Small Plot? No Problem!

Today I decided to create a new blog, dedicated to gardening, chicken-keeping and other domestic pleasures - so here it is!

So far I have imported all the relevant entries from my old blog covering my first year of allotmenteering, and added some new (back-dated) ones to accompany photos I took at the time.

I've been inspired to do this by VegMonkey and the Mrs, whose excellent blog about raised-bed gardening has me green with envy!

BTW, the title of this blog comes from "No Plot? No Problem!", the official guide to National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. My main website, www.annelyle.com is about my writing and used to include random gardening bits on my blog, but I decided that it would be better to split them up. After all, most writers won't be interested in my vegetable photos, and most gardeners couldn't care less about my attempts to finish a novel!

I've been reading other people's veg-growing blogs lately, and I wish I'd started sooner. It's very gratifying to know that I'm not the only one struggling with the dreadful, unreliable British weather, erratic seed germination, etc!

Particular favourites at the moment are Vegmonkey, for showing how much can be done in a small space, and Soilman for his self-deprecating humour :)

I know, I've been horribly remiss about updating this blog over the autumn and early winter, but I haven't been gardening either. What with the nights drawing in, the annual chaos that is NaNoWriMo and the overdue project at work sapping my remaining energy, I just haven't been to the allotment or even been out in the garden except to feed the bantams. However I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, really I am!

My guilt was piqued recently when I spotted that the lovely little squash we grew and harvested had started to go mouldy around the stem. Urgent measures were required if we were to enjoy the fruits of our labours! So, tonight's dinner was venison sausages with puree of buttercup squash :)

I had to cut away all the mouldy bits, obviously, so what was left was only enough for two. However once boiled and then mashed with cream and a little wholegrain mustard, it was a delicious accompaniment to the sausages: lighter than potato and not too sweet. Yum! I hope 2009 is better for squash-growing...