What a Sow and Sow - February.

Hello there, before I begin here is my usual greeting at the start of all my posts, just incase this is your first visit, so best wishes to everybody as we are once again in lockdown and hope you are coping well physically and mentally.

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Right it's January 18th today and, as is the norm, I'm not getting up to much outside in the garden. Having said that I have begun some work in the polytunnel which is adding fresh compost in a couple of places. I also gave my compost 'daleks' a bit of a turning but if you have seen my recent super professional, 🤣 ,YouTube video you'll know I explained my plan of making two compost bays out of pallets. I really would like to get these made as soon as possible; Jon has access to as many pallets as we need so we can hopefully get this done by the beginning of next month.

Ok, seeds. These are the things we like to eat and that I hope to grow this year!

I may sow some Early Nantes carrots in the polytunnel in a container this month. However next month will begin the main sowing dates. As I said in my last post I'll be following advice from Charles Dowding and my polytunnel book; I've decided to keep sowing, keep sowing this year to make sure I have no gaps in the polytunnel or outside in the beds. I'm sometimes worried about wasting seeds but I often put things outside the front door in our egg house for people to help themselves to and hopefully I'll still be able to do that again should I still have some spare seedlings. During the first lockdown I enjoyed swapping lots of things, including plants, via our community Facebook page. 

Right February will begin with the following: (MS stands for multi-sow)

Turnips (MS) Purple Top Milan, the classic variety.

Spring Onions (MS) Ishikura, a mild flavoured bunching variety.

Khol Rabi Delicacy Purple tasting similar to stems of broccoli which I love in soups or stir fry.

Cabbage Greyhound, an early variety with pointy heads to harvest  from June/July.

Cauliflower All The Year Round, such a versatile seed.

Broccoli Matsuri F1 which is a compact variety, may be easier to protect from pests.

Aubergines Black Beauty which I'm trying really hard with as never been successful and so want my own ratatouille!

Salad leaves of various sorts, whatever takes my fancy really and these will go direct into the polytunnel near the door again so they don't get to hot.

Peppers including a Romano red one and one called Etiuda Orange, possibly a third that I may have ordered - more of that later.

Basil Red Leaved which is so very tasty and Sweet Green as it never fails.

I have some herbs in pots in the polytunnel ready to plant out when the weather is right.

Tomatoes are something I'm determined to keep improving on after last year's better efforts - 

Maskotka a bush variety to grow in pots, some outside and in the polytunnel.

ILDI F1 a lovely, small yellow plum type needing some support.

Marmande which are a large, fleshy, late maturing bush variety.

Big Mama Plum Large are good for soups, sauce and salsa - these I hope to have a go at bottling if I get enough!

Tumbling Toms which are not frost hardy so will be in hanging containers in the polytunnel.

Maghrebi are a fleshy, blight resistant variety.

Should be something to suit everybody out of that little lot.

In pots, not sure of the name but red, I have 60 sets in the poly house. Of those 20 are looking good but not so sure about the others. Here comes the order issues, I received an email the other day saying my order of Vulcan Spring planting onions are on their way! I don't remember ordering them but they may be a replacement as I've had a few issues with orders recently! Some space will have to be found for them along with something else. My seed spud order came but only half of it was right. I expected a 1st and 2nd early order but got the first and then some maincrop ones. I'd decided not to grow the latter as I just don't have room for the plants when they get to the full size and they are the only things I really like to rotate and that doesn't work well for me - where they'll go I don't know, probably growing bags as I do luckily have some of those in the poly house.

The MS items are the only things I will have tried this method with so far along with the leeks I'm still harvesting and we're really enjoying those in soups and pies just now.

Still on the subject of orders, I have coming in the next month or two Rhubarb crowns of  Temperley, an early harvesting variety and I'm also very excited about establishing an asparagus bed so have three crowns of Mondeo variety arriving in March - work to be done on the bed for those.

Flower wise I'll sow some marigolds to pop in between the tomatoes plus they look pretty. I have annuals outside the poly house and various perenials and others in the planters outside the Airbnb rooms.(Funny describing them as such seeing as we're not intending to take any guests throughout 2021.)

So that is my plan for February so far, quite a lot of work but I'm really looking forward to it. The weather here in Wales is quite wet and miz right now and I'm only inclined to get outside if the sun is shining a little bit, guilting me to get my wellies on and so something! I love it when I get out there, though, and here's why.

I'll keep you up to date when I get started but would also love to know if you are growing something for the first time and how you get on with it.

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx

 

Projects, plants and progress.

Hello!

Before I start I hope everybody is still staying safe. Thing seem to be changing quite rapidly in the outside world just now - not really affecting us to the point that I sometimes don't know what the new rules are as I don't intend to do anything much changed since lockdown began. However, thinking of everybody as people start to get used to the new normal in whatever part of the country you find yourself and in whatever form it is found.

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Today is Sunday. It's blowing a bit of a hooley out there just now but this is the view that greeted me at the cellar back door this morning.

