For someone who doesn't "do pink", I seem to have quite a lot in my garden.
At the start of the year, I have assorted hellebores. Mostly in my default colours of purple and yellow (as in shed photo), but there are a few that err on the side of rose coloured.
Hardy geraniums started off with the darkest flowered g. phaeum I could find, but now there are white and cerise as well (the latter albeit bought for its near black/purple foliage). Above all, I have allowed Herb Robert to pop up in gaps as it sees fit. I forgive the girly pink flowers as they are loved by insects, but equally for the red stemmed foliage.
Not all my Heucheras have white flowers.
Then there are my Hepaticas and Anenomes - mostly white, but some have a pink flush to their petal, as does my new Clematis, not to mention the Erigeron I am coaxing into nooks and crannies in the brick paved area inside the raised beds.
Barring one yellow flowered alpine, all my Sedums are pink flowered, as is the Bergenia that I rescued from the sorry display in the front garden when we moved in and replanted in a more suitable position.
Come late Summer, Echinacea purpurea will join the display, if the Cepholaria (in my more favoured buttermilk shade) hasn't smothered everything by then.
Add to that assorted Thymes, Sage, Turkish Rocket, Betony, Ragged Robin and self sown Aquilegias.
Finally, there are Foxgloves. Granted, I have a parviflora, but in the main, they are pink.
So, for all my protestations that I won't include the colour pink in any of my planting plans, on reflection it seems to be the most prolific shade.
Maybe if I actively include it in the garden, my favoured shades of cream and purple will actually take over.
Friday, 17 June 2011
Sunday, 12 June 2011
The Look of a Wet Weekend
Well after the 40 days & nights without rain, the past few days have more than made up. And to think one evening at the start of the week, we watched two Buzzards wheeling on the thermals over the lake. Fortunately on Friday, Howard had made lunch for both of us to take in, so I didn't have to venture far from my desk during the thunderstorm and torrential downpour. Maybe it's the Welsh ancestry, but I am less downhearted than my work colleagues when it rains. One of them is obsessed with roller skating, and goes into near drama queen mode at the slightest hint of precipitation for fear his ball bearings will rust.
Today, however, the rain did put a damper on plans. Not practical to undertake the tasks planned for garden or allotment. But hopefully the plants are drinking it up, and maybe the rain will discourage the foxes from rummaging in my onion bed. Maybe it will even be heavy enough to drown out the wasp nest that has taken up residence in my straw bale stash.
Not that is stopped the Magpies. Their favourite trick of old was to rummage in the guttering for things to drop on us as we sat having tea on the deck. This year's new generation are a particularly delinquent bunch. They have taken to fishing stuff out of the compost pile and having a picnic on the roof of one of the hen houses. Not just stuff from our garden either - white bread, pizza crusts, disemboweled tea bags end up there. Happens to be the hen house where Giggy, our Leghorn resides. This small white feathery Ninja likes nothing better than to square up to anything passing by, so I would have loved to see her chicken martial art moves during the week.
Too wet to chase the Magpies off. Instead, we had a domestic day. Or rather Howard did. My sciatica decided to come back to haunt me this morning, so I reclined and did research while Howard gave the cupcake maker I'd bought him for Christmas a test drive. It worked a treat, and we now have a stash of banana muffins tucked away in a tin, plus some extra special ones cooling down.
When I was little, my mother used to bake all sorts of wonderful things. Family meals may have been predictable, but afternoon tea was always a treat. One of her special treats was "Home Made Jaffa Cakes". These were plain fairy cakes with the middle scooped out, filled with jam and sealed up with melted chocolate. I was miffed to see a well known chef publish a recipe under that title. Far less homespun than the real thing though.
Anyway, this afternoon, we decided to have a go at our own version. I approached the cakes with trepidation, and carefully made the first cone shaped incision. Having removed the lid, I then sliced it so it was flat. After that, I spooned a small amount of filling into the hollowed out cake - some apricot jam, others with Dulce de Leche. Then I replaced the lid and covered the tops with melted chocolate, making sure the lid was sealed in place.
A cup of tea is brewing, and the Blue Shed version of Proust's Madelaines moment awaits.
Today, however, the rain did put a damper on plans. Not practical to undertake the tasks planned for garden or allotment. But hopefully the plants are drinking it up, and maybe the rain will discourage the foxes from rummaging in my onion bed. Maybe it will even be heavy enough to drown out the wasp nest that has taken up residence in my straw bale stash.
