Growing plants and children

Hoping for a good tomato crop this year in our tunnel

Five columns from the right a seed in cell 4 coming up....lettuce. I have planted a lot of lettuce this year, (6 varieties)we love salads and we will save lots of money eatting our own.
Steffen and the boys added manure and topsoil to the tunnel in preparation for our early potatoes which we havent put in yet. Variety Red Duke of York

Elke is getting bigger, one minute she is eatting jam and bread..if you leave a door open she is gone....with the wind in her wispy hair out into the garden.See the picture below.

Summer is in the air, we ate our lunch out in our courtyard 3 days in a row. The boys liked eatting outside.

These three little children of ours are growing with the sunny days!!

Living A Simple Life

A lovely blue sky this morning
The polytunnel needs loads of work to get it ready for growing, its a real mess

Our onions and garlic

Lately i have got some great green links from my sister Margaret in the US on sustainable living. Living a sustainable life is something myself and Steffen are committed to, its just finding the time with working and raising three kids..but we can still make a real change to how we live by recycling, repairing, reducing waste and eatting local seasonal produce. (Rhonda of blog down to earth has some great advice to living simply).
We have had a vegetable patch for over 10 years, some years have been good and some have not been so good, mainly due to having a new baby to nurse or renovation works on the house. This year we hope to start again as everyone does in the Spring. We planted alot of trees before Christmas, 4 birch tress, 4 damsons trees, 15 cobnut trees, 4 holly trees and 40 metres of hedging (20 of it was permaculture hedging an edible hedge). We have two new beds to the front of the house and have onions and garlic in since last Oct. 2011. Reading some of these green bloggers blogs really gets you motivated, they have such inspiring stories....to be more green, more frugal, and to try and live a more sustainable lifestyle. As suggested in 1greengeneration, i think i will take the growing challenge of blogging from time to time about our growing projects. Even one extra plant is a real step closer to being more self reliant. What could be more important and relevant then preserving the planet for our children.