High Winds

There's a Met Office 'Yellow' warning of high winds for Yorkshire and the Humber, which explains this morning's observation... We've had overnight winds averaging 20mph (Beaufort 5) and gusting up to 50mph. This has, unfortunately, cause problems with the fleece cages, for which—evidently—we have not solved the fixing-the-fleece problem. I think reinforced eyelets along the edge, hooked onto nails in the beds' sides, will be the solution: so long as they don't tear out. A number of the stakes have also ripped/worn through the top, so there'll be some patching required. Never mind.

To compensate, though, I have photos!

These daffs, puschkinia scilloides var libanotica (Striped Squill) and Scilla siberica (Siberian Squill) are around the base of one of the trees on the back bank: the scilla are still coming into their full display.

A macro (well, semi-macro, technically) shot of one of the puschkinia, showing the striping on the back of the petals, which gives the species its common name.

And a scilla:

Spring Evenings

See, this is why I like the clocks going forward. Once we got home, it was still light enough to spend an hour in the garden before coming in to do the indoor things that always need doing.

The tulips that—in desparation, almost—went in the rectangular vegetable bed (qua nursery bed) are growing nicely, but as the space is needed for vegetables, and to allow us to move the pile of topsoil, we had to replant the tulips in pots. No, they probably won't benefit from being moved, but they were a freebie on a bigger order, and needs must. Never mind: we'll coddle them, and hopefully they'll survive, if not thrive this season.

We also moved five roses that had been unceremoniously dumped there, much longer ago: they went there in autumn 2009, in a hurriedly cut bed that we hoped would become a vegetable bed. Fortunately, it fitted in with the final plan, and the roses (excess from Liz's grandmother's garden when she moved), willow nursery log, and herbaceous perennials have been there since. The willow log was a section removed from Jenny's garden: it had collapsed sideways, and sent out a few roots, so when they took out the tree, we salvaged the log and 'planted' it. It's responded, as I hoped, by becoming analogous to a coppicing stool, and has sent out a couple of dozen withies, each now about a metre long and 5–10mm across. Who knows, I might suggest some wicker work. The roses are a mixed bag: I think they were all, originally, grafted ornamentals, but are now overcome with suckers, and we're thinking of them as dog-roses. The last two still seem likely to be ornamental, so we've moved these to the area cleared of cotoneaster. The dog-roses have gone along the bottom fence in the copse and behind the fruit-cages (where we're slowly establishing a mixed hedge).

In all that, I forgot to check how the onions were getting on. Perhaps tomorrow.

An Alphabetic Weekend

A is for Alliums

After the onion sets' arrival last week, we thought it was time to get them in the ground. The forecast's for quite a mild week, so—coupled with 'F' below—we thought it augured well. Anyway: 'assisted' by the in-laws' current respite-care foster children (see 'C'), we planted out the sets. I didn't count them as they went in, but I reckon (based on number per row averaged over the first three rows, and number of rows) there's around 480 of them. Which is quite pleasing, as I was expecting 100 per bag. A few had started to sprout (unsurprising, as the first of them arrived in February, when it was still too cold (here) to put them in), so they should get going quickly, I hope.

B is for Bunnies, Bicycle Bottom Brackets and British Summer Time

Bunnies, because the cats decided to bring a friend home for dinner. Said friend was a little traumatised, but intrinsically unhurt, so after distracting the boys, and scooping that bunny up, he was released back onto the hillside. Some nose-twitching later, he scarpered.

After coping with a clanking bike for a week or two, I decided it was about time to investigate and remediate, so I removed the bottom bracket bearing from my bike and discovered rather more movement than ideal. Now, I'm happy to subscribe to the WD-40/duct-tape principles of maintenance (If it moves, and it shouldn't: duct-tape it. If it doesn't move, and it should: WD-40 it.), but this wasn't a suitable opportunity. Thus, new bottom bracket fitted.

BST started on Saturday night: nothing to report (other than to lament the lost hour of sleep), but it is nice to have an extra hour of light in the evening for getting things done: it's still more-or-less light by the time we leave for work, which is fine.

C is for Children, Cages, and Compost*

The in-laws' current foster children (who are on a respite placement) are an energetic set aged 2, 5, and 7. Their assistance in onion planting was, shall we say, not optimized for efficiency, and basically consisted of one holding the bag of sets and passing them to me to plant, while the other (with Liz, de rigeur) brought cans of water to douse the rows. Meanwhile, the youngest would meticulously plant his own sets. In fairness, they were usually within a couple of inches of where they should be (with some prompting, but rather good), and 80% right-side-up.

