Jewels in the soil

From the title I reckon you can guess I have been digging up my new potatoes. It has been a week since my last visit to the lottie. I have been in London this week on business. The Charlotte's are in flower. Two plants makes a dinner of spuds. I hope that this week I can get up to the lottie and bag some Broad Beans and have a nice supper of fresh spuds and beans. It is simple but delicious.

The transformation since last weekend is startling. Everything is twenty percent bigger than last week. The potato patch is a solid mass of haulms. The Charlotte's are in flower, Purple. The Duke of York's are just coming into flower, White and the Cara main crop are not ready to flower but the leaves are the deepest lush green. The Broad Beans are three foot high and the onions are just keeping ahead of the weeds. Even the brasiccas that were scoffed by the Partridge are racing on.

The carrot and onion patches needed attention. I had bought a special swan necked onion hoe but the weeds were too advanced for light weeding. The rain had loosened the soil so it was relatively easy work if not a little daunting. The odd Carrot that got pulled out was in good health, up to that point anyway. The onions are plumping up nicely but it will be some time before we can enjoyed them. In an area about two thirds of a bed I managed to fill the wheel barrow twice. Just as well the compost bins are mulching down so there is room in the top for more.

I have a few things left in the greenhouse to plant out. I might get a chance to got the lottie one evening this week to prep a planting spot for the weekend. The garden at home is over run with Lettuce. At the moment it is lettuce with everything.
The soft fruits are really on song. The strawberries are still in full flow. The raspberries are staring to get ahead of what we can comfortable eat and the Blackcurrants continue to ripen. It is hard to keep from "testing" the odd one for ripeness. The Fig is making a living but I do not expect any fruit for a few years. The Apple trees are doing very well. The apples are about the size of golf balls.

H is delighted that the hard work clearing the hedges, prepping the soil and building the beds has paid off of so quickly and abundantly. I say it is all down to barrow loads of good quality hos muck.

Happy Birthday

Well despite my prediction, it rained for Miss L's birthday party. I have not been good at predicting the weather in 2008. Never mind we had a great time despite the rain. The rain curtailed the BBQ H had decided that I was going to do. Lucky for all concerned that they were saved that treat. As it happened the food worked out very well. Auntie Sue made a smashing cake for the occasion.

Miss L was delighted that everyone turned out for her especially Uncle Derk and Auntie Teresa.

I did no gardening at all. In fact it was like a holiday. I had the day off work on Friday so Miss L and I could go to the MotoGP practise day at Donnington Park. It was a beautiful day. We saw our hero, Valentino Rossi. We saw his long time rival, Danni Pedrosa dump it in front of us. I dragged Miss L away from the fence and went up to the marshal's post to;
A, See Danni up close. He passed withina foot or so of Miss L as he was be ridden back to the pit by a marshal.
B, to see a GP bike, even a crashed one, up close. It is not often you get to see a two millions pound motorbike.

We walked miles. We checked out in in field shopping areas and the coffee bars. I managed to stay away from the Beer vans but it was a "top" day.



Watch the clip with your speakers turn up to the max and it is only be half as noisy as real life. The clip is of Rossi of coming down the main stright, right into Redgate and disappearing over the brow into Cascades.

I took Uncy Derk up to the lottie to show it off. I had bagged a couple of plants worth of new potatoes on Saturday morning. They are just just coming on stream. The blog could have been called Damson, Damson everywhere but not a drop to drink [with apologise the Coleridge] but the bottles of Damson wine have been taking it in turns to blow off their corks splattering the inside of the shed with fruity wine. During the party we tried a couple of bottles of the home made with predictable results. Before the wine over took us the tasting note were as follows, the Damson wine was really fruity, sparkling but not dry or sweet with a fruity tang at the end, the Apple was very dry but not what you should have after a sweeter, fruity wine. The Pea Pod is still a bit of a acquired taste.

On Sunday everyone was surprisingly bright. We had a nice breakfast and then Uncy Derk let me have a spin on his borrowed Honda. We did not like it. Not enough Horse Power for our tastes. We waved Uncy Derk and Auntie Ter off into the breezy mid-morning air and settled down to a day of doing absolutely nothing. H took Miss L and my Mum & Dad for a spin to Lichfield. It is her favorite town. Apparently Erasmus's garden was in it's full majesty. Click HERE for a link to the website of his house

Be careful what you wish for!

It has been a blowy day. It rained during the night continued with a few blustery showers today and again tonight. I had wished for some rain. I hope the showers are dumping on the lottie as well as my house. The rain will do the spuds good. They have needed a good soaking. But do not worry, it will be nice for the weekend. Miss L always has good weather for her birthday party.

