

Weighing 1gr of seeds for one seed tray.

It has been a gloriously sunny day, apricity at its best, so much so we had our coffee break outside at Roots this morning. In the afternoon, we went to the cliffs at St Agnes to see the sea and catch the sun on the waves.

 

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Community Roots, Kohl Rabi and Candle

Being winter, there is less sowing and planting so today I re-painted the sign boards and will do the lettering next week. The last of the carrots were harvested. Over coffee we always go over the jobs board and decide what next to get on with.

This is our Kohl Rabi. We’ve not eaten one before so will try it out soon.

Our Advent candle, photo taken yesterday

 

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Carrots, Raindrops and Happiness

There was snow in much of the UK today but not here in Cornwall. We just had extremely heavy rain but that didn’t put off some hardy volunteers from harvesting the last of the carrots. Photos by M – thank you.  I worked in the poly tunnel helping to pot on the baby Echium plants.

Raindrops do leave pretty jewels on leaves.

Coffee break today in the poly tunnel, a photo sent to missing crew with love.  What a happy bunch we are and what a tonic it is to spend time in their company. .

 

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Postbox Topper, Planting and Peace

A good friend has sent a photo of a beautifully crafted post box topper made to mark Remembrance Day. It’s another lovely piece of creativity and I am delighted to see that there is a Land Girl being honoured here too.

Sometimes at Roots, there are too many seedlings so when they have all been planted to fill their spaces, some are left over and we are invited to give them a home. I brought home a selection last Tuesday and today, in glorious sunshine (the anticyclonic gloom has left Cornwall) I planted them out. At Roots they’ve been planted in poly tunnels and so they may not survive in our garden though I have put plastic covers over them to look after them the best I can.

We wear white poppies that we get from The Peace Pledge Union which promotes peace.  The white poppy commemorates all people who died in conflict, soldiers and civilians, and focuses on achieving peace and challenging the way we look at war.

 

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Flowers, Asparagus and Hopes

Next door to Roots is a small company van where beautiful flowers grown on a local specialist farm are bunched up for sale. There are fresh blooms and dried flowers and all of them are gorgeous.

Today a small team of us repotted 144 young asparagus plants. Not long ago they were a miniature forest and now they are nearly ready for their permanent home. My Mum, whose birthday is today, would have loved this whole enterprise.

We are watching events in America with bated breath and hope all turns out well with no bad repercussions…….

 

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Chard, Begonia and Seaweed

I forgot to show you the wonderful colours of the Rainbow Chard growing at Roots yesterday.

We still have blooms in the garden. Here’s one of the Begonias.

This is Swanpool Beach where we have been today to collect bags of seaweed to put on the beds at the allotment. It has a remarkable beneficial effect, keeping the weeds down and feeding the soil over the winter months. We were pretty tired by the time we’d collected, tipped out and raked it out and I forgot to get a photo. Maybe tomorrow. .