Spud Campaign 2017 Begins, And Other Stuff.

Good afternoon!

My last post was Monday so I have a bit to catch up on; you might want to get a brew before you sit down to this one!

On Tuesday I had a day in the house baking bread loaves and rolls, cheese scones and cherry oat bake along with a bit of tidying up and bed changing.

In the Poly House on Wednesday it was 26 degrees so I enjoyed sowing some seeds; Jon loves gherkins and I want them to pickle and also put a few more beetroot seeds in to fill some gaps where some had not taken. I also gave the house a bit of a sweep out and tidy up, don't like working in a mess, and outside I beefed up the compost in the sink ready for some more sowing next week. I picked up some more stones in the fruit patch, this is a continual job, and when Jon came home he helped me plant a couple of the raspberry canes and dug the holes ready for me to put in the rest of them. Away from the garden I got round to vacuuming the last remnants of straw from my car and found time to take a walk. (News of my slimming efforts shortly.)

Thursday I sowed carrot seeds in a big pot, hoed the small stones around the onions and raked the duck enclosure to tidy that up a little. 

Now Friday was a heck of a day!

It was the Area Eisteddfod at Tregaron and we had to leave in time to pop to school then be at the venue for just before 9am; I have learned so took a packed lunch for me as well as the boys.

For about two seconds I always think I can be doing something more with my time when I set off for these events, but then I always love them. The boys took part in individual categories for Welsh Learners but also were in the choir made up of both Welsh speakers and learners. My boys both won places, Harry first for his individual recital and Alfie second for his. #proudaspunch!

They were both entered in an Ymgom which is a dramatic acting piece along with two other Welsh learners and were placed first. The choir I think came second and then there were places for some of the girls singing a duet, oh too many to remember. It was just a fantastic day and now some of the children, including Harry I think, will go on to the next eisteddfod which is next weekend, I think. At the end of everything there was a vote of thanks and the Welsh national anthem was sung. I couldn't help thinking that if you asked most English children to stand up and sing the national anthem you would get a "what?" response. The whole event does SO much for the confidence of the children and they deserve all the success for the hard work every one of them puts into the practice in and after school. Yes, I am beaming!

Saturday we didn't do too much in the morning as the weather was pants, then we headed to Aber for the food shop, Alfie to Stage School and new school shoes for Harry. Jon and Harry did pop into Craft and came out with a couple of goodies. I've been looking for a retro magazine rack for ages and hey presto look here, along with a chrome chicken for collecting the eggs.

A few house chores in the afternoon, wood burner lit and that was about it.

This morning we thought the rain may come again so we headed out straight after breakfast to make the most of the dry weather. It was great; a little blustery but not too cold. I planted the first of my seed potatoes - Arran Pilot spuds which are first earlies as well as some main crop called Salad Blues kindly sent to me by Tracy at Our Smallholding Adventure - pop over and take a look at all they are getting up to if you haven't already.

Alfie helped me quite a lot and he put the spuds in the ground once I had forked over the tyres and he had taken out some more stones.

We planted four spuds in each of two tyres; the tyres are just over three foot across and at least a food deep, but as the soil goes right to the edges I figure that four seed potatoes would have the room to grow. (Crossing my fingers as you read this.)

The Salad Blues are in growing bags, one in each, and Alfie helped by putting a sprinkling of blood and bone meal into the bags

 and putting the potatoes in each of the bags followed by a marker.

The spud campaign will continue in a week or so. I am also waiting for sweet potato slips to be delivered, although we all know they are not strictly a potato, and they will be put in growing bags, too.

Whilst Alfie was helping me Harry was with Jon working, again, the fruit patch. More roots of heaven only knows what taken out and dug over to remove more stones!

Our little fruit patch is coming on a treat; we have three trees in, including the couple we bought the other weekend, along with the raspberry canes and we are looking for another couple of trees and have the other soft fruits to go in which I hope to get in this coming week, providing my back holds out.

However, the spot to the left of the stony area you can see just on the right is now going to be the site of a raised bed. We thought of a greenhouse if we could come across one for free or very cheap, then Jon was going to build me an aluminium-framed one but we decided we could do with just a little bit more ground space instead. The soil, with a bit of work and additional compost, should be ok for something robust like sweede so, yet again, I am having to adapt my plans! All to the good, though.

Jon and Alfie had noticed the polythene had come away on a part of the roof of the Poly House so Jon and Harry fixed that.

The poultry palaces were given new name plates today!

I forgot to mention that Jon has built the base of the cold frame to go over the strawberry patch to hopefully improve yield for this year; just got the polythene to put on now.

Right, I think that really is everything, for now. 

Jon and I constantly sit and look out of the top kitchen feeling very proud of how the garden is now looking, after all the hard work it has taken. We are very lucky we have access to the wood from the sawmill as it would have taken a lot longer if we'd needed to buy more of the materials.

Going to have a brew now and plan my new veg patch. Eeeek!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx