Christmas potatoes

In the late Autumn, to make use of one of the newly made raised beds, we planted Charlotte seed potatoes, 9 in all, although one was small and did not thrive well.

Due to the warm weather the greenery grew fast and high and outstripped my efforts to earth up the sides. Once the colder weather came along, the potato growth was covered in fleece to help protect the plants.

By the time we had arrived back from China, the growth had all died down, some taken by frost and some died back naturally.

Today I thought I would see if any potatoes actually grew from the seeds- the first plant (the runty one) yielded a few small ones, and as I worked my way along the row more and slightly larger ones came to light.

By the end there were enough to have a meal of new potatoes with the family over Christmas.

                                                       Trug of potatoes fresh from the garden.

So the experiment was worth it!

Lawn edging update

As we are struggling to find a fence colour we like to re coat the now much longer fence and then find enough of the one we chose (it is end of season for this type of thing so shelves are de-stocked) the Lawn Edging has begun.

The blocks I brought home a few weeks back were accusing me of neglect, and as the days looked to stay mainly dry where I am, the job commenced.

Following the advice of the interweb, I bought sharp sand and am using up the rest of the weed suppressant cloth (used on the raised beds earlier in the year) to line the mini trench that needs digging for the sand and then the blocks to go on top. The trench was dug 10cm or so deep and filled to about 8 cm or so with the sand. Blocks placed on top were truly embedded, level with the grass surface, using a wooden mallet - using a nylon cord and pegs to get a straight edge.

However, the OH indoors came out and told me the line looked a bit off straight and asked if I had measured from the edge of the drive when I set out the nylon cord. "Of course" I replied, but on re-checking I was a centimetre out at one end- it is interesting how we can notice such a small deviation from the straight line!
So a quick lever with the spade was enough to line the blocks up to both our satisfaction.

Doing it in stages as there is a lot of kneeling down to do - however as with all things it is getting quicker to do each stretch as a routine begins to develop. The lawn is roughly square, but has a rectangular protrusion in to the soil area in it to allow access to a fruit bed and also at another  point there is a gentle curve where the lawn runs around some existing trees and shrubs. The straight bits are fairly OK, (once they are set out correctly!) and just on to the curved bit now and so far so good.

As I mentioned the fairly dry weather above, it started to rain, the sort of mizzly rain which soaks you through as you work, so eventually come indoors to write this -it may not stop until tomorrow if the forecasters have it correctly predicted.

Apprentice piece and garden update

Having been very busy over the last two years before retirement the mosaic hobby I started took second or even third place to other tasks, especially last year when the house extension was built.

Last week attended the first of a one morning a week mosaic/craft course lasting 6/7 weeks (depending on the speed of the person in producing the finished articles)

Last week involved cutting up shapes from a clay sheet to be used in a future project, and making a small mosaic piece. The subject was compulsory, it had to be a heart on a wall tile base.

We all had different skills and knowledge, so some completed the preliminary design and some, like me, had to finish off at home.
The picture below shows the mosaic at the point of taking it home.

A week later allowing for an interruption to re-roof the lean to shed at the rear of the garage due to UV induced plastic fatigue, you can see the finished article.

I could tell I was a bit short on practice as I had difficulty cutting tiles in to even squares to fill in the background area.

This week it was glazing the pieces of bisque fired clay so that they could be fired again to produce a transparent glaze seal so the pieces could be used later.
Also a chance to use marble tiles al la roman mosaics using the reverse method, tiles are laid face down and using a frame to act as a mould, concrete is poured over the back of the tiles so that when released and turned over, the image can be seen.

Also a quick and cheerful small reverse mosaic using colourful small glass tiles and clear silicon adhesive to be stuck on to a glass pane, again when turned over the final image is revealed.

We have moved forward on planting up the raised beds.
The potatoes planted for a hopeful Christmas crop have shoots just peeping above the soil level. once grown a bit and before any frost, they will be earthed up progressivly so they occupy a bed of their own. We found at the local nursery, overwintering peas- initially it looked like a dozen or so, but once tipped out of the plastic tray they turned out to be nearer three dozen little pea plants. These have gone in staggard rows about six inches apart and are sharing with the rhubard plants.

Meanwhile the slugs or snails managed to eat all but a few brassica plants, so new ones were acquired and are firmly under a mesh covered cloche with slug pellets around them ( no birds or other animals should be able to get to them as the ends of the cloches are firmly sealed and the mesh pegged down.)
They are sharing the bed with the leeks and chives.

This leaves one last bed that will have dwarf french beans and also broad beans sown from seed to overwinter for next years crop - the planting is imminent..

Green Manure

The raised beds have come to fruition in our garden and are now sprouting their first crop, a green manure from mustard seeds. The seedlings are now big enough to see from the house, a few days ago, you struggled to see them.
In our garden revamp E and I decided to grow more vegetables- trouble is our garden subsoil is pure sand, dig about 18 inches and the "soil" turns a bright yellow. (Once, when digging a hole for a gatepost, I did not have enough sand to make some concrete, so used some of the sand from the hole- worked a treat!)

So this makes growing vegetables and almost anything else a bit of a struggle, especially during very dry spells of weather. This lead us to thinking about raised beds. We ended up with a plan for four of them, and after careful searching local timber yards and on the internet we decided on 4ft by 8 ft (1.2m by 2.4m approx) beds, and the wood chosen was 7cm by 26cm high. (3 inch by 10 inch approx) which should last a fair while. One of the beds is double height, 52cm (for long tap rooted veg or ones that need to be buried deeply such as leeks or potatoes) and needed about a tonne of topsoil to fill it.

Of course being so thick and wide, the timbers (2.4 m long)  weigh about 40 kilos each, so our venerable trolley/porters barrow, was pressed in to service to wheel them in to place. This was the ultimate sacrifice as the small castor wheels gave up the ghost and shed their bearings and the main wheels started to wobble a lot. We have had the trolley at least 20 years and it cost us all of £10 to £12 I think. So a replacement was ordered from Amazon, this duly arrived (now costing £22) and needed hand assembley which was fine.

First used yesterday and I struggled with it to haul some small paving slabs. I was very surprised when comparing the new trolley to the old one, discovering it was about two thirds the size, and the handle was considerably shorter than the old one, which was why it was hard work.
So its not just Waggon Wheel biscuits that have got smaller over the years!

So a revamp for the old trolley is planned - the new one will be used as a sack barrow for compost and bird seed bags, and the old one will once revamped go back to being the workhorse.

Once the green manure crop is big enough, it will be dug in and we will then plant up with either quick growing crops or overwintering ones as we have missed part of the growing season already.