Rain rain go away

The rain. So much rain. Normally I love rain but it has rained almost contstantly for the past two, maybe three months. In that time we've had probably no more than two weeks worth of nice days scattered throughout. Some summer!

Don't get me wrong, I do love rain. It's good for my garden and I get to wear my wellies. But it's barely stopped, the puppies are miserable having to go on their walks in the rain and it's killed off almost all of my plants.

Fingers crossed we get a few days of sunshine before the summer is over!

Makeshift Planters

Gardening is addictive. You plant your first few seeds and before you know it, you're hooked and buying purple carrots, yellow beetroots and all other kinds of crazy seeds.

Of course, you also need somewhere to actually plant these seeds, and I ran out of space and containers, oh about a month ago?! We're in the middle of doing our garden up, it needed a lot of work and I'll eventually have some raised beds to put things into. But right now is when I need to be planting seeds so I'll have something to put in in a few weeks time.

I also love to recycle and save money, so rather than buying plant pots or using peat plant pots, I had a look around the house to see what I could recycle as plant pots.



Here are some alternative things you could use:

Take away boxes or cartons

Small boxes

Reuse plant pots from other plants you've bought and planted on

Cut the bottoms off old bottles

Empty yoghurt pots

Newspaper plant pots

You just need to make sure you put some holes into the bottom of anything you use.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookies

You might remember a recipe on the blog for easy cookies a couple of months back. I've been making these cookies since, they take about 15 minutes from start to finish and are just really delicious.

I made a chocolate version of this recipe a little while ago, and due to the fact that I didn't realise that I didn't have any eggs on hand until after I'd started, and I'd already used a sunflower spread in the cookies, these ended up being a vegan recipe and to be honest, they're even better than the original!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp vegan spread/butter
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp self raising flour
3 tbsp medium oatmeal
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease or line a cookie baking tray.

Melt vegan spread or butter.

Combine all dry ingredients. Note: If you don't have medium oatmeal, you can either pulse some regular oats in a blender, or just use them as is.

Shape the cookies into balls (I got three out of mine) and then press down with a fork.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, keep an eye on them as they tend to turn quite quickly

Nettle Tea

Today I've got a recipe for you - but unfortunately not for something edible!

I make this nettle tea all the time to feed to my plants, it's a great, free, organic alternative to plant foods, and really easy to make!

You will need:

Large container
Nettles
Water

Method:
Find an old container - it needs to have a lid - I used a glass jar this time, but I often use big old plastic tubs of screws which I get from my electrician husband.
Pick some nettles (and be careful - they sting!) to loosely fill the container.
Pour water in to fill the container.
Put the lid on, and leave out of the way to rot down for a couple of weeks.
After a couple of weeks, dilute the liquid to about 1 part nettle tea 8 parts water, and water over your plants.
Warning: It will smell vile, but it's worth it as it's so good for the plants! You can use it over pretty much any plant, but tomatoes in particular love it. Scoop out the nettles and plant directly with the tomato plants, or you can put the nettles on your compost heap.

Pictures from my weekend

Decorating biscuits with chocolate, icing and other sweets at work // Close up // Nettle tea jarred and waiting // Freshly picked radishes from the kids' plots