Outhouse

I fell in love with my house on the first viewing four years ago.  Not just because of its location a thirty minute walk from Norwich city centre, or because of its price - although that was probably the most important consideration for me at the time.  But because of the space.  As well as a living room, a nice sized kitchen, two bedrooms and a compact little garden, plenty big enough for me to cope with, it had a lovely big outhouse arrangement with space to put the washing machine, fridge, chest freezer, all my junk, etc - and I immediately saw that I could use it as a greenhouse.  It has a corrugated see through roof so gets plenty of light and remains warm, perfect for seed sowing.  Up until that time, I'd used those little greenhouse things with the plastic covers that blew off in the wind and split, so I was delighted to see I had something a little more solid. 

I love seed sowing - I love feeling happy and hopeful waiting for things to grow.  I go out every morning before work to see what's happened overnight and it's the first place I go to when I come home from work - after having been mauled and cuddled by Finn of course.  But because he lives in the outhouse while I'm at work, I tend to multi-task and check my seeds out at the same time as the mauling! 

This morning, I've sown mixed salad leaves, rocket, spring onions, little gem lettuces, cucumbers, courgettes, sweetcorn and mangetout.  I'm very behind with my seed sowing schedule which, until this morning, was typed on an Excel spreadsheet.  However, as I'm four months behind - the shame of it - I needed to rejig it all.  So I dug out a hard backed notebook from my stationery stash and am using that instead.  I hope that, as a result of sowing everything so late, we're not eating salad at Christmas - I'm rather hoping for something a bit before that! 

These are the seeds that I actually DID sow back in January - carrots, cauliflowers and tomatoes.  All looking very healthy I'm pleased to say.  I'm not a big carrot eater, but Finn loves them, so they're his treat - which is why they're elevated and not in the garden, ready for him to dig up and have for his elevenses!

Not quite the weekend for doing anything much outdoors in the garden - very showery and my washing has been out for three days now as it doesn't dry sufficiently between downpours.  I really need to get out there and work - at this time of year, things grow so quickly that the entire garden can be two inches taller in the time it takes to come in and make a cup of tea!