Its done!

   It has been a busy week. The weather has been good with early frosts most days but once that sun comes over the ridge it is very pleasant indeed.

  So with the nice weather l have taken the opportunity to pretty much finish my bulb bank. In fact I did not have much choice as my grand children bought me boxes of bulbs for Christmas that to have any chance of surviving needed to go in. Believe you me a few beers were consummed over the time of clearing, preparing and planting this area! The most important tool I had once the brambles were removed was a mattock. Used for digging up stones and believe me there were lots of those, breaking up soil and chopping through tree roots it is ideal. I am now eargerly awaiting to see what the bulbs I planted earlier will look like when they flower.

  What else? Well I decided to risk sowing some peas after my youngest grandson asked me if I was going to grown peas. He likes picking and eating peas! I put up some pea netting and sowed a row. I also transplanted a number of Sanquine beetroot plants from the polly tunnel to an outside bed again hoping they will survive any frosts. They should. They are pretty tough!

  Chickens are being chickens with nothing unusual to say about them.

The start 21st November 2020

After clearing and planting 27th February 2021

The Mattock the tool of choice

So changeable...

    The weather changes again! Still a morning frost but the sun is shinning and its warm! Temperatures have hit 19C! So with the better and warmer weather I have more desire to get on with the work in the garden. It has been a busy week. I wonder if I will soon be moaning that the ground is getting too dry?

    My planned onion and shallot bed was cleared, forked, weeded and planted! Stuttgarter Risen and Sturon onion along with Red Sun shallots. A spill over bed was also prepared and planted up with Sturon onion, Champeau banana shallots and Champeau Violet garlic (called Champeau as the sets are the harvest of sets bought last year so are now home grown rather than bought!). I have never planted garlic in the spring before so this will be an interesting experiment. My over winter garlic bed is doing well as are the early purple sprouting which is  now ready to pick. The rhubarb is showing and I have covered it up with manure and some wire to stop the chickens from scratching in it!  The broad beans are growing well and I have hoed and weeded inbetween one half. The other half bed the beans are still small but they are coming along. The early purple sprouting is now ready to pick. The last of the Brussel sprouts are being eaten and all in all I am pleased with the crop. In the poly tunnel Great Lakes lettuce and 18Jour radish sowed and put under a cloche. I have found that early sown lettuce works later I need to buy in plants. Also sown in the poly tunnel Greyhound cabbage.

  I have now more or less completed my attempt at a "no dig" bed and look forward to expanding my population of stawberry plants from runners. Another bed has been forked and weeded and will probably have some early peas sown in it.

  I have bought a new toy! An electric propagator. Never had one before but this year I am determined to grow sweet peppers and probably chili's and so I needed to get them off to an early start. Another interesting experiment!

 Chickens are being chickens and normal maintenance done and an average of 3.25 eggs a day being laid!

Main onion and shallot bed

New toy...electric propagator

Second onion banana shallot and garlic bed

Its freezing!

   The weather has once again been dominating the week. It has been very cold and most mornings there has been a frost. Several days of frost is probably not a bad thing as it will kill off the bugs I do not like! I have been feeding the birds and they really like sunflower seeds. 

   So what have I managed to do? Not a lot but I have managed to do some more work on the bulb bank. The piles of stones on top of the bank have now been moved and added to the path at the bottom. A little more done on the rest of the bank and yes yet more stones some quite big! I speculate that there was some sort of enclosure probably for animals on this patch of ground a very long time ago as there was a very large conifer growing over one part of the wall that I had cut down. Looking ahead to the next few days the weather is warmer, a lot warmer, and dry. This is going to be my opportunity to plant the onion sets and shallots I think!

   Chickens are being chickens with egg productin remaining at an average of four a day.

Clearing the other half of the bulb bank

My helper

Dull, grey and yes rain

    The weather continues to be wet. Little done again this week. Moved a few barrows of stones to complete the initial laying of the path at the bottom of the bulb bank but that is it! 

At least one layer of stones along the lenght

   I would like to say the weather is getting better but the weather forecast for next week has one day without rain. Hopefully the forecasted rain will be little and maybe just maybe I can get out and get on. Soon be time to plant onions and shallots and the first sowing of carrots and parsnips. Still need to prepare some ground and I will probably sow seeds under clouches to try to protect them a little from the rain. 

   The river is very high and I guess will remain so. Chickens are being chickens and nothing  unusual  going on with them. The bulb bank is now showing a lot of sprouting bulbs so the promise of a really good display is on the cards. Other narcissi are in flower with many more soon to open up. Ought to be picking a bunch in the next few days.

   Here is hoping for some drier weather!

Wet? Blooming soaking!

