The peas are very definitely ready to harvest, and are plentiful. The jug below is all the pods from the 2 branches at the end of the row…
…and this is them blanched & ready for the freezer. I took the paper off before putting them in the freezer, because frozen kitchen roll is Not Tasty.
Day 2 of last weekend saw us planting up part 2 of the many seeds Steve bought. We are cultivating a herb garden on the newly created bed that has taken the place of where the dead hedge used to be beside the patio. We have several herbs there that have over-wintered under the cold frames, and are now going to have to be brave in the open air now that the frosts are (nearly) done. Next to these I’ve added some parsley and rocket. For some reason, I seem to be cursed to be unable to grow parsley – I remember my mum having great swathes of it in the garden but every time I’ve attempted to mimic her, nothing has made it above ground level. This is even including laying down a carpet of slug pellets, so I don’t think immediate consumption by unauthorised personnel is the problem 🙁
We’ve planted a load of tasty vegetables as well as some flowers – we have zinnia, foxgloves, sunflowers and dahlias, lavender, which I place in a class of its own – these won’t get planted out until the autumn, so are more of a long-term project. I’m dubious about the dahlias as I remember them being Quite A Problem with mum debating each year whether it was time to dig up the dahlias, or “I must dig up the dahlias before it frosts” and so on. Digging plants up each year isn’t something I’m convinced I can commit to at this stage… I guess we’ll see! Part of me thinks the main problem will be remembering where they are, but as I said – let’s see.
On the veggie front we have cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, butternut squash, aubergines, peppers, celeriac, courgettes (more than we could ever possibly want – 9 of the things would you believe – leeks and french beans. My hopes for the French beans aren’t high, they were quite elderly, but nothing ventured. eh.
All we have to do now is stand back and watch… and occasionally water them. Oh, and I planted a pot of dill because I had the seeds and there’s a vegan sandwich filling I’ve tried before now which tastes of arse unless you have fresh dill in it.
…And so we begin again! Regular readers (ha!) will remember from the end of last year that we did a lot of clearing and preparation of beds so that this year we can veggie-palooza. Above is the “before” pano, showing the state of things after the winter. This is before anything has been done other than picking up litter and straightening out the black covers on the large bed. The covers have either been blown to shreds by the wind, or have been picked at by rodents or similar for nesting materials. There’s at least on area that’s been comprehensively shredded so that it would form a highly attractive fringe on an item of long-sleeved leather attire, which makes me very dubious that it could have been done by just the wind…
Last weekend we cranked back up on the effort, and did planting and made new beds. In the existing bed we have, left to right: parsnips, beetroot, carrots, chard, spinach, lettuce and peas.
While I was planting these, Steve and Lily laid out and soiled(!) three new cardboard-based beds with woodchip paths between… I hereby acknowledge the sterling support given by my work colleagues in the form of large cardboard boxes – consumerism *can* support sustainable gardening, it turns out 😀
In the new beds we have garlic, shallots and three different kinds of potatoes. These fill 1 1/3 of the beds, the rest being left available for the many seeds we planted the next day…
So far, the thing I’m loving about this no-dig method is …the lack of digging. In previous years this weekend would have comprised at least a day’s worth of digging weeds out of the “old” bed and a similar amount of time looking disconsolately at the other old bed thinking “well, I can dig it out but it will probably be covered over with weeds again before I can dig out the vegetables I’m trying to grow. Before I did the planting this weekend, I pulled out maybe 5-6 weeds from the old bed. And that was all of them. This makes me happy.
In the aftermath of tree-mageddon, I went out this morning to make some progress on winter prep and to get some stuff in t’ground. This is the new view from the vegetable patch towards the house. You’ll notice that where there was once a whopping great big tree there is now a stump and a big pile of future firewood. It’s a lot clearer. We loved Oakie and agonised for a long time over the it, but overall I think we’ve made the right decision.
It’s fair to say the neighbours are quite pleased and I’m not surprised – they’ve gone from having a line of 50 foot trees to having full exposure. Aren’t we good to them! So – below is the pano for the post-work vegetable area. As usual the progress isn’t necessarily obvious… Working left to right, I re-planted a couple of the raspberry posts and tied the raspberry canes back a bit. I picked a decent bowlful of raspberries (still – at this time of year!) and mulched around the bases of them. In re-planting the stake at the far end, I must have dug up about 5 tiles-worth of broken tiles. Definitely a fork job! I put some more mulch around the lilac trees at the back – the lower branches of these need some trimming I think – that’s a job for next week. (click to get the full panoramic effect, as usual.)
