Hic!

Well Christmas is gradually fading away for another year, Santa + friends gave me a wonderful selection of amazing books about carpentry, gardening (and most importantly) cooking! I have the river cottage cookbook , and the Sarah Raven cookbook as well as the ultimate woodworking guide which will be fantastic for my greenhouse. The ideas in my head need to start being planned on paper.

I also have a gardening diary and a super gardeners trug for carrying all my tools and seeds, in addition to a couple of very useful gardeners DVDs. 'He' spoiled me rotten and got me lots of fun things too, one of which is a special bike computer which will tell me the time, temperature, speed and distance cycled (all very encouraging things), I haven't been on my bike for a few weeks so I suspect it'll be like starting all over again.

We spent Christmas in Yorkshire this year, my first ever Christmas away from family, and although strange it was very relaxing. We had glorious weather on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day and so Boxing Day we walked round some of the Bolton Abbey estate. It wasn't a garden as such but there was so much wildlife and we decided that we would plant a tree as soon as we got home to encourage wildlife into our garden - we think we'll go for a crab apple local to the area. When we got back I went straight out to the garden and all is in order, the water butt is very full and I have lots of digging over to be done, I think i might get some good rich farm manure to dig in before i start planting - heres to a great veg patch in 2009!

Its Christmas already!

The garden has been somewhat neglected again recently, shopping and visiting family has taken up the majority of daylight over the past few weekends, although i had a fascinating conversation with the man in the Holt bird ventures shop (well worth a visit) http://www.birdventures.co.uk/index.php is the website.

Have seen a blackbird in the garden!

Heres to a very good garden year in 2009

Shiny Happy People

I have been awarded an MSc with Distinction.
Thats about as good as it gets.

Snow falling down around me

Todays snow was a bit more impresive. Here is a picture of a cold but serene buddha and the back garden. Most of the snow is still here and it will make my cycle ride to work much more interesting tomorrow morning - I ave to go shopping on the way home as well so if it freezes it will be very good fun. I have told myself that if I fall off more than three times before I get to end of the road then I'll come back and take the car!

Here we snow here we snow here we snow......

Woke up this morning to the noise of snow, if you think about it you'll know the noise i mean, its more the absence of noise and the muffled phut of snow on the window. I was so excited by the gradual dissapearence of the garden the only option was to leap out of bed and take photos. I then decided that snow-cycling would be fun so I dragged 'him' out into the city on our bikes. The roads were ok, and there were only a couple of slippery bits. In fact the cars were generally having more problems than us. My main issue centred around the jeans i was wearing (wet and cold = no fun) and the snow showers made my bike seat wet as i was in the shops.

Still it was a very productive outing and I got to go to the butchers (sausages were a million times better) and the grocers, got two decent sized well balanced meals for two people for under £10. Also made me realise how much we'll save when we start getting veg out of the ground again.

Which leads me to my idea of snow gardening, i had quite a bit to do today outside and before going out decided that when i go back from the city I'd get on with it regardless of the white stuff.

Hmmm. That idea lasted about as long as the warm cup of hot chocolate in front of the fire!

We are not alone.....

Just because I am so impressed with myself I am posting a picture of my evenings hard work. In honour of WOrld GIS day 2008 tomorrow I have made my team at work a small fairy cake iced to look like the earth, they are rather cute but icing constraints on a cake an inch and a half accross did require some imagination. And patiance, the finished result loks a bit surreal!

Butt installed

The sun shone yesterday, so having bought the ingredients for dinner (anglian potatas, carrots and cauliflower with Irish beef) and made the casserole I felt I had earned some garden time. It took me a couple of hours to get the gutter up, downpipe fixed and a level platform for the water butt to stand on. I then found that I had to drill a 25mm hole in the water butt which I didn't have a bit for so hacksawed out instead. Looks good though :)



Then of course I had to test it and it works! I don't know how long it will take to fill up the butt, but I left enough space next to it so that we can expand if we need to. I've also decided on a design for the greenhouse/cold frame and I'm asking for timber for christmas to make that and the new internal fence for the veg patch; not to mention the anti butterfly frame for the brocoli. I WILL have purple broccoli and cauliflower next year!

Happiness Happening

I have spent the last two weeks getting on and off trains and spending more time in hotels than at home. This has been totally due to work and led to me missing the CPRE Green Awards event held at the Norwich Assembly Theatre last week, and my partners nephews 5th birthday party. Both worthy events which i was sad to miss and sending me deep into the doldrums.

Yesterday my very clever mum took me up to Sheringham to brush away the cobwebs whereupon I had the best fish and chips ever, looked around a proper ironmongers and bought my first Christmas present. Which reminded me how close to Christmas we are getting! We went out today to look for a box for me to put on my bike when I cycle to work so that I can get shopping on the way home without cripping my back, and we got lots of daffodils, narcissus and snowdrops from the garden centre. When we got back I spent a happy few hours pottering around the garden tidying up and planting some of the bulbs for a spring dispay. I would have planted all of them but I lost the light.

Which takes me to the happiness factor, having spent the last few hours surfing the internet to look for useful/beautiful things for people for christmas (influenced by william morris) I discovered a post which was entitled "5 things that make me happy" and after the last few weeks i think i managed to do many of my favourite things this weekend (in no orer of favourites!).

