Union Street Urban Orchard
Posted: Sun 20 June, 2010 Filed under: Green, Green Garden, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »While I was in London last night, I had to take a walk to try and find the car park I had planned to use.
While doing so, I came across the (closed at the time) Union Street Urban Orchard. I think it’s a fantastic idea :
Designed by Heather Ring of the Wayward Plant Registry and built with the help of Bankside Open Spaces Trust and an array of other helpful volunteers the garden will regenerate a disused site in Bankside and create a place for exchange between local residents and visitors to the Festival.
As the above quote from the site says, they’ve taken a disused site on Union Street, and created an urban orchard in it. They’ve recycled pallets, tyres, wood, glass and more to make the orchard. Sadly it’s only in situ until the middle of August- although at that point the trees from the orchard will be transplanted to three or four other sites around Bankside.
Personally I’d like to see this done far more often, creating valuable green/growing space in disused plots and areas throughout cities. Of course I realise that London prices are huge and the cost of those plots is almost certainly prohibitive – but at the same time if you can make use of those disused plots that aren’t doing anything anyway, well why not?
If all else fails, I think that local authorities could/should do a CPO on some of these disused plots, and actually make solid use of those plots for the local community.
The Union Street Urban Orchard is a fantastic project. I hope it puts ideas in the heads of a lot more people.
Cat vs. Pond
Posted: Sun 6 June, 2010 Filed under: Animals, Green, Green Garden 1 Comment »One of the other events of the weekend was Psycho Cat finally discovering the pond – and being fascinated by it. The tadpoles intrigued him, but he can’t catch them.
Hunting Tadpoles
The frogs are interesting too, but disappear into the bits of the pond he can’t get into.
Of course, when he realises/remembers that he’s a Turkish Van (and thus quite adept at being a swimming cat) then he may spend more time in the pond than around it…
Frogs
Posted: Sat 5 June, 2010 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green, Green Garden Leave a comment »As well as the immense number of tadpoles in the pond, we’ve also got at least six frogs of various sizes/generations. All told, it’s been a remarkably successful wildlife pond, especially for having been in place for only a year.
Frog The First
Both the one above and the one below were sitting quite happy in the pond at the same time (and at opposite sides, so I know they’re different ones) – apparently they’ve decided that sitting still is one of the better defences, and they only move when you get too close.
Frog The Second
Tadpoles
Posted: Wed 2 June, 2010 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green, Green Garden 1 Comment »Just over a year ago (16th May, to be exact) we put a pond into the garden – nothing huge, but a little ‘nature pond’, with the intention of making it a useful home/habitat for the frogs/toads we seem to have all year round.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend we looked in the pond, and there’s loads of tadpoles in there. No idea whether they’re frog or toad tadpoles – I guess we’ll find out once they’ve changed state a bit, as currently they’re just classic tadpole-shape. There’s also a load of tiny bug things (can’t you tell I’m a specialist in this stuff?) and larvae that they’re feeding on, and stuff at the bottom for them to hide in, so it seems like it must be a pretty good layout.
I’m ridiculously chuffed about this, as I didn’t really expect it to get to this state ’til next year, and possibly the year after. But no, we’ve got a working nature pond on our first try.
Now if only we can get birds in the nextbox, and owls in the owlbox. Then I’ll be really happy. (Admittedly I don’t expect anything in the owl box until Hound pops her clogs, because she’s so bloody noisy and irritating)
Panels
Posted: Sun 16 May, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden, House Work 1 Comment »Yesterday we got another couple of fence panels painted – only about another 85 to go. (We started off with 97 to do, and it’s a shitty boring job, but it’s going slowly)
One fence panel, half done
The wood is very dry, so it’s sucking in the treatment as soon as it’s applied. Probably means we’ll need to do a second coat at some point, but I need to get the lot done first.
Garden Produce
Posted: Thu 13 May, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden Leave a comment »One of the better bits of this gardening thing- spuds growing in their buckets
Potato plants in their buckets on the patio
No idea what the particular types are – I lost the labels, in typical style – but they’re all growing well, and I’m really pleased with how things are progressing.
Last year the buckets weren’t that successful when we bought spuds from Suttons – this year they’re from Homebase, and seem to be doing much better.