I mentioned wood and fleece deliveries: the wood arrived safely on Saturday morning, and we spent the afternoon putting up the fleece supporting posts, and filling the last stretch of the C-bed (completed two weeks ago) with some of that huge pile of top-soil (the Compost). We managed to start putting up the horizontal wires, but ran out of light. Having finished constructing the cages on Sunday morning, and once we'd removed a few obnoxiously spiny berberis branches from nearby, we suspended the fleece. It now looks as though we have a slightly too short marque in the vegetable garden, which does rather spoil the aesthetic, but will help warm the beds and get everything off to a good start. The fleece will probably come down mid-May, and the cages will then be used to net those things that need it over the summer. The fleece might re-appear in the autumn, to extend the other end of the season: we'll see.

D is for Daffodils

Which are now looking marvellous. Interestingly, the bulbs we planted in 2009 are considerably behind the 2010 planting. I don't know the cause: either they're just earlier varieties (unlikely, perhaps), or their summer in Cornwall made them more energetic than those spending summer in Yorkshire, and they consequently started sooner. We'll see, next year, if the same thing happens...

We've also determined where the gaps in the spring-bulb planted bank are. The bluebells are starting to show, so a good succession is hoped for—however, I think we'll need another few hundred puschkinia, and we think 4–500 snowdrops would help bring the display forward. They, at least, should be easy to plant: if we get them 'in the green' in March next year, we'll be able to see where the daffs, puschkinia, scilla, and bluebells are, and plant between them.

E is for Electric propagator

Yes, this is a bit of a stretch. More seeds planted, including peas and beans direct in the bed, more leeks, aubergines, peppers, celeriac, tomatoes, ipomoea, gourds, and herbs. We are quite rapidly running out of window-sill space, which is, admittedly, helpfully advancing the argument for a greenhouse.

F is for Fleece

Well, see 'Constructing'. It's made a discernible difference, though: sitting inside it (as an experiment, I hasten to add, not because I was pretending to be a seedling) was warmer than outside, and still very bright.

*I've just noticed the unfortunate juxtaposition in this title. The children, I must highlight, were not caged...although they were rather curious about why we were messing around with bits of wood, wire, and fabric. I'm not entirely sure they're any the wiser, frankly.

Field of Moss

After starting the job at the weekend, I've now finished the lawn's first cut of the year. It's been a little mammoth, as it's been six months since its last cut, and it was a little rough. The weather has been favourable for moss, too, so there are large patches where the grass isn't doing so well, and where the moss has started to gain a foothold. Still, I don't propose doing much about it for now. A lot of the lawn will disappear over the coming years: once I know what will be left, I shall form a plan for weedkilling, feeding, and reseeding. For now, moss grows more slowly.

The clippings, though, have all but filled one bay of my composter. They'll collapse down quite quickly, no doubt, but it does highlight the fact that I need to complete at least one more bay—two won't keep me going for long. When it's this thick (and the mower's collector struggles), raking up takes as long as mowing.

We're still planning potato and onion planting at the weekend, along with moving topsoil and potentially erecting the fleece cage. The weather forecast has improved, so we might get two cool and dry days (it was suggesting rain on Sunday 'til today), which would be excellent. Speaking of weather, I've started to design a spreadsheet (or series thereof) to analyse the weather station's data. So; give me to the end of the month, and I'll have some (deeply fascinating, I'm sure) stats to share. A nerd's work is never done; nor a mower's, I fear.

Pile of Soil

A day working from home, for two-fold reasons: first, it lets me get on with administrative stuff that it's best to concentrate on; second, it let me schedule a delivery of top-soil on a weekday, and oversee its delivery. Not, you understand, because I'm a control freak, and wouldn't trust anyone else to set out the tarpaulin and make sure it's dumped in the right place, oh no.

Anyway: administrative work was accomplished, and the ever-obliging Tommy Topsoil arrived with another 6m³ of topsoil. The last lot arrived at the end of April last year, though it took us until August to move it all. I'm hoping, this time, to finish topping up the vegetable beds over the weekend, and we might then plant out the potatoes and onions. The seed potatoes arrived at the start of the month, and have been happily chitting away since: they're mostly coming on well. The first onion sets arrived in February, but the heat-treated sets are only just arriving: 200 New Fen Globe arrived today, and the 100 Hyred are on their way.

Earlier this week, 240m² of 30gsm horticultural fleece arrived, which is going to insulate the vegetable beds. I've also got an order for wood 1x1" stakes to construct a cage system to support the fleece, which should arrive on Saturday, along with timber to construct a second strawberry bed, and add horizontal framework to the raspberry cages (which will allow me to run horizontal wires along each bed to support the canes). With the fleece, I'm hoping the onions and potatoes will get off to a quick start: the soil's warming nicely, helped by a week of good weather.