Not that is stopped the Magpies. Their favourite trick of old was to rummage in the guttering for things to drop on us as we sat having tea on the deck. This year's new generation are a particularly delinquent bunch. They have taken to fishing stuff out of the compost pile and having a picnic on the roof of one of the hen houses. Not just stuff from our garden either - white bread, pizza crusts, disemboweled tea bags end up there. Happens to be the hen house where Giggy, our Leghorn resides. This small white feathery Ninja likes nothing better than to square up to anything passing by, so I would have loved to see her chicken martial art moves during the week.
Too wet to chase the Magpies off. Instead, we had a domestic day. Or rather Howard did. My sciatica decided to come back to haunt me this morning, so I reclined and did research while Howard gave the cupcake maker I'd bought him for Christmas a test drive. It worked a treat, and we now have a stash of banana muffins tucked away in a tin, plus some extra special ones cooling down.
When I was little, my mother used to bake all sorts of wonderful things. Family meals may have been predictable, but afternoon tea was always a treat. One of her special treats was "Home Made Jaffa Cakes". These were plain fairy cakes with the middle scooped out, filled with jam and sealed up with melted chocolate. I was miffed to see a well known chef publish a recipe under that title. Far less homespun than the real thing though.
Anyway, this afternoon, we decided to have a go at our own version. I approached the cakes with trepidation, and carefully made the first cone shaped incision. Having removed the lid, I then sliced it so it was flat. After that, I spooned a small amount of filling into the hollowed out cake - some apricot jam, others with Dulce de Leche. Then I replaced the lid and covered the tops with melted chocolate, making sure the lid was sealed in place.
A cup of tea is brewing, and the Blue Shed version of Proust's Madelaines moment awaits.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
How Positive Was Your Week? (Mine was - included new cheese discovery)
I'm sitting here listening to the rain, wondering of it will stop for long enough for us to follow our usual Sunday routine - over the allotment for a few hours, plus some garden work (mostly seed sowing). Truth is, the rain is most welcome, as it will soften the ground to help Howard prepare more beds for planting, and will top up the pond with water that doesn't need to sit to release the chlorine before being added.
Tomorrow sees the start of the first full five day working week for what seems like an age. Only three weeks for me, but for Howard much longer as he was off sick prior to the Easter break. Fortunately he's recovered fully from the chest virus, but he's discovered he now has sciatica as well (almost a year to the week since I had the work accident that triggered mine), and his cholesterol levels are slightly elevated. That last problem has meant he temporarily took the role of food police in the house and out shopping, but having read the ingredients and the processing methods of so called "healthy" spreads, he has decided to stick with butter, use slightly less and up his tomato, apples, and oats intake. He also uses the bike he brought down from his parents for solo errands in the local area. We're lucky to have an excellent GP at our surgery, who advised doing everything possible before prescribing pills. We'll see how things go in a few months.
The last two extended weekends have allowed us to get plenty of time in at the allotment, as well as run a few errands and have "adventures". The rhubarb bed has finally been extended onto one half of the site of the old compost bins. We picked a prodigious amount from the existing crowns, and ended up swapping some with another plotholder who had an excess of asparagus! So over Easter weekend we had asparagus for dinner three days out of four - steamed, griddled and finally as a puree.
The other half of the old composting area (included the site of my old leaf mould bin) has finally been turned into a new raspberry bed. The old canes I had taken from our previous allotment didn't thrive in the move, so I bought some more this year. When I was removing some of the canes from the pot I bought them in, a little newt popped out! I gather it up and placed it in the damp undergrowth in the wood. Hopefully it will have made its way to the brook or a pond, and maybe return once we have our ponds in place.
Having little interest in staying to two people we don't know personally get married, we spent the day at the allotment. Howard admitted that like me, he would like to see the flypast, but as we live on their usual route out of London, we could see in from the shed. Just our luck that this year they flew so low that the were the other side of the woods, below the treeline. Still, I have the memory of an evening last February when the helicopter carrying Obama flew over our house.
The Friday morning had started in spectacular fashion. Just before 8am, I was sorting out the hens, when I heard a commotion in the next street. Unidentified high pitched bird shrieks, and then the cause came into view - a Red Kite, being mobbed by a Carrion Crow and a Ring-Necked Parakeet! Last year we saw a Buzzard above the garden, high on the thermals, and we've seen Buzzards a few miles away in Cockfosters & Potters Bar. But the Kite was flying low enough to see its markings, let alone identify it by the tail shape. It may well have been roosting nearby, and just taken to the air. Eventually it flew off in the direction of Chase Farm and the M25. Don't know if it was a one-off, but a couple of days later I saw another Kite low over the M25 between London Colney & the A1.