     I cannot say that I have been busy in the garden this week. One day working on the bulb bank. More stones removed, more bramble roots removed and the path at the bottom of the bank is now marked out to the end. Guess that is better than nothing! The weather has continued to be wet wet wet and the ground is well saturated. The river at the bottom of the property is well up and is just about contained further downstream. So, just to show spring is all but here the first daffidols are in flower. Its a sheltered posistion and this group are usually the first to show. Another job done, just before a likely lock down in France, I have bought seed potatoes, shallots and onion sets. Seed potatoes - Desiree (main crop), BF-15 (cross between Belle de Fontenay (a favourite of mine) and Flava)) second early and Anoe which I grew in 2019 (early). Onions Sturon (firm favourite) and Stuttgarter Risen (because I like a flat onion too!). Shallots are the firm favourite Red Sun. I have also sorted out my banana shallots grown last year and mostly not eaten. I will plant these (variety Mikor and Vigamor now of course Champeau Mikor and Champeau Vigamor but I have no idea which is which!). Few sprouts picked but still no purple sprouting athough there is plenty of promise! Chickens are starting to lay well with now an average of three to five a day. In fact I am unable to eat them quick enough! LOL!

  I am now wishing for drier weather to be able to get on with stuff. I have a big bonfire to light and plenty of preparation work to do. The weather forecast does not look good. Mild but darn it wet!

First daffidols of the year in flower

Seed potatoes onion sets shallots

Dry then wet...

   Typical weather for the time of year in this neck of the woods. The week started off dry and on the mild side ending up with it very wet and cold with frost!

   The milder drier conditions enable me to get out and about and start doing something about my herb beds. They had become very overgrown mainly with grass but also with herbs that to be honest were well past their best. Old thyme plants removed from one bed and mint roots from another. You can bet your bottom dollar the mint will be back! Cuttings taken from my old and well established rosemary tree which really ought to come out now and some planted in a pot in the poly tunnel and some just thrust into the ground where I had cleared the bed. There was a small rosemary, which I believe was from last year cuttings that I transplanted into a new place with the hope it will become the mamma rosemary bush and I can remove my old bush. I have created a new small bed for mugwort (wormwood, artemisia vulgaris - there are many other varities!) and sowed some seed I had. Cleared the wode bed of weeds which will allow the wode plants to thrive (I hope!). In the poly tunnel once more I am trying to grow coriander with more success than I have had before. 2020 seed sown. Yes it is early but experience tells me if I leave it till it gets warmer the seeds will just germinate and the plants bolt to seed.  More sprouts picked but no purple sprouting yet. Getting close!

  Nothing new on the chicken front. No increase in egg laying which is fine by me. 

  Everything is now dependant of the weather and the outlook is for cold and wet. I need to resist sowing in the poly tunnel even though it is mild in there. I will wait till February before sowing some tomato seed which I keep in the house to try to germinate. As ususal the first seeds to be sown in the poly tunnel will be lettuce and radish but that is still a few weeks away!

Marjoram and the lone Rosemary

Old mint and oregano bed

Garlic bed

Forking and weeding a seed bed

Forking and weeding with some helpers

MIDDLE OF JANUARY...

    So here we are in the middle of January. Time to start thinking about sowing some tomato and this year onion seeds and getting ready for the mad rush of sowing other stuff in a few weeks time. I have started to tidy up my poly tunnel which I must admit I have long neglected and now requires some major clean up to be done. There are over wintered beetroot plants in there and I am hoping that they will survive so that I can get an early crop sown.  I had a few leek plants left over from last autumn just heeled in a poly tunnel bed and have now transplanted them amongst my over winter beetroot. I would be happy just to get a few small ones. The poly tunnel fleece is now set up in anticipation of things to come soon. I am also trying to get on with my bulb bank but I do not like working in the cold to be honest but little by little it will get done. A sign that spring is just around the corner. I noticed that my rosemary is all but in flower. Time to take some cuttings! Oh well, nice to be busy! Soon need to go look for seed potatoes and I will be once more looking for a different early and second early potato to plant. Some of the foliage of these potatoes are quite delightful. In the garden the purple sprouting is close to showing its colour and over this winter I have actually managed to pick a reasonable amount of Brussel sprouts. The swede are still in the ground but there are a few that will be worth eating. The leeks have been poor again this winter and I am starting to think why bother?

   The chickens are being chickens and are very interested in the seed and pieces of fat that fall from the bird feeders. I am a little concerned about two of them. One has been having issues with a leg for a while now although I think she is getting better. The other is an elderly hen who I think is having balance issues. I will be watching them both.

Poly tunnel fleece cloche

Rosemary starting to flower