I have been dabbling a little bit in making my own cold process soap. It is a bit fun because it reminds me of my time in a previous life working in laboratories. It is all about weighing out the ingredients exactly and getting all geared up in safety gear – goggles and gloves and using dangerous chemicals. I love it. I just make it … Continue reading An Arch to be Rivalled
I do love it when you find an unexpected treasure in the garden. I’ve been clearing out the old brassica bed to make it ready for the new season sweetcorn. There is heaps of time before need the bed for the sweetcorn, but the brassica had done its dash. We had eaten as much as we could to the point that we just couldn’t keep … Continue reading Hidden Treasure
The fruit section of the garden hasn’t always been a success. We won’t mention the failure of the new orchard… twice. I think I need to put together a serious plan before attempting again. It does hurt my soul to think that an abundant supply of juicy sun warmed peaches straight from the tree isn’t an option in my back yard anytime soon. The sadness … Continue reading The Berry End of the Garden
Day one of a new season and it feels like an opportunity for a fresh start of some sort, so long as I get off on the right foot. I always start spring on the 1st of September as it feels right for the weather conditions – although parts of the south woke up to snow today – but that is more of an anomaly … Continue reading Let the Spring Begin
This week has been awful. The boffins had mentioned it, but often they are wrong, so I take the forecast with a pinch of salt. Especially as the weekend was so magnificent. It was warm – the kids went swimming. I thought they were mad, but they seemed to have fun. The sky was blue without a cloud in it. It was the closest we … Continue reading After the storm
I have a bit of a side kick that shadows me wherever I go. Most days it is barely noticeable, well not to me, because I’ve learnt to put the nuances it brings to one side and not give it the attention it demands. Other times it is so demanding of my attention it is impossible to ignore and I have to stop what I’m … Continue reading Gardening with MS
Today is Friday and the end of the week. The work in the garden has cranked up a notch and now instead of just potting about fiddling with this and tinkering with that, it has become heaving lifting, ardous weeding and a significant amount of digging and forking over the soil. This has me arriving at the end of the week completely exhausted. So instead … Continue reading Today in pictures
Today was an amazing day, the sky was blue, the sun was shining and once it warmed up, it was the perfect gardening day. Once I took care of everything indoors, I headed outdoors with a plan. I was going to plant all my potatoes and finally get them in the ground so I can stop worrying about them. The Christmas ones were the biggest … Continue reading Well that didn’t quite go to plan – I blame it on the worms
It seemed like such a good idea at the end of last season to grow cover crops on the beds as they came empty, with little thought to my spring self. So what if they add so much value to the soil, to replace lost nutrients, add much needed organic matter and even, it is said, do special jobs like lupin adding extra nitrogen or … Continue reading Covering it up
Well except the cold, the wind, the rain, non-gardening work and feelings of fatigue after doing too much in a time of pleasant conditions. I’m beginning to think I’m getting a bit soft. I have memories of seasons years ago when I would have pushed through on a cold day with gloves, a beanie and oodles of good intentions. I got stuff done. But in … Continue reading Nothing stands in the way of progress