The icing on the cake that is a day working from home was being able to nip out at lunch for a mooch: the puschkinia are out (and look lovely), and there's a blue tint to the bank from the squills. The daffodils are coming in to their own, with more and more out. So far, they're mostly yellows, but there are a few with orange corona and yellow perianth, and a few pale ones. Still, it's the cheerful yellow I love most, so that's fine. I'm very fond of puschkinia, too: they look white from a distance, but the blue striped racemes are elegant close-up.

The colour time-bombs are coming good.

Chipped

I was out on Saturday until late afternoon (a work 'away day'), leaving Liz to crack on with the huge pile of branches that needed chipping. I got home at about half-four to discover that she had put almost the entire, multi-cubic metre stack through the shredder, leaving us with a wire cage of mulch.

Impressed? I was.

While she finished off, I humbly assisted by bringing over the last branches, and cut the too-thick branches into logs or kindling ready to stack and dry. In finishing the chipping, she also uncovered three old pallets that I'd put down first, which is a bonus: building the compost bins last weekend nearly used up all my pallets in reclamation.

Today, I've started to mow the lawn for the first time this year. Not all of it; I got bored, frankly, and there were other things to do. I've done the entire middle lawn, though, which is important. The last mow of 2010 was only a half-done job, and then the weather turned and I never finished: I have a feeling it was 1st September. Anyway: the middle lawn thus hasn't been cut since August last year, and was badly in need. It's now been shorn, and looks better—though it may suffer a little in the short-term. The rest of the lawn is easier to do, and isn't as thick, so I hope to knock that off one evening this coming week.

So; these 'other things'. We've tidied the shed! By which I mean, emptied it, removed several bin-bags of rubbish, removed the things that belonged elsewhere (primarily the workshop and the garage), size-sorted the pots (more of those than I thought, and certainly not short of them), and 're-packed' the contents. With sufficient efficiency, I should say, to enable me to put the chipper, lawnmower, and garden vacuum in there—all of which were previously cluttering the workshop. This is much better, and everything's considerably better arranged.

We then pottered in the space assigned to the future greenhouse and shed. Measuring up, I think we have space for a 6' x 18' greenhouse (not a standard size, but common enough), and either a 6' x 15' shed, or an 8' x 10'. The current (rotting) shed is the latter size, but the site is a trapezium, so there are two options for filling it. I have an eye on possible sources for both, but we need to figure out the cost (especially of the foundation!), and make a plan. It may be that we get the shed this year (to remove the rotting eye-sore, which is impeding my view of the daffodils, which are starting to bloom (a few dozen are out), and preventing easy planning of the herb garden that will probably replace it), but leave the greenhouse 'til the spring sales of 2012.

Speaking of daffodils: enough are now out that Liz has been able to pick a few vases' worth. It looks as though this is a couple of weeks earlier than last year. It's also almost exactly a year since we ordered the wood for the raised beds, and I'm planning to order some more this week, to construct the fleece/netting cages for the vegetable beds and a second strawberry bed (an extended version of the rhubarb bed we planned but didn't build). Also this week, we'll receive another 6m³ of topsoil, to finish filling the vegetable beds, and hold in reserve for later things. The potatoes are chitting nicely, so things are coming together well.

Synchronised

On my way home on Friday, I noticed how many of the crocuses on my route were going over. I was pleasantly surprised to see, yesterday, that although the crocuses have now all but vanished, the daffodils amongst them have started to come out over the same weekend. Not all, but enough for a splash of colour.

Perfect timing.

Wood work

A fairly productive weekend, which is gratifying. On Saturday, I dismantled a few old pallets, and rebuilt them (with an old 6' fence panel) into most of a two-bay compost bin. Not quite finished, but back and sides, and the mechanism at the front for sliding in slats—but no slats prepared. I also finished the top wall of the C-shaped vegetable bed, which I hadn't managed last September before the weather turned. That's quite important: we've got another 6 cubic metres of soil arriving next Friday (to finish the beds, and ready for the next project), and that needs somewhere to go. While I was doing this, Liz got started on the huge pile of prunings and cotoneaster that we've accumulated over the past months.

