Our first planting

Thursday 23 December 2010

The boys were spending a day doing academic stuff.  (No, really!)  So we got on with installing the stove.  Dave filled the gap between the hot stovepipe and the surrounding wood with cob - actually just clay and sand, as straw is flammable and is best left out.

We'd been to Lefkas in the morning for various errands, and I'd finally got round to stopping at the garden centre.  I wanted a bougainvillea to grow up the truck, both to soften it's rather harsh effect on the landscape, and eventually to provide shade for the truck and deck.  I used an old one-third of an oil drum, scrumped long ago for planting but never used, which fitted neatly under the truck and decking, and could be filled up with straw, compost and potting soil.  It's open ended, so the roots will be able to grow down into the soil beneath as well.  Here's hoping it survives the winter.  It's tied to the hinges against the winds.

I also bought a blueberry bush.  Dave had to stop me buying all sorts of fruit bushes, and he was right, we've got nowhere prepared for them.  But this one slipped in.  I reckoned that if bilberries grow in the wildest, most inhospitable spots on the Welsh hills and Yorkshire moors, then our poor soil shouldn't be a problem - even if this is a grander, American version of the plant, and I do love blueberries, which you never see out here.  That was a breathless apology, wasn't it?  Not sure who I'm trying to convince!

So it went in at the end of the decking, where it might not be too much in the way, and I made a little raised bed for extra soil, and put the gravel-making grating round it to discourage the goats.