Whether you have a garden, maybe even a dedicated herb patch in your garden, a window box or windowsill you always have room for growing herbs of your own. I love using fresh herbs in cooking, especially in the summer but I can’t believe the price of buying them from a supermarket. I have a sunny little corner in my garden now where I have a few herbs in some pots but before that I grew them on my kitchen windowsill.
Dobies of Devon got in Growing Herbs with Dobies of Devon
Whether you have a garden, maybe even a dedicated herb patch in your garden, a window box or windowsill you always have room for growing herbs of your own. I love using fresh herbs in cooking, especially in the summer but I can’t believe the price of buying them from a supermarket. I have a sunny little corner in my garden now where I have a few herbs in some pots but before that I grew them on my kitchen windowsill.
Dobies of Devon got in 
I'm not going to lie. I haven't been donning my gardening gloves recently as much as I have done in the past. Apparently as you get older you get inexplicably busier and growing my own fruit and veg took a back seat while I was getting on with many other things. Rocket Gardens got in touch to see if I would like to try out one of their kits. Their Patio Container garden seemed like the ideal one for me; lots of it can be grown in pots or grow bags 
I love this time of year; everything is happening and alive. Things are changing colour or from flower to fruit and there's nothing like watching that happen to something you've spent time nurturing. I have a few fruit trees which are easy because other than a quick drink in a particularly dry spell I just leave them to their own devices. It's only the birds and bugs I now have to find a way to deter from my booty.
The above left picture shows 
Growing my own fruit and veg is something I immensely enjoy. I have to admit I have rather a 'chuck it in and let it get on with itself' attitude but it's served me very well in the past. I don't let myself get bogged down in specific seed insertion depths, lopping off this and tying up that. I figure that if something wants to grow then it will and I only help it along with a bit of watering, weeding and the occasional addition of manure.
When 
Oh how the garden doth not grow. If you partake in any form of gardening and live in the UK you'll know how I feel. I took these pictures about a week ago so they're slightly old now but it's not much improved from then due to the persistent, relentless, miserable rain. Normally rain doesn't bother me because it means my vegetables are happy but June and July have been the worst I've ever gardened in. Still, it's not all bad...
My apple tree 
Vegetable seeds started to go in to the soil and under the cloches back in March and now, in May, all sorts of things are happening. Since the first year I started gardening I grow what I know and always something new. This year I'm growing: beans (broad and purple), peas, courgettes (patty-pan, cousa courgette and bent Summer squash), tomatoes and maybe something else I'm yet to decide on. Peas are the newcomers in the patch this year.
Beans have 
Recently it has become apparent that most of the meals I eat are vegetable orientated. There are two reasons for this; firstly I have a cornucopia of vegetables in my garden at present and each one needs celebrating in its own way and secondly meat is so expensive.
I can go into Sainsbury's and pick up four chicken breasts for £6. Not the extra special ones, not the organic ones, just the standard ones. My alternative is to go to the farmer's 
I planted eighteen broad bean seeds under their little cloches back in March and I had eighteen successful broad bean plants come up giving me lovely green pods all of July and early August. I planted eighteen French purple bean seeds under their little cloches and I had two plants come up. I'm not sure it was my year for these little chaps.
Fortunately the two little plants that managed to battle the elements (and the neighbours heavy pawed cat) 
Growing your own has become rather fashionable of recent years. It is now so easy to find interesting varieties, help and advice from all sorts of places. If you've considered growing your own but haven't tried it yet I warn you now, it's addictive. There's not a market stand I can go by without having a nose around and come back with something new to try and grow.
This post doesn't have much to say, the pictures speak for themselves.
Courgettes. 
Vegetables. There comes a point in everyone’s life where their view on vegetables changes forever. One day one gazes reproachfully at a Jerusalem artichoke, the next, it is seen as an adventure, a culinary experiment. It goes from a, “No way” to a, “Yes” all of a sudden. It creeps up on you and before you know it the vegetables are the star of the meal. The meats and potatoes are a garnish compared to the mighty, majestic broccoli dish that 
- trying a new recipe
️ - recipe (or similar) on my blog
️ - batch cook
️ - in t…