Malvern Spring Show
Posted: Thu 13 May, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden, People, Travel Leave a comment »One of our main reasons for coming to Malvern this week on our break was to go to the Malvern Spring Show. My mum’s always recommended it as a good plant/flower/garden show, so we thought we’d give it a thrash.
We went to Chelsea show a couple of years back, and hated the number of people crammed in to too small a space, and being unable to see what we wanted without fighting our way through the people first. The show was OK, the size and people were awful.
By contrast, Malvern was a really pleasant experience. There were still lots of people, and plenty of shitheads with sodding tugalong trollies, but it didn’t feel crowded. In the indoor exhibitions there was plenty of space between stands, wider aisles, all told there was just space to spare. There was tons to see, lots of stands, exhibitions, products and the like, and it was a really good day.
We came out of it with plenty of ideas for the garden, shitloads of brochures and information, and sore feet from walking. We’ll be going back next year.
Flowering Rhubarb
Posted: Sat 8 May, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden, Weirdness 1 Comment »One of the stranger sights in our garden this week…
Rhubarb Flower - click to embiggenify
I’ve never seen this before, but our main rhubarb plant has created what appears to be a flower. It’s kind of broccoli-like, but with (as you can see) red bits and pale green bits.
In short, very strange, and very alien-looking.
Cold Frame
Posted: Sat 10 April, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden, Norfolk Leave a comment »Today we’ve been assembling a cold-frame for the garden that Herself bought this week. It was OK in the end – Herself took the lead, which meant I was infinitely less annoyed/annoyable and sweary – but still a pig to put together.
While instructions usually prove to be sodding annoying, it’s still better to have some step-by-step instructions on how to build these things. In this case all we had was four pages with some drawings of how to put together certain bits of the cold frame. Other than that, we were on our own.
Still, it’s up now – it took the best part of three damn hours to construct, but it’s done now. Happy Day.
Playing with Concrete
Posted: Sun 26 July, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden, House Work 3 Comments »Regular readers already know that when it comes to DIY I’m pretty much a total bell-end. It’s a thing I’ve inherited from my father, who is a world-renowned DIY bell-end, and tales of his idiocies have been used for me and my brother to dine out on many times.
Anyway, about two years ago, I put in a thing for the rotary drier/airer in the garden. At the time it was fairly straight, but over time it’s got more and more wonky.
So this time we got another fitting (this time with a built-in spirit level – genius!) and a bag of Postmix cement. You can see already where this might go horribly wrong, can’t you?
Only it didn’t – the holder is now cemented in properly (and absolutely straight!) and the airer’s post fits in it fine.
At the same time (i.e. while waiting for the postmix to set) we’ve also put up a hosereel thingy on the wall of the house, which’ll hold a 25m hose-reel – enough to get almost halfway down the garden – which should make for a tidier garden without sodding hosepipe coiled up in random places.
Sometimes, a day can be quite successful. Of course, I’m now waiting to find something to screw up in order to balance things out again…
Pick Your Own
Posted: Sun 5 July, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden, Norfolk 1 Comment »Today, we went to one of the local pick-your-own farms, spent about an hour there, and collected enough raspberries and strawberries to make up more than 12lb of jam, for the princely amount of £15.
Yes, the fruit in our own patch will cost even less, but that won’t mature ’til next year, I suspect. It’s getting there, and we’ve got some small fruits on the stuff there, but these things take time. The PYO place was fantastically stocked, and you can be sure we’ll be going back there for more this year.
We’ve still got some fruit spare as well, so that’s going in some puds for the week. Can’t be bad.
Hail
Posted: Tue 16 June, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden, Weather Leave a comment »When I said we had epic hail yesterday, I really wasn’t kidding.
This was what remained around some of our flower pots two hours after it’d fallen – most of it stayed on the ground right through ’til at least half ten at night (having fallen at four or so in the afternoon) although it was gone this morning
Hailstones
Pretty impressive, really.
Of course, they hail has beaten the shit out of most of the plants outside – all the broad bean plants are bent over and have been beaten up, as have the strawberries, french beans, courgettes and pumpkins as well as the bamboo and lilac trees/bushes that we bought recently. But all of that should heal over time, so it could be a lot worse.
