Summer. It's a lovely day in Wales.

Some days I don't know why I bother getting out of bed.
It's raining, cold, and feels like Autumn. It's August. The garden is either waterlogged and dying, or being eaten by vast armies of slugs that even the 2 visiting hedgehogs can't control. The plants need sun, and warmth.

A bit blurry, but that is the smaller of the 2 who come visiting. I hope it's the same 2 we released after winter care, back in May. If so, then they're doing well. 
I'm sitting here in jeans, thick socks, boots, and I have a jumper on, and I'm still cold! I refuse to put the heating on. It's August.
Global warming? This is the reason I really don't like that phrase. I know it applies to an overall picture covering many years, but this doesn't feel "warm" in any way. What happened to summers where you roasted and retreated indoors because it was too hot? What happened to beaches and sandcastles, without rain coats and flasks of hot chocolate....
On top of all that, I'm job hunting and this morning's emails brought a slew of rejections. Not shortlisted, unsuccessful.... Sigh.
Some days a positive attitude is very hard to maintain.

A hen house for £30.

The scaffolding is gone, the drainpipe has been reattached, the TV signal is back (blocked by the scaffolding), and the roofers asked if I wanted any more pallets, and could I use the broken ridge tiles?
Oh Yeah!
The broken ridge tiles are a curved, half cylinder piece - not intact but still plenty of room and curve on the large bits I kept. I'm keeping them for a pond project, they'll be fab for wildlife hidey holes near the edge of the pond. Might put some in the hen run for fun too.
Why are you laughing? Hens like fun too! I've had hens before and they do enjoy different height things to scratch round and peck at, and it helps them establish a strong flock pecking order. Different levels of things in the run also helps them keep their feet out of the mud when it rains.
Today is the first day of the summer holidays, the kids are at home - or out with friends, or being anti-social in their bedrooms.... and the sun is shining. Time to get out the power tools and get cracking with the hen house. I'd already placed the roof tiles and batons but not fixed them into place.

Three supporting batons running from the tall side by the fence to the lower side over the nest box, with 2 pieces of overlapping reclaimed roof membrane for extra waterproofing and insulation over those, and then 4 batons running across the supports to hold the tiles in place.
A recent trip out produced a length of guttering and a drainpipe that I can cut to size and fit to stop the tiles dripping onto the nest box. The drainpipe will take rainwater from the roof down into a container for the hens to drink.

It's not the size I was looking at getting but it was free! I'll need to find, or buy, the clips to fix the guttering and pipe in place, and a connector bit to fit the pipe to the gutter. But that'll happen at some point before the run is attached, after the wood preserving stain goes on. In the meantime I'm working on the roof, and then the back of the house - which is still open and needs a door - and the ramp.

The featherboard cladding is going on round the edges of the roof, with mesh cut from a reclaimed trampoline net being used to fill the gaps for ventilation - hens need plenty of ventilation.
The roof is really working, and I've been irrationally pleased with it. Having put the tiles in place to protect the membrane and batons, the inside of the house is staying nice and dry, apart from the back, which is open. But, it works, it really works, and I made it! I'm loving the lack of expenditure too.
Costs so far:
Screws and other fittings = about a tenner I think, might be £15. I've sourced everything as cheaply as possible and haven't kept definite track of the cost of each piece so far.
The wood preserving stain was £5.99 and was bought for the pallet planter project, but with other jobs in mind.
So, about £20ish so far, and I don't think I'll need anything other than the gutter fittings to finish the hen house. Those should be about another £10 if I get them new.
£30 for a spacious, solid, posh-looking, hen house? That'll do nicely.

Fifteen pallets and some chipped roof tiles.

The roof is done, the scaffolding is still here, and the less said about corporate incompetence and lack of communication the better. The gas is back on. Don't ask.
So, on a positive note, the roof is finished and I hope the scaffolding will be gone next week. Stacked up in the back garden I have fifteen pallets, and a pile of slightly chipped roof tiles.
I'm thinking about the chicken coop. Did I ever tell you about that? No?

A whole pallet for the house floor, supported on sections of pallets cut to size, with reclaimed fence posts to add corners and structure for the upper section of the house. The idea is that the hens will have some shelter under the house for their food and water, with paving slabs for a drier area, to shelter from the weather. We have rather a lot of weather in Wales...

