Bank Holiday Weekend Work.

Good morning.

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I'm going to start off by saying that I absolutely love living in such a rural place but it can be challenging at times regarding the circle of life. We all need to make sure we are keeping to rules and regulations and respect everything around us.

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Hi everybody, how did you get on over the Bank Holiday? Obviously another strange one but didn't stop a lot of us getting outside I am sure. However, I started off the weekend on Saturday by catching up with Gardener's World - lovely start to the day but still a little sad not seeing Nigel. I decided to do a bit of planning for work in the garden so I knew what needed doing for the next few weeks. Love doing that, makes it very exciting knowing what it coming up, in more than one sense of the word!

Sunday was a great day outside. I planted kale in the poly tunnel and broccoli outside. 

The broccoli are the plants in the middle of the bed (radishes at the far end and courgettes closest in the photo). They will have a frame to protect them as I've never managed to grow it without getting eaten by something other than us! We're utilising this which was over the bed behind the poly house and our eldest and I made a good start but just needs the netting putting on it now.

I did some potting on outside the poly tunnel in the sunshine.

This involved cabbages Greyhound, a Black Beauty aubergine (always have trouble germinating those but keep trying) and a sunflower to hopefully have outside the tunnel if the lambs don't eat it!! Oh and what I think is the last tomato plant.

The eldest also helped me put up my bunting in the tunnel, need a little girly-ness in there.

I have now moved the Brown Turkey fig tree into the poly tunnel and it is going great guns already. 

A couple of other jobs included earthing up the first early spuds; these look to be recovering from the frost damage with plenty of new growth showing.

I've been saving woodash from the Rayburn and read somewhere that it is good for onions when they start bulbing so I'm giving it a go - can't do any harm.

Finally I cut back the oregano in the herb sink and it is now drying nicely in the conservatory and will be added to our box of herbs in the kitchen; 

this is something I really want to keep doing when I can this year. It was the last job of a really satisfying day and the best thing was we had another day to do it all again!

Yesterday morning, after a lovely brekky of scrammbled eggs, I set to deciding on the jobs for the day. These were partly helped by watching the latest YouTube video by Kev here at An English Homestead; he gave us a great tour of his garden and poly tunnel and I took a few hints and tips along the way. 

I got outside and sowed the following:

Dwarf Bean Speedy in a tray of 15 cells

Dwarf Pea Hurst Green Shaft the same

Beetroot Bolthardy, again in a tray of cells 

These have gone, along with a pot of Sweet Basil, into the poly tunnel so I can pick them at the same time as salad leaves.

The bed shown here is from where we took the old frame to use for the broccoli protection. It was going to be for parsnips but I've changed my mind. I found a number of weeds that seemed to have something like rizehomes but it wasn't the dreaded ground elder as far as I could tell. Anyhow, it is all prepared as I covered it over with cardboard, which I luckily still had, and then covered in fresh compost no dig style. I'll add some more when I get it but this bed is now going to be for cabbage or cauli, not decided which yet. 

I'd already started putting down cardboard around it so hopefully nothing nasty will get in.

My tunnel is coming along well but there are still has a few spaces as, obviously, I'm starting from nothing so don't have a full year of sowing and growing happening. 

Here is a butternut squash Spaghetti given to me by a friend. Funny, she says mine is doing better than hers!

However, I'm chuffed how things are working out but we did have a little visit from a mole the other day - I check today and all seems well, fingers crossed.

This year I am sooo late with my sweet peas but have a few called Bright and Breezy that germinated. I planted up three in a fairly big pot plus wigwam then in the top of the herb loo I've put a couple to brighten up the poly house area. The only other things I potted on yesterday were half a dozen All The Year Round cauli.

We're still feeding the youngest of the lambs who is really taking time to bulk up but I fed him a good 400ml of Lamlac this morning which is great.

After we came in from the garden I did some of my papercrafting. I've just started on my second junk journal. I think you can tell I love the vintage look and feel of things when I'm in a creative mode. I love finding anything from old sheet music and magazines, old adverts, books, paper, letters, labels, stickers, you get the idea. So... should you come across anything like this you know to give me a shout.😀

Ok, time to get on, after one more cup of tea. Not a lot on the agenda today but maybe a little bit of baking later on and deciding what will be on the menu for today and the rest of the week.

Hope you enjoyed the Bank Holiday and that you are just keeping on keeping on and managing mentally. With restrictions starting to change here as well as things in the news I've been feeling rather anxious. I've had to delete my Facebook feed since the weekend as too much negativity going on that is affecting my anxiety, plus I've muted some things from Twitter for the same reasons. Here, we are just concentrating on simply staying home and staying safe so I hope you are doing what ever you need to do wherever you are.

Bye for now,

Lou.xx

Post-Frost Sowing and Growing.

Hello everybody, how are you all doing? It is ok not to be ok so hopefully help is there for when you might have a bit of a wobble; I know all about that but managing ok just now.