Mower RIP
Posted: Fri 22 May, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Green Garden Leave a comment »Longer-term readers may recall that back in August last year, we bought a second-hand ride-on mower from the friend of a friend. At the time this was A Good Thing, as it meant that a) we didn’t need to have the nice man mowing the lawn again this year (as in 2009) and b) that I wouldn’t have to slog my arse off mowing the entire bloody garden with the petrol-driven mower.
Over the winter, we got it serviced (supposedly- that’s a post for another day, I think) and the engine electrics repaired from where I knackered it when the battery fell off the back of the cunting thing, pulling various bits of connected enginery with it.
This year we tried starting it – nothing. The battery was flat, so that got charged up, having borrowed a battery charger from the out-laws. Once that was done, it ran. For about twenty minutes. It then went bang, chucked out a cloud of smoke, and wouldn’t start again.
Today, we got a different person to come out and have a look. Turns out the starter motor was fucked sticking , so he cleaned it out and lo, it started.
So I ran it round the garden again. Put it in gear to start mowing. And it went bang, chucked out a shitload of evil-smelling grey smoke, stopped, and wouldn’t start again.
So all told, I give up. The poxy thing’s knackered, and showing no signs of recovery. I think we’re just going to write it off as a total lemon, and one day get a new ride-on with a long fucking guarantee.
In the meantime, it’s back to the petrol-mower again. We spent £100 on that three years ago, and it’s never given us any serious hassle. Sure, it’s a pig to start the first time each year, but after that it runs just fine.
I’ve come to realise that I truly fucking hate garden machinery.
More Garden Guff
Posted: Mon 18 May, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green Garden, House Work Leave a comment »Yesterday was emphatically not a day of rest – primarily because we spent most of it in the garden. Again.
The first surprise came when I went up to let the chickens out in the morning – and found three peacocks (OK, technically one peacock and two peahens) in the chicken run. They quickly fluttered up on to the fence, and then next door, but returned a couple of times more before finally being scared off by Hound. There’s a colony of peacocks over by the church (probably half a mile from us) so it wasn’t a complete “Where the hell did they come from” moment, but it’s still the first time we’ve had them in our garden since we moved here.
From there we got a bundle of work done, including finishing filling the remaining three raised beds on the veg plot (using the best part of another ton of earth) and finally planting stuff in the bloody things. So we now have raised beds containing :
- Broad Beans
- Peas
- Strawberries
- Pumpkins
- Courgettes
In addition, scattered round the rest of the veg patch we’ve got :
- Raspberries (18 canes’ worth)
- Gooseberries (4 bushes)
- Blackberry (1 plant)
- Rhubarb (4 plants)
- Garlic (2 rows)
- Onions (3 rows – although they’re not doing much)
- Beetroot (1 row of white, 1 of red)
- Potatoes (3 buckets, two of which have so far been successful)
- Various herbs and odds-n-sods
Bear in mind, this is actually a reduced list from last year, due to us not actually managing much garden-wise last year. *ahem*
Anyway, with that little lot sorted, Herself also planted a bundle of stuff round the new pond (Hound was being a pain in the arse by this time, and got dragged indoors by Yours Truly) including foxgloves, lambs ears (it’s a plant, we’re not that cruel!), salvias, and other stuff I now can’t remember the name of.
Along the way there was also other bits and bobs, but it was a pretty busy day all told.
And that’s why I didn’t update yesterday…
Pond Life
Posted: Sat 16 May, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green Garden 1 Comment »This morning, our lovely garden maintenance man came round, and we now have a small pond in the garden.
It’s been part of the plan for a while, but we hadn’t got round to getting it done. And now it is.
It’s not really planned to be a decorative/ornamental pond, more of a wild-life one, so we’ve had to think about the best ways to make it work. As it is, it’s got railway sleepers round the edges (which we’ll then probably cover with wire in order to stop Hound getting into it) with gaps so that animals can find their way in/out without too much hassle.
The main things we expect to use it will be the copious numbers of frogs and toads we’ve got in the area – I’d be very happy to have it get populated with frogspawn every year, but have no idea how long that may take – and possibly the odd hedgehog or whatever. That’s the plan, anyway.