I have a list of things to do but a lot of them are outside jobs and that is why I'm ducking out of most of them today, to do with what I'm posting about just now. I have however planted out the two dahlias which came as my fab swap for a bag of unwanted brown rice and my first time multi-sown leeks a la Charles Dowding but I am done with the wind now.

First thing yesterday I took a look in the veg beds and came inside with some Arran Pilot first early spuds which we had for lunch with mint from the garden, some herbs, salad leaves and radish, Pinks flowers and a couple of eggs. As it was Saturday I fetched one of my loaves up from the cellar freezer; we tend to use my bread as the family prefer sliced bread in the week with mine delish with our own eggs and butties for brekky on the weekend!

My handy hubby completed a job we've been talking about for a while. It got done because he'd already started an improvement job on our septic tank soakaway and, because he needed materials for that, he brought home what was needed for the other job more close to my heart. Have to say chuffed with our two boys as they have helped with the job by doing some digging of the trench during the week - not fun for them but definitely went towards some well earned pocket money.

Job number two was finishing the path in the poly tunnel and making the outside a little more presentable, along with stopping it getting swamped due to being at the bottom of the garden on an ever so slight slope!

I won't provide you with photos of the septic tank job😁... but here is the poly tunnel before and after.

I can't WAIT to pitch my pink and blue stool outside and enjoy my little patch of paradise, check on jobs to be done, feel chuffed with myself when things go well or commiserate with when they don't quite come off as I had expected! - pretty much a reflection of life in general. I do hope gardening is still helping you keep mentally healthy and giving you the chance to get outside in the fresh air, between the rain showers.

As we looked around the garden yesterday we talked about other projects and plans we have. We don't plan on having any Airbnb guests staying with us until 2021 so will take the time to get stuff done! Our calendar is blocked off and we don't anticipate welcoming any new guests before next February. I recieved this from a previous guest just this week in the form of a post card via Airbnb - 

Hi Louise,

I was really looking forward to coming back to Ystrad Meurig to stay with you again (during the Eisteddfod) but hopefully we can do so next year. I spent the wet winter recalling my daily cycle rides during the hottest week of July. Fantastic! I hope you’ve all be managing during the lockdown and have stayed well. Let’s hope some kind of normality returns soon! Best wishes, Neil.

So very, very kind. Apparently guests have asked for ways to send support to their favourite hosts.

Now please don't be offended by the next photo. This is the frame of my beloved poly house built by my husband not long after we moved here. It has been through two covering projects but the last one we decided was THE last one as far as polythene goes. So here is the poly house as is now....😒

We have a separate job to be done first, this summer with all things crossed for its completion, which will allow us to do this one pretty much for free - always good! That job is a new roof on the conservatory. I am not a fan of conservatories in general, however on wet days I can dry clothes, dry herbs, garlic as I am just now, there is a pool table in there, it works as a boot room and we have the door we use to come into the house - anybody else not use their front door apart from for some guests, the post and other deliveries?

This is the conservatory, taken from the garden.

So, the process will be to clad up the sides of the poly house to a total of about three feet then take the Perspex - like material off the roof of the conservatory to add to the roof and sides. This will be fantastic as right now I don't have a potting shed/ building in the garden to do bits and pieces in and have to wait for good weather to use my outside bench.

Regarding the conservatory, once the Perspex roof is off it will have boarding and waterproofing etc topped off with some FREE tiles we have had "in stock" for a good while; the sides will also be clad with room left for a window on each side, too; this will make the room more usable all year round.

As we wandered around the garden yesterday I took a look at a few things and some photos. The sweetcorn is now just over 2ft tall. It's doing better than a couple of years ago because of me planting it in the same spot as the very first year I grew it - outside the poly house where it gets great sunshine.

I did a plant swap a while ago and one thing I was given was a pumpkin; not sure of the variety but I do know it is white! I've been thinking where I can plant it so it has enough space. I've decided to put it toward the back left as you look at the poly tunnel. 

I took a quick look in one of my compost bins and I hate the sight which greeted me. Rather stupidly I put some rogue spuds out of the veg beds in there and look what happened?!! I could really kick myself as I am going to have to pull them all out when I give the bin a turning over.😖 REALLY mad with myself.

Whilst meandering we talked about the trees in the garden. The previous owners planted a LOT of trees during their time at the house, but as we've gone on to do different things with the outside space they need taking back and even removing.

This tree is just enormous and will need some work as it worries us at time when we have had some really windy weather that it made head toward the house!

Then this collection, including a couple on the left of the photo, over shadow the poly tunnel a little so will need some work.

So onto today, I went to feed the chooks and had a look at any wind damage from over night - not too bad; I had to re-stake the broccoli netting and saw that the maincrop spuds in the tyres had taken a bit of a battering but I'm sure they'll survive. 

These next photos show one of my cucumber plants, teeny tiny cucumber just now?! plus some I've sown to grow outside which I might need if the ones in the poly tunnel don't buck up their ideas!

Here are the PSB which I've potted on until their final resting place is ready. The caulis in the bed behind the poly house are looking very healthy. Keeping an eye on them in case they need to be netted.