Then, today, I've started moving the old compost bin's contents into a new bay; I haven't got far, though, as I was also helping with the chipping by disentangling branches and bringing them to the chipper (the extension cable won't quite reach the heap, annoyingly). The wire-mesh 'chippings bin' is now a bit more than twice as full, and the heap is reduced—somewhat. I also managed to (finally) put up the weather station's sensor array, which I've mounted on a six foot post that's been built into a corner of the raised beds. I modified it slightly, to allow the temperature/humidity/transmitter array to be lower than the wind/rain sensors, as I'm more interested in the temperature near the plants. I need to configure the data capturing on the base station, but it will soon start collecting analysable data.

We're starting to put some thought to a possible greenhouse (and shed): I think the available plot is going to be about 3.6m by 6.1m (or 12' by 20'), which opens up the possibility of an 8x20 greenhouse, and a long narrow shed alongside ('behind'). However, that's not going to come cheaply!

The bulbs are starting to come out: there's about three daffs out, and a handful of each of the scilla and puschkinia. I think they'll be properly out and glorious by next weekend, with a little luck.

Potatoes and Cat-Doors

On Tuesday, a new cat-flap arrived. We've had some trouble with a local tom (we think) breaking in, terrorising the cats, and stealing food. He, or our two in response, have also been doing some marking, which is fun for no-one. We've looked at cat-flaps which use a magnetic collar to identify the cats and allow the right ones in, but—given that Domino seems to loose collars every six months or so—this didn't seem optimal. However, we have found one that uses the RFID microchips that the cats have implanted to identify them. Once 'learnt', it detects the chips when the cats approach the flap, and allows only our two in. Tail-gating could be a problem, I suppose, but it should reduce the problem. Anyway: the new flap is now installed (very straightforwardly, I should add).

A myriad of tidying and sorting tasks have also been completed, and we also made five litres of carrot soup (from a sack of horse-carrots that were going a bit...wild). Finally, we've put the seed potatoes out into egg cartons to chit, and sown some more seeds (Early Nantes carrots, scarlet kale, peas, Brussels sprouts, celeriac, and ipomoea).

Sadly, we have to go back to work tomorrow, but we managed to finish manuring the beds, by bringing up another 14-odd barrows to finish the second raspberry bed, the 'Q' vegetable bed, and the long vegetable bed. The 'C' bed is going to be roots, so no manure for it. In 2009, when we brought manure up, we had to take a long route round, but this time I removed a couple of fence-planks, so we could bring the barrow to the fence near the kitchen garden, lift it over, and carry on. It's reduced the journey to almost a third, which is vastly better. I've now re-attached the fence planks with screws, so it'll be even easier next time.

Manuring the Beds

We've managed a few hours in the garden, at last. Our neighbour's horse's copious 'production' is piled at the bottom of the field beneath the house, so we've trekked back and forth with the wheelbarrow, collecting manure for the fruit beds. A dozen barrows later (oh, my aching back), the gooseberry/currant/blueberry beds are done, and one raspberry bed. More of this tomorrow morning...

We picked up 80 new gladioli from the garden centre yesterday morning: the 'frost free' location we'd stored the bulbs in after lifting was not, in fact, free from frost over the bitter cold of December (about -10°C, some nights), and the bulbs are almost certainly dead. We also got some P and K fertilizer, and admired the spring hanging baskets: we need to replace our baskets, and plant them up, but their new-season baskets haven't arrived yet. Couple of weeks, hopefully.

Almost Finished

We're very nearly there...the walls are all done, the skirting board has had its second coat, and the windowsills have all been done. The floor needs cleaning, and there are a few bits and pieces, but...

Overcome by the Fumes

The shelves in the pantry, and on the wall, are now a lovely green (matching the cupboard doors). However, working in the confined space of the pantry with the fumes has rather taken a toll on Liz. Fresh air worked wonders, though. We're making good progress, and have turned the walls in the utility room 'Timeless', too. I've painted the spice rack, which will go back on the wall, and the plinths, green, and touched up the oak beams.

Constructing

I've spent rather a large fraction of today making a box. Not just any box, but one that will fit into the recess in front of the 'old' front door in the kitchen. This door, which was solid, was replaced by a half-glazed door last summer. We don't particularly want or need a door in that corner—at least, not most of the time. However, it's the only way to get, for example, a range cooker or sofa into/out of the house, so it was necessary to keep it. As our builder said, one should never block up a door. However, it sits behind the kitchen table, and, because of its inaccessibility, looks rather odd. Hence, the box, which will hopefully make it look more like a window. This was always our intention: it matches the windows, and has pots of plants outside it to 'hide' it.

So, my box. Almost constructed, and needs painting. Meanwhile, Liz has been industriously priming plinths, shelves, pantries, and utility rooms. I think tomorrow we can break out the 'proper' cream and green paints.