Potting Up

We've just done a few bits and pieces this weekend: sorted out the two patios (dining room and kitchen), mocked up a fence along the edge of the herb garden (which we want to put in as a windbreak: the asparagus and beans would probably do much better), and potted up a load of things. They include tomatoes, chilis, peppers, hostas, catmint, edible brassicas; and sowed two things— Lysimachia atropurpurea and Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'.

Renovating the Fruit Cages

Over the last couple of days, we've been doing some work reconstructing the fruit cages. When we built the raised beds, we put 3" square posts at the corners, 8' tall in the raspberry beds, and 6' tall in the others. We then ran wire between these, and draped bird-proof netting (knitted 1" nylon stuff) over them, secured at the bottom, and sewn together at the seams and ends. It worked really well, from a bird-proofing perspective, but had disadvantages. First, it was a real pain to get in and out of the beds, and so we didn't weed as much as we might. It was similarly awkward to pick the fruit, prune, and mulch. Secondly, the 1" mesh worked really well to catch snow, and the wire supports weren't strong enough to carry the weight of the loaded net, and broke; or, the netting tore under the strain. This meant, every spring for the past few years, having to sew up the netting, and repair the wires, and it all got a bit too frustrating.

As we've been left with quite a lot of spare timber from the construction of, mainly, the wood shelter, which has been lying around, we decided to change how the fruit cages work. We've used some of the 3" laths to build a ring beam around the posts, and across the span in key positions. Onto that, we'll roll a roof of chicken wire, and staple walls of the nylon mesh onto the beam, posts, and raised bed walls. Hopefully, the chicken wire roof will be strong enough to carry a load of snow; the disadvantage is that the mesh is 2", which will be wide enough to allow birds in. We'll see if that's a problem, but if it is, we'll need to place bird net on top of the wire mesh, so we have the strength of the latter, but the bird-resistance of the former.

Filling the Pond

We left the pond filling on a timer until about 0100 this morning, but found, when we got up, that it isn't full. We set it going again: in total, it took about 13 hours to fill. A quick test showed that the hose was delivering 12l/minute, which means the volume's around 9300l. We've spent the day sorting out the edging of the pond: the ends of the retaining wall transition to looser stonework, which is more informal, and at the shallow end we've got a number of 'emerging' stones, which, in addition to the innumerable crevices, nooks and crannies, means there should be a good variety and number of habitats for wildlife. The water is very chlorine-rich, and will need a few weeks to out-gas before it's attractive to plants or wildlife. We'll get oxygenating plants for late June, probably, once the water's stabilized somewhat.

Pond Lining

Today's been spent lining the pond. We started by tidying up the digging: forming a solid and flat base around the edges where a retaining wall is needed, laying cement blocks and bricks to reinforce this, and smoothing and picking over the surface to remove stones and refine the shape.

Once we were happy with this, we used the waste carpet we picked up yesterday to cover as much of the surface as we could. The carpet should prevent any sharp stones or glass that we missed from reaching the rubber liner. On top of this, we laid a complete layer of 200gsm non-woven liner, which has the same purpose, and then, finally, spread out the EDPM liner (8 x 6m).

We then built the retaining wall, which goes around about half of the circumference, where the ground level is considerably different to the water level. This went rather faster than I feared, and we were finished by about 1900. We've left a hosepipe running, sprinkling water into the pond...it's filling very, very slowly.

While this gradually filled, we back-filled the space between the earth bank and the new wall with soil, and have put in the few pond-edge plants we have: a Rocket ligularia, a rodgersia, a houttenyia, two purple ligularia, and a few hostas. The hostas may need to be moved to a shadier position: we'll see.

Moneywort

We've had a weekend in the Midlands, staying with Liz's grandmother, but going over to her parents' new house for Saturday, and Sunday lunch. Saturday was a pleasant walk across the hills to Croft Castle and parks, where there were lots of bluebells out. On the way back to the house, we called in at a church in Yarpole, which happened to have a small plant stall. As a result, we've come home with some golden moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia), which will go in/around the pond. On the way home to Yorkshire, we called in to pick up some Freecycled carpet which was being thrown out; we'll be using it to line the pond.

