Fruits of Our Labours

It's been a beautiful weekend - could have been June rather than April today. The garden is looking lovely, the daffodils have for the most part given way to tulips, and the magnolia is looking absolutely beautiful. Around the lawn there are lots of cowslips and violets as well, and any day now the azaleas will start coming in to bloom.


We were intending to put in another veg plot this weekend, having decided that we wouldn't be doing anything major with the fruit plot (as we thought we'd left it all a bit late to get hold of some raspberry canes.) However, Martin's folks turned up on Saturday with 10 raspberry plants, and sorting out the fruit plot became a matter of urgency.

Martin built the frame for the plot that afternoon, while I moved one of last year's raised beds to make more room. Today we finished de-turfing, levelling, and planting it up - the raspberry canes on one side, and two blackcurrants, two gooseberries, and a blueberry on the other. The 'fruits of our labours' are pictured below, and hopefully in due course we will see some real fruits, although probably not that much this year . . .

We're still in the process of finishing the central path area - this is being filled (gradually) with stones taken out of the various vegetable / fruit plots. Also planning to move the strawberry plants into this plot from their current raised bed. Need to add some stakes for the raspberries as well.

Last year we actually had two apple trees in this area; we moved these a few weeks ago and have started the process of espaliering them. They seem to be coming along ok - at any rate they're about to come into bloom, so hopefully we'll see an apple or two. Bought a desert cherry tree as well, although that's nowhere near flowering just yet.

To end on a flowery note, here's some apple blossom . . .

Early Birds

Found this little chap wandering round the back garden this Easter weekend. He (or she I suppose) is a little early this year (last year's chick wasn't seen till early May). It can't really fly yet, but seems to be managing ok at the moment.

Speaking of early birds I saw the first Swallow of the year the same day, although it's still pretty quiet on that front at the moment - no swooping gangs round the house just yet.

Finally something I meant to blog earlier this year, a rather bold Robin, enjoying the retail experience at the Coed y Dinas store in Welshpool:

Potting On

Our growing season actually started a while back - 8 March to be precise - when the first tranche of potatoes went into three of the big pots we'd bought, and the tomato (plum and cherry), broccoli, chilli, pepper, sweetcorn, butternut squash and cucumber seeds went into trays on the kitchen windowsills.

Now, we're at the stage where most of the young seedlings have been potted on, into the large greenhouse, and the second tranche of potatoes have been planted up into the other three pots (as of the 21 March) in the small greenhouse (soon to be moved to the outside world).

The first potatoes are actually on their way up - time for another layer of compost from the looks of this photo - the idea being that as they grow we layer upwards until we get to the top of the pot. Hopefully this will give us our first crop of potatoes in early June, with the second tranche following a couple of weeks later, then the later crop from the veg plot itself, which as yet remains unplanted (just making sure we miss any late frosts).

Still pondering where some of the stuff is going - and the possibilities of a fruit cage remain a matter of debate - we've only changed our minds three times thus far. More updates to follow . . .

Growing Panes

Time for that garden update - starting with the greenhouse situation.

With the acquisition of Greenhouse No. 3 came the dilemma over where to put it. The small square section of garden off to one side seemed the obvious place, and disposing of the hedge opened up the space considerably. (We did decide subsequently that Greenhouse No. 2 may now be surplus to requirements, and that since it is all nice and new and in its boxes, we'd leave it there for now - we can then decide at the end of the season whether we need it or not, and sell it on if we decide not.)

Mid-March saw a nice run of Spring weather and the ideal opportunity to get the glass in to the 'new' greenhouse.

We had a few panes missing, but managed to scavenge a fair bit from the old lean-to greenhouse that we used as a cold-frame last year - ended up buying 3 or 4 bits in the end. Martin's Dad helped out and it all went up over the course of a Sunday and Monday afternoon.

Greenhouse No. 1 had been looking a bit sorry for itself for a while as well. Some rotten base timbers, and glass covered in moss and slime mould. So Martin treated it to a bit of a face lift, taking all the glass out and cleaning it, and renewing the wooden base before putting it all back together again.

Another weekend saw some fresh earth from the compost heap dug into both greenhouses, and just today Martin finished reconstructing one of the trestle tables we were given with Greenhouse No. 3 and moved it into place, and connected the new greenhouse drainpipe to the water barrel. (You've probably gathered by now that Martin has been rather busy - he did the lion's share of it anyway, with a little help from his friends . . .)

Here's an inside shot of the large greenhouse with its table (you can just see the barrel outside), and all the pots it will be my task to pot our seedling 'on' into.

All in all it's gone really well, we now have two shiny greenhouses, all ready for the new growing season. Next time, a bit more info on what is going in them . . .

Let Sleeping Piglets Lie . . .

Must blog about the garden soon (watch this space), but couldn't resist putting up something on the piglets we saw at Llanerchaeron today.

Llanerchaeron is our local National Trust property, which we usually visit two or three times a year - mostly to wander the walled gardens, and the old farm buildings, which usually host some livestock.

Today we were checking out the fruit cage there as we are planning one of our own. But there were lots of daffodils out in the garden as well - and a really interesting 'frilly' specimen in one of their greenhouses, as pictured on the left.

The highlight of the visit was

however the piglets of varying sizes. From the very small, sleeping in the sun next to Big Mama, to some independent scaredy pigs who kept running inside the sty when we walked past, to the largest, which were somewhat restive rattling around looking for food.

What really caught our eye though were these snoozing babies (pictured below), who achieved a near pyramid formation by the time we left. Sleeping on the outside is obviously unpopular - we watched one move off the end and position itself on top of its siblings, to be followed by the new outsider, who went for the inside top position. Meanwhile, the others snoozed on apparently undisturbed!

Weather I Should Blog . . .

Not been the best blogger of late, and must admit that the weather thing had got rather boring - so moving to a monthly summary, here are the last two months, pictorially, and from the weather station record (temperature only). *

*The latter suffers from a small glitch - somehow lost all my data from 26th January to 6th February.

On the whole not a bad couple of months, and we're having some lovely Spring weather just now (more info at the end of March - presuming I get round to it!)

JANUARY:

FEBRUARY:

. . . In With The New

To complete the story - as of Monday I am now a full-time Civil Servant. Was promptly shipped down to Cardiff for induction sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Found out a lot I didn't know about the Welsh Assembly Government (and how it is different from the National Assembly of Wales), and really enjoyed seeing inside the Senedd, a great eco-building, and a fantastic piece of architecture, particularly the way the Debating Chamber or Siambr is embedded in the mushroom stalk like feature.

Enjoyed Cardiff too - was booked in to the Big Sleep hotel (really good value, B&B for £50 a night), and got a free upgrade to the Executive Suite - I've never stayed in an Executive Suite before!

Not that the Big Sleep is that posh - but in addition to the bedroom, there was a lounge (pictured - great wallpaper eh?!), kitchenette, and the en-suite bathroom had a jacuzzi bath. The views (from the 10th floor) out over Cardiff were also fantastic, especially at night:

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my new role as Archives Development Adviser - and the opportunity to work more closely with the archival profession in Wales. The journey home also brought one final delight - a sudden cold snap brought snow over the Brecon Beacons - not enough to delay the journey, but it did look beautiful: