Going Undercover: Part 2

On the morning of the Summer Soltice two burly but very pleasent men, Jimmy and Brian,  arrived from Swallow Greenhouses with a truck containing our beautiful new greenhouse. I had to go to work so sadly I missed the erecting but my long-suffering husband Charlie was left with strict instructions to document the event. The greenhouse arrived in preglazed panels and Charlie said they wasted no time at all in getting it up. In fact it was done and dusted in less than two hours...Impressive!

The walls went up in minutes but he roof was a bit more technical as they had to install the automatic venting windows. They have a mechanism filled with a wax substance. When the temperature goes up the substance expands and opens the vents and at night when it cools the substance contracts to shut the windows. Very clever!

The last thing to go in was the staging. Charlie and I decided to have the permanent staging on the right hand side so we can look out on the garden while working. Very handy to keep an eye on the younger minions but also give you a great view of the garden.

In no time at all it was finished and I think you'll agree it was well worth all the hard work (well poor Chris might not agree after we subjected her to two days of patio laying back breaking torture:-)  Here is the finished product:

We paid extra to have a nice guttering system installed and for a high shelf on the right hand side. I'll leave you with the view we will have from inside our greenhouse...well worth the wait. Happy Days!

Going Undercover: Part One

Due to our being continually thwarted by the good old British weather our greenhouse plans have been turbo charged and it's been all systems go at the minion household! Of course, it wasn't as easy as just popping down our local supplier, picking a greenhouse we like the look of...... and Bob's your uncle. No, there has been a lot to consider and a LOT of prep work, some of which has already been documented here. But after choosing a location and clearing the area...it was time to SHOP! We started by checking out a good sturdy modern aluminium design on www.greenhousesdirect.co.uk which is a company reasonably local to us. The Rhino caught our eye.

The Rhino

These greenhouses are tough and long lasting and you don't even have to have a concrete base. They can sit right onto levelled soil. This was the sensible choice, practical, durable, by far where the smart money would go.......and that's why we opted for this:

The Swallow Kingfisher

What can we say, we went with our hearts.....you see, we want our greenhouse to not only be a place to hide when the heaven's have opened but to also be a thing of beauty that adds to the view from our living room window...and let's face it, the Swallow Kingfisher is sooo pretty :-).

The upshot of this choice meant we needed a good solid base. So, it was time to lay a patio. We enlisted the help of our long-suffering friend Christine H and Minion 1 was called back from University for the weekend...we needed a full minion mobilisation.  Charlie went to a local builder's merchant with the stats of the base and they were very helpful. He returned with an order of hardcore, sharp sand, cement and patio slabs. We also hired a thump thump machine (I'm sure that's the technical term for them) and a cement mixer to make life a little easier. Sounds pretty straightforward huh. Yeah right. It was a really hard couple of days. Here's how it went......

Charlie's wooden frame for the base

Christine and I do battle with the last beech tree stump. It took us about 40 minutes to shift it!

Minion 1 and Chris then did battle with a couple of hundred roots!
and 15 wheelbarrow loads of heavy clay soil.

Chris was very grateful for 'Foreman' Charlies advice and guidance 'ahem!'.

Minion 5 lends a hand shifting hardcore. 

Kate has a quick, supervised go on the thumpy thumpy machine. 

Charlie lays the slabs on a sharp sand and cement mix 10:1 if you're interested.
He also found these great spacers to help him put even gaps between the slabs.

Chris takes a moment to wonder if our friendship is worth it :-)

We did feed poor Chris after this...and we gave her alcohol!

Voila...One Greenhouse base ready for action.

 We were all very sore after two days of hard slogging but it's going to be worth it when our beautiful greenhouse arrives. The order is in now....watch this space for Part Two.

A Little Soul Food

Even though our garden has been given over to the production of food, there are a few quiet corners where I am starting to sneak some flowers in. After all, it's not just our bodies that need nourishing. So, this weekend I hit the garden centre and finally got some alpines to fill my doulton sink. Minion 5 was my helper on this little project as Charlie was thoroughly uninterested. 

We started off by mixing a good alpine planting mix. They like lots of drainage so we mixed  1 part eco grit with 2 parts of John Innes No. 2 (a potting on mix of compost). Then we planted up the small pots. Minion 5 took charge of this. She was fantastic!

After two lovely Armerias were potted up we turned our attention to that Doulton sink that Charlie was so rude about. Firstly, we covered up the sink hole with some crocks. Then we half filled the sink with our mix. Then we placed the plants in their planting positions:

This is the arrangement we decided on. With the trailing plants at the front and the clump forming ones at the back. Then Minion 5 filled the container nearly to within 2.5 cm from the brim and we topped it off with some white and red decorative gravel. Lovely!

 We were very pleased with the result and the display will only get better when the flowers become established.

From Bottom Left: Phlox subulata 'Marjorie', Achillea 'Huteri', Phlox stolonifera 'Pink Ridge'.
From Top Right: No label (I just liked the colour), Semperivium 'Red Tips', Semperivium 'Lawrenece'.

Armeria Maritima Vestivisus

Lovely...