Kites are a special bird to me. As a child, my family holidayed mostly in mid-Wales. I saw Kites in the wild when their population was at its lowest. One of my classmates' fathers worked for the RSPB, so he knew seeing Red Kites at that time was a big deal. When we travel "out west", we try to keep count of the number we see on our journey, and we have had to start the counting earlier on each journey. Let's hope they keep advancing.
Last Saturday we set out on one of our regular jaunts - the first Sarah Raven open day at Perch Hill for this year. The equivalent even last year was cold & bleak, with very few of the feature plants - tulips - more than in bud. This year it was warm, brilliant sunshine and the alliums had taken the baton from all but the late flowering tulips. We were both very taken with a Clematis growing over an arch - Clematis montana "Elizabeth" - pink flushed white flowers, with a gorgeous vanilla/chocolate scent. Made a note of it for the future, then had an excellent lunch of frittata and mixed salads. Despite having an excess of eggs at home (total 95 from 4 hens for April), we still plump for a healthy egg dish when dining out.
By now it was too late in the day to make for the coast, so we took a detour to another garden spot nearby - Merriments, an excellent garden centre, with display gardens and a tea room. Last time we had been there was on the way to Bexhill to see Band Of Horses in February, when there had been storm force winds that kept us under cover. This time we sat outside to have afternoon tea, before strolling round the plant sales area. First thing we passed were the Clematis, and I found the variety we admired at Sarah Raven!
May Day proper we were off on another jaunt - to the Grow Your Own show at Loseley House, near Guildford. A gorgeous setting and a good mix of stalls - some of my favourite seed suppliers (Thomas Etty & Pennard Plants), useful bits of kit, poultry and livestock to admire, and good food. Our lunch was an Ostrich burger, followed by Losely ice cream. The exotic burger stand was also selling Kangaroo and Zebra burgers, but I'm not sure how many of them were sold. As is our habit at country shows such as this, we replenished our sausage stock (having brought a chiller bag with this in mind). Also sampled, and then splashed out on some gorgeous chocolates, flavoured with fruit and herbs grown or gathered by the maker, plus honey from her own hives. Howard was allowed to try her "special reserve" - Seville orange zest left over from marmalade making, crystallised and coated in dark chocolate. He's already counting the days till mid-January so he can have a go himself.
There was a cheese stand, stocking product from local producers, including the makers of my current favourite British cheese, Saint Giles - High Weald Dairy. Tried their newest addition, Brother Michael, a more pungent version of Saint Giles. Another top notch cheese - lovely texture and a good kick to it. Ideal for a restorative nibble after a hard day's commute.
Bank Holiday Monday was spent over the allotment, including me managing to cook a Full English Breakfast (including mug of tea & toast) on a single ring camping stove! had a mid afternoon nap in the van we'd hired, and on waking spotted the first Swift of the year. Summer IS a coming in!
Tomorrow sees the start of the first full five day working week for what seems like an age. Only three weeks for me, but for Howard much longer as he was off sick prior to the Easter break. Fortunately he's recovered fully from the chest virus, but he's discovered he now has sciatica as well (almost a year to the week since I had the work accident that triggered mine), and his cholesterol levels are slightly elevated. That last problem has meant he temporarily took the role of food police in the house and out shopping, but having read the ingredients and the processing methods of so called "healthy" spreads, he has decided to stick with butter, use slightly less and up his tomato, apples, and oats intake. He also uses the bike he brought down from his parents for solo errands in the local area. We're lucky to have an excellent GP at our surgery, who advised doing everything possible before prescribing pills. We'll see how things go in a few months.
The last two extended weekends have allowed us to get plenty of time in at the allotment, as well as run a few errands and have "adventures". The rhubarb bed has finally been extended onto one half of the site of the old compost bins. We picked a prodigious amount from the existing crowns, and ended up swapping some with another plotholder who had an excess of asparagus! So over Easter weekend we had asparagus for dinner three days out of four - steamed, griddled and finally as a puree.
The other half of the old composting area (included the site of my old leaf mould bin) has finally been turned into a new raspberry bed. The old canes I had taken from our previous allotment didn't thrive in the move, so I bought some more this year. When I was removing some of the canes from the pot I bought them in, a little newt popped out! I gather it up and placed it in the damp undergrowth in the wood. Hopefully it will have made its way to the brook or a pond, and maybe return once we have our ponds in place.
