Vintage spoon herb labels.

These lovely 'vintage spoon herb labels' are back in stock, they look so lovely in a herb garden, or in the winter months in pots of herbs on the kitchen window.

They are £9.50 for the set of 3 & can be found Here

All the fun of the fayre!!

Well, our first fayre went well, didn't sleep too well the night before wondering how I was going to set it all up but it all came together well & looked rather lovely.
Even the goats on the farm got into the spirit of things & wore felt antlers (I'm pretty sure this was not by choice, but they didn't look too worried!) 
Our handcare range & muscle rub for gardeners proved very popular and most folk were doing their Christmas shopping, so I'm sure that there will be lots of soft handed gardeners on Christmas Day!!
Our autumn offers have been doing well on the website too, a few things have gone now but there are still a couple of gifty bargains to be had!

Reduced from £16.00 to £10.00... Herb drying gift set, a great antique look herb dryer to hang in the kitchen or potting shed, make sure you always have home grown herbs to hand, even in the winter months.
Includes 1 herb dryer, 3 packets of seeds (Rosemary, Thyme & Lavender), 3 markers, 3 explanation cards, and secrets for preserving them at the end of the season!
This lovely Herb Drying Kit can be found HERE

Down from £16.00 to £9.00...Presented in a reusable biodegradable tray, this gardeners growing kit contains tomato & cucumber seeds, starter pots, coir compost, wooden thermometer, wooden labels, pencil, wire ties, gardeners soap & nail brush. Everything you need to start growing!
Growers kit can be found HERE

Getting ready for a Christmas Fair at Croft!

Well this weekend is about to be spent getting all sorted for a Christmas fair at the Clervaux trust farm at Clow Beck, Croft on tees, all of the stalls there have to hold either handmade stock &/or stock with good green credentials, so it should be a great place to pick up some lovely Christmas presents which are a little different from the norm.


A little about how the farm is ran.....
'The site at Clow Beck, Croft-on-Tees is a 100 acre farmland development where young people will experience a wide range of land based and craft activities. They will be offered a curriculum of practical experiential learning to help with their personal development in independence and employability. The curriculum is designed to help the students build respect for themselves and the world around them by helping them to see their own place in it. Activities include the growing of organic wheat, vegetables and fruit, animal care, green woodwork, charcoal making, blacksmithing, textiles, food processing (meat, fruit and vegetable) and much more.'

The fair is on Saturday the 19th November 10am till 4pm at the Clervaux Trust farm and includes food, arts, crafts & eco friendly goodies. We will be there with lots of our Vintage garden accessories, including old garden trugs, shutters, old wooden step ladders and loads more, we'll also be taking along some lovely gift ideas for gardeners, if you're passing pop in!

x

Gardeners Gift Baskets....

Well, it was bonfire night last night, which was great, the weather stayed nice & dry, & today has been fab too, I always feel really Christmasy once bonfire night has been & gone so I wasted no time in putting together some gardeners gift baskets today! I have put 3 together, all packed with eco friendly gifts for gardeners, the baskets are hand woven & come wrapped in cellophane with ribbon & a gift tag so no work to be done by you!!

'Large Gardeners Gift Basket'
Contains.....
Gardeners Barrier Cream 
(Protects  hard working hands)
Wax & revive tool treatment
Gardeners Muscle rub
Gardeners hand scrub
Blackboard labels & pen


Everything in this gift basket is made in the UK, 
£39.00 & can be found HERE!

'Medium Gardeners Gift Basket'
Contains.....
Long zinc shrub labels
Gardeners Barrier Cream 
(Protects hard working hands)
Gardeners Hack wax
(restores dry & cracked hands)
Hand made lavender & oatmeal soap


Everything in this gift basket is made in the UK, 
£22.00 & can be found HERE!

'All Natural Soap Gift Basket'
Contains....
A selection of all natural hand made soaps,
Ylang-ylang & Jasmine
Lavender & oatmeal
& Lemongrass


Made in the UK
£10.00 & can be found HERE!


After putting those together it was off to the allotment to finish off the jobs I had to do, have spread some of last years leaf mould & sorted out the two compost bins, taken down the sweet pea frame as it is moving next year (still had some sweet peas so picked those) & encountered a rather large toad in amongst it all, weeded the paths (for the last time this year I hope)!
So now it must be time to put my feet up!! Fire lit slippers on...& relax

Herb drying gift set

A fantastic gift idea for anyone who grows their own herbs (Or indeed wants to start)!
Reduced from £16.00 to £10.00 this boxed set includes a great antique look herb dryer to hang in your kitchen or potting shed, 3 x plant markers, 3 x packet of seeds (Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender) & 3 x explanation cards on how to dry herbs at the end of the growing season.

