Posts that Didn't Happen: March 2025

And on to the merry month of March . . .  starting with a solo visit to family across country for a few days, helping out with various things, while Martin continued to work on Project Van.

He made some useful progress in my absence, starting on the 'bookshelf' design (between one of the overhead cabinets, and one 'side' of the bed, sitting above the electric control cupboard) - and continuing work on electric things I don't understand.

Construction of a storage 'step', raising the floor level between the front and rear seating, is also underway.

On my return (complete with cold, which Martin duly caught quite badly) I continued with 'carpeting stuff, including the over-bed areas - this time in a nice deep wine colour.

I also devised part of the solution for our sliding bed element - this is formed of four Ikea bed struts, which sit on wooden beams at either side of the van (as shown on the right).

By attaching the bed slats to the struts with velcro, the two 'halves' of the bed can now be slid together, with the slats interlocking, making more room at the back or front of the bed as required.  

The whole structure can also be easily removed if even more space is required for transporting large items.

Alongside 'decor' (carpeting and cork tiling), more serious considerations such as security were tackled - with the fitting of locks to the exterior of the sliding and barn doors.

Towards the end of the month we finally purchased some vinyl flooring for the van, and marked that up for fitting in due course.

It does feel like there is some momentum to it all now, but there's still a long way to go . . .

In other news, we enjoyed some lovely sunny Spring days, and made a little more room in the garage by selling a greenhouse we bought way back in 2009 and which had been sitting in its boxes ever since!  Also started learning / playing a bit of chess - although Martin is taking it a bit more seriously than I am.
 

We ended the month with another visit across country to meet up with some extended family, and celebrate Mother's Day and what is now a 62nd Wedding Anniversary (where are the years going?).

Return to Project Greenhouse

Back home from a few days visiting family, and it was time to pot on this year's crop of beef tomatoes into our newly 'paved' greenhouse.

And here they are - all planted up in their £1 buckets, sitting in trays to capture any water drainage.

So far so good - they seem to be taking to their new home well, and no rat holes to be seen!

Project Greenhouse

🐀"There's a rat in me greenhouse what am I gonna do?" 🐀

After repeated incursions, burrowing into one corner of the greenhouse, the filming of the ratty culprit, and its wily avoidance of any traps, we decided to deal with the issue by paving over the greenhouse - which would also make weeding a lot easier in future!
 

Martin started the work by levelling and compacting the ground. 

Paving slabs were duly ordered, and craned onto the drive - and Martin hauled them over to the greenhouse and started laying them in place.

A few hours later, and it's job done - leaving us with a lovely echoey space to fill with pots, etc.

Will post more when it is planted out with this year's tomato plants.

Hopefully that's fixed Mr 🐀 and we'll get a good crop of 🍅🍅🍅 in due course! 

Storm Arwen

End of November, and I managed to coincide a visit to my parents with the first named storm of the season!

Travelled over the day before the storm hit; opportunity to catch-up with family, take in the local Christmas lights, and help out with some bits and pieces.  

Had to delay my plans to return by a day though, in light of the weather, which meant leaving Martin to cope with the fall-out from the storm.

And this was a bad one - Storm Arwen hit Wales on the Friday, and by Saturday morning it had pretty much wrecked the smaller of our two greenhouses, with Martin spending a good couple of hours clearing up broken glass.

So we now have a glassless frame - the plants that survived the night having been relocated to the larger greenhouse (which itself suffered some minor damage.)

Will have to see if replacing the glass is worth the investment or if there is something else we can do to best make use of what's left.

Greenhouse Drama!

We were just heading out for a walk today when we noticed that there had been a major potting table collapse in the main greenhouse.

Had to stop to rescue the plants - tomatoes / chilli peppers (various varieties) / courgettes - and reconstruct the table.

Luckily there don't seem to have been any major casualties!

Spring Garden

The garden is looking nice in the spring sunshine . . .