Having little interest in staying to two people we don't know personally get married, we spent the day at the allotment. Howard admitted that like me, he would like to see the flypast, but as we live on their usual route out of London, we could see in from the shed. Just our luck that this year they flew so low that the were the other side of the woods, below the treeline. Still, I have the memory of an evening last February when the helicopter carrying Obama flew over our house.
The Friday morning had started in spectacular fashion. Just before 8am, I was sorting out the hens, when I heard a commotion in the next street. Unidentified high pitched bird shrieks, and then the cause came into view - a Red Kite, being mobbed by a Carrion Crow and a Ring-Necked Parakeet! Last year we saw a Buzzard above the garden, high on the thermals, and we've seen Buzzards a few miles away in Cockfosters & Potters Bar. But the Kite was flying low enough to see its markings, let alone identify it by the tail shape. It may well have been roosting nearby, and just taken to the air. Eventually it flew off in the direction of Chase Farm and the M25. Don't know if it was a one-off, but a couple of days later I saw another Kite low over the M25 between London Colney & the A1.
Kites are a special bird to me. As a child, my family holidayed mostly in mid-Wales. I saw Kites in the wild when their population was at its lowest. One of my classmates' fathers worked for the RSPB, so he knew seeing Red Kites at that time was a big deal. When we travel "out west", we try to keep count of the number we see on our journey, and we have had to start the counting earlier on each journey. Let's hope they keep advancing.
Last Saturday we set out on one of our regular jaunts - the first Sarah Raven open day at Perch Hill for this year. The equivalent even last year was cold & bleak, with very few of the feature plants - tulips - more than in bud. This year it was warm, brilliant sunshine and the alliums had taken the baton from all but the late flowering tulips. We were both very taken with a Clematis growing over an arch - Clematis montana "Elizabeth" - pink flushed white flowers, with a gorgeous vanilla/chocolate scent. Made a note of it for the future, then had an excellent lunch of frittata and mixed salads. Despite having an excess of eggs at home (total 95 from 4 hens for April), we still plump for a healthy egg dish when dining out.
By now it was too late in the day to make for the coast, so we took a detour to another garden spot nearby - Merriments, an excellent garden centre, with display gardens and a tea room. Last time we had been there was on the way to Bexhill to see Band Of Horses in February, when there had been storm force winds that kept us under cover. This time we sat outside to have afternoon tea, before strolling round the plant sales area. First thing we passed were the Clematis, and I found the variety we admired at Sarah Raven!
May Day proper we were off on another jaunt - to the Grow Your Own show at Loseley House, near Guildford. A gorgeous setting and a good mix of stalls - some of my favourite seed suppliers (Thomas Etty & Pennard Plants), useful bits of kit, poultry and livestock to admire, and good food. Our lunch was an Ostrich burger, followed by Losely ice cream. The exotic burger stand was also selling Kangaroo and Zebra burgers, but I'm not sure how many of them were sold. As is our habit at country shows such as this, we replenished our sausage stock (having brought a chiller bag with this in mind). Also sampled, and then splashed out on some gorgeous chocolates, flavoured with fruit and herbs grown or gathered by the maker, plus honey from her own hives. Howard was allowed to try her "special reserve" - Seville orange zest left over from marmalade making, crystallised and coated in dark chocolate. He's already counting the days till mid-January so he can have a go himself.
There was a cheese stand, stocking product from local producers, including the makers of my current favourite British cheese, Saint Giles - High Weald Dairy. Tried their newest addition, Brother Michael, a more pungent version of Saint Giles. Another top notch cheese - lovely texture and a good kick to it. Ideal for a restorative nibble after a hard day's commute.
Bank Holiday Monday was spent over the allotment, including me managing to cook a Full English Breakfast (including mug of tea & toast) on a single ring camping stove! had a mid afternoon nap in the van we'd hired, and on waking spotted the first Swift of the year. Summer IS a coming in!
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Playing catch-up
Eight o'clock and all's well.
Have spent another Sunday afternoon busy in the potting shed, sowing seeds. Had to stop because I was running out of space to put the seed trays.
Spring this year was colder than usual to start with, so I held back on sowing, as I don't have anywhere to put heated propagators, let alone a heated greenhouse. Then, just when I was fretting that I would have to buy in tomato seedlings, the weather warmed up and the frenzy started.