A herb dryer ensures that you always have home grown herbs to hand, even in the winter months!

This lovely gift set can be found in our 'Autumn offers' section @www.urbanedenboutique.co.uk 

A perfect autumn day

We had a lovely impromptu stop off today as we were driving home from Harrogate, at Ripley Castle, the sun was shinning & as we passed the sign we quickly ducked in for a cup of tea, we ended up wandering round the gardens, I have never been before & I was so impressed, it was a perfect autumn day which helps, the sun was shining and all of the warm autumnal colours were coming through on the trees, some of their oak trees are one thousand years old, the ancient woodland truly is magnificent.
The only problem was I didn't have the camera with me as the visit was unplanned but I did take some shots with my phone of the fantastic old greenhouses and the walled kitchen gardens, which were all so beautifully kept.

Entrance to the walled Gardens.























Im sure it all looks stunning in the summer time too as the grounds boast some of the largest herbaceous borders in Britain and with 700 years of the Ingilby family being in residence it all has a fascinating history too.

Electrics to green houses!!

Fantastic green houses.























We will be back, there was so much to see, including a dear park & a lakeside walk which we didn't have time to enjoy, to read all about the family history click HERE

Lots of new gardening goodies!

I have had a great day organising & photographing some new products for the boutique, I do not want to say the C word just yet so lets just call it the winter solstice for now, but we are getting ready for it none the less!!

We have some fantastic new products which are all eco friendly, & great gift ideas for the gardener in your life! Here are some examples below, also lots to come including lovely local hand made soaps.

Fab huge reel of twine with a pair of 1930's vintage scissors, this will look just as good on the kitchen dresser as it does in the potting shed & can be found in our 'Vintage' section HERE

Made in the UK

I have also just unpacked some lovely eco friendly hand care products for gardeners too, as one must keep the tools of the trade in good nick!

Start off with a hand scrub, both of our hand scrubs are designed to rub into dry hands to get the ingrained dirt off, then rinse.

The pump action scrub is very handy and ideal to leave by the kitchen sink, it is 200ml and has natural citrus oil & polymer scrub beads & can be found in the 'Potting Shed' section HERE

Made in the UK

Another of our hand scrubs is this large 500ml tub of orange bead hand scrub, perfect for the potting shed to scrub up before you get the kitchen in a mess (note to Col)! this fab scrub can be found in the 'Potting Shed' section HERE

Made in the UK

To use after the hand scrub we also have hack wax for the hands & barrier cream to protect & restore which can both be found HERE

Watch this space for more lovely gift ideas.......

Enamoured with enamel!

New to the boutique, these wonderfully individual vintage enamel items, there is a fine line with vintage enamel, it always looks at its best used & worn but you have to be careful that any bowls or jugs haven't gone into holes on the bottom, we always keep our eyes peeled for the good quality vintage items, and just love the look of these finds (with no holes)!
 We are really pleased with the large vintage enamel bowl & bucket & think they would be fab used as an extra large ice bucket filled with bottled beer for a party, just as handy though for harvesting all those fantastic autumn fruits! They can both be found HERE !

Another favourite is this old enamel jug, the colour is so unusual, it is a real pillar box red and will look fantastic in a kitchen filled with contrasting flowers.

Just add rain!

I was sat this morning flicking through a lovely book about 'seed bombs' whilst I had my first cuppa of the day, it is a beautifully presented & illustrated book on how to make 'seed bombs', with a little background on the writer Josie Jeffrey, who has a great approach to nature, and urban life.

 Seed bombs are getting more & more popular & you can either make your own from scratch or buy kits with everything you need, they have become more popular since guerrilla gardening has been talked about more in the press (Basically people getting together to make waste land & neglected urban areas more of a haven for wild life, & much more pleasant to look at!)

I think it is a great idea, and what a fantastic thing to make with kids while they are on their school holidays, not only will they be learning about seeds & helping to grow plants but they will have the added bonus of getting their hands dirty, and for once it is a pastime where the rain actually helps things along a little & as the rain seems to be around a fair bit these summer holidays we may as well embrace it!

There is a little film to watch which Josie has made & her book can be found on amazon for £8.99.

Tools of the trade

We are very excited with our latest arrival at the boutique, these great Sophie Conran tools have arrived & we are so pleased with them, the quality is fantastic & they come beautifully presented too.