1. See the sea while eating fish and chips (Sheringham)
2. Play in my garden & ride my bike (two things but noth outside and shed connected!)
3. Read my eco magazine and find useful leads to solve problems (ike what to do with the 2 tonnes of earth we dug out of the garden)
4. See/Speak to almost all my family
5. Spend time with my lovely boyfriend

Then theres the things i didn't get to do but really enjoy, like cook up a storm, watch the stars, see a movie, drink with friends, read a book, sew, plan travels, have a campfire (bonfire), make a cake, go for a long cycle ride.....

Try it - make a list of 5 things which make you happy & do some of them, after all if 37.5 hours a week are spent at work, 42.5 if counting lunch breaks and there are 168 hours in a week - 75% of our week isn't spent at work.

Soup

Inspired by my sisters amazing butternut squash soup I decided that (as an aspiring domestic goddess) it would be nothing for me to whip up a soup and fresh bread for our saturday lunch. Its 2 o'clock an no sign of the bread yet but the soup is almost ready.

Its not quite as good as my sisters soup was, I think simmering the squash in the stock and then using it is better that my option of roasting the squash and then adding it to the stock afterwards. It does also have white wine added and i so often find that this can make this too sweet. The bread was an unmitigated disaster - It had a lovely crust but teh doughwas still dough in the middle. I had my suspicions while it was supposedly proving that the room wasn't warm enough to acivate the dough and it seems that was the case.

Next time i think i'll make a smaller amount and get a better temperature in the kitchen first. 'He' seems to be talking about a breadmaker but i think we need to make it by hand first. Next door makes all their own bread, and it smells fabulous. Although that is four hours of my life i'll never get back i'll know to go with instinct next time - both for the soup and teh bread!

Compost is coming along nicely - I've taken to getting some more paper in there as the mixture seems to be a bit mushy so far. I'm going to wrap it up over the winter to ensure that the bugs keep bugging (so to speak). Output from the waste free week ws just three meat trays and a coupld of plastic wrappers; we could have done better but only if we hadn't eaten pasta, rice, meat or fish. Or used milk, and quite honestly, life without tea isn't an option!

Waste Free Week!

This does deserve a mention, as I've already said since our compost bin arrived the amount of rubbish we put out has been cut dramatically. Additionally since I finished my MSc and started planning meals and weighing portions there aren't even any leftovers! I'm being a bit braver with best before dates as well, I bought some delicious reduced sushi from Sainsburys on Wednesday, and it was fine yesterday as a starter with my tuna pasta. I also used an egg today which was a day out of date - i did check it with the water method first however.

All in all I have had a good practice week - the polystyrene from meat and fish does bother me however. I haven't used plastic bags for veg at the shops for donkeys years - if i need potatoes and they are really dirty i'll get a mushroom bag (those can be composted).

Heres the best solution I've found to plastic bags, this is my onya above, I got it at the Eden project in the summer. For veg I'm asking for one of these from Santa fotr Christmas - Onya Weigh Check the onyaside and onyaback bags too. Such a brilliant idea :) Still doesn't solve the issue of those plastic trays (other than go vegetarian again). I have also (it being waste free week) decided to make some morsbags http://www.morsbags.com/ as I want to get started with my sewing machine and this seems the perfect way to recycle some worn out sheets.

Ride, ride, ride your bike

gently up the hill - merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream. Especially when speeding past all the cars waiting in the queues, and when i ride home over the hill and watch the sun set over norwich. I only started last week and so far have been rained on once and almost frozen twice, however I am appreciating being outside and enjoying the freedom of cycling. Work and back is about 8 miles round trip every day and I'm hoping that it will lead to me getting rid of the car completely.

The only issue at the moment is getting food shopping so I'm investigating a cycle trailer or home delivery once a fortnight for all the heavy goods, and looking at a freezer for better meat and food surplus storage. Trying to weigh up the 'green' credentials of each option. I think that green living could be my next 'project'!

The veg patch has well and truly gone to ground for the summer, I'll spend this weekend on the last of the clearing up and digging in some good fertiliser. Our compost bin is doing really well and the amount that we are putting in the wastebin has dropped massively - the plastic seems to be the big issue - especially with meat. Not entirely certain how we are going to get around this - a friendly butcher putting things in containers for us mught be the answer but contamination week on week does worry me a little. Suggestions would be very welcome. At the moment I'm saving the plastic trays for planting next season.

Heres a reminder of the summer sun(flowers);

Jam Jam Jam

Well this was fun - oh so much fun!

Our mum has a glut of apples, they have done really well this year and my enterprising sister has exchanged lots with various farm shops in exchange for fruit and veg (most places in Norwich I've asked will do this). There is however many pounds worth left over. I was bought the amazing SelfSufficientish bible as a present and in it was a recipe for apple jam. Our father used to make themost amazing jam and every autumn when we were little our kitchen was converted into a jam factory, he used to make jams and jellies from greengages, plums, damsons, and some funny little round green things whose name i've forgotten. Mum used to make buckets of peach melba sauce which is in fact made only from raspberries.

So wondering if jam making is gnetic, yesterday my little sis and I got down to the very messy business of making apple and ginger jam, we did 8lbs of fruit and ended up with about 10/11lbs of jam. It took two of us 4 hours from start to finish and I think we'll be trying other fruit. Next weekend I'd like to make some beetroot chutney, and i think we might plan the veg patch around what we can and can't preserve. Our cousin gets hundreds of plums and next year we'll pounce on them and jam them. It does take time and effort, and the jam sugar is about £1.50 a Kg (about 2lbs). We got about 20 jam covers from Roys for about a pound, although these could be bought cheaper in bulk i'm sure. The really wacky thing is the variety of pots we found, ex tomato juice glass jars are superb, as are beetroot pots.