Of course, now we also need to buy some plants to put in it – again, nothing massive, but enough to keep it oxygenated and clean. I don’t know whether we’ll bother with fish in it – we might, we might not.
But all the same, we now have a pond. That’s quite cool by any estimation.
Rain
Posted: Fri 15 May, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Green, Green Garden Leave a comment »Out of interest, am I the only person who’s been pleased that it’s rained this week?
There’s a reason for this, rather than me just being a grumpy anti-sun person – it’s that our water-butts were beginning to run low on water. I’ve written before about our collection of water butts – enough to hold about 1,850 litres (roughly 400 gallons) of water all told – but the levels were getting pretty low all round, due to not having had any rain in a while.
So yes, I’m generally happy to have had a couple of days of rain – all the water-butts connected to proper drainpipes had completely refilled, although the ones linked to the greenhouse didn’t do so well. We obviously still need to work on that a bit.
Anyway, with the water-butts happily full again, I spent some time this evening moving water up to the butts by the greenhouse, two watering-cans at a time. It means that the larger butts are back to being about half empty again, but if /when we get more rain (which is the current prediction) then the larger ones attached to drainpipes will fill up again a lot ore easily.
But still, yes, I’m happy that it’s been raining. Go figure.
More Garden Activities
Posted: Sun 26 April, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Green, Green Garden, Plots & Green Stuff Leave a comment »Following a (much-needed) lazy day on Saturday where very little at all got done, we’ve been a lot busier today. Continuing on from last weekend’s work, we’ve done…
- Built two small(ish) raised beds (2m x 1m x 20cm)
- Put together one higher raised bed (2m x 60cm x 90cm)
- Moved two tons of bark-chip to cover the rest of the veg patch (and some of the chicken run)
So another productive day. The new version of the veg patch is pretty much complete now, with the exception of actually planting stuff. That’s most likely the work next weekend (as well as filling the new raised beds with earth, so that’ll be another ton of dirt moved) and then we’ll be done.
There’s still other stuff to do, of course – but the new version of the veg patch has been one of the big jobs on the list for this year, so it’s good to be nearly done with it.
Mind you, we’re both knackered now.
Bark Chip
Posted: Thu 23 April, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden 1 Comment »As part of our ongoing alterations to the garden and veg-patch (primarily based around using raised beds for growing stuff, rather than the main veg-patch underneath) we’d also ordered about 2 tons of barkchip to cover the bits unused by raised beds.
It got delivered yesterday – slap-bang in the middle of the entrance to the driveway, so no vehicles can get past it. A bike might be able to, but nothing else.
Thankfully we’ve got a horse-shoe drive, so can use the other (much narrower) entrance to it. But you do have to wonder at the sense of leaving it there, rather than on the 20-odd-foot long length of verge between the two drive entrances.
Still, it defines what we’ll we be doing this weekend. Happiness, Joy etc. etc.
Upside-Down
Posted: Tue 21 April, 2009 Filed under: Green, Green Garden 1 Comment »I don’t think we’ll be getting any this year, but I love this idea – growing tomatoes upside down, using a hanging-basket bracket, and letting gravity do the work instead of needing to use canes etc to support the growing plants…
Garden Work
Posted: Sun 19 April, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden Leave a comment »So this weekend, the workload between us has involved…
- Making of two raised beds, as detailed yesterday
- Filling both raised beds with earth/manure etc. (Pretty much a ton between the two)
- Redistribution of water from the massive water-butt down to smaller (emptier) ones around the place.
- Painting of the garden shed
- The first grass-mow of the season for the prairie (AKA the back garden)
- Strimming round the edges
So, not really all that busy then. *ahem*
Raised Beds
Posted: Sat 18 April, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden Leave a comment »Among other things, today we’ve built two raised beds (technically three, but two have been joined together to make a double-height one) for the veg patch.
It didn’t start well, but i the end everything combined OK and the last two went together in about 45 minutes each.
They’ve been made from 7″ x 1″ planks (so the double-height is 14″ high) and will work to be part of our new plan for the veg patch – reducing the workload by covering most of the patch in weedproof membrane, and using the raised beds for our crops/veg.