Sophie has worked with Burgon & Ball, who still manufacture their products here in the UK, to create the collection of tools.....

"As a gardener I have always dreamed of creating a range of garden tools and accessories. I beleive that tools should be functional and beautiful, and make each job a pleasure.

One of the problems I face as a women when gardening is that my hands are generally too small for standard tools. My designs specifically address this issue and I hope will add to the joy of gardening".

The better the tools, the easier the job."   Sophie Conran

The collection is made up of seven tools, trowel, fork, compost scoop, secateurs, sieve, dibber & weeder & can be found HERE

New landscaping website

Our lovely new landscaping website went live yesterday, we will be adding to it over the coming months, mainly images of Cols work which we need to get caught up on.
www.urbanedenlandscaping.co.uk

He is out & about today doing maintenance work for a customer with 12 acres of garden so he'll be in need of a good hearty meal tonight!! Good job the allotment is producing lots of spinach at the moment!

Light up my life!

Col has just quickly spruced the yard up as we have just moved into this house, and we do love to have the outside space lovely, we do plan to sell this house & buy somewhere with a garden (well, thats the plan) My Mum is baby sitting all of my plants until we get settled in here so the yard is looking a little empty but a lot tidier that it did a couple of days ago.

I love these vintage *roof tile lanterns* so much I have decided to hang a couple of them in the yard, it really finishes it off nicely, they are available at Urban Eden Boutique & made from old French & spanish roof tiles, with a hand made glass storm cover.

The place doesn't feel quite like home yet but once I surround myself with plants again I'll feel at home, only got the olive tree with me so far, which I love all the more for surviving that cold winter!!

But at least for now we have somewhere to sit & enjoy our homemade Elderflower wine, which has worked a treat again, although it is rather lively when you open it!!

The Yellow Book put to good use!

It has been a busy old couple of months for us, moving house among other things, so it was really lovely to have Sunday morning off from the chores & head to one of the open garden days from 'The Yellow book' it was the village of  Cotherstone nestled in the Pennine Hills, a lot of the gardens open & some allotments too. The rain stayed away which was great & the sun even made a couple of appearances.

We stopped off in the 'naturalists garden' for tea with fruit cake & Cotherstone cheese, this was our favourite garden with so much wild life packed into a small space, we saw Robins, Tits, Wrens and many more even Siskins, and what we think could have been a Redpoll! They also have a love for all things vintage, with old riddles & tools dotted around as interesting features, also a great set of chicken legs!!

All of the other gardens were lovely too, a runner up on our favourites list was this lovely terraced garden, which was jam packed with plants & flowers, so lovely,  & again filled with birds.

There is something on every weekend now from The Yellow Book, and it is such a cheap and lovely day out, what a great idea, and a great effort by all of those who open their gardens.

Here are a few of our favourite things!

Definitions & uses for some of our vintage garden accessories;

1.  Trug;  noun;  a basket usually made from wood, which is used in the garden for carrying flowers, veg, plants or tools. Origin of the word is from the late, middle English meaning basin, perhaps a dialect variant of ; trough.











We've managed to source some great looking vintage trugs of European & Japanese origin. One of their original uses was to measure out quantities of grain or rice but we've found they are perfect for carrying tools or plants around in the garden.




2. Riddle;  noun; a sieve used to sift soil or compost. From the Old English word, hriddel, 'to sieve'.





Finding vintage riddles in good condition isn't easy because of the nature of their function (mucky old things)! We recently found a set of 3 which is something of a rarity. After a bit of loving care they came up a treat, (well 2 of them did)! The linseed oil really brings out the colour & texture of the old wood.




3. Mill Bobbin & Twine..  Bobbin:  noun;  a spool or reel on which thread or yarn is wound. From the old french word; bobine: A small instrument used in sewing & tapestry making.







Authentic Mill bobbins come in all different shapes & sizes, reflecting their various uses in the old wool & cotton mills of Northern England. We thought that these particular ones would be just the job for a garden line.

Or this one for a twine holder.



Stay tuned for more vintage ideas....

A little bit of urban eden landscaping

Along side our boutique we also run a landscaping business, it doesn't get chatted about on here too much so I thought I would share some images of our current landscaping project, Col has just finished adding the planting scheme so once the plants are a little more established & the final section of turfing is completed I will post more images. It's been a great job to do, we've put all of our hard & soft landscaping skills to the test.

Before

After

Before

After

We are about to revamp our landscaping website so watch this space....!