Coppicing - end game!

BEFORE 

AFTER

     This coppicing lark is not a easy as one would believe it to be. There is a lot of skill involved in doing it correctly and I do not believe my attempts were anything but skillful. I now have a lot of hazel wood to cut and store! Least you can now walk past the tree.

Seeds Germinating

   The poly tunnel fleece cloche is doing its job. I took a look at the seeds I planted two weeks ago and hey, I have primo cabbage, batavia lettuce and red baron onion all germinated.  I am sure it will not be long and the peas in the loo rolls will be up! Average temperature in the p/t fleece clouche has been 11C overnight despite temperatures of -2C to -7C outside.
   

Inside the Poly tunnel fleece cloche

  It is easy to forget that it is only the third week in January, however, everything grows so fast here. Next week I will need to go and get my seed potatoes and onion/shallot sets. Looking at last years garden log for number 6 I see that I planted Noirmoutier potatoes on the 19th February. This variety is usually planted during the first week of February so I reckon the Jardin shop should have potatoes in next week. I want to try a different very early variety this year, probably the same first early (Rosabelle) as they were so successful and also plant main crop Desiree. Will I have enough dug garden space I wonder? Umm....

Watermeadows Slideshow

Watermeadows Slideshow: TripAdvisor™ TripWow ★ Watermeadows Slideshow ★ to Campeau de Bas (near Bonnat). Stunning free travel slideshows on TripAdvisor

Hedgerow planting

   Today I started to clear a boundary fence and replace it with "wild" blackthorn. Our major field has a shared boundary and a while back our farmer neighbour cleared his side of the hedge by cutting down the trees and putting up barbed wire.  He left six foot high tree stumps that he attached his wire to. These stumps are already starting to sprout. These would appear to be a normal method of harvesting wood in La Creuse. The stumps will produce more wood over time and if this is continued the tree can survive for fifty years. That left our side with a broken down sheep fence topped with rusty barbed wire and a mass of self sown black thorn bushes. These vary in size from one foot to six foot in height. We had decided that it would be nice to have a hedge and as the blackthorn was already there that was what we decided to use. So, today I made a start. Blackthorn has big needles! I have been clearing out the sheep fence, the barbed wire, brambles, ivy and wild roses. Not to mention the tuffs of grass. The gaps have been filled with blackthorn plants gathered from the field. I must have done about twenty feet! Plenty to go!
  Sowed Early Onward peas into loo roll holders filled with compost and placed in the poly tunnel. This is an attempt to get peas to germinate as last years sowings never appeared. Well, three did! I think wild critters ate them.

Tomato's

     The tomato's have been planted. Sown in modules, x2 seeds per 12 cell module.

x96 Moneymaker, x96 Roma x96 Couer de Beef about 44 Vilma

All placed in the poly tunnel fleece cloche.

Work in the polytunnel

  Welcome to the "Rodger at Champeau de Bas" blog. My aim in writing this blog is to share my experiences in managing and developing my garden at my property, Watermeadows, in Champeau de Bas, France. As well as garden the property is run as a small holding which is managed by my daughter, Sophie and her husband Paul. As time goes by I will show you more pictures of the garden and tell you of my successes and failures.


  The days are still on the short side to work outside and by the time one has got up, had breakfast and done the daily chores it is late morning. Plus it has been raining for what seems like a long long time. Anyway, there are lots of jobs to do and todays job was continuing with edging the poly tunnel (p/t) beds with salvaged oak beams. As you can imagine they were really hard to saw but, hey ho, one persists and the necessary pieces were cut to size and put in place. The looks are "rustic" but effective.The poly tunnel is really taking shape!  


  This picture was taken after yesterdays efforts and does not do justice to the finished job!

The sowing season has begun and a major job to do is sow tomato seeds. More on that later.