Bringing the potager back to life

May was a funny old month weather wise, cold and wet for the most part and not conducive to working outdoors in my potager garden or even to sowing seeds in pots ready for warmer days to arrive.
However, the last day of May dawned warm and sunny and my thoughts turned to all things veggie, a trip to the garden centre was called for.

After a leisurely breakfast (it was a Saturday after all) and good long walk for M'selle Fleur we headed down to the Jardin 'Elle for some retail therapy of the plant variety.

As you'll already be aware, I'm sure, in a few short days from now here in Normandy we will be celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the D Day landings and everywhere one looks you can see preparations being made to welcome the veterans and their families at this special time.
Even the gardeners at Jardin d'Elle are not immune it seems!

The Senior Partner grabbed a trolley and we headed for the "potager" section of this vast place. Despite his "so called" aversion to anything that looks or sounds like a courgette Mr B was soon pointing out varieties of both zucchini and squash for us to try and very soon we had quite a collection of both.

We also stocked up with lettuce seedlings and pots of herbs: thyme, lemon thyme and wonderful basil.

I can't visit Jardin d'Elle without wandering around the outdoor spaces and I always linger amongst the roses.

Meanwhile Mr B was tired from all the decision making and decided to rest awhile in this very comfortable looking swing seat.

Happy Birthday, sweetie. 67 today!

Back home I couldn't wait to get started and began planting out whilst Mr B got on with cutting the grass.

These are the best gardening shoes ever, Mary Jane Crocs, they laugh in the face of unwieldy hosepipes!

After all the hard labour neither of us could face making dinner so there was only one solution, pizza!

A takeaway treat that recently became available to us when a couple of entrepreneurs opened up this "pizza hut" in their front garden just a 5 minute drive away from here.

Pizza Hut - Normandy style

bon dimanche a tous.....................................

Sharing this post with Cindy who hosts

Amaze Me Mondays 

on her delightful blog "Dwellings - the heart of your home" 

which I discovered through my lovely friend Sarah @ Hyacinths For The Soul 

The Potting Shed

The potting shed is a great place to be when it's raining and you can't get into the garden to work.
The various seedlings and small plants are thriving in one of our more usable "dependences", it's certainly not as pretty as some potting sheds but it serves all my needs.
Yesterday was warm so I finished planting the potatoes and also put in a row of spinach beet seeds which will come up alongside the spuds.
The starter lettuces that I got at the market last week are doing well and soon we'll be having fresh salad from the potager in the pretty bowl which I found at the vide grenier on Thursday.

In the meantime I think you'll enjoy this
http://www.thepastwhispers.com/Potting_Shed.html

a bientot
Maggie

Creating a new potager.

When we bought this house I inherited a vegetable garden and for a number of years I've been happy just pottering around and growing salad, beans, peas, courgettes etc. in quite a slapdash manner I must say!
This Spring, however, I'm trying to be a little more structured and so have had Sean (my new gardener) create 3 long beds dissected by a pair of paths using wood pavers
Today at the weekly market in Le Molay Littry I bought the first plants to go in the new potager. 4 sorts of salad; courgettes; tomatoes; cauliflower (chou fleur, so much prettier in French); beetroot (betterave); celeri and seed potatoes.
There will also be a section with herbs: parsley; coriander; rosmarin; wild garlic; basil; sage and mint (but in pots to contain the roots which would take over the whole place if planted in the soil).
In the potting shed I already have spinach; pumpkin and runner bean seedlings sprouting and when the soil has warmed up a little more I shall plant haricort vert and for the first time haricot jeune seeds straight into the prepared beds.
My bedside reading now is a gardening magazine and I'll welcome any tips that you feel will help with mynew project.
Check back for more info and hopefully, pix of my progress over the coming weeks.