Preparing the Ground

With lots of garden 'projects' in the offing, the last few days have been spent preparing the ground as it were:

• A ton bag of pea gravel and some more paving slabs were ordered and delivered, to gravel over a problem area by the veg plot and create a new path across to the greenhouse.  

The gravel easily filled the area, with plenty left over for other projects - it's nice and deep too, so hopefully that will finally stop the weeds coming through!

Still deciding on the placement of the paving slabs!  

Looking at the new paving we also realised how overgrown the old path was - so project 'rediscover' the paving slabs was initiated!

• A new garden shed was ordered and delivered, requiring construction of a solid base to build it on.

We had the old greenhouse base (the greenhouse that got destroyed by Storm Arwen back in 2021) - and having never really done anything with the empty frame, Martin finally deconstructed it and started filling the base with stones and rubble from around the garden.  Some of the excess pea gravel also went in to level it off, and then some concrete mix was added to firm it all up.

Anyway it's all looking good - on to construction soon!

• Finally, decisions were made about turning the old polytunnel into a fruit cage, and a plastic grid base has been ordered for that (the rest of the pea gravel will be used to fill it).

Of course, this also required more ground levelling!  

Fair play to Martin, he's been working really hard . . .  but it is all coming together, and the garden is starting to look a lot tidier as a result.

More to follow . . .

Cold and Stormy Days

The weather continued colder and brighter for a few days after our walk up Consti - in fact we even made a second trip later in the week!  

We actually saw a dash of snow one day - all good for the 'meadow' which we'd planted up with Yellow Rattle seeds that need some colder weather to prime them to germinate.

Hoping that if that 'takes' we may actually have more success with other meadow plants, as it is supposed to suppress the grass and help other more delicate wildflower plants to flourish.  

Just have to wait and see what comes up!

Of course the cold days soon gave way to more wet and windy weather - with Storm Isha hitting us hard enough to do some serious damage to the polytunnel.  Martin made a temporary repair, but we'll have to replace the cover for the new growing season - although we'll wait for better weather first! 

Post that Didn't Happen - May 2022

And now it's May, and mostly a month of garden things.

Started the month with a couple of 'projects' - finally doing something with other bits of the old oil tank - making a rhubarb planter out of the other 'end', and using the structural bits through the middle as supports for pizza oven / barbecue table sections (freeing up the breeze blocks).

We'd also invested in a small polytunnel to replace the growing space in the storm-damaged greenhouse - much puzzling over instructions ensued, but we got there in the end, and got it into position in the former small veg plot.

It all nearly went pear-shaped, when after going out on one windy day I got back to find the entire polytunnel (cover on), sitting right side up (as if placed there) in the field next door! 

Between us we managed to wrestle it back over the hedge, and here it is planted up, and firmly attached to some heavy base boards!

Other gardening jobs included some light hedge trimming, weeding out flower beds and the main veg plot, greenhouse maintenance, and planting up (tomatoes in the greenhouse and polytunnel - courgettes and potatoes in the veg plot).

Along the way had an extended visit with family, to help out while they had a new floor fitted, sat in the sun reading on the bench, and (slightly spooked by rising prices) staring to look for something new (and part-time) in the way of work.

The Folly meanwhile got rearranged (more than once) - taking it from a bare space, to something almost fully kitted out, and full of 'stuff'!