The sides are reclaimed board from a broken fence panel given to me by my next door neighbours at the back. And this is where it stalled last year when the weather got the better of me, I ran out of supplies, and one of the cats became rather expensively unwell with long term implications to boot!

This is where it is today. It's all got overgrown, but the supplies are there to get on with the next stage. I'll be putting the roof on next, seeing if I can fix the hatch panel for the back - for cleaning and access for checking the hens. It also needs wood stain and preservative painting on - I have plenty left from the pallet planter project. Then I can think about the run.
It's all reclaimed and reused wood - the base is a whole pallet, the sides are fence posts and pieces of fence panel, and the roof will be roof tiles. The run, which will be attached - I can't have free ranging hens here - will be more pallets. In the end I will have to have bought the hardware - screws, nails, hinges, handles etc - and some wire mesh to cover the run sides and top.
I'm thinking about how I might add a strip of guttering to the hen house roof, and if that could run into a drinking trough for them? Fresh rainwater every time it rains, could be fab! But what to do if it overflows? Obviously, if it doesn't rain I can just take a watering can and fill it up... But if it goes all monsoon on me, as it does through the year at irregular intervals, will it flood the chicken run? Could I just angle the drinking part so it overflows outside the run? This will require more thought and planning!
I think I should be able to get a length of guttering and the fittings to do the hen house, and the shed - to go into a water butt - for not a lot of expense.
I think it'll be far too late to add hens this year by the time I'm done, but next Spring!

Finally getting on with the garden.

We've been here over three years, and the garden has been neglected. I've mowed the grass, clipped the edges and the hedge, sort of, but not much else. I started to dig out space for growing but the weather got in the way, and there is all sorts of rubbish just below the surface - every time I put in the fork it came up with plastic, lino, pieces of metal, glass, wire... even the still recognisable base of a cooker, with electrical wires hanging from it. Nails, corrugated plastic, carpet... You get the idea, it's soul destroying to spend hours working on it only to have a full bin and barely any ground cleared.I've told you about it many times before. It seems to be getting better, slowly. The more I dig, the more rubbish I remove, the better it gets. It's hard work, but it's getting there.
Today, the sun shone, the breeze was cool, and I ended up home alone all day - this seems to be a frequent occurrence lately.
Job 1: Fill the second veg bag-bed and sow something. Half dehydrated coir compost and half multi-purpose compost, mixed together with some from my compost bins - which are full now and I'm waiting for them to do their thing and make more for me to use. It takes time, compost, but it's like black gold to a gardener.
I sowed a mixture of pea seeds in three rows - one at each end and one in the middle. Then I scattered a mix of carrot seed in between the pea rows, and stuck some twiggy sticks in for protection from the cats, and for support when the peas grow.
Job 2: Relocate the big daisy things that are outgrowing the temporary pot I put them in when I was given them in Autumn last year. I meant to get them in the ground in Spring, honest.
There's a half empty flower bed toward the back of the garden and it took about an hour to clear it of weeds, turn over the empty part and pop in the daisies, along with the pink hardy geranium, a small primrose, and a random cornflower. I scattered some flower seeds around there as well, you never know... If they all come up there should be a riot of colour down there. That bed already has lavender, rosemary, some daffodils (all gone now), some blue bell like things (not bluebells, might be some sort of cultivated harebell) and some BIG, LOUD, flowers - think they're gladioli. I'll get some pics when they flower.
Job 3: Get the roses out of their temporary pots and into the ground. One from last summer - might be a red or a white, I can't remember and I lost the label! That one is in the bed I was working on in Job 2.
The other 2 roses are from March this year, I got them for my birthday. One is a sort of lilac-y blue, and the other is orangey-red. I've put one by my gooseberry bush, and the other at the end of the veg bed where I've started putting pumpkins, courgette, and squash. Both are by the main garden path, and I've lost the labels for those too, so I have no idea which is which.
And now I'm aching and tired. Cuppa?

Hedgehogs in the garden

Last November I found a hedgehog in my garden. It was at night, and the hog was happily foraging through the overgrown mess that is my garden. Someone mentioned it was a bit late for hedgehogs to still be active, they should have started to hibernate by then, and maybe the hog needed some food.
I googled to find out what i could feed my garden visitor and found out loads of information, including the notion that hedgehogs under 650g won't survive hibernation and won't live until Spring.
I caught and weighed the hedgehog. barely 300g.