Plumbing, planting, potatoes

We've had a pleasant couple of days in Scarborough, with the obligatory beach-front ice-cream. Back home, we've been checking that we're happy with the pond construction and layout, because we plan to line it in a week. As we were using the very fast and effective, but relatively imprecise minidigger to excavate, it does need a degree of manual finessing, to get the shape and depths we want. Hopefully that will only take a day or so to get right, and we can then line it, build the retaining dry-stone wall, fill it, and sort out the edges.

Today, we've had a day of smaller jobs. Inside, the dandelion wine is now in its demijohn. We spent the first part of the morning connecting the two outside taps (near the greenhouse) that I started to do last summer, and never quite finished. This means that there are now two watering points which don't require the workshop door to be propped open, which is much better—it means that the kitchen garden irrigation can be left automatically running, which is critical when we're away during the warmer months. The second hose point will let us set up automatic drip irrigation inside the greenhous (much better for the tomatoes during the summer), which is a later project.

Because we only made about half of the climbers' supports 'properly' last year, we've put up a further five that are more rustic, shall we say: lengths of poplar, tied together at the top. Less attractive, but functional. I hope to make more proper frames in the autumn.

We've planted out the tulbaghia, chives, coriander and parsley into the herb garden; as well as the agapanthus into the long border, as frosts should be past, now. I've taken a number of cuttings from the dahlias in the greenhouse, which are starting to grow on well (Bishop of Llandaff and Twyning's After Eight). They go in a propagator in the dining room for a few weeks until they've rooted, and will then grow on in pots this year.

Down in the kitchen garden, the beetroot are now planted out (a rainbow mix, this year: we found the flavour much superior to Boltardy, and really pretty, too). The cauliflowers are also out, and we've planted the second half of the mini salad bed. I think these plants have been in modules for too long, though, so they might not thrive.

The potatoes are doing well, and almost all needed earthing up. The scorzonera has germinated really well; almost every station has a couple of seedlings. The parsnips, inevitably, are much slower, and will probably be less reliable. That's fine, though, we don't need many.

Tidying

Two minor notes: I pitched the yeast for the dandelion wine yesterday, which now needs a few more days in the bucket before moving into the demijohn for several months. This evening we've managed to get a couple of hours outside, mowing & edging the lawn (me) and weeding (Liz).

Sweetpea Supports

Last year, I made a number of timber-framed wigwams for growing annual climbers up, but only added the woven willow sides to those for the sweetpeas. They worked really well, though, and it was only time (that is, insulating the walls of the house!) that stopped me doing so for the pea and bean supports in the herb garden. They had to suffice with strings, which didn't work nearly as well. The beauty of the diamond-woven willow is that the tendrils seem to latch on very readily, meaning that they only need a little help to get started, and then the climbers just take off by themselves, with very little twisting in.

Yesterday afternoon, we worked together to get the willows put on the sides of the six remaining supports in the herb garden, spurred on by the growth the beans and peas are putting on while on the dining room windowsill. We're hoping to be able to plant them out next weekend, if the weather's looking stable.

We also managed to sow a number of seeds; some more legumes (to account for germination losses), and a tray of brassicas: cauliflowers, swedes, and turnips.

Today we've mown the lawn, and edged it (have adopted shears from my parents, who don't have any lawn, now), for which it's looking immensely neater; weeded (well, Liz did this), and have started putting a timber frame onto the fruit cages to replace the wire net supports. The nets, and wires that carried them, have gradually deteriorated, mainly because of the combined effect of wind and snow. I'm hoping that timber framework, combined with chicken wire mesh roof, will be longer-lasting. We're about half way on the frame: adding the net/mesh is going to be a bit time-consuming, though.

At lunch, we started a batch of dandelion wine, using flowers picked before I mowed the lawn. The combined yield of the lawn and paths, fittingly, is about perfect for a one-gallon batch. The petals stew (with chopped raisins) until later this week, when lemon and yeast are added. Five more days in the bucket, then it goes into a demi-john until autumn. We've also got round to bottling the two gallons of elderflower, and one of bramble-tip, that I made last year. All very good, so we're planning to make more of both in the coming weeks.

Small Steps

A weekend of maintenance, mainly, with a lot of weeding...and even more potting up. One of those weekends with little visible difference, in as much as things merely look neater. Never mind.