Charlie 1, Slugs 0

On a previous post I shared the saga of Charlie v The Slugs...well, I have an update. For the first time ever, it appears that my tireless husband has won the upper hand...

 After the freezing cold downpours of March and early April we were starting to get really worried that we wouldn't be enjoying any veg from our garden this year. We are sowing everything direct and that means we needed warm soil, but the brass monkeys weather meant time was tick tick ticking and there were still no bloody seeds in the ground. Still, the sun poked his head out at last and we charged into the garden with our little brown packets of 'Real Seed' and seeded up all our raised beds. Trouble was...wet weather and clay soils = slugs, and lots of 'em!..and we inwardly groaned at the thought of the slimy black  swines eating their way through our seedlings. But then my intrepid husband found 'Nemaslug' on the internet. 

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/wildlife-garden/natural-pest-control.html

I'd heard of them before but never tried it. It all sounded deeply suspicious to me. Strange little nematodes that kill slugs and don't harm anything else!?!? And if you believe that I've got a nice bridge I can sell you! Charlie, however, was desperate to protect out little seedlings. He ordered a pack and watered it in.....and.....well, nothing......everything is growing. There's no slug damage....anywhere. The peas are sprouting away unmolested. Everything in the garden is happy. I stand corrected, I eat my hat along with my words....they only bloomin' work!

Rising Above It

After our disaster with the potatoes last year we decided we really needed another raised bed to minimise the damage from surface flooding. I'm good with words and plants but not so good with the whole DIY thing, so in steps my better half to take over. I asked Charlie to write this blog entry as  but he's a bit shy on the blog front he respectfully declined so I've done my best. You understand that I was merely the supplier of coffee and the occasional 'That's looking great my love', so I may be a bit sketchy on the technical side of the construction of the bed....

Charlie saws the wood to the appropriate length with a chopping whirligig machine
that looks like it will take your thumb off soon as look at you.

These are the lengths of wood. Charlie informs me there were 2 x 8' and 2 x 7 '.

He clamped them together with these clampy thingimawhatsits and screwed them together.

Job Done!!

Sorry I can't be more specific. He made it look very simple and the bed was up in less than an hour. We used soil from another part of the garden to fill in and mixed in some multipurpose compost and that was that. So we're all systems go with Bed A, and not before time as the sun has finally come out.. By the way we found an ingenious way of keeping Minion 6 amused while all this was going on. She is now 15 months and is nicknamed 'Baby Dragon' because she roars at people and generally causes destruction and mayhem wherever she goes....but not, it seems, when she's zipped into a trampoline with a few toys and Charlie's fishing umbrella to keep the sun off us (don't call the authorities. We are generally good and loving parents and she really enjoyed the trampoline).

So all the beds are now up and running. We have sown seed in all of them and are waiting for our seedlings to pop out.  Charlie came up with a great plan to assist with seed sowing. He got an old length of wood and cut it to the width of our raised beds. Then he drilled holes 1" apart all along the wood (see right). I used this when I was putting the seed in the ground and it was brilliant to help get the spacing right. I used a pencil poked through the wood to make the sowing holes....easy! I still haven't managed to plant my Alpine trough yet but the garden is looking good and we're hoping for some good weather to help our little seedings in the next few weeks.

Spring Clearing

Easter weekend is traditionally a gardening weekend. Garden centres brace themselves for what is often boasted to be their busiest time of year....The main growing season is fast approaching and it's time to get out, get tidy, get prepared for a very busy Spring. There  was just one problem with this however.....come Easter...it was still bloody freezing! It was snowing! After a very long, cold and dismal winter, Spring still seemed a long way off.

Still, never give up, never surrender!!! We get two weeks off at Easter and I planned to get the garden sorted come hell or highwater.  I mustered the troops....reminded them of the glorious bounty we had enjoyed from last years endeavours....It was time to man up, get out and get started.

Of course, once out there the troops were faced by the months of neglect, remnants of our very explosive firework party, and the havoc caused by the chickens having free rein of the garden all winter.....they weren't best pleased.

I thought they over-reacted

The patio didn't look that bad..

and there wasn't THAT much to do :-s

Ok, so it was a bit of a mess. But the wonderful thing about gardening is that you can make an impact very quickly. We all set about to raking, collecting, and burning, and in no time at all we'd made our garden look a bit more like our garden again.

First, we came up with a way to keep Minion 6 contained and occupied.

The boys perked up considerably once they'd got the fire going.

Even Minion 2 got stuck in.

It was a good day's work and even the minions agreed that we'd made a considerable dent in the mess...and then...the next day...the most incredible thing happened....the sun came out!!! Isn't it funny how everything looks better when the sun shines. Suddenly, we were filled will fresh motivation. Pretty soon, the garden was looking a lot clearer and we could get to work on our poorly, neglected lawn. 

We started by giving it a good rake over. We've had some much rain this winter that the soil was badly impacted so we used a Lawn Aerator to break up the soil a bit and give the grass some breathing space. After another raking we reseeded, though we will probably have to redo this should the weather take a turn for the worse again...which it probably will do. But it's a start...and it looks better than it did this time last year.