Off it went to a local rehabilitator - don't try to just keep one in your shed or anything, get help from someone trained to care for wildlife. You can find help local to you here: britishhedgehogs.org.uk
This one, a male, turned out to need vet help with a bad dose of worms, as well as feeding up through the winter.
The night after I sent the male off for expert care, another one turned up! A female this time, a bit heavier but still not big enough - so she went off too, to the same person.
Winter got cold, Spring arrived with cold, frost, and all sorts of weather. Then Easter happened.
Eventually, in May, I got the call! The hedgehogs were passed as fit and well and ok to come home.

Both were released into the garden, on separate nights so they could each find their own territory.
Now it's July, just, and I've seen a hedgehog in the garden a few times. There's only one at a time, but most nights there's one cleaning up under the bird table, coming for a drink from the bowl I keep out on the garden for my cats, and helping with the veg slug problem - much less of a problem with the night-time visitors.
Last night, I went out to deal with slugs round my courgettes and there was a hedgehog wearing a (not very) fetching orange necklace....
It had got its' head caught in a loop of this stuff:

Just a single square, over the hedgehog's head, caught on the spines. The plastic didn't seem to be cutting in, wasn't tight, just stuck. Left alone it would have caused a big problem, probably have been fatal - after all the time and effort put into saving the 2 hogs, I wasn't about to risk that! On with the gardening gloves, out with the scissors and I scooped up the hog, snipped the plastic and eased it off. The hog looked unharmed so I left it curled up on the grass where I could keep an eye on it, near bowls of food and water. Then I carried on with the slug mission! By the time I'd got to the veg patch and looked round, the hog had gone.
I'm assuming it's ok, but I'll be looking out for it tonight to be sure.
Please, folks, be careful when you dispose of rubbish, so many things we throw away can do so much harm to our wildlife. Hedgehogs are already declining, please don't be in a hurry to see them gone completely.

Making a High rise bug hotel

I love my garden. I've always made sure I have flowers, especially those that attract bees and other pollinators and beneficial insects.My foxgloves are just bursting into flower, and they're enormously tall this year. There are some big, ornamental, daisies by the fedge. There are lawn daisies, dandelions, and buttercups, in my lawn. My comfrey has been flowering. The fruit bushes have finished flowering, and so have the apple trees.
I have plants growing that will flower later, or next year. There are 2 clematis - one with small, pale blue flowers, and another with larger, darker flowers. The pale one will flower soon, the darker one only just went in the ground so who knows this year! There's a recently acquired honeysuckle, which may or may not flower this summer. The geraniums, one pink, one blue, are establishing themselves but won't have many flowers. The herb garden only just went in, so not much there either.
Slowly, it is developing into a vibrant, colourful, garden.
I saw a project for building a HUGE bug hotel from a pile of pallets. The one I saw had hedgehog homes at the base, stacks of rotting wood, layers of dead leaves, piles of bamboo canes, and used several pallets.
I don't want anything that big.
I started by prowling my pile of mostly dismembered pallet bits. If you're working with pallets, it's always worth keeping the unused bits for a while. You never know when inspiration may strike!

Stage one: Find, or make, a frame for the bits to go in. 

I used this part of a pallet, but you can use, or build, whatever size or shape you want - just remember you will need to fill it with stuff for the bugs to live in. You'll see what I mean in a moment. I screwed a plank taken from another pallet to one side - providing a back to contain the filling, and as the plank was longer than the pallet section it would also provide a means of attaching the finished hotel to the fence.

Stage 2: Stuff it with stuff. 

