The Garden in May

 

We will be winding down the bird table feeding over the next week or so.  The birds have made good use of it over the nesting period but now that everything else is blooming along the canal and in the fields beyond they will have plenty of food to keep them going and we can reclaim our garden back.

We have to do this at this time of year to dissuade them from visiting the garden for the Summer as I really don't want to share my new seedlings with them.   With less and then no actual bird food we will have less visiting birds and less mess, but don't worry come the end of Autumn Alan will be freshly stocked with food to see his feathery friends survive over the Winter months.

The apple tree is in full blossom at the moment and the compost bin is nicely doing it's thing quietly against the fence.  I was determined to find a small compost bin for all the household scraps and weeds that we produce, and this one ... found at the local garden centre in the half-price section ... does the job wonderfully, and looks nice too.

The daffodils have all gone now and the forget-me-nots are looking pretty alongside the primulas at the base of the apple tree.

Behind the newly planted large pot the vegetable planter is already filling up.  I have potatoes in the middle section, the raspberries on the righthand side with salad leaves planted in front of them, protected from the cold nights by their little plastic covers.

Around the corner by the shed we have radish, spring onion and carrots in the right-hand side of the smaller vegetable bed, covered at night by the Perspex piece from the cold frame that Ginger broke last year.  I'm glad that I took it apart as these panels are working brilliantly to keep things from the cold.

After taking this photo I planted two of my courgette plants in the little black  planter with the glass domes, they should be nice and snug in there while they establish themselves.

At the front of the lodge I have my herb bath, with lots of thyme, parsley, basil and sage,  all handy for snipping off when I am cooking a few feet away in the kitchen.

And here's a real blast from the past.  

One of my birthday presents was a years subscription to Kitchen Garden magazine, so I have a year of magazines and their free seeds to look forward to.  I am in no doubt that I will be able to squeeze a few more plants in if some interesting seeds should turn up.  😀

Sue xx

My Growing Space Has Gotten Smaller and Smaller ...

A bit of sunshine and all us green-fingered folk are itching to get planting aren't we  🌳  

But there's an icy edge to the breeze at the moment, and although I got Alan to tip the three bags of compost that we bought last year into the new raised bed ready for some planting next month, I quickly covered it with opened out bags that it came in, weighted down with some leftover bits from building the bed last year so that the soil underneath can warm up ready for planting next month.

 I did pinch a bit of the newly opened compost to put into these little pots to start off some seeds though.  It was nice sitting in the sun on the patio dibbing away and sowing the seeds.  Mostly vegetables but a couple of pots of flower seeds too.  And that larger green planter in the background got some flower seeds sprinkled into it too.

Taking that top photo which shows the whole of my growing space for this year made me think back to my previous vegetable growing areas.

This one was when we lived in Oxfordshire on our first farm, this photo shows just the vegetable beds behind the house, we grew all our own  onions and potatoes here, the pigs used to love home grown potatoes.    We also had a 12ftx 25ft polytunnel next to the small pig enclosure and orchard and another assortment of raised beds behind where I was stood to take this photo filled with more onions, salad crops and lavender ... lots of lovely lavender.

This was the first growing year at our rented small holding, utilising the plastic beds that we had brought with us from the first farm.  The wind had kindly ripped down the polytunnel and left them all exposed for us to disassemble.  Here we just had about 5.5 acres, mostly given over to field and chicken enclosure.

And look who's photo I found in the same file as the last one ... a very young and pretty Suky.

And of course most of you will remember our small holding in North Wales before we moved back to England.  Lots of growing room on the hillside along side the little orchard and Summer chicken run. 

 With the green Net Tunnel, designed with a wire mesh bottom layer to keep the pesky hillside rabbits off some of our salad crops and with space for the Blueberries, so we could eat them instead of the birds ...

... and the polytunnel, filled with the tender indoor type crops, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, spinach, and delicate leaves etc.

These two tunnels were also 12ft x 25ft as it was a size that really suited us.

My new growing space is just 6ft x 8ft ... and that is the total floor space, the actual raised bed is much smaller. So I can see that I'm going to have to get very inventive this year.  My main plan is to use the wooden bed for salad crops... spinach, lettuce, radish, spring onions etc and then have some French beans in the small black planter on the opposite side, with some Bags for Life being lined up along side it for a few potato plants.  Oh and a couple of large pots for courgettes.

And of course I can't forget my little tin bath at the front door, which is very handy for snipping herbs from when I'm in the kitchen, so it adds another couple of foot of growing space.  I might put a few garlic cloves in here too, all that wasted space makes me want to fill it a little bit more.

My newly sown seeds were basking in the early morning sunshine when I pulled back the curtains this morning. 

Sue xx

A Famous Shed and Dudley

 

Photo Credit - Michael Coleran -  Dudley over Garstang  😉

Storm Dudley got us good and proper last night, it was wild and noisy with gusts going on for hours, although there was a weird lull for an hour in the middle before it built up again just in time for bedtime.  

I gave up trying to wedge the wheelie bins in place when they came knocking at the door numerous times and eventually left them lying on their sides with the lids pressed against the wall to stop the contents flying out.

Our neighbour got home from work and accidently opened her briefcase (just how do you actually do that?) and papers flew out.  Luckily she managed to catch most of them but one important piece of paper blew over the back fence between our gardens.  So her husband phoned Alan ... who was in Berkshire ... who then phoned me to let me know the neighbour was about to knock on the door to ask for his piece of paper back.  What a roundabout way to do it, why not just knock on the door?