I dug some compost into the bed-formerly-known-as-the-strawberry-patch and had to pile some of the earth up against the remaining strawberries as it’s getting quite full and would have been pretty humpy. I might have to re-distribute some to somewhere. It’s good quality – not too weedy & plenty of worms. This weeks evening task is to research setting up a wormery so I might be able to use some for that. We were given a wormery as a wedding gift (from Steve’s Essex Uni chums I think) but the worms died in transit to it never really got going. We still have the barrel with the tap at the bottom so I think we can work some free-fertiliser magic with that… I’ve now planted 4 rows of onions – 2 rows of white & 2 rows of red. The red ones are called “Red Winter” so if they fail because they’ve been planted at the wrong time of year I’ll be wanting my money back! Let’s see what happens, eh?! There were some sets which have started to sprout already which, I understand from the RHS site, makes them more likely to flower and thus make rubbish eating onions. My plan is to plant these & let them go to seed and then I’ll have some onion seeds to start a new crop with. Yes, it’s a long game, but at £1.99 for 20 sets, if I can get them for free I’m going to consider it a bonus 🙂
There were some accidental potatoes growing next to the rhubarb, so I lifted & split them up to hopefully increase yield a little. Some bit the dust in the meantime but I don’t think we’re going to be short. I very nearly inadvertently planted some with the onions which came from the compost, so I have some teeny tiny potatoes which might seed at some point. I also have a plan to build up the soil along their little row to try to increase yield yet again – so maybe this is a good destination for the excess soil from the other bed.
My friend Ken who, among MANY other things keeps chickens brought us some chicken manure last weekend, so my final job was to dig some of this into what I’m going to refer to as the spring planting bed. Apparently this stuff is so strong that you need to leave at least a month after spreading for the chemicals to bed in, or water lots daily. My plan is to clear the second half of this bed and dig it in there – and then not plant anything until the spring. And, as it apparently gets very smelly when damp, my plan is to stay well away from it when it’s raining… It was all a really good workout, and I really enjoyed just pottering.
I’m thinking that we may need to come up with some names for the various veggie patches so I’ll apply my brain to thinking of something appropriately themed… But while we only have 2 beds it’s not really urgent!
My plan for next week includes lifting & dividing the rhubarb, planting some over-winter broad beans (omnomnom!) and further clearing of the spring planting bed. You heard it here first, folks!
This evening will be some crochet and a project involving this:
…for a family who use re-useable plastic bags we sure do have a lot at the moment…
Today we achieved an ambition that I’ve been working up to for at least 4 years – we did the tour at the electric mountain in Llanberis, the Hydro Electric Power Station.
Last time we tried to go along, Joel was only 3 and for this reason we were refused admittance. On the grounds that it’s a power station, which was presented to us as though 3 wasn’t just an arbitrary number they had chosen as the threshold. Or possibly their insurers.
Anyway, he was wearing sandals, so wouldn’t have been able to go in anyway.
Anyway, one letter of complaint and 4 years later, we tried again. This time we called ahead to reserve tickets, but as it happens we needn’t have bothered – it seems the 1630 bus isn’t that popular. Who knew??!?
The young lady on the front desk could do with some training in interpersonal skills as she completely failed to make eye contact through her interaction with Steve where she told him you aren’t allowed to take phones or bags or really anything on the tour, but there are lockers for which you need a pound coin. We made sure we had a pound coin by buying 2 cups of tea and 2 peaches before embarking on the trip of a lifetime.
The tour starts with a short video explaining the background to the power station. It’s main use is to supply instant additional power at times of national needs, i.e. during key episodes of EastEnders. They have 6 turbines which are switched on depending on demand – all six were apparently in use just after Phil Mitchell was shot and immediately after the last solar eclipse, when we apparently all watched it, then headed indoors and put the kettle on.
So, it’s not always working at full capacity. The water throughput and amount of power that can be generated are huge. All 6 turbines going at once can power Wales, but only for 5 hours because then the water runs out.