I have been out in the garden this evening. I have tidied up the Greenhouse. I have taken out the big shelf on the right of the greenhouse to give the Tomatoes room and light. I also had a furtle about in the Strawberry patch. I was not on my own. There was lots of Toads hiding under the broad leaves of the Strawberry plants. Here's a few of the berries that lasted long enough to have a portrait but only just!

The Vineyard's Complete

It has been a long dry week and I have been short of time to go the the lottie in the evening. So it was with trepidation I went to the lottie on Saturday morning. I was on trailer duty so I was at the lottie quite early. I was chuffed to find that everything was making a living. I thought the plants would be parched. I was not sure what I was going to do at the lottie this week until I saw the plot. Then it hit me. I decided that I would finish the path at the end of the lottie. It, like the side path, has never been touched since I took up the plot and I had resolved at Christmas to make a vineyard round the edge of the plot. This end had been waiting its turn. The end of the plot has been home to fifty big milk cartons which I used to use to hold the fleece off the seedlings. The cartons, part filled with water, kept the fleece ten inches or so above the plantlets which stopped the fleece beating up the little plants in the wind. I emptied the water out of the cartons and put them in the back of the car. On the return trip with the trailer I spyed a recycling point in Overseal. In one trip I dumped the cartons and the trailer.....result.

I went home to collect a few tools and stock up on breakfast and drinks. The first job at the lottie was to splashed plenty of water about especially on the Potatoes. The wind was blowing gently away from the plot so I decided to take advantage and got a fire going in the trash can. I got a good blaze going. Once it settled down I had a good base fire I piled in all the dried weeds and Brocolli stem and other assorted combustable rubbish and left it to its own devices. I set up my well worn routine, wheelbarrow, fork and bucket for stones all to hand. I put on my Ipod, wide brimmed hat and gloves and set to converting the scruffy end border into to a neat and level path. I went home at one pm for a break and a sandwich. H looked after me. I was a little despondent. Toiling in the heat of the day I had only manged to dig over and weed about half the border. Mind you it was a treat to have H's Elderflower cordial to cool me down. H has found the right measures for the cordial which is sweet yet sharp. I still had the remainder to dig and weed, put in some extra edging , rake and compact the path, loose all the excess soil and plant the two vines. I went back to the lottie about two pm, plugged the Ipod in a again and set to. I had a crisis as I got the last two foot of the bed because it was an awkward space to work in. However I broke it. From then on the work just flowed. I made a raised area which I intend to pave and compacted and graded the remainder of the path. At about five pm I dug out the holes for the last two grape vines and planted them with a bucketful of home made compost.

The vines are Muscat Hamburg which is dual purpose [dessert/wine] red variety. I figured the end of the plot got the Sun for the greatest part of the day so the red grapes would get a sporting chance to ripen. The grapes in I spent the next 45 minutes watering. The white grapes got a dowsing. They have settled in and are growing vigorously. The spuds got another soaking. I allowed myself a few minutes to admire my handy work. Finishing the path was the last "infrastructure" type job that needed doing. On reflection it is something of a milestone. My back was aching but I picked some Timperly Early Rhubarb for H and went home.

Sunday was Father's Day. I got to lie in. Then a cup of tea in bed. Miss L got me a gift and had my breakfast made for me when I finally decided to rise. H made made a full english for me. H has always had trouble with fried eggs. They nearly always end up crispy round the edges and runny in the middle however she is a dab hand at fried bread. Whilst there is fried bread, running yolk, brown sauce and hot tea on the go you won't hear any complaints from me. H was out on Saturday and bought a bunch of books from a local fair. I had just finished reading a book by Dave Crystal "By Hook or By Crook". It was a meander through the Welsh marches by way of India, America, texting, accents in Bees and other animals in search of language, dialects, idioms, Pubs names and the roots of village and towns names. It took me ages to read it. A couple of pages at breakfast, half a chapter at dinner time and here and there when I had a few minutes spare. H met Crystal at a recent seminar to do with her current work and was blown away by his ideas. I just enjoyed the book. I have started another book. One Man's Furrow by Reg Gammon. It is sub-titled "Ninety Years of Country Living". He was born into farming stock in 1894. He was a writer, artist and countryman. He made a name for himself writing for the Touring Cycling magazine and other periodicals. He even went to Galway, Eire in the thirties on cycling holiday. Some of my readers might know why that is important to me. It was an easy read and I finished it Monday evening.

