Tag Archives: garden

Green Fingered?

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As much as I’d love to start this post with a Muppet-related joke, for the sake of decency I won’t  :) . Instead, this is all about my impending gardening adventure! Wooooo! I’m a firm believer that adding the word ‘adventure’ to anything takes it from the mundane to the awesome.

I’m lucky to have a large, if ‘rugged’, back garden, and this is the year I finally do something with it. Last year I tried laying some grass seed in the hope that a lawn might magically appear like some kind of lush green carpet, but given the fact that the garden is a) really lumpy and uneven, and b) covered in weeds and random plants, what I’ve ended up with is slightly greener scrubland. The sheer amount of work it would need to make a bowling green style lawn is beyond me, so instead I intend to get my ‘Good Life’ on and grow me some food.

I’ve already planned what’s going where, and although that’ll no doubt change in no time at all, I’ve already made a start. I got out in the garden last weekend with a cultivator and spade and started to dig the first rectangular bed. Hours later, and in a lot of pain, I was a bit further forward, but came up against my first real obstacle – the old extension.

When the old extension on the back of the house was knocked down the rubble was used to build the garden up, so there’s about an inch (if that) of top soil before it’s rock city; and I don’t mean Detroit. As much as I love Rock, the broken bricks, blocks and tiles make it impossible to get a spade in without hitting something solid, and by the end of the afternoon my hands were killing me from hitting stone after stone. However, not being one to be beaten easily, I have a plan of action.

Firstly I’m going to invest in a decent garden fork in order to break the ground up properly and get the biggest of the rubble out. After that I’m going to line the edge of the beds with boards (having a friend who works for a timber yard has its bonuses), and finally I’ll top the beds up with compost. This will effectively give me slightly raised beds, but will also help give a few inches for my vegetable bounty to take root. Once the really hard work’s out of the way we should be on our way into Spring, and I’ll be able to get the seeds and bulbs into the ground.

So far my crop will consist of peas, corn, garlic, broccoli, potatoes, chillies, carrots and spring onions on the vegetable front, and I’ll be planting raspberries, apples (I know, long-term plans), cherries and anything else I can think of and have room for. The rear garden gets more sunshine than the front which is why it’s all getting planted out there. This does mean I’ll have to turn the front garden into a lawn, but it’s going to be less of a mission than the back. I can’t wait to be picking things and eating them fresh at summer barbecues.

Pictures of progress to follow, loyal people-so-bored-they-read-this.

September – Ahhhhhh

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Everyone knows I’m a massive fan of all things Autmn, and the arrival of September today is a good thing in my book. The summer never really happened except for a few good days, in fact I can probably remember all of them, so the transition to Autumn won’t be very stark this year. The evenings have drawn in and the air is starting to feel cooler, I’m looking forward to those long shadows and orange evenings already.

Unfortunately I’m starting September feeling very off. I was fine for most of yesterday, but as the evening came in I gradually started to feel terrible. The headache I’d been nursing all day just wouldn’t stop and my whole head felt swollen and ‘swooshy’. It put an end to any thoughts of dog agility despite us not having been in weeks (poor Murph), and also to my last heavy session at BJJ before the competition at the weekend. I still feel rough today, and writing this now, it feels like something inside my head is swelling and trying to burst out through my temples. Quite how I managed to use the new self-service machines at the Post Office is beyond me, so if someone ends up with my wallet in the post or something like that, send it back eh?

I managed to be fairly productive over the Bank Holiday break and even got around to seeding what will be the back garden. The ground out there is really tough and stony though, so just how much of the seed will ‘take’ and start to sprout, I couldn’t tell you, but I broke up as much of the topsoil as I could. It covered surprisingly well, and it was even nice to look at a light brown garden rather than a dark brown mud one, so I can’t wait to see how nice it’ll look when it’s all green. Long-term I intend to get some fruit and veg growing at the bottom, and a few nice trees in too; namely flowering cherries and a couple of decent acers. I’m going to line the bank at the end with bamboo too, it grows like mad and it’s a great natural windbreak.

All that remains for this week is to get better, pray my new gi arrives in time and get the new club patch sewn onto it. If I’m going to get my ass handed to me in my first competition, I’m at least going to do it looking smart.

Please Don’t Adjust Your Monitor

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As you might have noticed, this place has been tarted up a little. I’ve been using the wonderfully minimal ‘White as Milk’ theme for years here – and it may end up with me going back to it, but for the time being I’m going to be trying out a few different things. Don’t panic!

Work on the house has ground to a halt temporarily. Because our new extension butts up against the house next door, the builders had to have a look at their foundations, and it seems they might not be up to the job as far as current Building Regulations are concerned. This means we need to get a structural engineer out to look at the best way to overcome the problem, and the concensus is that the foundations will need wire cages. It’s not a total bust as we can combine the work that needs doing to encase the sewage pipe, so I’m hoping the current delay won’t last too long.

All my attention at the moment is focused on two main areas; the kitchen and the garden. These are my domain, the places I can most easily envisage being finished and usuable and what they might look like. The kitchen is the main thing I’m looking forward to if I’m honest, because I absolutely love cooking and have never had a decent kitchen to call my own. We’ve spent hours and hours poring over potential layouts and I think we’re finally in agreement on the best way to use the space we’re going to have. My main concern was having something decent to cook with, as after ten years or so making do with knackered electric ovens I’ve gotten pretty sick of them. When I lived with my parents we had gas to cook with, and as part of the extension plans we’re finally having gas at the house, so I’m taking full advantage and getting a nice built-in double oven and a five-burner hob. I was really taken with the idea of getting a decent range cooker at first, but when I put my sensible hat on I could see that I don’t actually need three ovens and a plate warmer, and we could do with the storage space more. I know, practicality first; maybe I’m getting old. I can’t begin to imagine how nice it’s going to be having the space and facilities to cook properly, but I’m excited at the prospect.

I’m dead keen to have a proper garden sorted out too. We’re quite lucky to have a decent sized back and front gardens, but they’re ‘rugged’ to say the least. Uneven, full of rocks, weeds and stumps, and generally in need of a good seeing to (oo-er). Thanks to the digger and dumper truck there is no back garden any more, just mud, but as part of the flood prevention measures being put in and the need to bring the floor level down, the garden’s going to be totally landscaped. My other half wants a ‘wild’ pond at the bottom of the garden which I’m keen on too, but my main ‘wants’ are a decent decked/surfaced area for barbecues, a nice patch of lawn and a couple of cherry trees. There are other things I want too (fruit and veg) but those are the must-haves. Once it’s done it’ll probably (hopefully!) spur me on to sort the front garden out too.