An Update On Our Growing Veggies

So I thought it was time to do a little update on how everything we've planted is coming along.

The first things we planted have gone crazy and most were growing within days!

Cabbages

The cabbages, yes we don't know how these change or grow cabbages either but we can't wait to find out. They look strangely like cress and are very floppy.

Courgettes

The courgettes have done really well. All but one pot have grown and they've had no problems and will be needing to be planted outside soon.

Roma and Gardener's Delight Tomatoes

The Roma and Gardener's Delight tomatoes shot up quickly and have been growing almost like weeds since.

Our next batch of veggies to be planted

Pumpkin

This is our pumpkin pot and all the seeds seem to have grown and it's really gone crazy in the last few days as it was a little shoot at the beginning of the week. We'll have to keep these indoors for a little while longer to get them toughened up before going outside.

Tomato plant

This tomato plant was given to us free by our garden center and looked half dead and floppy but it's come to life since we've brought it home and looked after it.

Carrots

The carrots have slowly been growing it seems they aren't quite as eager as the tomatoes, courgettes and cabbages to get growing.

Peppers and herbs

The peppers and parsley have only just started sprouting. The Basil and Coriander went a little nuts and grew rather quickly.

We've also got a few more seeds in and planted a couple of things in the last week.

More seeds

We have marigolds to help ward off bugs, Runner Beans, cress and container seed disks for chilli's, tomatoes and strawberries.

Planting onions

We got the onions planted in window boxes and so far there are no signs of growth.

Planting runner beans

We planted two round tubs with runner beans so should have a lovely amount when ready for picking. Kellan  was watching us plant these so we thought we'd let him have a go only, as we thought, he went to eat the seed. We showed him where to put it though and he got there eventually so Kellan got to join in too.

Planting potatoes

We also planted the second lot of potatoes which Kellan found fascinating to watch. We've now run out of compost so we can't do much more for the garden until we get some more which we're hoping will be sometime this week.

There is no signs of life from the first potatoes we planted yet but they are quite a way down in the soil. We are still to plant the strawberries, container fruit seeds and cress for indoors but no doubt we'll get around to those soon.

I'm hoping the next update on our veggies will include planting tomatoes and courgettes outside and maybe some of the more recent things we've planted will be showing some signs of life too.

Bumgenius - Freetime Review

I tested the Bumgenius Freetime for the Mother and Baby awards. I already owned a Freetime and loved it so knew we'd get on well with it.

Kellan in a Clementine Freetime

As from previous entries you'll know Kellan is a heavy wetter and most pockets had a hard time coping with him. The Freetimes cope amazingly well, in fact I was surprised they coped as well as they did as other Bumgenius nappies have struggled with him. They even cope with runny breastfed baby poo.

The Freetime is available in aplix/velcro or popper fastenings which is great if you have a toddler who loves undoing velcro you can then just opt for poppers or velcro is great for getting a fab fit on a younger baby. The Freetime is a birth to potty nappy so grows with your baby. I have poppered versions and have gotten on great with them. It's easy to adjust the Freetime to fit your little one with the popper system on the front of the nappy. For a birth to potty nappy the Freetimes aren't too bulky which is great and we could even get jeans over these without any hassle which we get problems with most birth to potty nappies.

The Freetimes aren't like the usual pocket nappy. The inserts are sewn in but fold out to the back and to the front which is brilliant for drying. They are one of my fastest line drying nappies in our large stash. These inserts are also great for changing where you need more absorbancy as they have little sewn in creases you can fold under etc. The fold out inserts also means no fiddly stuffing in a small opening in a pocket and means  once dry these nappies are folded in no time at all, my 6 year old can even do these.

The Freetimes wash well we've found it's very hard to stain them and usually sun light can get out anything that happens to get left behind after washing. They keep their shape and the inserts haven't worn or greyed at all and we've been using these since last summer.

The Freetimes are available in plain colored pul's and two patterned puls

    

    

   

I tend to reach for our Freetimes first in our stash they are just great all rounders. I highly reccommend Freetimes we love ours and I wish we had more in our stash.

Kellan in an Albert Freetime

Bumgenius Freetimes

Art Workshop at Kent College

Just before the Easter break Harvey was picked as one of four children from his class to apply to attend an Art Workshop at Kent College. The workshop was for 42 children from classes of year 5 and 6 children from across the area.

We finally got the letter to say Harvey could attend last week which had Harvey jumping up and down with joy when I took it up with me to meet him after school.

The workshop was held on Saturday April 20th for roughly 4 hours and parents got the chance to see the work the children had produced as well as the GCSE students work.

Harvey loved it they did an exercise in shading which Harvey hasn't done before, a secondary primary colour wheel mobile and a weave using paper strips coloured by the children.

Secondary primary colour wheel mobile

Paper weave

Harvey with the teddy shading exercise sketch

We've been busy little bees

We've gone a little crazy and bought yet more gardening supplies and seeds so our garden will be brimming with veggies and life.

