A Man Possessed...

Just to remind you, last year, thanks to the torrential rain and very cold Spring and also somewhat due to us having a small and feisty 1 year old….the garden was in a bit of a sorry state:

March 2013

This year however we have kept on top of the Winter jobs, and at the beginning of March the garden looked like this:

March 2014.  Not a bad starting place at all!

Of course this has been aided by a really mild winter and a truly beautiful start to Spring. The game has also been changed by our lovely greenhouse, which has given us the opportunity to give the hardier seedings an early start. 

That said, the greenhouse is not currently heated so a lot of the seeds are still started off in the house on our windowsill propagators. Charlie has had great fun planting seeds, if fact he could be accused of having got a little carried away. Poor Minion 2 has had his windowsill conscripted and at one point I even discovered chilli seeds in my airing cupboard (I have to admit to having a slight hissy-fit over this and they were quickly evicted….well….there was nowhere to keep the towels!!). 

Lots more has happened this month…in fact Charlie has been like a man possessed… see if you can spot what he's been up to…

The most notable difference is the missing apple tree (Charlie's idea, he said it was because it was old, knarled and didn't produce very nice apples, but between you and me, I suspect it was just an excuse for him to use his new chain saw  * ) . A sad loss, but I have to admit we have a much better view of the greenhouse. We are going to plant another apple tree in the chicken enclosure to replace it. Charlie also built a cloche for the peas and squeezed in an extra raised bed. He's very handy! All-in-all a good start to the year and we're looking forward to, what will hopefully be, a great season.



*Charlie has a, some would say, slightly worrying penchant for things that cut, chop and saw. If I ever go missing…just bear this in mind.

Healing with Herbs

As I previously mentioned, this year we're going to have a bash at growing some medicinal herbs. We already have some herbs in the garden. Charlie is a fantastic cook and couldn't do without his bay (we have a standard bay in a large pot that lives on the patio) and rosemary. We have a nice clump of lemon balm which is one of my favourites; a tisane made out of 5 fresh lemon balm leaves and boiled water which has been allowed to cool a little will settle the most jittery nerves. And we have some sage and thyme…pretty standard offerings….This year however, we are going to expand our herb growing efforts by two more bed with a focus on making our own herbal remedies.

I have a book on herbs which I love. It's by a lady called Jekka McVicar and it really is the herb bible. Mine is a few years old and there is a newer book on sale on Amazon. You can still get hold of the version I have though. It looks like this:

She has a great website too. Well worth a peruse if you're interested in this particular topic:

http://www.jekkasherbfarm.com/shop

Ok. We've learnt our lessons over the years and there's no point in growing something we're not going to use so we looked first at the pages that describe the lotions and potions you can make using particular herbs and decided what would be useful for our family:

Chamomile (Chamaemelum Nobile)

I love chamomile tea but a cream of camomile can also be used to treat eczema  (Minions 5 and 6 are sufferers).

Marigold (Calendula Officinalis)

Makes a lovely cream for minor wounds (we get a lot of those), skin rashes (ditto) and sun burn (we are, after all, a bunch of pasty-faced Brits that burn easy).

Comfrey, Knitbone (Symphytum Officinale)

An ointment made of Comfrey stimulates growth of new cells and is used for healing external wounds. The leaves can also be made into a liquid feed or put on the compost heap to aid decomposition.

I also fancy having a go at a toning face pack made of dried lady's mantle, spearmint and mallow leaves that sounds heavenly.

And we're going to grow some borage which is so pretty and the flowers can be put in salads and frozen into ice-cubes for summer drinks; elderflower so we can make cordial and some wormwood which is apparently a good deterrent to keep lice out of the chicken house. 

 Here's the plan:

You might notice we're being far less ambitious with the other beds. The plan with the beds is to just grow a lot of a few things we like to eat and focus on the herbs and the greenhouse goodies this year.

So now we're going to get busy searching for and purchasing seeds and young plants so we're ready to hit the ground running in Spring. If you think we've missed a great herb off our list or have any other suggestions please let us know. 

New Year's Revelations

It's been AGES since I last had time to blog. To tell the honest truth we've been cheating on the garden with home improvements and have been up to our eyeballs in plaster, paint and self-assembly furniture (an evil invention which can incite the most placid of people to  extreme profanity and violence against inanimate objects). We have lived through it though and it's time to turn attention back to our lovely garden. 

To make up for the lack of blogging I thought it would be best to sum up the last 5 blog free months and then have a quick look forward to 2014 and all the trials and tribulations it will undoubtably bring us. 

Last I blogged, our fabulous greenhouse had been erected and even though it was really late in the season and July is, as you probably know, NOT the ideal time to be starting your greenhouse planting, we stormed ahead and filled it with some veg plants. These plants had been duly purchased from the local garden centres 'end of stock' lines and a bedraggled bunch they were. It was a long shot, but, you know, we didn't do half bad and it certainly gave us a taster of greenhouse gardening which is something that Charlie and I are both completely new to.

We planted some sweet pepper plants, cucumbers, tomatoes and lots of herbs. Alas, it proved too late for the tomatoes and even though the plants grew high, the fruits never really ripened. The cucumbers on the other hand were a great success and we were scoffing those into September. We also got a few lovely peppers and Charlie's favourite 'finissimo' basil (another great find from the Real Seed Company) LOVED the greenhouse and went mad on the top shelf. 

Some green in our house

Not bad for 'end of line' peppers!

The season ended all too quickly though and by October everything had to be cleared out and the greenhouse was cleaned. A very eager minion 5 was employed to help with the dirty work and now our lovely house is ready to go next season. We can't wait! 

Pots clean and ready for next year's bounty.

Minion labour!!

Elsewhere in the garden we had our usual list of successes and disasters. A really hot and lovely summer meant that we had to keep on top of the watering. Minion's were employed but often watered each other more than the plants….

Sadly, we weren't as hot on spotting pests and lost our entire pea crop to pea moths :-(. We did however have a lovely crop of chard…..only trouble was, none of it got eaten as we discovered we actually weren't that keen on chard. The maris piper potatoes were fantastic though. We were cropping them for a good couple of months. They were bright pink straight out of the ground and tasted delicious. More will be planted next year. We tried some bread poppies which produced absolutely beautiful flowers  heads and loads of seeds. 

The bread poppies were a real find.

lost peas :-(

The patio was looking pretty too and, in addition to my lovely alpines, I managed to sneak in a few pots  and ornaments to pretty things up. 

Roses and lavender, my favourites.

The only snail that could be spotted in our garden this year thanks to our nemaslug success!!!

In the end 2013 wasn't half bad. We've learnt more lessons, such as: don't plant things you don't eat; keep a keen eye out for pests and buy lots of nemaslug because it's bloody brilliant….and we feel ready to tackle 2014! Happy New Year everyone.

Coming soon……

The Plan 2014

Healing with Herbs (my big project for next season)

Minions on Manoeuvre

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!