You can see the top of the back plank poking out at the top there, and there's a bit at the bottom too. You can place your backing however you want depending on how, and where, you intend to place the hotel. I wanted to fix mine in place so it can't fall over, so I left a bit for that.
Make a variety of fillings from dead stuff you have round the garden - dead, dry, sticks, dead leaves, grass, anything like that. You'll also need some holes - so bits of bamboo cane, or wood with holes drilled in are all perfect.The more variety of fillings - potential homes -you can put in, the more different insects you'll get.
I stuffed mine with some straw, sticks collected from the garden, a block from my pallet bits pile - with assorted holes drilled into it, cut bamboo canes, and some dead leaves and grass - again gathered from the garden. The canes were old, broken, ones from the shed - sawn to fit with the open ends facing front so solitary bees and other insects may find them appealing. Don't try to clip canes with secaturs or they collapse and split! You want the little tubes for insect homes. The block of wood with the holes was fun! I took my cordless drill, a pack of wood drill bits, and just made holes in different sizes. Some of the sticks needed to be snapped or sawn to fit nicely.

Stage 3: Placing.

Place your bug hotel close to where you want your pollinators - if that's why you're making one. That's the exact reason for mine so the hotel is fastened to the fence post at the end of the block wall in my garden - next to my apple trees and near my veg beds. You can put yours wherever you like, but bear in mind that like all wildlife, insects are more likely to move in if they can be undisturbed most of the time. Don't go poking it until your residents have had time to settle in, and even then, don't disturb them if you want them to stay.
Have fun!

From Pallets to Planting

Remember the small allotment? When something is 10 mins drive away, you think, it's close enough, I can do that..... Then there are a million and one other things you could be doing instead, and your own back garden is horribly neglected, and so is the (lovely idea) small allotment.
We gave it up when they asked for rent again this year.
I went up and pulled most of the surviving onions and leeks, dug up some of the strawberries, salvaged the compost bin, retrieved the canes, and decided the rest was a dead loss and wasn't worth the effort.
Then Operation Garden could begin!
The trouble with my garden is that it is packed full of rubbish. Electrical wire, bits of cooker, chunks of lino, fragments of polystyrene, shattered corrugated plastic, shards of glass, tin cans..... I looked at the fork, the spade, this was why I agreed to the allotment.
Raised beds, or containers, of some sort seemed the way to go. I ordered 4 of these, which are absolutely fab - but look a bit like I've had a load of sand delivered. They're not the prettiest things, but will be functional and will look better once I have plants growing in them.
Then I looked at the broken pallets I have stacked by the shed.

That's a heavy blue one, given to me already broken. All of one side, and most of the other, is missing, leaving the frame intact.

I stapled weed suppressing fabric to the side with a bit more support, leaving the more open side as the top. If I box in the sides, then I'll have a nice large planter, a bit like this one, but bigger...

That one was half a pallet with the top planks taken off and put on the sides and ends to box it in. It's filled with a freely draining, not particularly nutritious, compost, and planted with herbs. It looks, and smells, lovely as they perk up after being planted.
I boxed in the sides of the blue pallet to make my planter. Then I wondered if the other pallet in similar condition was the same size!

A perfect match, ish, mostly... Close enough! The 2 pallets stacked like that gives me 2 planting spaces about a foot deep with a support across the middle where I can lean while working on planting, weeding, etc. So I boxed in the rest of the sides.
I pulled planks off the top pallet, and other pallets I had in the garden, and used those - cut to length by eye and screwed into place using 2 inch screws - again, placed by eye and not evenly as the screws needed to bite into the best bit of wood available - not always in the same place.

Boxing in finished. It's not the neatest, but I'm proud of it. The planter is solid and sturdy.
So far - pallets scrounged for free, a pack of weed fabric and 2 packs of 2 inch screws from the Poundshop. Total cost so far: £3.00.
It looked a bit rough, and someone on an allotment group on Facebook suggested wood stain.

Now doesn't that look better?
And there's the bag-veg-beds behind it. See what I mean about looking like the aftermath of a sand delivery?
Woodstain from Home Bargains, dark oak, water based: £5.99 for a HUGE tub, that I've barely touched.
Total cost: £9, and some time and energy, and plenty of stain left to do more stuff.
Tools used:
Hammer and big chisel thing - for dismembering the pallets, removing nails.
Saw
Cordless drill - with drill bit to suit the screws, and screwdriver bit.
Paintbrush - whatever size you like, I used a 2in brush as it was the first one I laid hands on!
Now I just hope my compost bins have been busy and I have enough compost....
Additional cost: About £6 in dehydrated compost from B&M to use as filler....

'Shroom update, and other growing news.

