Vertical take-off

 13 March 2021

We have been finding one of our chickens happily pecking around the compost bins and other areas outside the long run.  While we are all in favour of free-ranging, we have lost too many chickens to daylight robbery by foxes over the years, and we have kale to protect, so we had to find out how she was getting out.

We grabbed a cup of tea, let the chickens out of ‘Fort Clux’ into the long run, and stood by with a finger on the camera’s ‘burst’ button.

This was the result:

More Planting

 12 March 2021

Convinced that the good weather was here to stay, we embarked on a programme of planting out all the well-grown sproutlings from the solarium.

The heart bed, after weeding, and with the addition of some shop bought compost.  Dave put some courgette plants in here.

I examined our compost bins and found some nice, nearly ready stuff, so I moved it over into the sleeper bin and covered it up to finish off.

Under several offcuts of pond liner.

The wild pear trees around the garden are full of blossom at the moment

Dave planting out cucumbers around a bamboo tripod.

A few exciting roots from the garden for lunch: carrot and salsify.  We’d never tried salsify before, and it was delicious, so we’ll definitely plant more of that.

Painting the chain

 11 March 2021

We suddenly found out that the boat was going to be launched very early indeed, and we only had a couple of days to do anything needed. The only thing we really wanted to do on the hard was to paint markings on the chain, so, pretending it was ‘exercise’ for the purposes of lockdown, we cycled to the yard with our tins of paint and other paraphernalia.

Planting out and pulling up

 9 March 2021

The weather has become very pleasant, and our exotic little choco /chayote vines are over two metres tall, so we decided to take the plunge and plant them out a month earlier than Costas advised.

We thought we could use them to cover the water tanks, as the vines are failing to do very much, so Dave planted them: one at each end and one in the middle.

They look very nice already.

Meanwhile, I started work weeding the moringa beds.  The top one, to start, as I was hoping to find some strawberry plants that hadn’t been eaten alive by grass.

I found a few, and some broke and came up with the grasses.  When I separated them out there were quite a few new baby plants, so I reinstalled them and hope they haven’t been too traumatised.

The bare earth patch is the cleared strawberry field. (A little bit of Liverpool!)

And now with weeded and cardboarded path.

When picking a little rocket for lunch is more akin to big game hunting ...!

We are legalised

 5 March 2021

We make an early visit to Lefkada to collect our new biometric residence permits, required as a result of the B-word that shall not be mentioned.  We weren’t expecting the call to say they were ready, and had started the day’s gravelling, and did some more after we got back, so the working day wasn’t wasted.

The worst bit of gravel shovelling - when there’s only a bit left at the bottom of the bag.

Finished!  All the way round to the paved area.  Now we have a neat path all round the house.

While we were in Lefkas we stopped at the garden centre for some flowers to prettify this bank (if they survive).

And to prettify this patch of gravel in front of the solarium.  In retrospect, Rosemary might have been more sensible.  We’ll have to see how they do.

This is one of the two 2-year old almond trees.  This one didn’t produce any nuts last year (the other made two!), but is full of flowers this year.

The hugel beds turned potential apple orchard: self-seeded borage is rapidly providing ground cover -and lots of nectar for bees.

More Gravel

4-5 March 2021

On with emptying those builders bags.  Two and a half cubic metres of gravel to tidy up the path around the house.  Been meaning to do this since forever!

Getting started, with our brand new shiny ‘gold standard’ rake

This is where we were at, the corner by the bathroom window, with waste pipes to cover.  After a few barrow-loads we were very grateful for ‘Richie’s seat’, the flat stone on a disguised concrete protrusion in the foreground.  When we were building this part of the stem wall, my son Richie was here helping, and he insisted he’d found the perfect bum-shaped stone to go here.  He was right, and we were grateful.

This is an almost surreal photo of rocket in flower in front of a duvet cover on the line.  Quite strange.

Dave brings yet another barrow for me to rake out.

Having been reminded by my brother that it was our wedding anniversary, we stopped to take tea by the pond.