I haven't been quite so organised with my sowing schedule as in previous years. My seed packet collection wasn't in perfect order, so I had to go with what I could find. A few of my favourite varieties were missing, so I'm going to have to get new packs and sow them over the next two extended weekends. Good thing pay day is just before Easter this year.
What with Howard bringing stuff home from Yorkshire, and us deciding to ditch the expense of storage, the house is looking like a glorified shed at the moment. Never mind, as a boss many years ago had emblazoned above his desk - Tomorrow, we are going to get organised.
Despite this chaos, I have managed to sow 18 varieties of tomato for starters. Because of the late start, I focused on tomatoes and their relatives for the first few sessions. Having splashed out on a small polytunnel for the allotment last pay day, I'm hoping that we will get a decent crop and can preserve some. Home made pasta sauce is one of Howard's targets for this growing season.
One of my plans is to make my own coffee substitute. I can't drink much coffee anymore. Not because of the caffeine content - I find it too acidic nowadays. So I have been using a coffee substitute, Barleycup. I really like it, and have been getting through shocking amounts of the stuff. With the rise in grain prices, the price of a jar of Barleycup has rocketed. Getting through a jar in less than two weeks, and not being able to locate catering sized versions, I decided to look for an alternative.
Plants For A Future lists multiple plants as suitable coffee substitutes. This may mean that they taste bitter and a little muddy, but they won't kill you. I'm going to concentrate on a plant that is a known palatable coffee substitute, which has other valuable uses - chicory. The leaves make a good salad crop during the Summer, then the plants can be "forced" for use during the Winter. The roots are cleaned, dry roasted and ground to make the "coffee". Also, the blue flowers are worthy of growing in a border, and are much loved by bees. Finally, my chickens love a chicory leaf or four as a treat.
So it's a good multi-purpose crop. Looking forward to the three different harvest parts of the experiment.
Have spent another Sunday afternoon busy in the potting shed, sowing seeds. Had to stop because I was running out of space to put the seed trays.
Spring this year was colder than usual to start with, so I held back on sowing, as I don't have anywhere to put heated propagators, let alone a heated greenhouse. Then, just when I was fretting that I would have to buy in tomato seedlings, the weather warmed up and the frenzy started.
I haven't been quite so organised with my sowing schedule as in previous years. My seed packet collection wasn't in perfect order, so I had to go with what I could find. A few of my favourite varieties were missing, so I'm going to have to get new packs and sow them over the next two extended weekends. Good thing pay day is just before Easter this year.
What with Howard bringing stuff home from Yorkshire, and us deciding to ditch the expense of storage, the house is looking like a glorified shed at the moment. Never mind, as a boss many years ago had emblazoned above his desk - Tomorrow, we are going to get organised.
Despite this chaos, I have managed to sow 18 varieties of tomato for starters. Because of the late start, I focused on tomatoes and their relatives for the first few sessions. Having splashed out on a small polytunnel for the allotment last pay day, I'm hoping that we will get a decent crop and can preserve some. Home made pasta sauce is one of Howard's targets for this growing season.
One of my plans is to make my own coffee substitute. I can't drink much coffee anymore. Not because of the caffeine content - I find it too acidic nowadays. So I have been using a coffee substitute, Barleycup. I really like it, and have been getting through shocking amounts of the stuff. With the rise in grain prices, the price of a jar of Barleycup has rocketed. Getting through a jar in less than two weeks, and not being able to locate catering sized versions, I decided to look for an alternative.
Plants For A Future lists multiple plants as suitable coffee substitutes. This may mean that they taste bitter and a little muddy, but they won't kill you. I'm going to concentrate on a plant that is a known palatable coffee substitute, which has other valuable uses - chicory. The leaves make a good salad crop during the Summer, then the plants can be "forced" for use during the Winter. The roots are cleaned, dry roasted and ground to make the "coffee". Also, the blue flowers are worthy of growing in a border, and are much loved by bees. Finally, my chickens love a chicory leaf or four as a treat.
So it's a good multi-purpose crop. Looking forward to the three different harvest parts of the experiment.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Recycling - slight return
Even on my way home from work, I'm on the look out for items to rescue and re-use. My walk from the hospital to Kings Cross station is along a busy road, and as commercial waste is often not recycled but sent to landfill, regardless of its usefulness, I am not embarrassed by getting my trusty string bag out, sticking my head round the door of a shop of restaurant to get permission and gathering stuff to take home for a further productive life.