I have little, tiny, baby, barely visible but there... Mushrooms!

I know, you can barely see them, but those little white dots are actual tiny mushrooms, and more are appearing every day. I've never managed to grow mushrooms before, I'm quite excited. I'll keep you posted as they grow, and I'm considering getting a box of the chestnut ones next time I'm in Poundland, which may be slightly mental as I'm the only person here who eats them. But it's fun.
In other gardening news, we have pumpkins growing nicely after a slow start.

We've been using toilet roll inners as bottomless pots for carrot, beetroot, and parsnip. We've done that before and had good results. The seedlings in the pic below are, from the back, Carrot (purple haze), Beetroot (Perfect 3), and Parsnip (Tender & true). They're not ready to go up to the allotment yet, but are outside now, growing well.

We're off to the allotment this afternoon, with this lot to plant out, and armed with fork and hoe for weeding, and more spuds and onions to go in. We're putting half the courgettes up there today, and a few tomatoes, to see how they do. The broad beans need to move as their roots are now trying to escape the pots at the bottom. We also need to put some netting, or something, over the plants up at the allotment so they might survive long enough to produce something we can eat! We're repurposing an old trampoline enclosure. The mesh is tight enough to keep pests out, but should let rain and sun in. We're going to give it a go anyway.

The first French bean is just emerging, and we're hoping for more over the next few days. No peppers are up yet, but I seem to remember they take ages to germinate. And, we got given some cucumber plants. I've never had any success with cucumbers, but they're fun and it's always worth trying again. The cucumbers need to stay indoors, on a windowsill, in full sun for most of the day. They're doing well at the moment, looking strong, and we'll see how they do.
I'll take the camera with me this afternoon and update with allotment pics tomorrow, probably...
Enjoy the sun!

Paper potters, seedlings and digging.

For Christmas I got a large version of the Paper Potter. I've had the original for years and it's brilliant, but sometimes I need a pot that's just a bit bigger. Now I have potters in 2 sizes, and this makes me happy. Armed with the large potter, a pile of newspaper, and some seedlings in need of potting on, I set to work. And the pots stuck on the potter, the wood was just a bit rough, unlike the original which was smooth and perfect straight out of the box. I dug out some furniture wax, and gave it a polish and that did the trick, the pots then slid off and stayed whole. I only made about a dozen, just enough for today, but they worked out well.

The gardener's delight tomatoes were ready to be split and potted on from the seed tray, so they went into paper pots. But the tigrella tomatoes aren't big enough to handle yet, they need another week or 2. The sprouts haven't germinated as well as I'd hoped but there were enough decent seedlings to pick 6 nice healthy looking ones to pot on.

The courgettes are in plastic pots, they need a much bigger pot! There are 3 long yellow, 4 long green and 3 round green, plants. I wasn't expecting them to do so well! I may still lose some to slugs and other things, but they're all looking well at the moment while they harden off outside.

They, and everything else, need to be much larger and more robust before they go into the allotment.The allotment site is quite exposed, a bit higher up than my house, and fairly windy. All this growing is happening at home for now, while we get the allotment ready and the plants bigger. Having said that, we have got 2 rows of potatoes, 2 rows of onions, a row of carrots and almost 2 rows of peas up there so far.
Rhubarb at the allotment isn't doing well, but the crowns in the garden here seem to be thriving, along with the other fruits. Pic below, rhubarb at the back, stick of a gooseberry hiding in the middle, tayberry at the front. Unlikely to see much, if any, fruit this year, but next year...

The other fruit bed at home has the black and red currant bushes and the raspberries - and that one is much greener! Should see some fruit from that this year, and even more next year.

It's getting there!

Sowing

Today the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the year is ticking away. This morning was grocery shopping and the cupboards are now full again. This afternoon was dog walking, and the sun was warm, the breeze not biting and the trees are bursting into green.
What else could I do but dive into the shed when I got back, pull out the seed trays and seeds and sow some!

• 3 varieties of courgette - round green, long green, and long yellow.
• Pumpkin - Jack O'Lantern: a smallish variety I've grown before. Not too big and does well, usually, not sure how it'll do here!
• 2 varieties of tomato - Tigrella (stripey!) and Gardener's Delight.
• Sprouts - a red variety.
• Chard - Bright Lights: Multi-coloured.
• Pea - Kelvedon Wonder - but it's an old pack so not sure how it'll do.
• Pepper - not sure what variety, it's a pack of seed I've acquired from somewhere, possibly seed saved at some point.