We're doing waste free week this week but not entirely certain how to avoid the packaging which meat (even the hapy organic chicken) come in. Ideas welcome. Our compost bin is no up and running, just in time to put all the cleared veg plants in. Tasty though the squash was, we only got one HUGE butternut, and one little one, I think next year we'll just stick to one plant and not four - they take up serious room! A colleague of mine grew his squash up a vine & it was a much better use of space.

Take a look at Rocket Gardens whose web site is great and they will happily answer questions quickly and clearly. Its a brilliant idea, we don't have the room to get plants started propoerly but Rocket Gardens get the plants started in their greenhouses and harden them off for ready planting. We were going to get the winter veg garden but in fact I'm going to put some fertilizer in the ground and get the soil better prepared for early planting next year. We're in two minds are to where to plant the onion - in seperate troughs or in eth soil with eth other veg. 'Him' is worried about mould.

Autumn Feast

Where to start.

Last Tuesday my sister asked if we had any veg to make soup with, our huge butternut fitted the bill completely and (as we were invited to dinner) we donated the squash and with it my sister made the most delicious soup. Not only did it feed 5 people that night, the leftovers were frozen and there was enough left to feed 3 people for lunch on Saturday when we went away this weekend to Suffolk. Completly changed my mind about soup - i always hated it!

The courgette plants are still going, but the other veg have almost finished. We got atrociously lazy about picking the green beans and so we are letting them go to seed. The sunflower heads are over and we are leaving half for the birds and will collect the other half for us. I did the same with the carrots as apparently the flowers can be useful to the garden wildlife.

Bye Bye Courgettes

The end is near for the courgette plants, they have grown so big that there isn't enough air flow around the leaves and they have mildew so they need to be taken out. The squash leaves are beginning to die off and we will harvest our butternut squash soon. The suash and courgettes have cross pollinated (i think) and we have some very odd looking veg growing!

The beans are still cropping well, enough for two more dinners this week although that will probably be all. My sister has had some more veg after the first lot went down very well. The carrots I cropped today are stumpy (what happens when thinning doesn't get done) but taste delicious. Last night I realised at about 8pm that we needed veg for kebabs, out I went with a torch and picked a fat courgette - a great feeling to have such fresh food available.

We've really enjoyed the past few weeks of crop gathering, and we know with better planning we could crop for much longer. Over the next few months while we have no crops in the ground we are going to try out the River Nene Vegetable Company which according to a friend of mine is very good. Check out their website, they do deliveries over a wide range of East Anglia, I'll post how we get on.

Ahhh

Have spent a few manic moments on the web I have come to teh decision that the peas are simply dying off - they were late in and i don't think that they got a fair chance at growing - note to self to get them in earlier next year. I've having lots of fun (in between finishing my MSc) drawing up a planting plan for next year, it does rest on us still being here next year of course!

If I can get the greenhouse built then I'm going to do some major tomato growing and try to grow an eggplant as well. I think I'd like some little cherry tomatoes and also some bigger plum toms, I have a rainwater harvesting system all figured out as well using 2 litre water bottles. all very cool - a little project for the winter me thinks.

Post Holiday Greens

Well we got back from a week in Cornwall to find that the veg garden has taken over the whole top of the garden - its really very impressive. I went out there yesterday and cut enough beans, courgettes (+ 2 marrows), tomatoes, carrots and beetroot for us for the week and a lovely fresh veg box as a moving present for my sister (so much more useful than a vase!). We have two very fat butternut squash but we aren't sure how to tell when they will be ready to eat.

The best thing about the garden now is that our giant eden project sunflowers are now in full flower - they wave gently in the breeze as they are so tall. It really brightens the garden. Sadly I am losing one of the mints, the thyme and the lovely vine - i'm not sure what to do but i'm sure its because of all the wet weather we've had this summer. The pea plants have turned brown and yukky, everything was ok before we went away, but i suspect a form of mildew so might have no option but to treat.

The Eden project has given us lots of ideas for gardening next year, we're going to do better at the companion planting, and try onions and potatoes. I might even try to grow a pumpkin for hallowean next year - i'm going to put down a little path down the centre of the patch and sow plants which don't want to be swamped - carrots, onions, leeks, beetroot & beans one side and then the courgettes (2 max!) the other side bounded by peas and potatoes. I've also decided to try and move the shed and build a greenhouse - news not recieved with much enthusiam by 'him'!

The veg patch surrenders

When I got home tonight from work I went out to the garden, picked two handfuls of runner beans, a fat courgette, three beetroot and some fat stubby carrots which should really have been thinned. Then I cooked them with some new potatoes and fat gloucester old spot sausages from Dewing farm shop on the coltishall road, it was SO good (and inexpensive), i'm probably not going to ever be able to keep and kill a pig to eat but i'm quite happy to grow the veg to go with someone elses pig.

Look! Veg patch delivers!!!

Candlelight

The garden at night - I have had these tealights for over a year knowing exactly where they would go, we sat outside under the stars and had a glass of wine. Very civilised!

One day there was no veg - and the next day

we were wondering where all the space went.