The blue plastic trays that are used to deliver salad leaves and mushrooms to sandwich bars and restaurants are a prime example of what can be claimed. As they stack, they are easy to store and use as storage. Being perforated, they make great seed trays, especially when lined with a couple of sheets of newspaper. The card egg trays I rescued from the work canteen last year still act as backup storage to my Eggskelter.
But sometimes, however much you want to, however perfect the item is for a project you have in mind, you have to walk by and let it go to waste. Such was the gem I let go tonight. There's a photography studio on the Gray's Inn Road, which I think is undergoing refurbishment. Outside their door, ready for the refuse collection, were several sheets of perspex. All seemed to be in near perfect condition, and I could have given them a second life as shed windows and cold frames, and possibly other things I have yet to imagine. But the building was closed, and the sheets were in all honesty to big and unwieldy for me to carry up the road, down the escalator on onto a crowded tube train. So I had to walk by, sad that I couldn't use them for something productive, and equally sad that no-one in the building had the forethought to keep them for another time.
Just have to keep looking.
The blue plastic trays that are used to deliver salad leaves and mushrooms to sandwich bars and restaurants are a prime example of what can be claimed. As they stack, they are easy to store and use as storage. Being perforated, they make great seed trays, especially when lined with a couple of sheets of newspaper. The card egg trays I rescued from the work canteen last year still act as backup storage to my Eggskelter.
But sometimes, however much you want to, however perfect the item is for a project you have in mind, you have to walk by and let it go to waste. Such was the gem I let go tonight. There's a photography studio on the Gray's Inn Road, which I think is undergoing refurbishment. Outside their door, ready for the refuse collection, were several sheets of perspex. All seemed to be in near perfect condition, and I could have given them a second life as shed windows and cold frames, and possibly other things I have yet to imagine. But the building was closed, and the sheets were in all honesty to big and unwieldy for me to carry up the road, down the escalator on onto a crowded tube train. So I had to walk by, sad that I couldn't use them for something productive, and equally sad that no-one in the building had the forethought to keep them for another time.
Just have to keep looking.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Reconnoitre, Request, Rescue, Reimagine, Reuse - Revel in Recycling
Just down the road from where we used to live, a family bought a Leonburger puppy called Oscar. When I saw him in the street, he was always pleased to see me. Being a Leonburger, he grew and grew, remaining as friendly as when a puppy, which could be alarming to his owners when he cleared a 3 foot hedge to say hello to me one day.
Anyway, Oscar's owners decided that he needed more room in the house, so they took up their old patio and built a conservatory for muddy days. The paving slabs went in a skip, and we asked if we could re-use them at the allotment. The owners agreed, so we took several wheelbarrow loads of paving slabs down the road to our allotment. We used them as paths between beds and they served us so well that when we moved we took all the paving with us. Some of it now forms a path in our new garden, with the rest stored at the allotment. This weekend we finally put them to use, creating a paved "apron" around our shed.
A few doors further down from Oscar, a family decided to knock through the wall between their downstairs reception rooms. As we knew them to say hello to as well, we asked if we could take some of the bricks to re-use. They too were happy to let us. Another house was remodelling their kitchen and allowed us to rescue a Belfast sink, in perfect condition which was skip-bound but for us. That now sits in our tiny front garden, hiding the base of the clematis, planted with achillea and Verbena bonariensis.
Over the past few days, some of the bricks have found another new use. Inspired by the Brick Garden in the lovely Carol Klein tv series Life In A Cottage Garden, we have turned them into paving in between the raised beds at the top of the garden. (Just below the deck made from boards their owner let us rescue from their skip!) The soil in the garden is a mix of builders' rubble and clay subsoil, so a whisper of rain can turn it into a Somme like glop. It's no fun hanging out the washing and slipping about, dropping half the clean stuff in the mud. We had tried using layers of woodchip, but that eventually rots down and gets just as slippy. So we perforated the soil, laid a thick layer of sand, then a weed membrane before laying sand for the bricks to sit on. A few gaps have been left, and a few engineering bricks used, which will be planted with thyme, chamomile, sempervivums and a few other low-growing fragrant plants. We've just laid the bricks into sand, so we can move them around if we change out mind, and take them with us should we move house.
