Catching up in the garden...

I'm a bit behind in the Cottontails garden this year so I thought I'd better enlist some help. And who better than Apolline the mole - with those big digging paws she doesn't even need to use a shovel!




Even with Apolline's help the Cottontails garden is on the verge of becoming a bit of a jungle at the moment so I am too ashamed to capture it on camera. But here are a couple of pics from earlier in the summer, when it all looked pretty neat.





So, why am I so behind? Well there is some Big News afoot at Cottontails - we are soon to be on the move to a small farm!

As it is we have already taken over taking care of the land and veggie gardens, so instead of one small patch to maintain, I find myself with rather more...

For example, the strawberry patch:


And the, erm, wilderness patch:


And believe me there is much more. I am starting to feel quite alarmed at the prospect of harvest and am going to need a whole team of Apollines I think.

We won't be moving in for a few months so the whole thing is going to happen pretty gradually, but I will start posting about the farm over the coming weeks to introduce you to Cottontails new home to be.

The Monster Parsnip

I finally decided it was time to dust off the gardening gloves and head back into the Cottontails garden yesterday.

I'm afraid it's been more or less ignored since I wrote my last post here in October and it is in a bit of a sorry state.

But clearly some activity has been happening out there over the winter as something rather massive was just poking out through the earth...

An extraordinarily large parsnip!




Anyway, massive root vegetables aside, I made good progress by weeding and digging over the herb / salad bed.


No sign of the 'overwintering' peas and beans that I planted in October. Should they be shooting up by now?

Will try and do a bit more later today, and in the meantime any recipes for a monster parsnip would be gratefully received...

Autumn gardening with Sylvain rabbit

Thought is was about time for a Cottontails garden update...


Most of our spring / summer crops have been harvested now, but the parsnips are still in the ground (apparently they are happy to be 'stored' there) and I am trying not to look at the ravaged purple sprouting broccoli - am just hoping it might resurrect itself for spring.

Being a beginner, I kind of assumed I should just tidy things up and leave it alone for the winter, but a quick bit of research revealed that no, there are still plenty of things to plant in October. This left me without an excuse, so this afternoon Sylvain rabbit and I donned thick jumpers and headed outside to sow some more seeds...




We have planted peas which should be ready in spring (we are planning to eat tiny pea shoots as well as peas - rabbits love these apparently, and Humphrey has volunteered himself as a taste tester)


And broad beans (again, we are hoping that come spring we will be able to eat some plant tops - nice wilted in butter apparently - and also some whole tiny pods).

And in our new mini greenhouse thing we have filled pots and seed trays with spinach and various winter salads.


By the way, do you like Sylvain's jumper? Those of you with a keen eye and encyclopedic knowledge of Moulin Roty will notice that he is not wearing his usual stripey dungaree outfit. I am considering creating a small range of clothes for the soft toys and this is a prototype. What do you think? He is also wearing a lovely Snapdragon robin badge. I have a few in stock here or visit Jane's own Snapdragon website for loads more.

Harvesting carrots... and a garden pest

Time for a spot of carrot harvesting in the Cottontails garden this weekend - much to the delight of the bunnies of course.

Along with normal carrots we have grown some special little Parmex Carrots - stumpy round ones. These especially appealed to baby Sylvain rabbit - it can be outfacing to a little bunny when the carrot is bigger than him.



The bunnies ate what they could but even rabbits have a carrot limit, so plenty have been washed, chopped, blanched and frozen for the winter.


Meanwhile, we have been a bit anxious about our purple prouting broccoli as something has been nibbling the leaves.



Finally got a glimpse of the culprit - this little insect here was spotted chomping away. A-ha! I thought Florimond bee was getting fatter!!



And finally here is Humphrey sandwiched between the basil and oregano. He is enjoying harvest very much.

Bunnies and beetroot

Malo rabbit: Psssst... Humphrey!

Humphrey: What? Can't you see I'm having my afternoon nap..? And where have you been all day anyway?

Malo rabbit: Wait til I tell you what she's growing for us in the veggie patch...

Cottontails Kitchen Garden - going well!

Sorry to be a bit quiet for a few days, but as you can see I have been fairly busy watering, weeding and generally tending to the burgeoning Cottontails garden...


I am quite frankly staggered by how much is growing (mainly from seeds) and am spending quite a lot of time just wandering around grinning.


Meanwhile Humphrey is on the sidelines twitching his nose and licking his lips...

Potato growing advice...?

I have been 'earthing up' my potatoes for the last fortnight and am wondering how much longer I should keep this up? They keep on growing - which is a good thing - and I'm going to end up with a mountain if I keep heaping earth on them... Advice please!

In the meantime the sunny potato patch is proving to be a popular spot with Nini mouse and her baby..