Cress Meerkat and Pumpkin planting set

Bags to grow strawberries, potatoes and other vegetables

2 kinds of potato, onions, tomato plant and strawberry plants

Carrots, peppers and herbs

We've tried growing herbs before but sadly had no success with them in fact we didn't get any growth at all. So we thought we'd have another try with Basil, Coriander and Parsley.

Basil

Coriander

Parsley

These were really easy to plant and boy did they smell and left our hands stinking of coriander.

We planted one kind of potato the Estima which is good for mashing so the packet says.

Darren planting the Estima potatoes

The potato bag took a whole compost bag so we're going to need to buy a few more to get other bags full for planting.

We planted the carrots which again was really simple.

Carrots before being topped with soil

We also planted the pumpkin. We've grown pumpkins before with mixed results.

Pumpkin all planted

The pumpkin set had a compost disc in which grew as it absorbed water. This took ages and was quite messy in the end.

We also planted the peppers. These are a pot luck as to which colour peppers grow. We've grown peppers before but they didn't get very big and were all green. It'd be nice to get some other colors as we aren't keen on green peppers.

Peppers before being topped with soil

We didn't get around to planting the strawberries, other potatoes or onions as we need to get more compost in and clear the garden and the pots already out there so they can go straight outside. The meerkat cress is for the children but seems a little fiddly so we'll do that at a later date.

So our garden so far will hopefully have potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, courgettes, cabbages, strawberries, onions and pumpkins,.

I'll have an update post very soon on our previously planted vegetables.

Real Nappy Week - April 15th -21st

Real Nappy Week is coming and I thought I'd do a blog entry all about it.

There are events held by companies to raise awareness of using cloth, online retailers having sales on cloth nappies and facebook pages holding competitions and giveaways. It's a fab week to pick up bargains and help save you further money by using cloth.

Go Real - http://www.goreal.org.uk/real-nappy-week

They have a theme for the week - Real Nappies... Real Change!

This year, throughout the week, we thought we'd set up a theme to each day. We will be taking a look at the benefits of Real Nappies, inspiring you to make the change to 'Go Real'!

Monday 15th April - Real Choice

Tuesday 16th April - Real Fun

Wednesday 17th April - Real £hange

Thursday 18th April - Real Easy

Friday 19th April - Real Future

Saturday 20th April - Real Change - The Great Cloth Diaper Change

Sunday 21st April - Real Clean

The Great British Nappy Hunt - http://www.greatbritishnappyhunt.co.uk/index.html

During this week, participating retailers will be hiding 'Billy the Cloth Bummed Kid'somewhere on their sites. All you have to do is register to receive daily information and clues about where to find Billy, track him down on our participating retailers' sites, click on him and answer Billy's questions.

Each correct entry will be entered into a daily prize draw with all correct entries being submitted to the final Grand prize draw at the end of the week.

Billy the cloth bummed kid has lots of gorgeous nappies to share with his hunting friends this Real Nappy Week, so don't miss out!

Real Nappy Week Retailer Organisation - http://www.realnappyweek.org/index.html

We want to make this year the best Real Nappy Week EVER, so help us spread the word about Real Nappies by playing our fantastic game of Clothopoly and getting all your friends involved. With a total of 61 prizes worth up to £500 available, you've got to be in it to win it!

Clothopoly is a game where competitors visit different cloth nappy websites to collect game pieces, just as in a traditional game of monopoly. Instead of visiting swanky Mayfair or Park lane, competitors will be visiting BumGenius or Tots Bots to collect letters which make a winning phrase.

In total, 67 retailers are supporting Clothopoly by donating prizes, a total of £8300 worth!

A list of supporters is available here.

Prizes

Grand Prize: £500 worth of nappies, wipes, changing bag and accessories!

10 x Second Prizes: £250 worth of nappies and accessories

50 x Runner-up Prizes: £75 worth of nappies and accessories

The Great Cloth Diaper Change - http://greatclothdiaperchange.com/?page_id=8

In 2012, 256 locations in 15 countries held SIMULTANEOUS events to break the world record for the most reusable cloth diapers changes simultaneously. That meant that some events (like in Malaysia) happened at 2am!

In 2013, we will be holding a slightly different event.  This year, we will be changing the diapers at 11am LOCAL TIME, so the change will roll around the world.  In order to make this event a success and increase awareness of reusable cloth diapers, we need your participation!

Here's a map of events taking place during the week, hopefully there's one near you!

Events Map

Retailers to visit during the week which may have discounts on nappies

Little Lamb

Baba Me

Fluff Heaven

Fill Your Pants

Clean Green Nappy Machine

Babi Pur

Babybots

Bambooty

Cheeks and Cherries

Bambino Mio

It may also be worth liking the retailers facebook pages so you can keep up to date with any offers going on.

If you know of any other events or retailers taking part please comment and I'll add them to my post.