A few more bricks have been put to use for a less decorative purpose. Elly the Welly, our once nervous but now exceedingly bumptious Welsummer hen, has taken to digging under the edge of her run, to the point where she can poke her head out the other side. Much as I would love all my girls to be able to free range, it can't be done, as we're both away from the house 10 hours a day, and we have foxes close by. So I've been wedging bricks into the gaps she's made, in the hope that she will be discouraged, or at least slow her tunnelling. Earlier this week, we also saw her catch, kill and eat a mouse. Sheba the cat also saw this event, from the safe vantage point of the shed roof, clearly horrified that the monsters had discovered her mouse vending machine (the hedge by the fence).
We took this past week off as leave with the view to getting started on all the essential Spring garden tasks - seed sowing, final pruning, clearing, digging and bed making. Because of the weather we didn't really get that far, but the sunny hours this weekend have seen us complete tasks that provide a link with past gardens and put us on a literally firmer footing to get on with things over the next few weeks.
However frugal you are, you have to spend some money on gardening materials now & then. I've just had to buy a new bag of vermiculite, and was horrified by the price rise. So when we see items we can see a use for, we ask nicely, emphasising that we will be reusing in a non-profit way, and pointing out that by freeing up space, they may not need to spend money on an extra skip. You get just as much, if not more, operating this way than by furtively skip-diving under cover of darkness.
As mentioned, I was at a local garden centre today. We decided against Crews Hill (what Las Vegas is to casinos, Crews Hill strip is to garden centres) as we suspected it would be manic, instead heading to one tucked away next to the M25. As we were loading up the van, we noticed two Buzzards wheeling in the sky. I'd seen this earlier in the week, north of Ware, but was surprised to see them so close to the urban sprawl of North London. My old college, Capel Manor, has a motto - "where the city meets the coutryside". Seems like that is coming true two junctions west on the M25.
Anyway, Oscar's owners decided that he needed more room in the house, so they took up their old patio and built a conservatory for muddy days. The paving slabs went in a skip, and we asked if we could re-use them at the allotment. The owners agreed, so we took several wheelbarrow loads of paving slabs down the road to our allotment. We used them as paths between beds and they served us so well that when we moved we took all the paving with us. Some of it now forms a path in our new garden, with the rest stored at the allotment. This weekend we finally put them to use, creating a paved "apron" around our shed.
A few doors further down from Oscar, a family decided to knock through the wall between their downstairs reception rooms. As we knew them to say hello to as well, we asked if we could take some of the bricks to re-use. They too were happy to let us. Another house was remodelling their kitchen and allowed us to rescue a Belfast sink, in perfect condition which was skip-bound but for us. That now sits in our tiny front garden, hiding the base of the clematis, planted with achillea and Verbena bonariensis.
Over the past few days, some of the bricks have found another new use. Inspired by the Brick Garden in the lovely Carol Klein tv series Life In A Cottage Garden, we have turned them into paving in between the raised beds at the top of the garden. (Just below the deck made from boards their owner let us rescue from their skip!) The soil in the garden is a mix of builders' rubble and clay subsoil, so a whisper of rain can turn it into a Somme like glop. It's no fun hanging out the washing and slipping about, dropping half the clean stuff in the mud. We had tried using layers of woodchip, but that eventually rots down and gets just as slippy. So we perforated the soil, laid a thick layer of sand, then a weed membrane before laying sand for the bricks to sit on. A few gaps have been left, and a few engineering bricks used, which will be planted with thyme, chamomile, sempervivums and a few other low-growing fragrant plants. We've just laid the bricks into sand, so we can move them around if we change out mind, and take them with us should we move house.
A few more bricks have been put to use for a less decorative purpose. Elly the Welly, our once nervous but now exceedingly bumptious Welsummer hen, has taken to digging under the edge of her run, to the point where she can poke her head out the other side. Much as I would love all my girls to be able to free range, it can't be done, as we're both away from the house 10 hours a day, and we have foxes close by. So I've been wedging bricks into the gaps she's made, in the hope that she will be discouraged, or at least slow her tunnelling. Earlier this week, we also saw her catch, kill and eat a mouse. Sheba the cat also saw this event, from the safe vantage point of the shed roof, clearly horrified that the monsters had discovered her mouse vending machine (the hedge by the fence).
We took this past week off as leave with the view to getting started on all the essential Spring garden tasks - seed sowing, final pruning, clearing, digging and bed making. Because of the weather we didn't really get that far, but the sunny hours this weekend have seen us complete tasks that provide a link with past gardens and put us on a literally firmer footing to get on with things over the next few weeks.