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you...Minion 2 is out, in the garden, in the sun, aerating the lawn!! I would like to say that he's had a change of heart and has embraced life in the open air but alas I cannot lie. He asked for chores to do to so he could pay for Wrestlemania on Sunday night. Ah well....we live forever in hope. He did a great job though. 

We even had some lovely purple sprouting broccoli to enjoy!

So, we've made a good start. Pretty soon it will be time to start sowing and then the real fun will begin. But in the meantime I have slight aside, non-kitchen garden, personal project on the go. Don't get me wrong...I do love the veggies but before the veg garden I had a beautiful cottage style garden that was an extravaganza of colour and beauty. I do miss it sometimes and am determined to have a few non-edible plants in the garden. 

A few months back I saw an old doulton sink on eBay...I got very excited as I'd always wanted on old sink to plant an alpine garden in....I won it for £20 which I thought was a real bargain -Charlie was less impressed with my purchase  (I've mentioned in previous blogs that he has very little respect for plants that aren't edible) and said that he couldn't believe I paid £20 for 'that beat up old cr** sink'- ...what can I say, the man has no vision :-)... anyway, this week..... I'm going to turn my beat up old sink into a beautiful little Alpine Garden. Slightly off topic...but hey, the soul needs food too :-)

Climate Change aka Time to Build a Big Boat?

When the boffins first started talking about global warming back in the 80s no one seemed that phased by it. This island is known for many great things but a beautiful climate is most definitely not on the list. Many Brits, ourselves included, cultivated the romantic notion of global warming turning our sceptured isle turning into a kind of Costa Del Sol giving us lots of scope to complain about being too hot, buy lots of sandals, wear questionable comedy t-shirts and have lots more BBQs. 

Of course reality is now sinking in and it looks like  an island paradise is not on the cards. In fact, our miserable climate is becoming even more dismal and we are experiencing rain and flooding of almost biblical proportions. This year it has rained and rained and rained. So much so that if my neighbour had started building a big boat in his garden and got a sudden interest in animal husbandry, instead of phoning the appropriate authorities as I would normally do under such circumstances, I might have asked him for a lift.... What does this mean for our garden? Well, good as freecycle is, I'm pretty sure we couldn't scrounge enough timber for an Ark so..... we need a plan! 

The garden is a bog at the moment but we are hopeful that with reflection on the last two year's vegetable successes and disasters coupled with some careful planning, we can reach new heights of grow-your-own splendour. A lot has worked, and we just need to do more of that and less or the stuff that didn't...simple :-).

We ordered a seed catalogue from the Real Seed Company and started looking at what we are going to grow this year. Last year's successes included parsnips, carrots, leeks, onions, lettuce and peas...so they are all going on the list. Not so good were the more exotic crops which didn't get enough sun (tomatillos, tomatoes and peppers) so they're going on hold until we get the greenhouse up and running. I love the Real Seed Company because there is a story behind every heritage variety they sell. Here are the some of the varieties we've decided to go for this year:

'Baccalan de Rennes' French Variety of Spring Cabbage

Golden Chard

Striato di Napoli (Green Stripes) Courgette

Tender and True Parsnips

They did us proud this year. Very delicious and a good crop.

Giant Red Carrots

The D'Eysines were lovely this year but a bit on the short side, and you have to remember we have a LOT of minions to feed, so we're going to try this variety this year.

Giant Limousin Turnips

Chamette Dwarf Petit Pois

'Cherokee Trail of Tears' Climbing French Beans

I can't wait to grow this one. Such a beautiful name. This is the description in the catalogue:

'Simply the best bean there is. This bean was originally from the native North American Cherokee people. In 1838 they were driven out of their homelands in the state of Georgia by the US government to make room for more European settlers , a forced march known as the 'Trail of Tears'. This bean is one of their heirlooms they managed to keep with them and has been passed on from generation to generation ever since.We can see why the Cherokees valued it so much! It is incredibly prolific, cropping over a long season.

Giant Bulgarian Leeks 

These should be good fun. They were described as 'humungous' in the catalogue! Worth a try.

'Sicily Giant' Big Mild Radish

Salad Crops: Medium Mibuna (quick and easy cut and come again) and 'Golden Frill' salad leaf and a few more from the garden centre. In addition to this we'll get some spring onions and main crop potatoes locally. If you would like to check out the Real Seed Company here is the link:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk

After choosing our seeds we drew up a plan of where everything is going to go. If you have been following this blog you will know that we have very clay soil which is prone to water logging. This year, the surface flooding was so bad that we lost a lot of ground level crops. However, everything in the raised beds did well as these drained sufficiently. So, this year we have decided that everything is going to be in raised beds or pots. This will mean Charlie will need to build another one and we'll have to source some more wood but it's the only way we can beat the downpours. So here is the plan for next year:

Everything is rotating around to deter diseases and pests from building up. At the moment the chickens have the run of the garden and they're clearing all the ground and pooping all over it, getting it ready for spring. It's very exciting and we can't wait to get started but there are still a few months of winter yet which gives us time to get on freecycle and find some wood for that bed.