Because it was my day off H decided we should go for a walk. The signs were ominous. H got her boots out, her rucksack, stick and made sandwiches. H said airily that we take a walk to Overseal by way of Donisthorpe, Acresford and Netherseal. That is all well and good but Overseal is a couple of miles from our house and that was supposed to be the end of the walk! It was a nice day and I was still happy about the lottie. As usual after a couple of miles I had to take over the navigation as we went through new territory for us. It was a hot day and a gentle breeze that was very drying. We had to detour round some fields. They grow cows round here and the fields seem to be full of: Bullocks being fattened, they are frisky buggers and would quite happily trample you under foot as they barge about the field. Heifers with a Bull or the old ladies with calves, with or without a bull. In any case beef on the hoof is trouble. It just come in different sizes but they all seem to be brown. H's route manged to miss all the village centres and the pubs found therein. We bent the rules a bit by skirting Overseal and headed for Shortheath, a hamlet that has a beaten up sign that proclaims "The Centre of England". It is only half an hour walk to our house from Shortheath. It was interesting to see the villages from a different perspective.

Monday night a hopped up to the lottie after Tea and did some serious watering and a bit of light hand weeding. The Fat Hen is making a bid at the moment but it is only growing in a small area of bed 3. Odd but never mind.

Mummy Rat and Daddy Rat

I was on poo trailer duty this week so I was out early on Saturday morning. The sun was up and it already had the makings of a very warm day. The jockey wheel on the trailer has turned out to be a boon to the weary back, mine in particular. It saves a lot of lifting. Hooking up and moving the trailer is a doddle. Following a very busy week in which I did not get down to the lottie I was expecting the smaller plants to be dried out. As it happen everything had comes on really well. Unfortunately that means the weeds as well as the edibles.

I got busy with hoe but I discovered that the onions are too close together. I kept clouting them with the hoe's blade. Not something you want to do if you want nice onions. That means hand weeding. I decided that I was not in the right frame of mind for hand weeding so looked for something else to do. A small part of bed four needs turning over to prepare a seed bed. The soil is a delight to work. In no time the bed was weeded, turned over a raked flat. I put in a few rows of Maran Swede, a couple of row of Bolthardy Beetroot. It was about then I spotted that the brasiccas planted a week or to ago had been scoffed. The damage looked like that of birds but how did they get in? My lottie neighbour Pete saw some broken strands in the bird netting. This looks like the entry point. I guess I will have to find something to repair it with.

I had the place to myself on Saturday and really just pottered about. I had a brew or two, did the sowing as mention above, checked the Climbing beans [they are starting to settle in]. Whilst checking the Broad Beans I found the top three inches to be completely covered in Black fly. This is to expected but this was a very heavy infestation. I squished a few plants worth of bugs but it was messy and pretty ineffective. I spotted a few ladybirds and ladybird larva both which are known black fly predators. I thought I will leave them to it and see how they get on by tomorrow.

I went home in the early afternoon for some lunch. H and Miss L were out and about. Miss L has been allowed little time off from revising. She has only three more exams to do and she is finished with school. Gulp..... I was sitting in the garden munching my sarnies when for some reason I decided I should have a look at the roof of the shed. I should not have looked. It needs weeding. Lunch over I chucked a bucket on to the roof and climbed up after it. It only took about half and hour to weeds the whole thing. It looks quite good and I have trays of seedling which are about ready to be planted out. I also resolved to dig over the front garden and prepare it for the flower seedling which are in the greenhouse. I got my fork out and had a go. I was surprised that it was relatively easy to dig over and it was full of worms. The ton and a half of horse manure that went on it over the winter has done a good job of improving the soil although the soil is far from a what I would call garden soil. Still the plants have no choice but to make a living in the soil provided. H said she would plant the seedlings on Sunday.

Sunday came. The sun rose but I did not, well not as early as the sun. I was at the lottie for 9.30. I checked the Broad Bean. The black fly were almost completely gone. Well done ladybirds, keep up the good work. I had several trays of assorted seedling that have languishing in the greenhouse. Finally time to be planted out. I had reserved a spot for my Leeks. I gave the space a good hoeing and raking. Then on my knees I proceeded to plant out the 150 seedlings, one at a time. I got a bit bored towards the end but they looked very good once they were watered in. I had an odd cabbage and Brussell Sprout plant that were the only survivors of a sowing session. I figured they deserved a spot in the lottie. I inter-planted the few Fennel I had between the Broccoli. The Asparagus plot looks neat since the top dressing but a bit bare so I have planted out the spare Dill and sown some Borage between the rows. I had loads of Coriander in trays which I have planted here and there about the plot in any free space. I dug a wheelbarrow full of the manure that has been "cooking" since last autumn. It still hums a bit but is full of worms. I dug a couple of deep holes near the top of bed 2, dropped in the manure and mixed it with the back fill from the holes. The perfect home for a couple of Pumpkins. The heat was getting to me a bit as were the flies. The cattle in the adjacent field had brought their biting bugs with them.