Here we have beans on eth trellsi, squash in front of the trellis, and courgettes nearer to the forground - there are beetroot to the right and the carrots to eth left, oh and the sunflower which i though wouldn't germinate are now about 8 feet high.

Lawn!

This is a retrospective post - i took this picture to show how the pergola looks now that we have (almost) finished the gravel, it takes oh so much gravel to fill this garden!

This garden seems to have taken so long to do but now that the plants are growing and its possible to see the softening of the harder edges then i realise that we have made real impact in only six or so months.

Cool & Refreshing

Have just been out to do some late night watering and lit a candle under the candle pot and it looks amazing.

All calm and peaceful - and cool - finally cool.

And yet more Plants!

The weekend started well, hot - thats the only word for it! I went out to study on Saturday and 'he' started on the pamments - they look stunning and very natural although until we get the gravel down for real then it won't look finished.

The trouble with getting some plants was that it became obvious over the course of the week that we needed more! So on Sunday we went out to the Woodgate nursery again, stunning place, loads of interesting plants and great ideas. They have lots of interesting ideas about companion planting and I finally got my hands on some marigolds for the veg patch (they distract insects from my veg!) but I did get a bit carried away and it was touch and go wether we would get everything in the boot of the car.

When we got home I carried two of the boxes through the house to the car along with two bees and a couple of hoverflies who were so excited by the prospect of nectar that they buzzed along beside me - a bit hairy but they were only interested in the flowers. But after planting up this is how it looked;



The terracotta star thing is a candle light, heres a view from the side, we've a real mix of plants here but I like it.



And the grass? Its finally growing - patchy but its is grass nonetheless.

Plants....

The veg patch is coming on a treat although I do with my runner beans would get a move on and start going upwards, the courgettes and squash seem to be getting the general idea about producing veg sometime before Christmas! After planting a passion flower, some tall grasses, a standard fuschia, a little blue plant whose name i've forgotten, a sage & a creeping thyme, a southernwood which I hope will keep away insects and some stunning sedums which will be put into the gravel to spread.

Garden weekend

Decided after last weekends crazy study marathon that I;d have some time off to attend to the garden. Got up early and went out side to weed the front garden (it gets so hot thats the only time i could do it) and discovered teh reason the plants were dying in the pots.



Round the back the patio has er been laid out even if its not actually been put down properly, we went to a garden nursury near Aylsham this afternoon and bought some amazing plants but had to leave them in the car when we got back because it wouldn't stop raining! We went from the nursery to a tea shop in Aylsham and the sponge cake was to die for and we had a 'right proper' sized pot of tea. As you can see Buddha is watching over the building works.

Nothing Happening

I spent the entire weekend (8 - 6) both days working on my project, believe me when I say I'd rather have been outside!

No sign of the grass coming up yet, maybe I'm being too impatient!

Was that the weekend?

I have been struck down with the lurgy this weekend & if it wasn't for several very important meetings this week I would not be considering work tomorrow but needs must and all that jazz.



Here is the garden so far, 'he' spent an age sieving the soil in the circles to put the lawn seed down onto and then moments before the operation was due to be finished with careful scattering then the heavens opened and we had to make a run for it. I spent the morning making tea, and dozing in the deckchair to supervise operations. We put buddha out as the weather is nicer, sort of an 'on the home straight' moment really, well it was until the rain started!

Next time....the lawn, the flowers, the patio and the gravel!

Summers Here!

Heres a picture of my new pergola - I am so happy wih it - I think its blooming marvellous & it makes the garden look bigger.

I spent 3 hours weeding my veg patch today & happy that the beans are coming up at last along with the squash and the courgettes. The beetroot are looking a smidge wibbly and the rue have simply dissapeared.'he' almost finished the logs, we spent 2 hours in B&Q today getting plant fertilizer, soil improver (non smelly manure), lawn seed and topsoil for the lawn. We also got a fab lunch at their wittards cafe which was rather good.I also got some happy hippy slug destroyer which won't hurt hodgehegs and liberelly sprinkled it about. Next weekend we are going up to Cawston nursery to get plants.

We'll definately be getting a vine for the pergola, some trailing plants to soften the logs, some honeysuckle to go over the trellis and loads of other funky plants which will be able to grow in the poor soil. We've a list of grasses which we like as well which should give the wildlife some seeds and provide autumn colour. Next year I am going to get so much more out of my vegetable patch. I'm going to be getting some herbs to put straight in the soil under the pergola, and some daffodil and crocus bulbs to put under the lawn for spring.

Oooooo it'll be luverly!

No Pergola

After the weekends log construction then we were eagerly awaiting the pergola but it had to be delayed until Monday. Which is sad but these things happen. I've been strugging to bring the beans up - the dwarf (short) beans are goinging but never developing their first set of leaves so are then dying - I think I need to improve the ground and get everything started earlier. The second round of courgettes are starting to come up but the promised rain hasn't happened so they are a bit dry. The Rue seeds, carrots and beetroots are coming up well.

I've been advised on the gravel - wickes - and I have to peer over a wall tomorrow to see some highly rated gravel in a neighbours garden. The lengths this garden is sending me to! It'll all be worth is in the end - now if i could just get those beans to grow like the weeds.......

June Gales

Got up at the crack of dawn today to close the window owing to amount of noise the local bird population was making - this is a good thing - but not at 3.30am. At a (slighty) more reasonable hour of 8am I got up to earn my brownie points so that when 'he' woke up I could go out and play in teh garden. The challenge today is to get the log borders in for the lawn edging before the pergola is put in on Tuesday (so excited) the circles are about 220cm across and theres two of them so we got logs at Homesbase 10% day yesterday as they aren't cheap.