These are a very welcome sight, my dwarf beans in the poly tunnel. Earlier in the week I was having a bit of a panic as some of the beans seemed to be going mouldy; this I am certain was due to me not ventilating the poly tunnel enough - rookie mistake with being a first time poly tunnel owner. Things seem to be improving which is great.

These two photos are of opposite sides of the poly tunnel, gaps which I really need to do something about. On the left is a solitary aubergine, next to the fig tree, which I think is really struggling. On the right to the right of the planter housing a butternut squash Butterbush are three pepper plants which, again, are struggling. I did use the plastic bottles as mini greenhouses and they seemed to help a bit; I think we need a bit more warm weather to help these plants along a bit. 

So, I think that covers everything for now. Please do accept my apologies for the ever changing colours and typeface, just getting used to a faitly new laptop... 😒

#Staysafe, look after yoursleves and bye for now.

Lou.xx

How Are You All Diddling?

Hi!

Its been just over two weeks since my last confession blog post! A lot has happened at home and in the outside world, too.

Here in Wales the schools have said they will open on June 29; my boys may not be going back until later in the proceedings or at all; we just don't know which children are going to go back in first. I think it would make more sense for the vulnerable ones to go and catch up with their teachers along with those choosing options and the ones who were expected to take their exams this year. Fortunately, neither of our boys fit into any of those categories and a lot can change from now until then as shown by the English primary schools no longer opening before the summer holidays.

Ooh, just have to say I am typing this post on my new laptop as the other one went caput at the weekend. It is lovely!!

Anyhow, where was I? 

Yes, changes in the outside world. With restrictions being lifted in England, which is all the 
P M talks about and pretty much ignores the rest of the UK, Wales has had some unwelcome visitors in various locations, there have been openings of certain places for the public to visit and some rules have been put in place for seeing family and friends. 

To be honest, we are not changing any of our habits really; I'm still happy to stay close to home generally. I remember thinking that when we get back to a sort of new normal people will have to be different, live their lives in a changed way with an altered mindset because of how we have been forced to live. However it doesn't seem to me that people are willing to "pause the system" as it is sometimes described. Seeing the queues a mile long and more  just for people to get a McDonald's takeaway does not fill me with hope that people have considered what they can or cannot really do without in the grand scheme of things.

Aaaaanyway, onto here at home and our little patch of paradise.

We've had a mixed bag of weather over the last couple of weeks - sunshine, showers, wind, hail! - which in the most part for our sowing and growing has helped bring on things which have been planted outside as well as those in the poly tunnel. I can't believe how different it looks. The first photo is me planting up the dwarf beans on May 9th and then today which is just about five weeks after that!

There are still trays and pots of things waiting to be potted on and planted inside and out.

These include more dwarf beans and peas, cabbages, PSB and peppers.

In the outside beds and tyres edibles including the courgettes, sweetcorn and broccoli are all coming along nicely, as are most of the potatoes.  

I've chosen not to make public the Heath Robinson-esque netted frame I have over the broccoli! 

We've been eating lots of salad leaves and had our first radishes this week. 

The carrots are looking healthy although Wednesday was meant to be the June day for last sowing but the weather was not too clever then, or for the rest of the week it seems, but hope to get those in by the weekend. (Not bothering with a photo as not too clear.) Recent new sowings have included radishes, khol rabi, marigolds, chives and garlic chives, parlsey plus two varieties of basil. I've planted out caulis, an established khol rabi I was given and potted on peppers.

In the poly tunnel I've been pinching out the tomatoes in the mornings, supposed to be the best time to do it, and there are flowers on the four biggest plants; I have some nettle feed soaking so when I sieve that next week I'll feed them with it, will need a mask for that! 

The peas, even though they're a dwarf variety, need supporting so held them up with some hazel sticks. The third and final kale plant has been put in as well as an aubergine; the whole of the poly tunnel is coming on really well and I just can't wait to see how it looks at the end of this month.

The onions are so close to coming up; 

needed to use one the other day, the top of which had completely fallen over. Can't wait to get the cabbage in here but need to sort our some netting to keep off the retched cabbage whites!

At the weekend we unfortunately lost the smallest of the orphan lambs we've been looking after. To be honest it was not right or well from the start, struggled to take any milk, had an issue with its back and front legs, seemed to have a couple of fits towards the end and we even think it may have been brain damaged. He spent his last hours, luckily, laying in the sun with the sound of the chooks in the back ground and drifted off to somewhere without pain we hope.

Today a lovely thing happened. I met a friend who lives about 20 minutes away from me; she was going to Tregaron to fetch a prescription so we socially distanced and had a lovely chat! She brought me some PSB and perpetual spinach - love that - which is now in the bed with the cauli,

and I swapped with a Jerusalem artichoke! 

I just HAVE to show you the fig tree now it has been in the poly tunnel a few weeks. I'm sooo chuffed it's doing this well!

So, I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings, but more importantly that you are all keeping well and safe but seeing family and friends when it is safe to do so. 

Bye for now, Lou.xx

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