A mini-veger dropped in for a chat, well his Dad did. He was over the moon about how well his lad had done and wanted to say how much the family were getting out of it. Dad works shifts so does not get down for a few weeks at a stretch so he really sees a difference on each visit. I had a few seedling going free so I gave young master K a tray full of bits and bobs. During the afternoon pretty much every plot holder came to work, weed or water and everyone wanted to stop in for a chat. I spent the last three quarters of an hour watering. The earlies [spuds] are just coming into flower so a harvest is due soon. How early to harvest is a another hot topic of debate.

I have a candidate for the cabbage eating varmint. Whilst I was working away and before anyone else was down, a pair of Red Legged Partridge flew onto the site. They made a beeline for my plot. It was not until I straighted up did they spot me. Partridge, when spotted, stand stock still pretending not to be there. I am sure they are think if I am really still and don't look at him he can not see me. The things were stood in the middle of the path looking just like Partridges that are stood still. They did not respond to ordinary shooing but had to be chased to put them to flight. I never saw them for the rest of the day. Perhaps if I had a 20 gauge shotgun handy I could have a brace for the pot.

Whilst wandering back and to the water though I heard two of the plot holders having the same one sided conversation about a rat that may or may not have been seen on or near their plots. During the discourse one of the chaps says "I don't know were the Rats come from". As quick as a flash the other one says "well when a Mummy Rat and a Daddy Rat love each other very much.......".

Horses can not tell time.

I got a call last week from a lady from the Leicestershire & Rutland Bridleway Association [LRBA]. She had been given my name by the Mike the Director of the National Forest Foundation. Mike was letting the riders picket their horses and pony,s overnight on part of Rawdon country park. The lady explained what they were riding their horses round the perimeter of Leicestershire or as close to as bridleway would allow. The only thing was they needed some water for the horses. I asked how many were involved. Thirty was the answer. You will be needing quite a bit then I thought to myself. We have a container which holds a thousand litres. I figured that would do the job. Thursday evening Steve collected the poo trailer, replacing it with his dinky trailer, I took off the box that makes it a poo trailer and positioned the tank on the trailer frame. It was a snug fit but it was fine. Before we strapped the tank on the trailer we had to clean it out. I scrabbled about to remove the comfrey and nettles we had put in the tank to start a plant tonic. Steve decided it was not clean enough and cut some Willow to make a brush. It worked remarkably well cleaning the inside of the tank. We needed a quick way to fill the tank so I disconnected the water pipe from the water trough and pushed a piece of Alkthene pipe over the end to extend the pipe. It was just the job.

Note to the readers: Alkathene pipe is the blue plastic pipe used for potable water supplies. If you cut a five foot length off a roll it makes a very natural semi circle. Cut a couple of these lengths, jam the ends in the ground either side of your growing bed and you have a fairly firm set of ribs over which you can stretch netting or fleece to protect your plants. Most of our plot holders have a good supply of them.

Once the tank was filled we could not move the trailer far. We managed to "park it" i.e. wrestle it, close to the water trough. I was to collect it Friday, top it up if necessary and run it down to the lower car park for tea time when the riders were supposed to show up. I was supposed to get a phone call one Friday lunch to give the organisers the keys to the gates. At two thirty I left work for the lottie. I topped but the tank and hooked the trailer to the car. The trailer was very low on its suspension. Just I was about to leave the phone went it was Hannah from LRBA. She was waiting at the lottie gate. I slowly towed the heavy trailer to the bottom car park, let Hannah and her truck in and parked up the tank trailer. [It's got a tank on the trailer so it is now a tank trailer not a poo trailer]. I gave her the gate keys and said I would drop back after tea to top the tank up. When I got back to the car park, after work it was full of horse boxes of one sort or another. The tank was almost empty. I trundled away to refill the tank. Another 900 litres later I trundled back, even slower, to the bottom car park, re-parked the trailer and left for the evening.

I watched a brillant on Film4, Kingdom of Heaven. I have seen the film before but this the Director's cut. The director is Ridley Scott so it worth watching. The film works on many levels.

H and I went up to the lottie at 9am Saturday morning to see off the thirty riders. There was some water left but everyone had had their fill. The organisers came over and thanked us for our help and the provision of the water. They were not due off until 10am so we had a walk round the picketed animals. There were horses and ponies of all colours; Bays, Strawberry Rone, Black, Chestnut, Skew-balled, Palamino and a very nice dappled grey. H favorites were the pair of Exmoor ponies. They looked powerful but just in a small packet.