Just for anyone's interest the way to discover the circumference of a circle is Pie *Diameter.

Isn't it.

'he' got started on the making of the circles while I went to Homebase to get some more logs. Its cost quite a bit to do, I wish I'd found a cheaper solution now but I wanted those curves!

Heres the finished result!



The gales blew over a tomato plant and a few of the runner beans which were just starting to recover, some of the green beans have started to come up from the second sowing but none of the runner beans have germinated yet. The squash are picking up but I could have fitted so much more in I'm a bit miffed with myself. Theres always next year I suppose!

Damn Slugs

Went out this morning and found all three of my courgette plants had been eaten off at the base of their stems. Don't know wether it was slugs or snails but have had to plant again - have doubled up this time at each planting point and will take out the weeker seedling when they get established. Next year I'll harden teh plants off sooner as i thing thats one reason why they haven't got big and strong. Its strange because I normally have more success with courgettes than any other veg.

Beetroot are coming up nicely - very pretty seedlings, and the carrots are just beginning to appear. No sign of the Rue yet but I'm hoping to make a hedge out of them. The reseeding of the dwarf beans hasn't shown any signs of germinating yet but I'll give it another couple of days - just one of the broad beans has come up, they are taking longer outside, i hope that nothings eaten them, I think I have a tendancy to plant seends too deep.

I recommend the gardening blog on the BBC Garden site - loads of handy tips and helpful peopal, I'm certainly going to be planning my veg garden better next year, maybe even a herb cicle in the middle.

Wildlife

Having been in the new office for 2 months and getting in early (8) means that I see the local wildlife on the way to work - we often see rabbits hopping around and there is a jay which has the left hand side of the cat park covered and who always distracts me in team meetings!! However this morning I saw a fox and it was beautiful, such an amazing sight - unlikely to ever get one at home but it was the most fabulous colours.

Oh and the bathroom is painted and I've been given three bigger tomato seedlings to plant out - the heavy rains last night were a good excuse not to put them out until the weekend.

And Beans for Dinner!

Stopped at at a well known chain store this evening (not giving them any more advertising as their plants were gasping for water this evening which was just mean!) and bought some meadow seed for the front and some carrot and beetroot seed for the veg patch.

Rushed outside to see how the beans were doing - they were better than yesterday but decided that even with the plant feed they aren't strong enough to support themselves so planted another set of beans inbetween the plants which are already there. Sowed teh carrots, bettroot and rue herb along the borders and then decided to be a bit mad bad and dangerous and randomly planted some dwarf beans in places around the veg patch - the theory being that they will give some shade to the other plants.



I put seven sunflowers which were between 5 and 9 inches tall along the side fence although I'm not too confident of a couple of them which looked distinctly miserable. They all got a good water and I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that they get on ok. Bathroom looks so much nicer painted don't know why I didn't do it before!

Beans for Breakfast

Woke up to the sun shining across our gardens - I really need to take a picture as its a very different light to the evening sun which is when I take most photos of the garden. Went outside to see how the beans had fared over night and the next door neighbour was outside too and offered me some short beans which looking at the holes in the leaves of my runner beans i gratefully accepted!

New levels of dirt

Started out this morning with breakfast in the garden which was lovely, then 'he' got started on shifting soil and I put up net all around the veg patch for snail/slug damage limitation and to stop cats getting at the soil. After I had done that I got the paintbrush out and started to paint the bathroom which is a long job as painting brick seems to take hours and hours.

Lunch majically appeared and it barely touched the sides I was so hungry, I needed a break from the painting and so planted out the green beans, dwarf beans, squash and courgettes in - then i went back to painting. 'he' then went to Edinburgh (nothing I said honestly) to attend a conference and I continued to paint, I stopped briefly to put another wheelbarrow of rubbish in the skip but after finishing the first pot of paint and knowing a second coat was needed I called it a day.

On the painting anyway. When I came back indoors i did the obligatory hoover around the kitchen and the dining room which always get muddy as we come in and out, and noticed that my vine gourds were bolting horizontally. The only thing to do was repot them and stake them carefully to give them the right idea but only after I'd had a bath. Partly because the gourds needed help but also because the runner beans were looking a bit wimpy I mixed up some plant feed (which makes the water go blue - most perkulier) and watered the front garden, the indoor pots and the veg patch. After all of that i had my supper - then it was too dark to take a picture!

The earth moved

Got home and decided that as the skip is going tomorrow I'd get the last few things sorted out, so I stained the gravel boards, put the tools in the shed, took the lawnmower out of the dining room and then had the bright idea to try and move soil from in front to the tellis to the vegetable patch.

Cubic Meter of soil weighs about 1.5 tonnes.

I did 7 wheelbarrows full of soil - thats digging it up, shovelling it in the barrow and then shovelling it out again. I'm sure its good exercise - which is just as well as I have many more barrows worth to move. Just not tonight.

Shed

We both left work early at got home for 5 - with a darkening sky we took all the shed bits out of the bag and stood up all the panels. There wern't any instructions at all & we had to rely on a YouTube video which I'd seen and some photographs which we'd taken at the shed place. a few things did end up in the wrong place but after 3 hours it looks good - the windows were a bit hairy as they are glass and i had to nail batons around them to hold them in place.