It means we won’t be using all the space, but it does mean we should be able to get on with growing stuff, rather than ending up with a patch that’s primarily great for growing weeds…
The Chicken Run
Posted: Wed 1 April, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Getting Organised, Green, Green Garden, Thoughts 2 Comments »It’s coming up for a year now since we enlarged the chicken run (well, we did it at the end of July, so it’s about 8 or 9 months) and I’m debating what to do with the thing.
The problem is, of course, that the three chickens have pretty much pecked the place to death, so there’s not much except dirt and nettles in there at the moment. There’s a couple of bits in there for the amusement of the chickens (hay bales etc.) but I’m still thinking about what we should do with the ground in there.
I suppose there’s three options really…
- Leave it as it is
- Put new turf in the entire area of the run
- Cover the run in bark-chip or similar (wood mulch, whatever)
With the exception of “leave it like it is”, both the other options would also involve setting up a smaller temporary run (possibly on the veg patch, let ’em peck away at the weeds and mare’s tail) for a couple of weeks, while we got the work done.
I know that Blue Witch recently re-turfed her chicken run but I haven’t yet decided between turf and bark-chip/wood mulch. I suspect that over time, the wood mulch would give them something they could keep on pecking into etc., but it’d still have to be replaced/cleared up every so often, due to the quantity of crap that chickens produce.
It’s something that’ll be decided sometime in April, I’m sure.
Yesterday
Posted: Sun 22 March, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden, House Work Leave a comment »Well, as it turns out, the problem with the cooker was actually an issue with the gas supply stuff outside the house – the low-pressure thingy had been triggered somehow, and was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
Luckily, the cooker engineer who came out was lovely, and willing to talk to the guy who had done the original install (who also knew we were more than slightly fucked off by the entire thing) so between them they got it sorted out. Even better, because it was something we didn’t know about – allbeit had looked at, when it looked fine – we didn’t get charged anything for them fixing the problem.
And as well as now having a working cooker again – for which happy, happy day – we’ve also managed to get a number of jobs done round the house.
- Kitchen wall tiles are now all grouted in. (Floor tiles will be done on Monday, most likely)
- Appointment has been made with an accountant to see what’s going to happen.
- I’ve started painting the wooden fence panels. Six down, ninety-one to go.
- We’ve started laying a bundle of weed-proof membrane over bits of the veg patch, for work over the next few weeks
- The fruit trees have had a trim/prune
- We’ve done a bundle of other stuff too. I just can’t remember it right now.
So yes, while we’re not “on holiday” as such, it’s looking like it’ll be fairly productive and get a bundle of outstanding jobs out the way. (Which will, of course, just make room for other jobs instead)
The Girls
Posted: Sat 29 November, 2008 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green, Green Garden, Photography 3 Comments »When it snowed last weekend, I finally got round to taking photos of our hens. It’s taken a year, but I knew I’d get there in the end…
Gladys
Elsie
Flo
And that’s the girls.
Ride-On
Posted: Sun 24 August, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden Leave a comment »With the size of our garden, mowing them has always been an issue for us. It’s a good two hours of work to do the lot, and neither of us is a great fan of mowing. In fact, with the size of it we need a petrol mower, and that’s proven too heavy for Herself to use. Over the last couple of months, we’ve had a gardener doing the mowing instead of us.
Over the weekend, though, we took delivery of a ride-on mower. We haven’t spent loads on it, it’s come second-hand from a friend of a friend, but it should do us just fine. It’s a Stiga Park 105, for those of you to who it means anything, and it’s a fantastic bit of kit.
Of course, today has (so far) utterly pissed it down, so I haven’t been able to go out for a proper play on the thing, but it should make the entire mowing effort one hell of a lot quicker and easier. I’ll know more once I’ve tried it out properly.
Clean
Posted: Sat 23 August, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden 3 Comments »Yay, we now have a clean water supply once more. It’s only taken four months…
And it’s also meant that we’ve been up on the veg patch all day, doing more weeding as well as harvesting all the potatoes and onions, as well as one bucket of blue potatoes, and another bucket-load of apples.
But it’s been a successful day. Of course, we’re both completely knackered now, but it’s all been worthwhile.