We are about to enter week eight of lockdown and here in Wales we are keeping to the #stayhomesavelives rule. Our lockdown will be reviewed in a weeks time. We're allowed to exercise outside for more than one hour a day and some garden centres are re-opening but not the one we use. All that is just fine by us; to be honest the only thing I had been lacking for outside was compost for the poly tunnel but we had a delivery plus our click and collect with feed for the chickens; could still do with a bit more for sowing and potting on but using some I put in a tyre for planting out which, in the meantime, I've decided not to do.

Talking of the poly tunnel I've got lots of jobs done since my last post; I've been sharing some progress on Instagram and Twitter but I like it when I can see before and after photos here; I hope you enjoy them along with my ramblings. Before my photos this is the cover of a book very kindly sent to me by the wonderful Rural and Rustic which is Maryline.

I do hope my tunnel looks close to something like this in the future. Maryline writes some beautifully insightful posts about nature, the seasons and all manner of lovely stuff on her social media accounts.

There was an incident where one of the lambs got in the tunnel as I'd failed to shut the door properly so..... I went charging down to the bottom of the garden howling like a banshee when I saw it just inside telling it to get out! When I apologised if he had heard my slightly blue language, my neighbour said he was quite impressed at my level of reserve! The damage could have been a lot worse and to guard against this happening again Jon has put up this cargo netting and it works a treat as I can comfortably have my back to the door without worry about intruders.

Something else new in the tunnel is my digital thermometer. Very excited to have this handy little tool; this was taken about 11am today, Sunday.

So from inside the tunnel I've made a little video; silent as a) I'm not keen on my voice when it is recorded and b) I don't know how to do it easily and for free. You can find that Tracy over at Our Smallholding Adventure has a great new YouTube channel so do try and find the time to take a look. Maybe I should ask her for some help - chic? 

Here goes.

A quick guide to go with it from left to right. We have Perpetual Spinach which I love in stir fry and salads, Rainbow Chard, a sorrel plant - a minor casualty of the sheep,

spring onions, beetroot then I've sown Snowball turnips followed by Wild Rocket. There is a gap, not sure what for yet, maybe an aubergine plant then you see the tomatoes; various varieties including Black Russian, Gardener's Delight, a yellow plum, Marmande and Maskotka; a couple of the plants were given to be by a friend. 

The dwarf beans in the corner are one of our most used things I grow so I have a good number of those before you get to the strawberry plants which are looking quite healthy 

- I moved a couple from a crate outside to fill the space. In the far corner I have two squash plants - one grown by me which is Butterbush meant for a container so thought it would be good space wise for indoors along with a Vegetable Spaghetti from the same tomato friend. 

Down the right hand side we have dwarf peas; I love dwarf varieties as I find them easier to take care of than towering wigwams, call me lazy but... I've planted three cucumbers - maybe a bit close but I'm just going with the flow in the tunnel being my first year; same thing could be said for the dwarf beans and tomatoes but what the heck! Another space just now followed by red and green lettuce which is something I manage to grow sooooo easily, inside or out, and there are a couple of rows of sown Mazur lettuce for another variety of salad leaves. 

There are leeks in trays not ready to go out yet-

never been successful with leeks so fingers crossed.

Kale is something I failed with last year but these plants I think will go in the bed of the poly house/gazebo when ready; love Kale, nobody else does really so that will be a freezer item.

Another of the minor casualties of the sheep incident was a couple of broccoli plants. These are not ready to plant out but will go in bed number 2, far left of the growing area, when they are a bigger.

Now to outside. During last week we had a couple of cold nights leading to some slight frost damage on my first early spuds.

I used some old hessian, coffee sacks to cover over and it was quite surprising the warmth I could feel underneath when I removed them. Growers of their own are breathing a sigh of relief, hopefully, that the colder weather is now over and I know lots of us are itching to get planting, inside and out.

I mentioned the red and green lettuce before and I have it growing in my old sink along with spring onions. 

Again, I haven't had lots of luck with onions before but some of those sown as done as here using the Charles Dowding multi-sow method.

Blueberry plants, mediterranean herbs and more dwarf peas coming along nicely; the first lot hopefully for a good FIRST fruiting and harvest!

You can see to the left of this planter that I've put down cardboard and some mulch to keep the weeds at bay. Seems to be working and I'm trying to do this in as many areas of the garden as I can.

The onion and garlic bed, considering we had a bit of shaky start regarding the planting (the rain kept bringing the sets to the top), is doing well. However, the onion bulbs don't look that big just now but plenty of time for both them and the garlic.

I've been asking for help on Twitter this morning as I've had problems identifying if my parsnips are growing; I'm now certain which greenery were interlopers and which are the plants so may re-sow, thanks for the advice.

The two courgettes I've planted outside in bed two are one Tondo di Piacenza and a Goldena, seen here already with a couple of budding fruit!