I've not set carrots to germinate yet, or potatoes, and I'm missing beans - broad and french, not sure if I want runners yet. Also need to find window space for parsnips, beetroot, leek and some herbs. And I need to make some paper pots.
It's feeling a bit Spring-like.

Arrival of the compost bins, and a punch bag

A quick round up...
It rained, a lot, again. The sun shone, a bit, on the wrong days when we had to be out doing stuff and couldn't be in the garden or up at the allotment. The cats got spayed, and the stitches came out today. Shadow really doesn't like the vets - hissing and taking swipes at anyone who came close while we were there and then fine once we were home again. Tabs was fine, placid and friendly. More on the cats another day.
Plants and seeds are gathering for the garden and allotment, and the fedge is starting to grow, as are the currants and raspberries - lots of new canes there! I must get out there and take some more pics, set up supports for the raspberries, and get on with planting some seeds if I want to stand any sort of chance of growing anything other than weeds! And the new apple trees are trying to flower and the leaves are starting to come through. I love this time of year.
And I need to get the composting going as the weather warms up so any compost heap or bin I have is working as it gets filled. With that in mind, we took a trip to get 2 cheap compost bins from the local council - most councils do them, go and ask, or look online, it's really very easy. Here, we had to pick up a voucher and take that to one of the main Household Waste and Recycling centres to collect the bins. They're nice and big, 330l, and look like black daleks. One is staying at home, in the garden, an the other will go up to the allotment eventually. The one in the garden is being filled slowly with kitchen waste, torn cardboard and paper, and some garden waste. Times like this, I really miss my chickens - their bedding, and associated poop, made the most amazing compost.
Anyway, while collecting the bins, we spotted a storage unit stacked with stuff people had thrown away, but  was still perfectly good. Why do people do that? We managed to pick up a game (shh, don't tell my kids, it's hidden for now, might tell you about it later, if it's any good!) and a punch bag for my lad, who wants to do more fitness stuff at home. My allotment buddy found herself a thigh trainer/stepper thing, and while we were there someone was loading up with a weights bench and full set of weights. There were books, bikes, sofas, shelves, guitars, toys, exercise equipment... all sorts of useful things, just thrown away.
People, really? Come on, use your local Freecycle, or Freegle, or a list on Facebook, or donate to a charity, don't just throw it away.

Digging Over

About a month ago, I got a share of a small allotment. A friend and I both want to grow some of our own veg and neither of us would put in the time to maintain a full allotment if left on our own. But together we might keep each other going. Since then the weather has been horrid. There were the storms, and torrential rain, and flooding, and we haven't been able to get up there to do anything with it.
Today the sun shone and we had an hour to spare so we took spade and fork and started to turn it over.
It's just one raised bed, but a decent size and there's a gravel space beside it where I can park my car. Handy! The small bed in front of it is ours too, and there's another to the side - not sure if that's ours as well but I can't see why not.Thinking of putting peas or beans in the smaller beds and other veg in the main one.

Someone's started clearing the bed, they'd got about half way before we took it on. The soil's a bit on the heavy side but it's dark and crumbly, and once it's all turned over it'll be lovely to work with. Right now, it's mostly weeds and roots and turning over in large clods.
There's plenty of space and there should be room for a few potato plants, a pumpkin or 2, some carrots, onions, leeks, beetroots, chard, courgette and sprouts. Not many of each, but it's the variety that's wanted.

It's a bit early for sowing seeds, and far too early to be planting in the ground. The allotment site is very exposed, cold and wet, so I'll be starting veg off at home and hardening plants off thoroughly before planting out up there.
Today was clearing and digging over, and between the 2 of us we dug for just under an hour and managed to clear and turn close to a half of the space. It will all need turning and breaking up again, probably a few times before we can plant anything, but we have time to get that done.
We should be able to clear the last section next time we go, and then start turning it all again.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow and Friday, I think I might find my seed trays and lids and give them a wash.