And this is where my slight deflation comes from.
Putting aside the fact that no cameras means we didn’t get pictures of us wearing the fetching hair nets they supplied for under the hard hats, this is definitely not a green source of energy. The water is dropped from one lake to another to generate the electricity, and is then pumped back up the hill overnight to start again the next day.
It takes 1.5 times the energy generated to pump the water back up through the system over night. It takes 6 hours.
It only works economically because they use “economy 7′ electricity which they pay 1/5th as much for as the electricity they generate during the day and charge for. Which comes from coal or nuclear or other non-renewable sources.
The overheads and up front costs were measured in millions on 1980’s money. They made that back in a handful of years.
Yes, the energy supplied is a much-needed top-up to stop bits of the network from having to be shut down at peak times, but it’s basically a money-making factory. The turbines which weren’t being used were spinning in preparation for being able to be turned on – which presumably uses energy itself. Those spinning turbines are making *more* *money* than the ones which are generating power because of the “readiness” charge the company levies to do that. You’ve got to admire the chutzpah, but as an eco-activist, I’m really quite disappointed.
So, its main selling point is quick, instant additional energy. It’s a happy side issue that this energy source doesn’t directly involve putting another coal on the fire.
Also, Steve was the only one of us who I think was actually fully engaged. To the rest of us, it was big noisy machine rooms and an interpretive video would have done the trick. Especially since they banged on about the big hole they dug, but you can’t actually see very much of it.
So: find out what you can about it on the web and save yourselves the pennies and the indignity of the hairnets. I shan’t be going again, if only because I don’t want to encourage the culture of utter indifference displayed by the desk clerk.
I’ve spent the afternoon turning something that looks like this…
…into this…
The hyper-critical among you will no doubt spot that I didn’t go for zero-tolerance throughout. This was because I was getting to the point where there were lots of large deep holes appearing, the filling of which felt like it was beyond the skills of someone whose only experience in the construction industry was as an office clerk and weigh bridge attendant. Especially since my Dad, who has actual experience in this field, is no longer up for hard labour.
Unfortunately, from the first picture, you can kinda see the extent of the task which remains. The rest of the yard looks a lot like this.
All of which leads me to wonder if, as the only responsible adult in the house, would it be really bad of me to crack one of these open as a treat?
You never know, it might make standing up straight a possibility again!
I’m shattered.
I still haven’t recovered from the sore shoulder I gave myself last week when ten pin bowling, meaning I now have, hopefully temporarily, two manky shoulders making my usual sleeping position very uncomfortable. It’s possible I haven’t slept well all week.
So, today although I initially had help, I’ve basically single-handedly turned this:
…into this:
(Please note the carefully fenced off salvaged garlic in the nearside corner.)
And this:
…into this:
I’ve uncovered the blueberry bushes and at least 2 of them aren’t dead. I think they could use a new location, though.
I also had a culinary triumph in country beef with herb bread, made in the slow cooker. Even if I say so myself… 😉
In a new feature I celebrate keeping plants alive in my garden, skilfully glossing over those that didn’t make it….
Dahlia – one of mum’s favourites. I thought this was a gone-er after last winter, but it seems not.
Another lovely looking purple flower. See, it’s alive.
I’ve always loved pansies, but prefer the purple ones. I never realised they were so small, though.
And all of them, very much alive!
I turned this:
into this:
…and this:
and my arms bear the scars… Roll on next season. Plus, we are getting to eat our own carrots this year as they are still there (hurrah) and very tasty, the courgettes are coming on nicely, and the black dwarf beans are producing like crazy.
On another note, it seems that had she not had access to magical roses, the wicked fairy in Sleeping Beauty could have done worse than use wild strawberries. They are all-encompassing nutters who are trying to take over my veggie patch. But then, any gardener who knows anything knows that already…
While I’m composing a more erudite post about This Week In Munich (und umgebung) here are today’s thoughts.
Lily’s new dog, Lucy, is a bit disconcerting.
It turns out that this…
…looks a lot like this…
Several times today I went to shoo her off the table, only to become aware that it was the dog, not the cat.
Plus, in other news, I picked these from the garden.
They are beautiful, but round the corner where no-one can see them. It’s tempting just to pick them all and fill the house, but I might stick with just going round the corner more frequently while they’re in flower 😉