Oh and the threatening sky did carry out its promise - it rained for a good hour that we were out there - all good fun! There is mud everywhere outside, even to the point that puddles had formed, we have to get a few more things in the skip before it goes so another evening tomorrow methinks.

Old Garden

This is my old veg patch - the new one is about three times the size of this. I had courgettes, a tiny apple tree, purple sprouting broccoli and some other things too. I don't think I have a pic of the whole garden but I do miss the washing line!

Highs and Lows

Well I thought I'd seen it all when on Saturday evening as we were resting our sore limbs in the living room a car pulled up, a cry of concrete rang across the street and two strapping lads leapt out of a beat up escort and started to take concrete out of the skip. Then this evening a white transit (always trouble) pulled up and dumped a broken toilet and a load of other rubbish in our skip! 'he' jumped up and asked what they thought they were doing at which point they drove off waving a certain hand signal behind them. Bloody cheek! We got their number however and will report them for fly tipping.

Found out loads of useful links about gardens (as we are getting to the stage where we might be able to grow something in it) so decided to put them on the blog. The nice friendly carpenter rang this evening to say that he could do the pergola in three weeks time, yippee! Which should pretty much be the deadline for us getting all the hard landscaping in and the majority of the vegetable plants that we have in pots should be ready - the gourds need more time anyway.

And the shed appeared as well which is great although the rain had set in by the time we got home tonight so no chance of getting it up.

Oooooowwwwww

I hurt this morning when I woke up.

I hurt even worse when I got up.

But we only have the skip for the week and so we had to get going, the weather was fantastic with occasional damp light rain and my sister appeared to help out as well. Lil sis dug the ground, 'he' took out the rest of the cement blocks to the skip and laid the slabs for the shed.

I got out my saw and drill and started to make raised beds from stakes and gravel boards for the veg patch and then got the trellis bolted together and we put it in the ground - It was like a barn raising! I might add that this is the edited version with my drill running out of charge twice, me getting stuck under the trellis at one point and the drill bit slipping and it getting stuck in teh wood - all cheerfully taken in my stride - not.

I put the B&Q arch together ( the only one in the world which is 100m) and dug it in - which involved hacksawing off one side as I wasn't about to dig it into cement! We dug in the gravel boards round the veg patch and got the soil evened out although we can still put a lot more in from the other side of the trellis which is supposed to be lower. In the photograph you can see how I haven't finished staining the wood yet, the green beans will grow up this side of the trellis and the sunflowers will grow up the other side - slugs notwithstanding. I have a range of ideas to stop them hopefully......



Oh and the green beans little side beans do drop off - I found them in the soil. The tomatos are doing well but they need to be hardened off and next year i need to start earlier as they are still very small, as are my pepper plants.

Skip Skip Hooray

Well the skip turned up this morning which was very exciting and we spent the whole morning clearing the garden knowing that the new shed is turning up on Monday. I took a sledgehammer to the shed and with great delight it fell apart, I had no idea how rotten it was, however it was obviously a well looked after shed at some point and had its back not collapsed due to soil being packed up against it then it could probably have been repaired.

Then 'he' turned into superman and started to clear the remaining concrete blocks while I dug a trench for the trellis, the sun was baking down and work was verging on unpleasent. We decided to break for lunch and then went out to Wickes to get materials - quite reasonable prices but the car hated us for the slabs that we made it carry home - we took the route that didn't involve any speed bumps!

After we had emptied the car we stacked everything did a few more hours earth shifting and gave up around half four to visit family and friends.by teh time I got home then I had discovered muscles i didn't think i had!

Gearing up for the weekend

Even though it was bank holiday last weekend i spent almost all of it in front of a computer, my lovely boyfriend did strip back a lot of the greenery & tidy up the rubble on the ground in teh garden ready for final clearing. The weather was pretty bad so there wasn't a lot of time.

Things have moved up a gear however as we decided yesterday to get a skip rather than try to get the debris into bags and down to the tip - especially with them restricting how much rubble can be taken. We have a skip being delivered on Saturday morning and hopefully we'll clear back a lot of the rubble plus the old shed and get the rubbly soil stripped off too, the shed is coming on Monday and we can get that up before 'he' goes away for a week, although have to get a few more slabs as the shed is bigger than the old one.

Just have to decide how we are going to block up the trellis to get a level as the trellis can't go straight onto the ground as the soil from the veg patch will come through. oooooooh its all so complicated!

A Butt by any other name

I saw this water butt today and have fallen in love with it - I think its funky and fantastic with the words "captured and bottled at source" I think it could be a classic. Its very slim and tall (about 5 foot) and although expensive I think its very clever. We're only going to capture water from one side of the shed so as to allow the garden to recharge.

We didn't get a huge amount done in the garden today 'he' was tired from being out last night and so we went and bought an arch and some rubble bags to get the rubbish down to the tip - we've decided to get a skip for the removal of the old rubble and the top layer of ruined topsoil. Oh and the ant nests.

A proud moment

Here is my wall - of which I am very proud. My trellis turned up today and I have measured up for the gravel bords and posts. I have also found a narrow arch in B&Q which will fit perfectly (with a bit of jiggery pokery) between the neighbours fence and my trellis - additionally it'll give me something to hang insect proof netting over which apparently is a good idea for bean growing because black fly can be a problem.

I'm beginning to see where the heartache in gardening comes!