Then, on with the gravelling, completing this corner - the line of tiles are covering the copper lightning earth cable.

And then round the corner, back towards the paved courtyard area, but not quite finished

A New Fridge

 2 - 3 March 2021

Our old fridge still felt like a new fridge to me, but it had become very inefficient with a faulty door seal and freezer seal.  Also, Dave was finding it harder to get things out of the very low shelves, so it was time for a new one.  Although I’ve always prided myself on being able to get everything in our under-counter fridge, it has been a struggle at times, and in summer we lose veg more quickly if there’s no room for it in the cold.  A larger fridge was called for.

An excitingly large box arrives.  We tried to persuade the delivery van to come up to our gates, but the trees were overgrowing the track too much.  He ended up leaving the assistant to turn the van, while he carried the fridge on his back up the hill and all the way into the kitchen. We tipped him well!

The old fridge out, while the new one settles down

We measure and estimate and draw lines, then Dave jigsaws a chunk out of the worktop.  Thank goodness for homemade kitchens, you can be very cavalier about alterations!

The new fridge in position.  We’ve lost some worktop, but gained lots more cool storage, and we can still get at all the mugs and tea caddies on the shelf above.

Landscaping the Pond

 2 March 2021

We have decided to tackle the remaining bags of building materials (yet again).  This time we thought we’d get some of the remaining pond pebbles distributed, especially where there are plant roots exposed in the water, or where the lining is showing through on land.

Tiny sized pea gravel is easy to shovel and distribute, but the larger pebbles are a real chore to get on a shovel, and then left out again by the pond.  Slow work.

An example of one of the places where a fold in the lining has become exposed at the pond margin.

After adding in more stones - they are a bit muddy from the bag and look yellowish.   After a bit of rain they will be less noticeable.

Building a Bug Hotel

 26 - 27 Feb 2021

Lovely warm sunny days, the special days when the sun isn’t searingly hot and it’s nice to sit out.

As it was Friday (even though all days are alike in lockdown), we had an afternoon bonfire, getting rid of perhaps a third of the remaining waste wood, as well as several tins of cider and some stuffed mushrooms.

On Saturday we finally got on with a long-delayed project: building a bug hotel.  These are very trendy, but serve a useful purpose in collecting together various bits and pieces that creatures like to live in, and putting them in a designated spot where they should remain undisturbed.

Our starting point was this ancient cat kennel we made when the kittens first arrived - long ago when they were going to be yard cats.  They never liked it, and after we moved into the house they followed us in. As there were no walls for the first five years it was very difficult to set boundaries and in the end we built the house around them (and us).

So the cat kennel is robust and waterproof.  First I removed the two boards at the front, as they weren’t structural, and then started collecting nesting materials.  Small sticks, logs, moss, bamboo, roof tiles, pine cones, bricks with holes in, and the legs of two ancient tables which every year are targeted by carpenter bees for nest holes.

Dave drilled holes in the larger logs for solo bees and wasps, and anything else that likes them

The completed ‘hotel’, after several hours of packing and prodding and wedging and jamming.

The basement is a toad house.

In location, close to the beach at the pond. 

I expect it won’t be long before tiny sun beds and umbrellas will appear.

Wood Chipping

 25 Feb 2021

Today we decided to get on with some wood chip production to get the paths covered before the weed season kicks off.

Today’s session produced enough clippings for a thick layer (about 10cm) on this wide but short bit of path.  The bed is the slightly different texture on the left.

Two paths like this: thin but long, were cardboarded before the cardboard ran out.  We will continue chipping to get these covered.  We need to do some cutting back in the hedges to get chipping material, so it’ll take a few days.

Dave putting the chomper away 

As a final thought, we decided to open the package of bramble clippings from last year.  We had wrapped them in thick black pond liner offcuts to discourage regrowth, which seems to have worked.  However, we saw a very lovely slow worm in the heap, and Dave said it may have laid eggs, so we shouldn’t dig out and distribute the clippings.  Good for potential wildlife, bad for progress on the garden infrastructure.