I promise....

....we haven't forgotten about you all out there. Things have been p-r-e-t-t-y busy for both me and Rachel lately. Rachel, as its been the summer holidays for her two boys and me for all reasons linked to my little area of craftiness.

We have a list of topics that we will be writing about soon so I hope you're hanging in there.

Something that I tried this year that I haven't before was venturing out to the garden centres to pick up some vegetable plants. A) to save some money and B) the fact that I would def not be spraying all sorts of horrible things on them.

We bought tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and lots of herbs. I thought I'd start out quite small as I'm not the most green fingered person it has to be said. The tomatoes have grown in droves which is great because I LOVE cherry tomatoes as so did the strawberries which have all gone now for this year but they certainly were tasty. The pepper plant sadly I have to say was not a success.....we'll there was bound to be a casualty. I have come to the conclusion that the snails ate it as I never caught them at the crime. They started with the one and only pepper then finished off all the leaves too. If it survives I will be taking it into the house to see how it grows.

Normally our garden is kept quite neat and tidy but due to lack of time of late it has become quite overgrown and 'natural' ;) which has been great as we've had lots of birds visiting, happily munching on the stale bread and bird feeders that we've put up. The hedgehogs are back again, much to my delight, the second the security light pops on in the back garden I know shes there. We even have a birds nest in the tree at the bottom of the garden which I stumbled upon whilst picking blackberries. I was quite surprised how big the blackberry bush had grown at the bottom of the garden, in past years I've kept cutting it right back to keep it tidy but this year I've let it grow. I have picked so many tubs this year, I've frozen some and given lots away to friends and family. And I nearly fell over when I saw in Tesco's they were selling them for £3 a punnet and not a very big one at that!!

Next year I'd love to try growing my own potatoes in bags there are lots of places that sell these and some great tutorials on Youtube.

Do you grow your own veg or do you have any tips or advice for anyone wanting to try it? I'm still a novice at it all and would love to know how you keep those pesky snails at bay. We'd love to hear what you've been up to this summer.....and any 'green' activities you've been keeping up.