However frugal you are, you have to spend some money on gardening materials now & then. I've just had to buy a new bag of vermiculite, and was horrified by the price rise. So when we see items we can see a use for, we ask nicely, emphasising that we will be reusing in a non-profit way, and pointing out that by freeing up space, they may not need to spend money on an extra skip. You get just as much, if not more, operating this way than by furtively skip-diving under cover of darkness.
As mentioned, I was at a local garden centre today. We decided against Crews Hill (what Las Vegas is to casinos, Crews Hill strip is to garden centres) as we suspected it would be manic, instead heading to one tucked away next to the M25. As we were loading up the van, we noticed two Buzzards wheeling in the sky. I'd seen this earlier in the week, north of Ware, but was surprised to see them so close to the urban sprawl of North London. My old college, Capel Manor, has a motto - "where the city meets the coutryside". Seems like that is coming true two junctions west on the M25.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Building up to Spring
Over the past few days, the new moon has been turning from a sliver of pristine fingernail moon into the cheesy grin of a quarter moon. A week from now will see a ful moon that reportedly will be the biggest and closest to Earth for almost two decades. Then it will be the Equinox and Spring will have finally arrived.
There have been assorted hints of the change of season all through February, interspersed by days when Winter's grip was tightened. But the past few days that grip has relented and the first blossoms on the flowering cherries have emerged and the hazel catkins are giving way to the first leaves. Of course, with the events of yesterday, the sight of cherry blossom is even more evocative of Japan than most years, prompting thoughts and wishes for recovery from yet more unimaginable devastation.
The most definite hint that Spring was close came from views out of my back window. There's a Magpie nest in a nearby tree. As with every year, the Winter storms took their toll on the construction, leaving only a few inches at the base of the nest. Bot over the past 10 days or so, the pair of Magpies have been flying to & fro with assorted twigs, until the nest resembled a three foot high approximation of Amy Winehouse's beehive at her most caned.
Never the neatest or prettiest nest, it's clearly secure and desirable to other members of the crow family. The resident pair have been repelling magpies, jays and carrion crows, all intent of squatting. Right now, it looks as if the birds have finished building and have started sitting.
I managed to tick a huge gap in my birdwatching list last Thursday morning, while I was waiting for the bus to the station. I noticed a bird in the tree opposite the bus stop, a slightly deeper shade of pinky brown to a Jay. It turned slightly to reveal a crest, and I realised that at last I was watching a Waxwing. I then realised the tree was full of them - upwards of 20! A car drove past and they took flight, and I was able to catch sight of the flashes of red and yellow on their wings.
All this Winter I've been on the looking for Waxwings with renewed intent, making a point to look out for them in car parks planted with the berry bearing shrubs they feed on. And when I thought the season was over, and I stopped looking, they appeared, almost on my doorstep.
There have been assorted hints of the change of season all through February, interspersed by days when Winter's grip was tightened. But the past few days that grip has relented and the first blossoms on the flowering cherries have emerged and the hazel catkins are giving way to the first leaves. Of course, with the events of yesterday, the sight of cherry blossom is even more evocative of Japan than most years, prompting thoughts and wishes for recovery from yet more unimaginable devastation.
The most definite hint that Spring was close came from views out of my back window. There's a Magpie nest in a nearby tree. As with every year, the Winter storms took their toll on the construction, leaving only a few inches at the base of the nest. Bot over the past 10 days or so, the pair of Magpies have been flying to & fro with assorted twigs, until the nest resembled a three foot high approximation of Amy Winehouse's beehive at her most caned.
Never the neatest or prettiest nest, it's clearly secure and desirable to other members of the crow family. The resident pair have been repelling magpies, jays and carrion crows, all intent of squatting. Right now, it looks as if the birds have finished building and have started sitting.
I managed to tick a huge gap in my birdwatching list last Thursday morning, while I was waiting for the bus to the station. I noticed a bird in the tree opposite the bus stop, a slightly deeper shade of pinky brown to a Jay. It turned slightly to reveal a crest, and I realised that at last I was watching a Waxwing. I then realised the tree was full of them - upwards of 20! A car drove past and they took flight, and I was able to catch sight of the flashes of red and yellow on their wings.
All this Winter I've been on the looking for Waxwings with renewed intent, making a point to look out for them in car parks planted with the berry bearing shrubs they feed on. And when I thought the season was over, and I stopped looking, they appeared, almost on my doorstep.
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