Fedge planning

In my garden I have three willow trees. One is large and good for climbing. One is smaller and just pretty. The last is a mess. It's been coppiced at some point and then allowed to get overgrown so there are a few branches in the heart of it that have grown thick and now it's too big and looks a mess.
My garden is also lacking any sort of decent fence or boundary. There's a mess of cobbled junk on one side, and part of a broken chain link/wire mesh fence on the other. The end of the back garden is open since the storms blew down the badly patched fence there. It's all wide open. The front garden isn't much better. There's a wall at the front but nothing between us and next door, it's like we have a shared front garden.
Next week the weather is forecast for a couple of dry days.
I have a cunning plan!
If I can trim out the formerly coppiced willow and harvest the stems, then I can start a willow fedge (not a fence, not a hedge!) along the boundary lines. Sturdier stems to form the structure and whippy ones to weave in for strength and solidity as it grows. If the stems take and grow the fedge should thicken and form a boundary like a hedge, but thinner. It'll be good for wildlife, more secure against the wind and rain than a non-living fence, and pretty too. It'll also deal with the mess of a willow.
The only real challenges now are deciding where to start, and finding a decent saw to use!

First day of Spring.

It's the first of March, the first day of Spring, allegedly, and the weather is living up to the day with blue skies and sun. The washing machine is full of bedding, the line is full of drying clothes, and the garden is still sodden. It'll take a long while to dry out to any workable level after all the rain we've had. We've not been flooded, and I'm grateful for that and feel nothing but sympathy for those who have been flooded. But the garden is still swamp-like and there's standing water in places as there's nowhere for it to go. Drainage is very poor.

But, it's my birthday next week and I've wanted apple trees in the garden since we moved here 2 years ago and had to leave my beloved Spartan apple tree behind. This week the kids took me out to choose varieties and we came home with a Braeburn and a Cox, both lovely eating apples but firm enough to cook if we want to. For now they're in large pots until the garden dries out a bit and I decide where I want to plant them.
I have apple trees! That makes me so happy.
My tiny soft fruit patch is expanding as well. Today I trimmed some tangled blackcurrant branches because they would have messed up the bush if I'd left them. Instead of just chucking them I stuck them in the ground. I know it's the wrong time of year, but if they grow then I have 2 more blackcurrant bushes. If they don't then the dead sticks can rot down where they are. It's no gamble really, either I gain bushes, or I lose nothing.
Grabbed a redcurrant bush in Lidl this morning and put that in at the other end of the soft fruit bed. I've wanted redcurrants for ages, just one bush so I have a few for jam making. Redcurrants are fabulous for jam, full of pectin. A handful of redcurrants added to bramble jelly, or strawberry jam will help it set.
The raspberries seem to be spreading nicely too. I have to stake and tie them in soon or they'll collapse when they come into fruit.
There's not a lot of plants there, but the range is slowly growing. We might even have enough mixed fruit this year for home grown jam!

In other garden news, I think my big lavender is dying, but the cuttings in pots are doing well. Two of the rosemary plants died over the winter, but 1 is fine. Also, a few of the bulbs I put in are coming up. I have tiny little daffodils scattered at the far end of the garden.
It's St David's Day, I'm living in Wales, the sky is blue, the sun is shining, and I have daffodils in my garden.
Could it be more perfect?

Allotment

I appear to have half a small allotment.
The garden here is a shallow layer of topsoil over what looks like landfill. It's going to take forever to sort out and will be back breaking to do. And it's semi-permanently swamp-like and flooded. I keep looking at it and planning to dig, clear, and get parts ready for planting, but it never gets done.
Meanwhile, in the next village the community garden has run out of funding and has to make ends meet and they have a set of large raised beds they are renting out as small allotment/veg plots, and a friend and I have one between us. It needs clearing and digging over, but it's big enough to produce some veg this year!
The plan, amongst requests from the kids, is for a few potato plants, lots of carrots, a pumpkin, some onions, sprouts, courgette, garlic, chard, beans, lettuce, and peas. At home we'll grow soft fruits in the garden; peppers and maybe tomatoes in pots. I already have a blackcurrant bush and a few raspberry canes in the ground from last year - need to trim and tie those; and a red gooseberry and tayberry in pots. We've had an offer of a few strawberry plants too.
I'm already looking forward to the sun on my back and fresh produce on the table.