Wildlife

Got home this evening and the sun was shining and the temptation to finish my wall was just too much with the result that by 7pm the wall was finished and I'd had a very relaxing hour and a half listening to the birds and completing a project before the weekend rains. We had one good banmk holiday so I'm not holding a grudge.

Despite me thinking that there is no chance of ever getting any wildlife to visit my urban garden 'he' saw a Blackbird yesterday pulling up worms and I saw a bee (more rare than one might think) on the lavender and the sweet peas out the front.

The tomato seedlings are doing ok but seem to be quite limp a lot of the time even with water, I'm pleased I planted more gourds as the ones which are coiming up at the moment don't look healthy. The biggest surprise are the sunflowers which I planted in pots at the front and forgot about - they are doing well and should provide an eyecatching dispal when I plant them behind the japanese cherry in the corner.

Gardeners bath time

Got up really early and the sun was shining bright - went back to bed and didn't wake up for a few hours! So once we did wake up then we got hard at it. The garden hasn't held back at all in terms of growing weeds so 'he' had to clear the garden back to be able to work at the top levelling the ground for the (new) shed and I had to clear the bottom near the house and redig my trenches to build a few more courses onto the retaining wall. This is it at the end of the day - the right hand side is now finished - the left hand side has had to be done in two stages - the bit nearest the house is finished and the other side will be finished this week in time for the pergola.

It was hard work, we stopped for lunch at 3 when I ran out of mortar, then I bolted up to Homebase to get some more materials and also a gravel board and post to test the trellis building theory. When I got back 'he' has got almost all of the shed base sides finished (its raised above the path) and the shed area was level ready for the pamments.


The peppers and the tomato seeds have done well, and in fact 8 lucky tomato seeds have now been potted into their own pots. However the gourds which are in the same propagator have not done so well and have gone mouldy so when I was at Homebase I bought a new toy - pictured to the left - follow these instructions to avoid my mistakes with gourds!


So where did bath time come into it? Well after all that gardening we were quite desperately in need of one!!

A Grey Day

Today started off well despite the weather with a trip out to Ashwellthorpe and the purchase of a shed from Taylors Building Supplies, fantastic range, good prices and friendly people as well. It made me realise just how good craftspeople stand out from the rest.

Then I went to Highways nursery where we decided it was lunchtime and had a coffee and a beef and mushroom homecooked pie which was excellent but expensive, after demolishingthe grub I bought trellis for across the garden - after we had worked out how to fix it at each end and where the posts were going to go. Which led to lots of funny loks from other gardeners who were wandering around with a pansy or two or debating where to put their new gnome. Delivery only£5 - very impressed.

Rushed home to meet my carpenter friend who is going to build me a pergola at the seating end of the garden, sudden embarassment as I showed him the fence - realised that the guy who did it (Green Lane Timber Services) truly ripped me off and did a diabolical job of the back fence and gate. Not to mention the fact that he as yet hasn't bothered to send me a receipt, he had to repair the back fence once and the timeber post supporting the back fence is starting to split. I shall be on the phone yet again and it he doesn't get back to me then I'll be sending trading standards out after him. Just so frustrating after I went on a recommendation and saw his work elsewhere which looked grand, I think to do a straight line of panels he is fine - to do anything remotely resembling joinery hes not so sharp.

Them dashed out to Tescos (not much gardening going on here I know) - on our return we found that the seedlings seem to have taken a chill and a couple of the courgettes have just died, with a gourd gone as well we may need to plant some more. The sunflowers haven't germinated yet so we're going to try starting them in smaller tubs.

Beantastic

Its very exciting gowing thing in pots, the beans have sprouted, both the dwarf/green beans which are so pretty see the piccy to the left, and the runners are growing up big and strong. I think these beans are fascinating becuase of the way that the bean stays perfectly formed attached to the stem. I wonder how long it will be before they drop off.



I'm not sure at the moment how to get the beans to not be so leggy, they have to contend with slugs, snails and cats when they get planted out so they need to be big and strong.





This is what my dining table looks like at the moment, we are just waiting for the lemon balm to germinate, although the gourds are doing quite well and we will certainly have plenty of tomato plants! Everyone seeems to be getting in on the growing ones own veg these days - especially since changing jobs most of us have a tomato plant on the and one collegue (who was obviously particularly organised!) has already had lettuces from her veg patch.


I have got home every night this week and carried out debugging on the rosemary and lavender, I'm quite concerned given the fact there seems to always be more than the day before - and trust me they aren't getting out from the pot!

Companion Planting

Well I never - plants have special friends! Was at mums yesterday and brushed past the lovage and decided to get some in the garden but didn't know that its thought to improve the health of almost all plants and that borage helps protect almost all plants from pests especially tomatoes! Off out to get some seeds today now, alhough apparently borage won't be happy growing on from pots. I knew that carrots and onions should be grown together.

Talking of pests I collected about 30 rosemary beetles from my french lavender and my once beautiful rosemary this morning, the little pests are shiny and new to this area so there aren't any natural predators. Other than me who puts them in a pot and sends them to the UEA for a man to study. More information can be found here. And watch out for the grubs they look like slugs. The damn things have even made it onto the BBC News!

Wow its hot

Have been amazed by the speed at which the seedlings are coming up, but even more by the front garden coming alive, I was very late getting the bulbs in this year so we have daffodils in May! The pots to the top of the photo are the tray of runner beans which got watered slightly too enthusiasticallythis morning so I had to put them outside to dry out. I also totally forgot about the sunflower watering for the last week so I suspect that they won't germinate now.