Weeding
Posted: Sun 17 August, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden 4 Comments »The weather over the last few weekends has been bloody horrible (well, unless you’re a duck) which has meant that we couldn’t get out into the garden to do any weeding etc. As a result, at least half the veg patch was looking more like we were cultivating nettles rather than vegetables.
Yesterday was – at last – a dry day, which meant I was out in the garden for about three hours all told, just clearing out one small section of the patch, clearing the earth around the courgettes and pumpkins. Just that one patch has filled up the brown ‘garden waste’ bin – and in a fit of piss-poor timing, that won’t be collected until next Wednesday (the 27th) which is a bit of a pain in the tits. There’s still a lot to do out there – not least bringing in all the potatoes and onions, which all need to be sorted before long – but at least having got one part cleared, it’s beginning to feel more manageable again.
Of course, today started with four hours of heavy rain again, which kind of nulls out the entire weeding and gardening thing for the moment. But at least I’ve made a start on it. And if we get any dry evenings this week, I think I know where I’m going to be…
Herb Garden
Posted: Sun 27 July, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Green, Green Garden 2 Comments »Another day, another job at the house completed.
Why is it that we always pick the hottest days to do the hardest work? Today it’s been about carrying railway sleepers round to the back of the house, and screwing them together to make a raised bed for a herb garden for Herself. Get me, Mr Domestic.
It’ll be worth it, though – it looks good, and now we just need to plant all the herbs.
We’ve got chives, lemon verbena, thyme, mint, rosemary, catmint (should keep the animals away from the rest of it) and oregano for starters, so we’ll just see how they get on. Should be fine in their new home, I’m sure, and it’ll be good to see them all growing.
Chicken Run – Enlarged
Posted: Sat 26 July, 2008 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green Garden Leave a comment »Today we’ve been sorting out a new bigger, better chicken run. Putting in the metposts and fence posts, and lining the perimeter with 6 foot high chicken wire.
All told, it’s (roughly) 40′ x 20′. I haven’t measured it exactly, so that’ll have to do you.
Of course, the downside of them having this much larger fully-enclosed run is that Herself now wants two or three more chickens…
Demolition, Gardening
Posted: Sat 12 July, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Green, Green Garden 1 Comment »One of the jobs that’s been hanging around for a while at home (OK, since we bought the house) is that there was a little dividing wall between patio and garden – and that wall was shot. There were various cracks and wobbles in the wall, and it wasn’t really all that safe to sit on, for example.
This weekend, we’ve hired (yet another) skip, with the aim of getting rid of the wall, and various other large bits of garden stuff (masses of willow branches, for example, and a couple of unruly bushes that just need killing) that we just can’t be arsed to also take to the local tip etc. So a skip it is.
The wall came down in two hours flat, and in that time it was only the bottom two rows of bricks that required any real input from the 4lb lump hammer. The rest came apart by hand – which, when you think about it, is pretty scary in itself. It’s all gone, and the patio area’s appearance has changed massively without it.
The garden stuff took a bit longer, but we’ll still be able to get rid of the skip on Monday morning, which helps minimise the costs of having it.
All told, a pretty productive Saturday.
Mowing
Posted: Wed 14 May, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden, House Work 5 Comments »Last week, we decided to get someone in to do the mowing of the grass in our garden. It’s something I’ve been doing, but it takes up a large amount of time on a weekend when we could be doing other things – sorting out the veg patch, for example. The entire garden is something like 8,000ft² (roughly 165′ x 65′, which is just over 10,000ft², but there’s other stuff in there than just grass, so I reckon it comes down to about 8,000ft²)
So we got a guy round on Friday to have a look, and he quoted us £30 to do the entire thing – mow it, strim the edges, and clear it all up. Not bad at all – yes sure, we could get someone cheaper (as Lionel pointed out elsewhere) but for the moment we’ll see how we do with this guy.
He turned up yesterday when we were both out, so I came home to a fully mowed garden. And he’s done a fantastic job – everything’s been done, the mowing, the strimming – even the dog toys were tidied away, (with the exception of one tennis ball that died – hardly a worry) and all the clippings plonked into our compost bins.
All in all, £30 well spent, in my opinion. Although we may need to buy a couple more compost bins before long.