Also, I have finally got a Cottontails Baby Facebook page up and running. It's a bit more interactive for competitions and things.

A matter of trust..

He says he's only here to help and promises not to snaffle any veg...


Hmmm. I'm not sure.

For those who would like to take the risk, we have plenty more gardener rabbits eager to, erm, help...

Cottontails Kitchen Garden - growing mint

Did you know you can grow mint just by picking a sprig and putting it in a glass of water? I vaguely remembered reading something about it and thought I'd have a go, and so far the signs are good.

I pilfered a sprig of mint from my dad's garden last time I went over and within about 10 days look what had happened:


So this weekend I planted it up into a pot of compost, gave it a good feed and water...



...then popped the pot into the ground.



Apparently mint is so voracious that it's best to do it this way - if you plant it directly into the ground it will have taken over your garden within the week (or so you would think given the number of warnings I have had from more experienced gardeners. Just mention mint and there is much sucking in of breath and shaking of heads!)

So finger's crossed for a thriving mint plant in the near future!

Meanwhile it was time to try out another Cottontails garden tool, and this time I picked one of our watering cans.


The Little Pals green watering can (£8) is one of three children's watering cans available at Cottontails and a very nice little thing it is too! Small enough to be very quick to fill and light to lift when full, but holds enough water to be worthwhile.


I also discovered it is quite handy for doing the watering in our little plastic mini greenhouse thingy (you know, one of those sets of shelves covered with some plastic) - there is not much space between the shelves and it's a bit of a challenge to squeeze in a full size watering can so this is just the job.

Cottontails Kitchen Garden Part 2 - some planting

Another nice weekend weather-wise, and planting is now underway at Cottontails.


Friday evening Mike and I went down to visit mum and dad and do a bit of a raid on my father's greenhouse - he has an amazing garden and had offered me some seeds and plants. This is his lovely garden:


Saturday morning I made a plan of what was going to go where (in the Moulin Roty gardener's notebook of course!).


Then we popped to the local garden center for some compost and some more seeds, and the rest of the weekend was spent digging, sowing and watering.

So far we have little plants of: runner beans, broad beans, beetroots and marigolds, and seeds of loads of herbs, potatoes, radish, carrots, spring onions and salad. I have been checking daily for shoots but nothing yet... guess two days is a little optimistic?


The Cottontails gardening equipment trialed this weekend included our Little Pals gardening gloves (£3) and trowel (£3).


Isobel, aged nine, donned the gloves and gave them a definite thumbs up! She said they are warm and comfy and even commented with surprise how soft they felt inside when she put them on. As for the little trowel, I tried that one out myself and in the interests of honesty have to say I was a bit disappointed that it didn't 'hold' more earth - it is quite a flat little tool. But sturdy and comfy to hold none the less. Just better for digging than for earth carrying!

Finally it's Rabbit Awareness Week this week so I will be back tomorrow with a more rabbity post!

Cottontails Kitchen Garden Part 1 - Building the raised beds

Haven't we had a beautiful weekend? And the timing was perfect as it meant we could make a start on the Cottontails Kitchen Garden.
Thanks to everyone's comments and feedback last week, I decided to go for a mixture of raised beds and a couple of borders. The borders will be for lavender and herbs - maybe with some peas at the back? - and the raised beds will be for other veg and salad things.

Mike did some research and came across Moor Court Farm, a nearby farm selling railway sleepers, oak timbers and vegetable bed kits. We drove over on Thursday afternoon to meet Nick who runs the business, and by Friday morning he had delivered the timber for two 8' x 4' veg beds and two tonnes of top soil. They deliver nationwide (have a shop on ebay) and I can't recommend them enough so if you are on the look out for really good quality raised beds (sustainable oak, 100% organic, not requiring any treatment) have a look at their website.


Saturday morning Mike assembled the raised beds (while I slept in!) and once they were in position we dug out the turf and forked up the ground underneath.


I relaid the turf and started digging the nearby borders while Mike began filling the raised beds with the top soil.


Sunday was spent with more of the same plus digging compost out of our four year old 'heap' of grass cuttings and garden trimmings in the far corner of the garden. It's good stuff!

We worked until 8pm with only the odd break to drink tea and read Alan Titchmarsh, and by the end of the day most of the hard work has been done.



So far there haven't been many occasions to test out my children's gardening equipment (Mike snorted when I suggested we use one of the little pink wheel barrows for transporting the two tonnes of top soil) but I have managed to give the Moulin Roty rake a good work out on the borders and can report that it really is a strong, sturdy tool. Easily up to the job of any full size garden rake but just slightly smaller and lighter - it's a genuinely good quality, scaled down garden tool.


Also I am using a Gardener's Notebook for the planning and ideas:

And next weekend the planting begins!