At last, construction of the new raised bed area can be considered complete! The final task of shifting 4 tonnes of slate chippings with a spade and wheelbarrow is finished. It took a little longer than I had originally expected but the results are exactly what I wanted. The pressure is now on to make …
I realise that it’s been some time since the last blog update. This is despite a temporary and unplanned change in my employment status which, as it happens, came at a very good time with so much to do. Luckily right now it’s a blustery, showery Sunday afternoon so I can happily come inside for …
Finally the new raised veg beds are nearing completion but the remaining work is probably some of the hardest. The timber for the outside edges on the paths is still to be delivered at some point but in the meantime yesterday was another exciting delivery day. After much deliberation and indecision, I decided to use …
Rhubarb Forcing Both rhubarb varieties seem to be doing well – the Stockbridge Arrow is lagging slightly behind the Champagne but that may help to spread out the (limited) harvest. I don’t want to force these excessively in case the plants suffer as a result so I won’t be picking too much from each plant. …
There is a growing feeling that we are almost through the short days and long dark nights of winter. The time is almost here to focus on planning for the coming year, drawing up a planting plan and trying to get one step ahead before everything starts growing again. I’m ready for the late burst …
Continue reading ‘Trying to get ahead of the game or just impatient for spring’ »
I couldn’t help myself this morning, I spotted on Twitter that there was a one day 30% off promo code (TWITTER30) with SeedParade.co.uk (@SeedParade) so I figured I might as well give them a try this year. I’ve not used them before but they seem to have a fairly good selection (although no seed potatoes). The deal …
Despite having started constructing the raised veg beds back in October, further progress has been a little slow due to the high number of distractions in the intervening months. One thing is becoming very clear since we moved here, it’s all too easy to find yourself with many projects started but none fully completed! With …
As it turned out, the end of 2013 also coincided with the end for a couple of spare cockerels from the clutch of eggs that hatched during the summer. Perhaps not the most celebratory of starts to New Years Eve but the job needed to be done. While still not a pleasant task, the steps …
It didn’t take long after moving in for us to realise that having such a large expanse of lawn would be far too time-consuming every week even with the industrial grade petrol mower we bought. We could have just bought a ride-on mower and tackled the problem in that way but I preferred an alternate …
The recent period of rain has been very welcome and luckily we’ve not had quite as much here in the North Pennines as some other areas of the UK. The time is flying past and given all these excellent growing conditions I knew it was probably time for another general vegetable update Watching the rainwater …
Continue reading ‘Time flies, carrot flies and cabbage white butterflies’ »