The polycrub is starting to fill up with various seedlings now, most of which have germinated successfully. I’m pleased that the season seems to be off to a good start. We’re already cropping lettuces every few days, which feels – and tastes – wonderful.
I advertised my spare seedlings on a local growers group and managed to give away my excess aubergines, tomatoes and cabbage plants to good homes on the island. I love this local exchange system. I scored some good cucumber plants in return, so I count that as success.
Now that the deer fence is up I’ve also started planting again in the outdoor raised beds. This bed contains cauliflower, pointy cabbage, red Russian, Cavalo Nero and Taunton Deane kales.
Midge season has just started.
Of course midge season has just started. It’s just as our last frost date approaches and we’re preparing to dig the perennial broccoli, celery, beetroot and squashes into the outdoor beds. They’ve timed it perfectly to feast on our flesh!
I tried some new citronella based woven bracelets in a surge of optimistic hope that they would repel insects, but all that’s happened so far is that they’ve leached colour all over my wrists. I should know better by now.
There are some small pleasures, though.
Like unpacking a bedding set that I’d bought for the house three years ago in a sale, and getting it on the bed in our new bedroom at long last. And better than that, still liking it!
I feel that I’ve broken my mojo of plain bedding recently. Every duvet cover that I previously owned was plain cotton or linen, and more often than not, white.
This is a bold step for me into the world of pattern, and the pleasure is all the more sweet for waiting three years to get it onto the bed. I know that my husband will be reading this in total incomprehension, poor man. I don’t think he notices for a microsecond what bedding goes onto the bed.
What an audacious devil I am. Patterns and everything. It may have taken me to early retirement to flourish, but it came out in the end!
Ravencroft Skye 
Despite the voles your garden is progressing well and plant swaps are a great idea – most of us grow more seedlings than we need because the packet tempts us to sow too much! Your new bedding looks lovely. It sounds as if you are now really settling in to your new life which is wonderful.
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Thank you. Plant swaps thrive on this part of the island as we’re so far from a garden centre, but they’re a great way of getting rid of excess seedlings. I’ve often thought if we got a bit more organised we could have one person grow all the broccoli, another the cucumbers..
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My husband notices the texture, but not the pattern when it comes to bedding.
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That’s lucky. I notice both, but that’s because I love textiles. A soft linen or washed cotton in the summer, or a warm brushed cotton in the winter 😍
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Exactly. I actually prefer mismatched patterns, but the colour has to match.
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