All sorts of beds in the garden

22 - 25 Jan 2017

Still working on those Hugel beds whenever I can.  Progress is being made:

 This is the long view down the garden: the path slopes down between the berry beds on each side, then there is a marked out triangle under one of the new trees, which I hope to get dug out for this spring, the hugel beds to the left of it and the six rectangular annuals beds in the shadow behind that.

 Wherever the irrigation pipes cross the paths, I'm getting round to pickaxing out a channel and fitting little stones to either side of the pipe to protect it from heavy barrowloads.

 The hugel beds looking neat: big stones downslope to catch any soil runoff, cypress pieces upslope to trap water, and paving stones through the middle to hold down weeds and make it easy to plant and crop the beds.

 When the digger-man was originally levelling the site for the house, he came across a seam of un-stoney soil, which he very kindly put aside for the garden.  Five years later, I've come up with a use for it - to cover the hugel beds.  More digging.

 Meanwhile, the kitchen garden bed is looking a bit sad too, so I diverted a couple of hours to making it more accessible, with a path up the middle (called a keyhole bed in permaculture) and doing a bit of weeding.

  The fantastic parsley and 'selinos' (small Greek celery) plants that we put in this year have given us salad leaves all summer and are still producing.

 The hugel beds with a sparse covering of precious compost, and the start of the fresh dark earth from the heap by the house

 And a start on the next project.  This is a spot under the big olive tree.  It needs a terrace wall, and building up to level in a ring about the size of the canopy.  I'd like to get this sheet mulched and a bit planted this year too.  The sticks in the foreground mark wild asparagus plants that I don't want to destroy in the process.

The Last Post

21 January 2017

Lovely sunny days again, so we're finishing off outside.  Dave is painting the structural posts in the 'trombe wall' and I'm tackling the front door.  I thought the door would be a quickish job, but all the frame needs sanding and filling and three coats of white inside and out, and the door needs two white coats and two blue coats inside and out.  All very fiddly.  While waiting for coats to dry, and between cups of tea, I pickaxe out grass clumps and press on with the hugel beds.

 Dave indicating the 'last post' - finished!

 The front door, filled and sanded, filled and sanded.

 Dave starts on the windows

 I get to the interesting bit where the door goes blue

Masking tape still on the glass, but otherwise, door finished.  We intend to get some fancy cast iron fiddly bits in the glassed areas, its a bit of a local thing to do.

More Hugelling

15 January 2017

We've had a few days of rain, so to avoid putting the stove on too early, we've been getting on with lathing the remaining internal walls.  There are two sections of the outside of the bedroom walls, one section of the 'library', one section outside the pantry and various bits and pieces in the entry.  Slowly, slowly, we tackled the bedroom walls first, which included making a little shelf, and varnishing it, to move the modem and phone downstairs.

Then when the sun comes out, we work outdoors, Dave is still painting three coats of white paint onto the new 'trombe wall' structure, and I continued building the Hugelkultur bed.

 This is a photo I took while doing the washing - a view I haven't recorded in a while, it is the original garden area, near the camper van: a huge bush of oregano; some wild fennel we transplanted (cut short at the moment); the lemon tree, with its best ever crop; and the artichoke plants that just keep coming each year, despite never getting watered.

 The Hugel bed, covered with turf, the ground cleared at the front.  And a second bed waiting to be covered, just behind it.

Under the big olive, where I put manure last year, and covered with a sheet to inhibit grass regrowth.  Leaves had fallen on the sheet, so I tipped them on as mulch, and then seeded the area with some chicory, which is very similar to the local 'horta' (dandelions) and may take.

Moringa Fail

13 January 2017

Unfortunately, one of the things we should have done before leaving for the UK was to attempt to frost-proof the Moringa trees.  After a week of snow and freezing storms, this is what we came back to:

 ... very shrivelled leaves

 So Dave bravely took the secateurs to the vulnerable parts

 while I wrapped frost-proofing around the trunks.

 Schroedinger the cat showed himself grateful to have us back.

Our strangely sculptural Moringa bed.  

We'll have to wait until spring to see if we've saved them.

Missed Snow

8 Jan 2017

So while we were away, it snowed - rather a lot for here.  We missed it all!  This is a friend's photo of sea level snow - doesn't often happen.


 Photo credit: Lucy Wakeling

Compromised Security

12/13 January 2017

Home!  After a 5am start in Surrey, flight to Athens, cross-town bus, cross-Greece bus, and trip home in the car from the bus station, we arrived back at 10.30ish.  The house was surprisingly cold, so we fired up the stove, but couldn't warm up, so we went to bed.  The next day, upon opening the curtains in the music room I found out why - we had been broken into, and the window was open.  As we keep the music room locked, we also found the kitchen window broken, and both music room and kitchen doors were unlocked. 

