Log Package

Well, another fantastic weekend's weather up here. I am a little worried we've already used our sunshine allocation for the year. And it marked the end of the landscaping season for, when I get back from the old country, I'll only have eyes for my seed container. Still plot is looking ship-shape with lots of rarely previously visited corners of the triangle now fully accessible .

Having felled a rather ugly huge spruce tree on the plot, we've got more logs than the Alconbury report. To rehome them, Valerie has been busy with her hammer and saw. She has developed an alarming habit of stealing pallets on daring raids and refashioning them into fashionable accessories for the plot. This is what the chic Scottish axelady is wearing this season, by the way. Next in the outbuildings outlook is a rustic toilet facility with magnificent views over the valley, which will come in handy if any coach parties drop by. I not sure yet whether any logs can be placed in this one though. The main building should also be coming soon and, with any luck, that won't have to be made from pallets after all.

Green Shoots

Green shoots in the garden, frogs croaking in the pond and Dallas is waxing lyrical with daily posts to the blog must mean only one thing - that spring is here! Even as I write a shaft of sunlight has penetrated the Botley gloom and is producing a lovely dappled effect on the Minty Beds vans parked opposite. "Sarah" has found the key to his back door and has stumbled down into the estate with a renewed sense of vigour to finish off the footpath and unlock the potential of his southern slopes. In southmoor most things seems to have died or a dying but my overwintering daisies and moss in the lawn have come on leaps and bounds, I am currently contemplating this years target crop which I need to get in in the next month and then ignore for the rest of the year but rest assured it will have a good start. I am convinced that all it needs is a bit of water and you can grow something anywhere - see above.

In the meantime thanks to Dallas for sustaining us through the bleak midwinter and we look forward to seeing the fruits (and veg) of his labours in coming posts!

Happy cultivating.

Seed sowing is now in partial swing. Onions (from seed of course), tomatoes, celeriac, rhubarb, purple artichoke and cardoon. My spring sown broad beans and peas will follow this week. Last year's peas cropped very late, late planting out and cold winds I think, so this year I am trying a dwarf early called Oskar. I was drawn in by the Seeds of Italy catalogue. The arrangement of carrots on the packet is somehow more inspirationally artistic than Britsh offerings. Most of mine are from Chase Organic Gardening and Real Seeds. I noticed they were selling seeds in Lidl for 29 pence. I could be tempted. I predict austerity gardening may be the next vogue. Of course, we aim to grow our own seed supply, although probably not for pain-in-the-arse stuff like sweetcorn and peppers. This means staying away from those nasty capitalist conspiracy F1 hybrids, which have patented unknown mixed parentage that don't come true from seed.

We are going for the potager look, a French idea of mixing produce with flowers. Something a bit like this picture, which I pulled from Valerie's "I want a garden like this" file. The flowers help the veg but I think I'll leave companion planting philosophy for another day. Anyway lots of annual flowers to be sown for intermingling in the beds. I want one of those hats.

Shot in the Dark

It's February to April when one's true skills as a grower are laid bare. Before the green shoots of spring are ready and after the stores of winter roots have dwindled (or, in the case of my pumpkins in the garage, frozen and rotted to a pulp), there are some things that just carry on regardless. Chicory, for instance. Not something that makes much of an appearance in your typical British diet but the Italians devote whole seed racks to different varieties. A little bitter in its natural form, in the dark it produces blanched bullets called chicons. Mine have been wintering in the coal shed and I thought they'd now be ready to perhaps add some to my sandwiches. Well, they're not what you'd call bullets. These were the leftovers from a sowing of mixed Italian salad leaves so perhaps not the right varieties and I guess it wasn't quite warm enough to bring them on. A case of counting my chicons, you could say. Well, microveg is all the rage at the minute. While we're on the subject of hardy souls, two of the early spring staples cavolo nero and purple sprouting broccoli have been wiped out – I am not sure if it was the cold or the deer that did the most damage. Leeks and curly kale were fine, I just didnt plant enough of them or early enough. Chard, perpetual spinach and lettuce 'Winter Density' look ready to come on but, again, went in too late for winter pickings. Lessons learnt. On a brighter note, with temperatures forecast to break 13 degress this week, I took a look at my tender artichoke crowns beneath their multi-layered duvet of wood chip, bracken and fir branches. Well I never, they're alive! Looking forward to buttered chokes on toast in May. But I could be just counting my chicons again.

Low-hanging Fruit Garden

Another fine day yesterday, and the flexitime joker card was pulled out at the last minute. The layout of the fruit garden, started in October is finally complete. Your traditional favourites are there juxtaposed with some strange faddish berries, part of a currantly half-baked plan for producing my own dried fruit to plump out my muesli. So from the front: honeyberry (err... out of picture, good camerawork!), blackcurrant, in their wind enclosures are siberian hairless kiwi and chinese magnolia vine of five flavours (snappy name needs some works I think), followed by high bush blueberries with cranberry understorey, gojiberries, and four lines of rasps as they call them up here. Gooseberries and strawberries are the other side of the pebbleway. Some humungous blackberries will line up on wires on the windward side. Recruiting now, pickers for the summer season. Payment in spinach. Any takers?

Making hay...

This is my kind of map. This explains the monumental progress we've been making of late. In any other year, I'd gladly swap it for the elusive sunny August.

Irresistible Force

The earliest crop of the year has got to have a special place in anyone's life. Mine is at the pinnacle of the the plot. Of course, I'm talking rhubarb. But, like most of us, it takes some enticing, and I've not always been particularly successful in that department. So some investment in stimulation hardware was necessary to make sure the juicy pink stems rise to the occasion. While your local sex shop will sell you a rhubarb forcer for the wrong side of £100, your local reclamation yard will offer an attractive alternative for a fraction of that, although without the suggestive bulge. Of course, Yorkshireman just rip them up and do it in a dark shed but where's the romance in that? After a nice feed, my buds are already rousing and I can't wait for my first bite.

What a to do!

Dear DSB,

Apologies for the prolonged period of absence. I hope that you, valerie and Adrian's wall are all well.

So what should the first thing be that we now start considering in relation to the patch in Minster? Is it cleaning all our pots ready for the new planting season or is there anything we need to do to prepare the ground?

Any advice welcome

Looking forward to seeing you on the 3rd

from

Cold and frosty in Carterton

Writings on the Wall

January has been most kind to us this year. Dry, no snow and, dare I say it, rather mild. So my apologies for not finding time to keep you updated but it's been a busy month. The first job for the new year with the ground still frozen was Adrian's Wall. I've gradually been quarrying raw materials from the plot over the course of the year. And in the spirit of re-use-and-make-do prevailing here, everything will be put to use. Small gravel can be sieved out for paths. Small flat cobbles are separated and will eventually be placed on their sides to pave the trunk routes. Big decorative round cobbles are currently lining the beds as the layout begins to take shape. And all the big boys go into the wall. After Al's hurtful remarks last year, it is much more roman in stature as opposed to my earlier paleolithic attempt. The southern end will need to be rebuilt anyway as it has to make way for the asparagus eastern bypass, the controversial extension of the fruit garden arterial road.