Bugfood
Posted: Tue 13 May, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Green Garden Leave a comment »One of the things I hate about summer is that I turn into a buffet bar for mosquitos. (and other bugs as well, but mainly mosquitos) There’s something about me that obviously tastes good to the little bloodsucking fuckers, and they just dive in for a chomp.
After having a meal outside on Sunday evening, I’ve got no less than five bites on my legs already, three of which have swollen up unpleasantly.
We’ve got a mosquito-repellent in the bedroom which seems to work OK, and we’ve got a UV anti-bug lamp, although I really need to sort that out and put it somewhere so it’ll actually do something to the little vampiric bastards. However, the UV thing can’t really go outside (not long-term, anyway) so I’m also considering an outdoor version like this one which might help zap the buzzing little tossers.
Ah, the joys of summer.
Garden Work
Posted: Sun 11 May, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Green, Green Garden 2 Comments »Most of the weekend’s been spent out in the garden, which has been really nice. There’s been some hard work – finishing off the extension to the woodshed, so it’s about another eight foot long and will take another six months worth of wood. (at least)
Over the summer, we’ll be ordering another trailerload of wood, so it can season properly- we’ve got enough for a couple of months once it gets cold again, but we want to have more in stock than that, and be able to have it used in rotation – some of the wood we buy this summer may not get used ’til Winter ’09, by which time it’ll be good and seasoned. That’s the plan, anyway.
We’ve also been doing a buttload of weeding – it’s nowhere near completed, but we’re getting there and will continue with it during the week as well.
So that’s been the weekend, really. Not much else happened (except for seeing Iron Man, of which more in another past) but it’ll be good to go back to work for a rest…
Selling Seeds
Posted: Wed 23 April, 2008 Filed under: Getting Organised, Green, Green Garden, Health, News 4 Comments »It’s good to see that apparently more and more people are buying vegetable seeds, and growing their own veg, particularly in light of rising costs and growing awareness of the environmental impact of various imported fruit and veg.
We’re doing this more and more now that the garden is getting a bit more sorted – so far this year we’ve planted:
- Three rows of potatoes
- Leeks
- Carrots
- Onions
- Bell peppers
- Chilli peppers
- Runner beans
- Peas
- Rhubarb
- Tomatoes
and - Parsnips
We’ve still got plans for broccoli/calabrese, courgettes, pumpkins, cauliflower, more leeks and parsnips for over-winter, and a couple more tubs of potatoes as well as gooseberries, blackberries and (probably) strawberries on the fruit side. And even then, as we get more organised next year we’ll do even more.
It’s just good to see people doing more for themselves in this way – I suspect it’s something that’s going to keep on happening. I certainly hope so.
Norfolk Weekend
Posted: Sun 13 April, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green, Green Garden, House Work, Thoughts Leave a comment »It’s been a funny weekend, really – I haven’t had the time (or inclination) to be writing stuff for D4D™, as we’ve been fairly busy, yet it doesn’t feel like we’ve been busy enough to have a decent excuse.
Still, we’ve been getting a fair amount done.
Friday night was a social evening for a local charity connected (tangentially) to Herself’s work, doing a wine-tasting event – although it was a bit of a bummer to be the designated driver for the evening, as it meant I didn’t get to do any of the tasting!
Saturday sort of slipped away, really – doing a number of housey things, including fitting a new doorbell (we haven’t had one since we moved in, although the old bell-push was still on the door, which led to lots of annoyed delivery people) and just general domestic rubbish – shopping, sorting out plans for the weekend, that kind of thing.
Today we’ve been doing more stuff in the garden, including planting a whole bundle of veg in the veg patch (admittedly, that was mainly Herself) and sorting out some issues with our various water butts and the like. Oh, and I’ve spent some time putting together the basics for a new site, getting it all set up and ready to go.
So – busy, but not massively so. Just a fairly occupied weekend.
Fowl Play
Posted: Wed 31 October, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green Garden Leave a comment »I know, it’s a clichéd title – but hey ho. Live with it.
Anyway, we’ve had contact from the person supplying us with our chickens, coop, and all the guff for starting us off with three chickens. We pick them up on Sunday – just in time for my birthday. The coop is fuckin’ huge – 3′ x 2′ x 8′, so I’m hiring a van for the day to pick everything up.
