Good things and bad

29-30 April 2020

Into another day of bramble attack, but at least we now have a reasonably-sized clearing.  The shaded area looks like it could be good as a mushroom cultivation site.  Something we can investigate in the autumn.

 The black tank on the left was installed maybe six years ago, and has collected water, but has never been piped into a distribution system.  We've always been too busy building the house to deal with this.  But now the house is finished, we can organise these forgotten corners a little better.  And keep them maintained!

 I went to lift the re-purposed sieve-filter from the barrel, which had opportunistic brambles established in it, and found an incredible root system growing through the sieve into the water below.  No wonder the brambles have been so vigorous!

 Down at the pond - the first water lily bud reaches the surface.  

Maybe we'll have a flower for May Day?  But the bad news is that we seem to have lost two fish in two days.  Cats and crows or magpies are top of the suspect list.

 Back at the brambles, I thought it best to get rid of the monster pile of cuttings as soon as possible.  Any piece of viable bramble can root and cause trouble, so I used some of the pond liner offcuts under the chipper ...

 ... and under the pile of chips.  We hope that if we let these compost for a couple of years, they will rot down and can be used as a mulch without seeding brambles throughout the garden.

A selection of the brambles to be chipped.  Thick gloves required.

Dave, meanwhile, has started strimming all round the land again.  It's that time of year!

 Excellent news from my son on Weds morning.  My new granddaughter was born safely and well over night. Hurrah!

So we raised a glass of Dave's ginger beer to celebrate.

Clearing a NW passage

28 April 2020

Another day of battling with brambles, clearing the north side of the shed, to reach the water tank we put in there many years ago.

 Dave goes in with the chainsaw

 My preference is for the hedge-trimmer.  Plenty of work for both.

 We reach the water tank.  The water it holds has never been used, as it keeps getting overgrown.  This time we intend to put up fence panels that will hold the wilderness back and let us capture rainfall here usefully.

 Enterprising brambles have reached down into the old sieve used as a filter, and sent roots into the water.

 Dave clears the high stuff while I rake out the cuttings.  Some can be chipped for paths, some, like brambles, would root from cuttings and will need to be composted where they can't reach the ground for some time before use.

 Dave succeeds in forging a north-west passage around the shed.

 After such a tiring morning, we spent the afternoon in the kitchen.  Mango & ginger chutney and pickled eggs by me ...

while Dave bottled his apple juice cider.

Woodchip paths

27 April 2020

While writing up this blog, I realised I didn't have a record of all Dave's hard work last week making woodchip to cover the cardboard paths between the vegetable beds.  I was too exhausted by my tree-clearing digging to walk around with a camera!  So here is the update

 On my travels, I see that we have nasturtium flowers coming along the top of the dry-stone bank.  Hope those plants get trailing down the slope soon.

 The widest path, which joins the steps at the front door to the moringa beds in the south.

 The beds, growing well, showing woodchip paths for access.

 The pea-bed, with peas coming

 Meanwhile, we have planted out some more seeds, which have mostly sprouted.

 This is one of the Moringa trees in the hugel bed which seems to have adapted to its new location.  While I was photographing it the cat came and sat down in shot - and she is not supposed to go on the beds.

 This is an experiment - when we cut one of the Moringa trees down to try overwintering it in a polythene cover, we stuck the cut piece of trunk into a pot of earth.  It didn't do much in the solarium, and has no roots, but this happened when we moved it to the hugel bed.

 Almost overrun by clover - another Moringa starting to sprout.

 The rose bush is fabulous!

Dave watching the watering work

Clearing brush

27 April 2020

The next urgent task is to clear away some of the overgrown brushwood around the shed.  It hasn't been done for a few years and it has become impossible to get at the battery box at the back of the shed for maintenance. 

 I didn't get a 'before' photo.  This is after a tough morning's clearing - Dave with the hedge-trimmer and me raking out the cut brambles and branches.  The west face of the shed.

 Dave is finally able to get at the battery box, and top up the water.  Then back to work with the chainsaw to take out larger branches. 

 We can now access the loft storage in the shed.  We need to replace the hatch before we get things nesting in there that we don't want.

 While we had the hedge-trimmer in action, I cut this year's oregano harvest - just in time before the flowers opened.  I will leave this to dry in the solarium, and then strip the leaves from the stalks to use in the kitchen.

 The shorn oregano bush.  Maybe I should try some topiary?

We make a start on the other side, to the north of the shed, in search of a north-west passage.

Leaving the house

Sunday 26 April 2020

Under lockdown rules, we can leave the house for one of six reasons.  We only need two of them: no.2 is shopping, and no.6 is exercise. 

 On a number 6: cycling to Dessimi beach.  We are not allowed to swim, sail, fish or otherwise engage with the water, and it would be a bit cold at the moment anyway, but a lovely, empty vista to recharge the soul.

A screenshot of our official permissions, granted by text.  We don't get out very often!

Outings to the pond

25 April 2020

Saturday night out at the pond - so much to see, every day something new emerges.  Most evenings we end the day sitting by the water with a cup of tea or miso soup.  But the weekends are special, and may involve a little alcohol.

 Fabulous blue iris are now appearing.

 My favourite wild flower - gladioli invade the hugel beds (to my delight!)

 Multicoloured lily pads (and under water, only just visible, our first lily flower bud)

 A basket of goodies for sitting out with on a Saturday evening: wine, water, and olives.

 Bee numbers are still increasing - we have now seen a second field of hives close by.  The favourite drinking places are like Heathrow used to be - constant arrivals and departures.  Best not to get in the way of the bee-line.

 Under water, tadpoles are nibbling away at my poor struggling valerian.

More incredible iris.

Many Mulches

22 - 24 April 2020

I have finished almost all of the trees, with Dave's help on a couple of them.  They all have at least a metre diameter of earth cleared of weeds and grasses.  Onto this I distributed the remaining manure - eight bags between about 20 trees.  Then to try to reduce re-growth of weeds, we thought we'd put down a straw mulch.  We decided it would be best to chop up the straw, which will reduce the viability of straw seeds, and help it to rot down usefully.

 Not fighting infection - fighting hay fever from strimming loose straw in a bin.  Safety equipment we had from last year, not diverted from the health service (the mask's been used a few times before).

 Tools of the job - remains of a bale in the wheelbarrow, large bin and battery strimmer.  Trees in the background already mulched.

 Some of the straw went to the strawberries - it seemed the right thing to do!

 Taking the strawberry harvest home in a wheelbarrow ... not entirely necessary!

 Mulching continues.

 The first beetroot harvest.  They were gorgeous, boiled whole for 30 mins.

 Mostly all mulched.

 We had just a little well-rotted woodchip from an old pile full of mycellium (the white strands).  This is precious stuff - vital to the well-being of woodland plants.  So it was distributed to the Pomegranate and the Peach (most demanding fruiters) and enough was left over for every tree to get half a bucketful under their straw.

Dave standing on the fresh woodchip path by the 'pea' bed (long and thin, and now planted with peas) checking the watering system.