Anyway it was all sorted and we got off a lot lighter than some people, although local roads were blocked for a while with fallen trees.  Massive thanks to all of the services workers who go out in atrocious weathers to put these sort of things right and keep our towns and villages safe.

My little shed is famous!!

I am currently catching up on some magazine reading and earlier this week I made a start on the January edition of  The Simple Things subscription I have.  I should have looked much earlier because look what I found ...

... I guess I'll have to cut out and keep this for posterity.

I think we have all our magazine appearances from our former new life in the country in Alan's office somewhere, but I don't think this needs to join them.

*** *** ***

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on yesterdays post.  It would seem we are all of the same mindset and they were wonderful to read while I sat at the breakfast bar that is now my mini office space clutching a massive cup of coffee.  Suky snoring rather loudly in the background made it feel very cosy in here while the wind blew even more loudly outside.

Sue xx

Phew ... I Found the Seeds

 

Just as I was going to sleep last night I had a sudden panicky thought  'I don't remember unpacking the seeds after the move, just how much of my budget would buying seeds take up if I want to grow my own?'  It kept me awake very briefly, I usually drop off within five minutes of getting comfortable in bed and luckily it didn't impact too much!!

Then this morning when the thought came back to me over that first reviving cup of coffee of the day, I had a vision in my head.

On the little box shelf in my shed I could see the tin that I was pretty sure contained all the seeds that I had brought with us.  And sure enough, when the rain stopped for five minutes I nipped to the shed and there it was ... sitting pretty.

I've brought the tin in now, partly so I could see what I have available and partly because they need to start to warm up slightly ready for planting.  The first seeds can go into pots next month and be started off on window sills.  Alan has already offered me the windowsill on his top floor, a room that fills with sunshine on any clear day as my windowsills are all far too small and far too full.

We need something to look forward too with all this cold, wet weather don't we.  My roof was rattling like a train last night.

Sue xx

Meanwhile Out in the Garden

 

Alan bought himself an early Christmas present yesterday.

He's always loved feeding the wild birds but back in Wales we had no reason to put out fat balls or bird feeders with seeds or peanuts as all the local wildlife just mucked in with the chickens eating all of the mentioned directly from Chicken World.  Now with our own little town garden we are slowly making it more wildlife friendly and getting in supplies for the little birdies seemed a good step. 

We already have the little drinkers for the birds and the old stainless steel sink from the kitchen as a pond ... and of course they have the canal just over the fence ... so food for the birds was the next logical step now that Winter is almost upon us.

Obviously we will have to keep an eye on Ginger as those little platforms temporarily holding fat balls ... put there to discourage him ... just look like little cat platforms to me!!  I honestly thought it would take a month or so for the birds to find this and be comfortable feeding from it, and with the washing hanging outside yesterday wafting in the breeze I thought this would put them off too, but by last night half of one of the fat balls was gone ... I'm just waiting to see if a seagull will carry one off  😄

Round the corner the little shed and the raised bed have settled in nicely ...

... and something that has really surprised me is how happy this Spider plant is outside.  I was going to bring it in yesterday but it is the healthiest it's ever looked and it's been out there since the shed was finished.

I'll keep an eye on it and probably bring it in at the first frost, unfortunately it will have to go into Alan's as I have no more room for plants here ... so that will sound it's death knell then!!

Sue xx

Hello ...

 

Hello remember me?

Haha, of course you do  😀

Firstly, I'd like to say sorry for being away for so long and I realise that I have lots to catch you all up on.  So over the next couple of weeks I'll try to get back into that blogging rhythm and bring you up to date on life as it is now ... now that I am here in my new home, Lavender Lodge.

The top photo is the little flower garden, well it was supposed to be the flower garden but the Courgette plants that needed somewhere to live have taken over completely.  Soon, as the colder nights really draw in, the plants will die back and we will claim back this part of the garden for the pretties and the wildlife.  Next year the Courgettes will be in a large planter to the side of the shed.

Talking of sheds ... we finished it last week, that is mostly the royal 'we' of course, although I partook of all the tittivating and prettying up.

Dave the Handyman set to on my shed as soon as all the work on the house was finished.

And over the course of two weeks, my shed slowly took shape.

With vinyl shingles on the roof and a little veranda area at the front it started to take on exactly the look I was after.

Do you remember the picture I found on the internet?  This is all Dave had to go on, and I think he copied it very well for the space I had.  I purposely asked him to leave out the front step as we didn't have the height available as the shed walls are made out of the old fence panels we took down which were six foot tall.  Re-cycle, re-use and re-purpose is always my motto.

The day the door catch went on was funny.  

Dave actually put the wrong sort of gate latch, I don't think we were on the same wavelength and the sort he used cannot be opened from the inside!!  He realised his mistake when the wind blew the door shut and he very sheepishly had to phone me from inside the shed to go and let him out.

We now have a large hook and eye system to hold the door open while I'm in the shed.

I'm really happy with the finished result.  

There are just some stones to add to the pots to hide the cement and it will be all done.

This is the inside.

I've wanted a wallpapered shed ever since we lived in Berkshire and I found some glorious 1930s wallpaper up on the walls in the little ramshackle shed that was there.  See Here.  Now I finally had the chance to use up two odd rolls of wallpaper that I had been storing for ages.

All my favourite little bits and pieces are ready for action for next years growing season.

And with the large window and insulated roof and sides I should be able to get some seedlings growing early next Spring.

So there you go, first snippets of home to whet your appetites and I promise I'll be back very soon this time.

Have a great weekend.

Sue xx