. . . the lily of the valley is in flower












. . . the potatoes have gone into the small veg plot, and the first greenhouse has been planted up.  It'll be another busy summer in the garden :)

Update 20 May

Second greenhouse planted, and the last veg plot (with its Heath Robinson bean frame), courgettes, onions and stray potato plants, done.

Just got to keep it all weeded now!

Greenhouse One

Got our first tomatoes planted today - courtesy of a work colleague, after the almost wholesale failure of my cherry tomatoes to germinate.* 

So we have: 3 Alicante; 3 Cherry - plus 3 Tumbling Tom in the pot:

I'm usually even later planting up, so hopefully we'll get some eating tomatoes before the end of the summer this year!

*Fair play to Fothergill's they did send me a replacement packet of seeds, but a bit late for planting up this year.

Planting Up

Time to get the greenhouses and vegetable garden planted up - at this stage the plants always look so small - beefsteak tomatoes in the big greenhouse - cherry tomatoes in the small (with the vine):

And courgettes in the large veg patch (the small veg patch already having been planted up with potatoes and onions):

At the moment the courgettes have all been surrounded with a slug pellet barrier, as the young courgette leaves have definite slug-appeal - hopefully, with time, they'll become less tasty.

Barring disaster there'll probably be marrow postings in due course!

Pinning down the Greenhouse

After the high winds in February we had to replace a lot of the glass in one of our greenhouses - and we ordered some polycarbonate panels for this purpose.


Unfortunately windy weather in the last couple of days, had dislodged the polycarbonate (ended up chasing them round the garden and even into the field next door!).

Martin came up with a solution in the end - fixing some old metal bars over the panels to hold them in place - hopefully that's done the job!

Hurricane!

Well 'hurricane' might be a slight exaggeration, but we don't see 100mph winds that often!

It didn't seem that bad yesterday morning, but by dinnertime the wind was phenomenal - trees were soon coming down (they had to close the road on Penglais Hill - I walked to the top to meet Martin, battling my way against the wind, and listening with some apprehension to the creaking and cracking of the trees on either side of the road!).

By the time we got home, the electricity was out, but at least for us it was restored within a couple of hours.

We didn't entirely escape in our garden either - the winds did for the final bit of the tree that started coming down in 2012.






The smaller of our two greenhouses didn't fare too well either - lots of broken panes of glass, and the door falling off!

Today the full scale of the damage was emerging - the trees either side of Penglais Hill had come down like dominoes, resting against each other - a brick wall had been 'blown over' by the Co-Op - I could go on . . .

We won't be forgetting the first few weeks of 2014 in a hurry!

Garden Update

Haven't said much about the garden recently - so time for an update on progress:

14 / 15 April - started on veg plots - dug over the small plot, and planted out the broad beans we'd been given -  then the potatoes (some in pots).

23 April - dug over the large veg plot - planted more potatoes and the red onion sets.

12 / 13 May - prepped greenhouses - put weed control fabric down in the larger one and planted it up with main crop tomatoes (cherry varieties have gone into the smaller greenhouse).

Also planted up one of the raised beds with rather flimsy looking asparagus seedlings (pictured - not sure whether these will survive).


Courgettes and butternut squash have gone into the large veg plot.





That leaves us with aubergines and a few more tomato plants (for outside planting) which are still being brought on in the large greenhouse - and implementation of this year's new and improved 'pea' strategy (more to follow on this).

Springing Up

Time to get planting :

That's tomatoes, asparagus, aubergines, courgettes, butternut squash, cucumber, chillies, and leeks hopefully on their way.

Plus some floral offerings, including sunflowers and lavender.


There are potatoes chitting on a windowsill as well, and red onion sets ready for planting out in due course.

Meanwhile the Spring garden is in full bloom, and over the hedge there are lambs racing around the field, looking as cute as can be:

Taming the Jungle . . .

Decided it was time to tame the jungle in the small greenhouse, in the vain hope that the cherry tomatoes will actually ripen.  Not sure that I haven't gone from one extreme to another, although so far no signs of imminent plant death!  I'll live in hope . . .