I thought I'd share my not-too-often-flowering lilac bush as it was blowing beautifully in the breeze as I was walking around the garden this morning.

Right, I think I've rambled on enough and hope you've enjoyed my little tour.

I really hope my first year with the poly tunnel is somewhat of a success, but know I'll be learning along and just giving stuff a go! With the current situation the garden is such a wonderful place to escape to, in all weathers. I really hope in the future that I'll be able to provide more food for our family, leading to us not being so reliant on supermarkets as people have found themselves during the lockdown.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Poly Tunnel Pleasure and other stuff!

Hello all.

How is everybody doing? I hope you are coping but if not it's ok to have a wobble now and then, take it from one who knows!

I have to be honest that, in general, we're just keeping on trucking here on our little homestead. Jon is at work for now and I am still stay at home mum. Chatting to somebody on Twitter the other day I explained how I don't have the connections which are normally provided by our Canolfan close to the house. The activities, like the regular coffee mornings and lunches I normally attend, have been put on hold but right now but I'm more than happy to shut the door behind me and stay home after any necessary visits.

I read a blog post here about home by the wonderful Rebecca at Fforest Hill, that is well worth a read when you have a moment, which most of us do at some point just now. It talks about where and what home means to you.

Obviously things are different in a way for the boys; they are coping with the school work really well in general and when that's over for the day they still have their jobs to do around the place; they still want their pocket money so it has to be earned by things like fixing fences, storing logs for winter and helping tidy the garden.

In another admission we are loving actual lockdown. Tracy at Our Smallholding Adventure and I have talked about this a lot over the weeks. Although she is a total super woman, as in a lot of households, where she is having to work from home, manage her animals, keep up with home schooling whilst looking after the children and Steve, she is enjoying the way we have been forced to live just now, too. However using the word 'forced' implies it is a chore and I have to be honest, again, I (we) don't see it that way.

We're still using shops closer to home, more so than travelling to major supermarkets, including the butcher and fruit n veg cabin both just eight miles away. We've plans to continue making a monthly visit to the wholesalers for dried goods but we're baking and making in the kitchen and getting on with growing our own as well as we can, which brings me on to the big even of recent weeks...

We've lived here in Wales for just over 4 and a half years, crikey are those numbers right? Ever since being settled I've wanted a poly tunnel (PT); I was very lucky to have Jon build me a wonderful poly house not long after we moved here. It's been fantastic and will continue to be once it is re-covered because at the moment it's masquerading as a gazebo!

Anyhow, the PT arrived last Tuesday so after tea with the help of the boys we had the frame put together without too much trouble.

I did help but was also chief photographer, obvs!

On the Wednesday night the whole gang were outside again - soooo thankful for good weather at that time, we measured out and made up the lengths of wood for the beds.

We, do you like the royal we, put in the steaks REALLY far down so the frame could be drilled and attached to them; this sucker is going NOWHERE!

On Thursday we put the cover on and that was, surprisingly, not that difficult.

I've ordered a massive bag of compost which will be here on Thursday, squuueal, and this will mean we can put a really thick layer on top of the manure; hope it comes in the morning then me and the boys can get it done. In the meantime I'm getting used to the space so have moved all my sowings and growings in there; still trying to figure out where planting out will go but sowing like a mad woman at the same time, Maryline at Rural and Rustic shares this way of thinking with me, so when the time comes I will be raring to go! 

I made this little video the other day showing of the seedlings etc that I have in there just now. As ever, I apologise for my voice as I sooo dislike it.

In the last few days we have, thankfully, had a bit of rain after some wonderful sun and the first early spuds are really coming on. The first photo here was April 20th...

and here is the same tyre on the 29th.

I was too impatient the other day and, seeing as I had to go out for chicken feed, I decided I couldn't wait for the compost delivery to finish a little project. This bed is in the far right corner of the growing area. I have trouble as things are in the habit of popping up in the middle of it. I properly took the Charles Dowding approach with it and covered it with cardboard and then a really good layer of compost. 

I suppose I was a bit silly planting the raspberry canes where I did but there you go. I'll be planting through the cardboard at the left hand end with butternut squash and dwarf beans at the right hand end. The seeds sown for the squash were those that can grow in a container but it can't hurt to plant them outside.

Back to the 2020 spud campaign, always a source of worry for me like most things in the garden! I began by planting some of the maincrop in our two massive tyres and the rest are going in the top end of the main veg bed, see photo, where the onions were last year. I always forget just how much space they need so have to be careful how far up the bed this year.

Well, today is Friday and the weekend is upon us. Weather is set to be a bit wet but we hope for some sun in between as Jon and the boys have fencing to do and I'd like to get some work done outside. 

Late edit I've been working on a craft project for ages and finally finished it. My 13yr old son put the music on the background for me, I know! 

So take a look at my Vintage Junk Journal Reveal here. 

Best wishes for a lovely weekend, under the circumstances, stay safe and well and we'll see what the next week brings us.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx