Sunday 9 August 2009

Hot 'n' Spicy

Well, some long overdue sunshine brought out the crowds at this weekend's Chilli Fiesta, here at the beautiful West Dean Gardens in Sussex. Man, it was packed, so packed in fact it took us 30 mins to find the car afterwards, the car park seeming to have quadrupled in size whilst we were visiting.
Whilst I didn't take a camera today, these pics were taken about a month ago at a less busy show at the gardens. The greenhouses are just stunning; I have a thing for Victorian greenhouses and want one of my own one day (replete with Victorian gardener perhaps, a la Lady Chatterley?)

Anyway, that's enough hot 'n' spicy for you. Isn't the neat row of pots (all full of different chilli varieties) just adorable?

I've been busy trying to get some gardening of my own done this year (you'll remember I have two four-legged handicaps). Some successes, some failures but it's a complete addiction and I have my eye on a scrappy corner of the garden that is soon to become a raised bed and composter. Unlike Farmgirl Susan, for me I grow most of my veg in the front, and if you saw how small that is, you'd wonder why I bother. The hardest part is learning what plants become completely rampant (baby pumpkins, courgettes) and knowing when to only try a few seeds. Check out Susan for some invaluable tips, she's absolutely right but she's got 240 acres, so a little more room to go mad!

Anyway, here's some more of those fabulous gardens - do check it out if you're ever down this way.

P.S. Some of you may have been experiencing problems loading this site, apologies, I think the offending widget was Radio Betty which has been consigned to file 13.