Tackled the tomato plants with a pair of secateurs, but Martin also has a new toy for tackling those hard to reach bits of hedgerow.  It also comes with a strimmer attachment, so no excuse for anything to get to the jungle stage now!

Mixed Success . . .

Past time for a garden update . . .

Starting with the greenhouses - the large greenhouse is doing ok - we've even harvested our first cucumber.  Some of the tomato plants have gone a bit funny (stunted with curled leaves), but most are doing ok and promising to crop well.

The small greenhouse has turned into something of a jungle (compared with the last update) - probably need to thin it out a bit - there are cherry tomatoes growing but unfortunately they are remaining stubbornly green.

The 'onion' plot is doing ok, but on balance think I'll get 'sets' next year rather than growing from seed.  We had a few spare sets given us and they've done so much better.  

We'll probably go with red onions next year as well (ordinary onions are really so cheap you end up wondering if growing-your-own is worth it!).

The real success story is the courgette plants which have come on leaps and bounds and are promising to bury us in courgettes.

The fruit cage is almost done now, but we have the promise of apples in due course - this is the third year since we put in the apple trees, and both the eater and the cooker should do quite well this year.

Green Stuff - One Month On . .

Time for an update on the Green Stuff . . .

The greenhouses have both been planted up now - here we have the main greenhouse, replete with plum and beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers and some very small aubergine plants (hopefully they'll pick up over the next few weeks).




The small greenhouse (as well as the vine) has the cherry tomatoes and a few more aubergines . . .





Progress in the main veg plot has been mixed - the potatoes are on their way up, but the courgettes and butternut squash haven't really come on much - fed them today so hoping for better things to come.




Also planted up some green beans, a week or so ago, hoping they'll get going soon too . . . (decided against peas this year after last year's less than impressive harvest).





The onions (and stray potatoes leftover from last year!) are doing ok in the smaller veg plot, and there are some leeks to plant out in due course as well.



Finally we have the broad beans, which are doing very nicely thank you, despite a bit of a battering from the strong winds.

 A bit of sunshine and we should also have our first strawberries sometime very soon!

Green Stuff

Time for a garden update  . . .

We've rotovated the main veg plot now, and planted out the courgettes and butternut squash - waiting for the green beans to come on a bit before they go out.  Potatoes have gone in both the veg plot and some pots.

The tomatoes aren't too far off being ready for planting on as well - the peppers and aubergines are still at an early stage though - sorting out the greenhouses has to be one of the next tasks on the list.






The fruit cage pretty much takes care of itself - the raspberries and strawberries are promising a bumper harvest anyway.



Still considering potential approaches to keeping the mice out mind you - there are plenty of strawberries to go round if only they finished one before starting another!

The biggest success story thus far is probably the broad beans - although Martin's Dad did the initial work of bringing these on - that said they seem to be doing very nicely thank you in one of the raise beds, safely tucked away from the bunnies behind a chicken-wire fence!

On the Vine

Just picked our first couple of bunches of grapes from the small greenhouse - both bunches and grapes are a little on the small side, but not bad for a first crop. They've ripened nicely as well, but while sweet enough, they are a bit more pip and skin than anything else.  We'll have to see what we get next year, and perhaps try a spot of wine-making in due course.

Greenhouse, Green Tomatoes

Faced up to the fact that the tomatoes weren't going anywhere - the majority were rotting on the vine rather than ripening - so we cleared them all out of the big greenhouse this evening.  Left the cucumbers in situ - and the trestle has gone back in for onion drying purposes during the day (unfortunately can't leave them in there overnight as they may well sweat under glass in the cooler night air).

Did manage to 'rescue' a fair number of green tomatoes that hadn't gone over yet - pictured here on the windowsill (next to our newly fitted windows*).  They've all been rinsed, and once they've dried properly, we'll consign them to a box or something to ripen them properly before they make the sauce pot.




*We've just had the rest of the windows done - we had some replaced last year when the porch was fitted - so we've now got a matched set.  The new windows also have much better double-glazing, so hopefully we won't get quite so much condensation in the coming months!