Getting organised.

It's not raining! Yet. The clouds are gathering and the sky is darkening, but it's not actually raining as I type and hasn't been raining since I got up this morning.The evenings are slowly getting lighter and there are spikes of green coming up in a few places. It's not spring, not yet, but the early bulbs are starting to come through.
This morning I have caught up with the laundry and braved the shed - which needs completely emptying and sorting before I put things away in there again. It's a mess, but I wanted my garden fork.
I'm not going to hang the laundry out, the threat of rain is there and the air is too damp for anything to dry or even air properly.
The reason for the shed expedition? In my garden I have 2 lines of raw compost laid as a mulch on the surface in the hope that it will kill off anything underneath and provide the basis of a semi-raised bed. More of a mound than anything more formal, but it's an experiment and it needed forking over to see how it's doing underneath. It's actually doing OK. A light fork through to aerate the mound a bit, mix it up, and I can leave it alone while I add more, and it should be good for late spring planting, I hope. If not, I can skim off the mound into a heap, dig over and plant anyway.
I have, in pots for now, a red gooseberry bush and a tayberry cane and I want to add those to my soft fruits patch which already has a couple of raspberry canes and a blackcurrant bush. All of those will multiply later this year and although I'm not expecting lots of fruit this summer, I should get some.
What I really want is a couple of apple trees, but I need the ground to be less swamp-like before I get them so I can plant straight into the ground where I want them to go. Once I decide where I want them. I say them, but 1 would do if I can find a self fertile variety that tastes good, with a firm, crisp texture. Failing that, 2 to cross pollinate and 2 varieties for eating and cooking. And I want to prune them to a bush, or fan, or something easy to reach and manage.

Planning and Plotting

It's raining. This is Wales, and we live half way up a mountain - it often rains and when it does it settles in for a long stay. At least it's not hail, and the car wasn't frozen this morning. But the garden is sitting under an inch or so of standing water. It's not a serious flood, just saturated ground with a bit of water on top and the surface water is running off down the road. It's just there's a lot of it.
But I'm looking at my garden and it's a massive job to make it work.
There's not much top soil between the grass and the detritus underneath. I started clearing some growing space last summer and it was like digging into a landfill site. The soil is full of bits of metal, recognisable electrical parts, bits of lino and that's before I think about the stones, perennial weed roots and broken glass. It's such a massive job that I really don't want to even start. I've been using a thick layer of raw composting material along the areas where I want the first 2 veg beds in the hope that it will kill off the grass and weeds and make the digging a little bit easier. Or I could leave it heaped up, put in some box sides and make raised beds? I haven't decided yet.
Then last week I heard about the chance to maybe apply for an allotment, to share with a friend. With 2 of us working it we might get somewhere and it would give us growing space while I clear more of my garden for growing at home.
Sounds like a plan!

Round-up 2013

2013, you've been a lot of fun, plenty of change and lots of chaos too. 
Kitchen's done and is such an improvement. The use of space makes it a lovely, family living area.
Bathroom is also done - with a couple of bits that needed tightening or tinkering with, but it's done and looks much nicer than before. Couldn't do a lot with the space as it is what it is.
Still haven't won millions on the lottery....
Kittens are growing, and will need to go and be spayed in the new year, which is in under 24 hours now! Wow, how did that happen?
Christmas came and went, several times. We counted it up, and with various friends and family gatherings we'll have had 5 "Christmases" by the time we're done. Each one with a big dinner, crackers and gifts. I made a gingerbread house! I've never made one before and it was easier than I thought, and tasty too. I want to make a gingerbread Tardis next.
On to 2014 then and I got a Gardening calendar for Christmas and I aim to sort out some growing space in my garden and grow something I can eat. I have seeds for sprouts, carrots, courgette, chard, tomato and lettuce. I don't think the tomatoes will do well here, but the others should do OK. I think I have pumpkin seeds somewhere too, will have to go through and see what I actually have and start planning. I want to be eating things I picked or pulled or dug from the garden. I want to be washing soil off and complaining about slug damage.
2013 was mental, mad-busy and chaotic. It was loads of fun too, and there are so many happy times and positives to reflect on. 2014 is starting with the best of intentions and I hope will be better.
I'll keep you posted.