In a bizarre way I’m actually looking forward to getting them – it’s going to make for some interesting times, having three chickens as well as Hound and Psycho Cat…
Garden Organisation
Posted: Sat 6 October, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden, Plots & Green Stuff Leave a comment »Currently, we’re looking at what we’re going to be doing next year in the garden. Yes, I know, getting scarily organised. We’re going to be doing a lot of work in there during ’08, so we need to have a plan.
There’s going to be a fair amount of veg growing, for sure – we’ve already bought sweet and chilli peppers, sweetcorn, onions, garlic, as well as a couple of others, and we’ve still got some other stuff to buy – as well as generally sorting out more of the layout, getting rid of some (most) of the roses, putting in some more structure, and putting in a decking area around the already-existing pergola thingy.
So we’re starting to plan what’s going to be done when, and how, and why. And by who, of course.
It’s a bit odd to be planning some of the stuff for 2008 already, but there’s going to be so much going on at the time, it’s going to be better to know beforehand what we’re up to, rather than getting to Saturday morning and wondering what needs doing next…
Got Wood?
Posted: Sun 23 September, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden Leave a comment »Not content with the amount we cut up earlier this week for the woodpile, I’ve been cutting up the remaining bits today. Once that’s done, I’ll be able to use the tarpaulin it’s all laid on (well, one of the two tarps – one’s for ‘big wood’, one’s for ‘kindling wood’) to use as a cover for the front of the woodpile, and protect it all a bit from rain/damp. (There’s plenty of ventilation round the sides and bottom of the woodpile, so it’s not going to get damp inside anyway)
So far it’s taken four hours. And there’s still the stuff for kindling to go. I suspect that lot may wait ’til one evening this week, because it has to be said, I’m right bored with it now.
Still, it’ll be good to have the job completed and done…
Wood Pile
Posted: Thu 20 September, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden, Photography 1 Comment »So, all the wood from the delivery on Monday is now stored in the wood pile. Twenty wheelbarrow loads, and this is what it looks like. (Apologies for the ropy cameraphone image, but there we go)
I have to say, I’m really quite pleased with it. And yes, I so need to get out more…
Fuel to the pyre
Posted: Sat 15 September, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Green Garden 1 Comment »This weekend, it looks like we’re getting prepared for winter.
We’ve made an order for oil through Boiler Juice, which seems to get a decent price for purchases of heating oil, so that’ll arrive next week.
In addition, we’ve also ordered a load of logs from a local supplier, which’ll turn up on Monday. Not bad – £75 for a full load, which can then be stuck onto our wood pile while the stuff we’ve already received (from a number of sources) and chopped, which is slowly seasoning on the pile already. With luck it’ll keep us going through the winter, but if not well, we can always get another load delivered. Happy day.
And before the delivery of logs, we need to chop up the remaining wood to go on the pile first. Joy. That’s most of tomorrow sorted out then…
Fowl Play
Posted: Sun 9 September, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden 2 Comments »Today, we’re off to look at chickens.
We won’t be buying any (not today, anyway) but it seems like as good a time as any to start doing the research. We found a place that looks promising, they do all the necessary gubbins as well as the birds, so it seems like a good place to get some information.
This could be interesting…
New Seeds
Posted: Sun 2 September, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Green Garden, House Work 1 Comment »We’re already getting organised for next year when it comes to the veg garden, greenhouse, and the decision about getting chickens.
Last week I went to the Real Seed Company, and ordered (among other things) some chocolate brown sweet peppers and some fluorescent purple chilli peppers. They should both be interesting – this year we’ve had massive success with normal chillis, and did OK on the bell peppers, although they weren’t great, and had a nasty reaction to sporadic watering.
Over the winter, we’re going to be making some additions and alterations to the greenhouse we inherited from the previous owners. It needs new shading put up, the automatic vent openers need replacing, and all that kind of general maintenance guff. Should be fun.
And yes, we’re even thinking of getting some chickens. It won’t be ’til Spring now, but that gives us some time to do some planning, get things in place, and all that kind of thing. We got a couple of books this week, so it should be interesting to see how things go.