Spring Update

Well, this is an impressive lapse in output, even by my standards! I'm prompted to start blathering again by a flurry of activity over the last few days.

First and formost, my dad built us this rather spiffy raised bed. Good innit? Roughly 2m by 1m, it should mean some actual decent edible output his year. I've got peas already going on a window sill and am hatching plots for beans, kale, plenty of interesting salad, and a smattering of whatever else I have lurking in my seed box. We filled it up with compost and horse shit, and I've watered it in so I'm just giving it a few days to settle before it starts sprouting cloches that look remarkably like plastic bottles. Looking forward to seeing what it brings us this year.

Garden Log - August 2013

Shock horror. A garden log posted in the month that's being written about! You may not see this again for some time...

Everything is looking and smelling fab this month, but there is a definite sense of things reaching a peak and winding down. The ornamental stuff has, for the most part, done better than I could have hoped. The veg on the other hand has been somewhat disappointing. A few strawberries earlier on in the year, and I'm getting a few courgettes and a bit of salad, but still no tomatoes. They're on the plant, but taking forever to ripen. I suspect this is probably down to the soil being a bit crap and nutrient starved. I've been reading about how last years constant deluge will have washed everything out of the soil so I'll have to take some steps to address this once things have died back a bit. My compost heap appears to be doing well, so I should have a good load of mulch to stick down, and the missus and I have been discussing building a raised veg bed in the border under the kitchen window which will allow me to import some good top soil and horse shit. None of this can hurt even if it doesn't improve things (which I doubt will be the case) so we shall see.

Without further ado, here are some pictures!

 

A Week In The Middle Of Nowhere

We're just back from a week in a lovely cottage small holding in the Cardigan Bay area of Wales with my dad, and my sister and her better half. The cottage, very kindly lent to us for a week by some friends of my dad, is pretty much in the middle of nowhere with very few other houses around and, even better still, no mobile signal. The Internet was also pretty patchy (as in it only seemed to work at about 6 in the morning), but that was a good thing for the most part. A week of enforced digital detox was pretty damn good! Days spent reading actual paper books and doing a bit of wood gathering, and nights spent either barbecuing and sitting around a bonfire, or gathering together to eat on the picnic benches outside the kitchen. I could really get used to living like that...

NGS Garden Visit - Washington Old Hall

What better to do with another fine weekend but partake in a spot of garden visiting? Even better is a garden that is free to enter, but had a NGS plant stall, and a very reasonably priced tea shop with a fabulous selection of cake. Just the job. The Intrepid baby, my sister, and I felt it was too good to resist.

The Rogue Asparagus

Earlier this year, in a fit of uneducated and ill advised enthusiasm,  I planted 6 asparagus roots. Cue at this point, months of deluge during which the shady corner of the garden where I had put them turned into a mini pond. I had completely given up on them, assuming that they'd rotted in the ground and that part of the garden had been re-purposed from veg to general planting.

Amongst this planting I had spotted a sort of wispy, ferny growth which I hadn't really investigated and had left there simply because it looked quite pretty. I had vaguely thought that it might be something to do with the potted fennel plant that was sited nearby as they had the same sort of fine, feathery foliage. (accidental alliteration anyone?).

Imagine my surprise when watching last nights Gardeners' World to see Monty talking about cutting back and mulching this self same plant, and identifying it as asparagus! Yet another example of the truly incredible resilience of plants, and their amazing will to stay alive. Fingers crossed that it will survive and, in a couple years, possibly even supply us with some of my favourite veg.