Off to the shed place near Holt tomorrow (if its open) have been told that they are very good - have also had the design plan drawn up by mum so no excuses not to get started tomorrow unless its just too hot in which case I'll have to study and ten i can work on the garden all next weekend.

Pigs tail

is twirly - kinda like the time I have to get up for work at the moment. The gardens look so peaceful with the sun across them, everything is perfectly still while I eat my breakfast looking up the path, have to apply that imagination a bit but I think it'll look fabulous.

Saw three small birds in my garden yesterday two I didn't quite spot in time but the bluetit came a perched on the willow near the kitchen, its the first time I have ever seen small birds in my garden in all the time I've been here. I'm hoping that the cats won't be able to get over the new fence that I can create a bit of wildlife, i need the birds to get rid of the snails!

Any suggestions for attracting birds gratefully received - I will have a raised bird table and a small bird bath out of the cats reach.

Where oh where have the sheds all gone?

We set out early (for a bank holiday) to look for a shed at Norwich leisure village, hmm - no sheds. Then we tried highvale & still no sheds - but lots of seeds and interesting plants, including a giant teapot planter which I may just maybe have to get for the sheer madness value.

Got home and potted up;
Gouards
Courgettes
Dward Beans
Runner Beans
Squash
Peppers
Rue (keep the cats off)
Basil
Lemon Balm
And some

First we measure

Then we draw an accurate drawing. Then we get our shoes back on and go out and measure again because with the best will in the world we all know it doesn't look like that!

So after many cups of tea and a bacon sarnie, the garden has been laid out and the veg to go in have been selected, as soon as the scale drawings are finished I can commission the pergola which will go over the stone circle to add some shade and allow climbers - maybe even a vine.

All very exciting although have discovered that the new gate has split already down one panel - I will be on the phone first thing Tuesday morning as thats just not right.

1 Finished Fence

Spent today working again on uni work, have taken a days leave purely to get everything finished so that I can have a break over the Bank Holiday. I'm not certain totally wether I like the height of the fence but it does look a lot better than the old one and it'll be grand when I can grow things up it.

Makes the shed look even worse than it did before! One of the problems with the garden is the different levels, not only does the garden slope right to left but also down towards the house. The gravel board lying on the soil is waiting for me to get the brinck retaining wall up to the right level to put the board onto as it won't quite fit the way the others have. I have to admit I think that in places the work could have been done better but I will learn and not employ the person again. Had checked and visited work as well so it just goes to show that one can never be too careful.

Spring has Sprung

I spent the day at the University with my head in the books trying to get the 7000 word literature review in for the end of tomorrow and got home to find that the fence work had started and there was a gaping hole where the fence had been! Made my garden look lovely and big though!






I can't believe that the last time we worked on the garden was last August when we hired a skip and got rid of all the old concrete and cement, this is how we left it then. The photo of the old 'patio' has currently vanished however I will load it when i find it. I can't quite believe that the summer before (2006) I had a mini veg patch where i grew some superb courgettes, the broccoli was eaten along with all the herbs but I did get one vegetable at least!

The front got to grow up first!

Like all terraces mine has a small front garden which to make life easier for the previous occupants had been gravelled over. This meant when I moved it it looked nice and tidy but I soon came to realise that the weeds just saw it as a challenge - the rosebush was a haven for ukky yukky insects and there were much nicer things that I could do with the front.

Christmas 2006 I had made the foolish error of putting the ex christmas tree onto the gravel where it dropped every single needle onto the gravel.

So I found a house on a property website and 'borrowed' an idea to turn the front garden into circle with plants around the edges, this would involve scraping up all the gravel, raising the cement slabs and building a brick edged circle. With the front being south facing the plants which went in had to be able to cope with scorching heat as well as poor drainage and occasional drunkards, not to mention the cats. And slugs.

See below for a picture of the work in progress - and the japanese cherry I chose for the shady corner.

And this is the finished article, after about a week, I'll post another picture of it soon to show how it looks now.

Start at the very beginning

Two and a half years ago I bought a terrace house which had a delapidated and very run down space outside the backdoor which vaguely resembled a garden. It did have a washing line and it did have a shed, it had some grass and an apple tree which was (almost) dead, it also had a raised area which could be described by a particularly nefarious estate agent as a 'patio'. In short it wasn't really my idea of a garden, looked far too much like trouble and besides, it was winter and I had bigger problems like the fence falling down & me having to tie it to the shed to avoid its total collapse.

Having bought the house i had no money and having moved from furnished rental accomodation I had no furniture either. The house had 'potential' but was very far from luxurious and having completed on the 14th December I spent four of the coldest months of the year sitting on beanbags, sleeping on a campbed and generally stretching my imagination just as far as it could go as to what i could do once i had some money. This use of my mind led me to do foolish things once the money started to flow again, namely that I could make these changes all on my own.

Add to this a Masters degree and working full time and you get the picture - the garden was not getting a chance to grow up. In October 2006 I met my partner and time was even more precious with the MSc in second place, and the house becoming third priority the garden was very much in fourth place.

However with a new job and a new outlook on life I want the garden to have a chance to grow up and be a garden, last years clearing of hoax patio and the old outhouse buried in the garden have left it looking bleaker than the burger section of a supermaket freezer on a hot bank holiday weekend!