H had a word for and with everyone. I took a few pictures and stroked a few horses. The appointed hour for the departure came.......and went. 10.15 the first group was dispatched. They were to travel in small groups to the next overnight stop. Not the mass departure I had expected or hoped for. Nevertheless they were somthing of a spectacle as they left. I manned the gate. The organisers seemed to have a great deal to do. By 11.30 the last party had left us. I hitched up the tank trailer said my goodbyes to Hannah having agreed where she should leave the keys when she finally departed.

I got up to the trailer up to the lottie dumped the remaining water in the tack the unstrapped the tank from the trailer. I rolled the tank to a tidy spot next to the big poo bin. I then had the job of wrestling the box that makes the poo trailer a poo trailer back onto the trailer frame. Not that easy really as I was on my own. I managed it without hurt myself. The only thing was a had left the nuts that secure the trailer to the frame at home....doh! Then the went home for some lunch. H had left me at the lottie trailer fettling. By the time I got home H had made me some sandwiches, which was nice. Southend Sue's visit last weekend, although wonderful to spend time with her, had left me with a list to catch up. The rain had brought everything on too. I earthed up the spuds. I found a new way of doing it did not take to much time of effort. Instead of just using a spade to dig soil from the space between the rows to earth up the spuds I stood facing the row and used the mattock to loosen then draw the soil on to the row. As I finished each row I stepped back to the next row and repeated the process until all the rows were complete. Then I turned round and went back the other way drawing the soil on the other side of the row. When it was done it looked really good. I finally got time to dig the holes for the grape vines. No vines just holes. Then it was a whip round with the hoe. I finally got the Climbing French Beans and Dwarf French Beans planted. They do not not look like much. I have resolved to sown some of each seed directly into the ground rather than growing them on at home first. Unfortunately I do not have the seed box with me. It was the I realised I still did not have the trailer nuts either...double doh! And the weed are starting to take hold between the Onions. That means only one thing, hand weeding. I am not looking forward to that. The jobs I should not have taken me as long as it did but every plot holder turned up at some stage in the day and all wanted the chat. So I must have spent more than an hour in idle chat, or was it relationship maintenance as my new boss likes to put it.

Sunday morning I realised that it had been quite sunny the previous day. My arms, face and neck are all pink and tight. Still work to do. I tried for a early start but earthing up the spuds had taken its toll. I needed to get the vines planted and sow Parsnip which should have been in a month or more and more Peas. I decided to use Roundup's method. Dig a Pea trench as usual but sow at least twice as many seeds as normal then back fill the trench with compost. Roundup reckons in this way the mice can not eat all the Peas. We will see.I planted five rows of Parsnips just in case germination is a problem. As I was planting the Peas I created a pile of soil from the row which I put in the wheelbarrow. I took the load up to the fourth mini-veg bed and dumped it in. There is hardly any depth of soil. Steve and I resolved to add some soil and manure to beef it up. Later in the day generated another barrow full of soil. That too went on mini veg bed 4. Whilst I had the barrow in my hands I dug out two barrow loads of manure and dropped them on mini-veg bed 4. Perfect Pete was rotivating one of his beds and spotted what I was doing. He shouted over to volunteered to rotivate the mini-veg bed. I snapped his hand off. Bed 4 now looks a peach. Just need a resident now.

I have decided that I need to empty my big compost bin. A couple of barrow loads went on the French Climbing Beans. The Vines were planted in my compost. It was very satisfying planting the vines. I am interested to see what they do. The soil which which they are planted is really deep even though it is against the edge of the ditch. The compost is a bonus. Three barrow loads top dressed the Asparagus bed. The barrow loads used are about a quarter of the bin's volume. I think I am going to have the top dress the Pea bed with the remainder.

Just as I was about start tiding up Steve pitched up. We had a chat, as you do. I figured I should plant out the Celery that I had brought down last week which was still languishing in the tray. Steve was having trouble starting his petrol strimmer. They can be temperamental things. I got away at 4pm having caught up and indeed got ahead of the job list.

When I got home I still had some time before tea so I got the big terracotta pots out that I had bought a few weeks ago, filled them with compost, the bought stuff not the home made, and planted them with the herbs I have grown from seed. The pots are arranged on the decking. The pots contain Basil, Dill, Sage, Sorrel and Coriander. Steve have me a clump of Lemon Balm but I have yet to find a home for it. That's enough for one weekend. I have appointments every day next week except Friday so it is going to be a busy week.