This was the first time we'd left the house all locked up - with wood in the door frames and glass in the windows - no polythene or sailcloth anywhere - and that's when we get a break-in.  Luckily, we are so skint after three wedding trips to the UK in six months that the only cash in the house was an emergency five euros - which had gone, as well as a small pair of speakers for the computer.  Otherwise, all our worldly belongings were spurned by the thief.  Major relief for Dave, whose guitar is his only really precious possession.  Luckily they must only have been after liquid assets.

 Crowbar marks on the window, which had broken catches

and muddy footprints in the kitchen

At the boatshow

9 Jan 2017

Dave had never been to the boatshow, and we had to be in London to renew my passport, so we went to wander around in search of wet weather gear, and to see the gang at Nisos.

Spotted this at the show - must have one in the garden - will have to build our own, which will probably be significantly more rustic!

We visited the show on the same day as a tube strike, which wasn't a problem for us, as we were on the DLR, and the show was very quiet as a result, but when we left, I was travelling from Canary Wharf to town to meet Richie and Jim for a meal, and the queues for the river boat were horrendous.  No-one would sell me a ticket, they'd obviously been made free for the day, and everyone was counted in to the maximum.  Amazingly, I was the last person in line to go through when it came to our turn.  That never happens: they always stop after the person just in front.  I also had to get out one stop early, and then make my way through unfamiliar territory in the rain and heaving crowds along the riverside, which went inland to go round Southwark Cathedral.  All in all, an interesting experience that reinforced my preference for living in a field on a Greek island.

Jonathan's Weddings

6 &7 January 2017

Lots of fun.  Two weddings in two days, the first one at the Mosque in Regent's Park, the second one at Farnham Castle in Surrey.

 Jonathan and Sarah at the Mosque, with a couple of suspicious characters background left!

 Sarah's cousins in rainbow colours

 Regents Park - formal photo of the bride's family

 Farnham Castle, formal photo of the groom's family

 Later that evening, informal photo of my family - two monster sons

Even later that evening, Sarah's brothers Amir and Adil, with Phillie, George & Richie

Hugelkultur

1 - 3 Jan 2017

Hugelkultur is a German word describing a type of raised bed that is constructed with rotting wood at its heart.  The bed is built in a trench or on aerated ground, on which are laid numerous pieces of cut wood, the older the better, which is then packed round with turf, soil, compost, manure, woodchip, leafmould, in fact, anything that will add nutrients to the soil.  The advantage of the wood core is apparently that it will hold water, even in drought, and as it breaks down, will release nutrients slowly and aerate the mound.  That's the theory, so I thought I'd try it.

This is a heap of old wood that I discovered in a far corner of our land.  Trees and branches cut by the family in the Winnebago when they first moved in.

 

 And this is an area of flat ground near the potato beds, that we covered in sailcloth last year.  The area under the sheet mulch has little growth, although the edges have burgeoned with grass clumps.

 So I laid the wood in a long row, quite tightly packed, 

 and then started digging out the grass clumps, turning them upside down on the heap, and edging it with stones.  Lots of pickaxing and forking, although luckily the ground is very soft due to the recent rains.

I got this far, and then ran out of time.  Going to the UK on Thursday.

A good walk spoiled

1 January 2017

We set off for one of our favourite walks in the lovely sunny weather.  Our route would take us by the newt pond where we usually stop to check for frog spawn and other wildlife. 

Our walk was completely spoiled by finding that building rubble had been dumped in the pond, for no obvious reason.  We were incensed. 

We were also walking along tracks peppered with empty shot cases and boxes.  The shooters have been out in force - they go after blackbirds and thrushes at this time of year - and leave plastic and metal discarded cases everywhere.  Not a pleasant experience.

Starting the Year in the Garden

31 Dec/1 Jan 2017

With a week and a half between Christmas and our trip to the UK for Jonathan's wedding, we decided not to restart work in the house, because of the mess it would make.  Instead, we worked outside, Dave on painting the woodwork, and me developing garden areas for planting later in the year.

 Cutting some of the long grass and using it as a light mulch around the berry bushes

 Using cypress branches to mulch this area of berries, hoping to keep down the grass next spring.  Also, up by Dave, using sailcloth on the wild bramble bushes, hoping they will be seriously discouraged.

 Dave picks a self-seeded crop of potatoes

Spreading out from the wild bramble discouragement, more sailcloth that will repress grass growth and give us more area to plant this time next year.