Logs

For the very first time since the start of 2012, the driveway doesn't have any firewood on it. We've finally caught up, and got everything sawn, split, and stacked into the woodshelter. In turn, the woodshelter is full. Precisely. Astonishingly precisely.

An empty driveway (© Ian) 

And a full woodshelter (© Ian)

The last stack (on the left) can't be as tall or as full as the others, because I can't stack from alongside it—I have to build the stack as I work out, off the support frame ('ladder'). That seriously limits how well and thus how high it can be built, so it only contains about half as much firewood as the stack next to it.

Autumn Fruit

It's been a long time, because the blackberries have been ready in August for several years, but this year it's September and they're ready. It feels more like the 'proper' time for us both, as we remember picking blackberries in September when we were small.

Anyway, we managed to collect a number of tubs from the orchard.

Start of the blackberry harvest (© Ian 2016)

And also a number of apples. These are Yorkshire Greening, from the apple walk.

Yorkshire Greening apples (© Ian 2016)

We also spent a while sorting out some firewood, and the wood shelter is almost at capacity, which is a good point to be at.

Wood

I managed a mid-week mow of the lawn, which always makes things run better, as it doesn't have to fit in at the weekend. That was nice, because I then had yesterday to spend with my sister, playing badminton, and going to a local dog shelter's show.

Today, we met Liz's' parents for lunch in Halifax (while their fosterling was at a contact session with her brother) and then after that at home. After they'd gone, it was wood stacking time! We're making decent progress on getting the driveway cleared, and the wood shelter refilled.

Firewood

Just a quick note: I've spent most of today sawing, splitting, and stacking a load of firewood (mostly chestnut, which is a pleasure to work with). It's not straightforward, as a one-person job, sadly. The sawing is fine, but splitting is quicker with two (one to split, the other to place on the block); and stacking is the same number of man-hours, but not divided. I took the doors off the fruit cages, which meant I could barrow straight down to the shelter (with two of us, we usually went across the middle garden and down the steps, but the steps take two of you). Still, got the load done, which is the main thing.

Chestnut

Over the past few weeks, I've been getting on with some bits and pieces: mostly plastering the first floor. I'm nearly there: a little more in the front guest room that needs to wait; a little on the landing. The master dressing room is a weekend's work, because it needs to be emptied, the wallpaper stripped, and then plastered. The sewing room needs a lot of plastering, some onto stone, which I'm leaving for now. The chimney breast in the master bed needs plastering and painting. Then there's the whole floor to paint, and the window reveals to tidy and finish.

I've a lot to do, so I'm just chipping away at it all.

This weekend, though, was a 518 mile round trip to Surrey. We ordered a load of coppiced chestnut, which will form a fence along the edge of the herb garden (a wind break, and a better definition of where it ends, visually). This was cut over the winter, and was ready for collection, so I hired a Jumbo Transit van, and drove down yesterday. I got to Lodsworth (Prickly Nut Wood) at about 2, loaded up, and got back to Liz's sister in Farnham around 3. This afternoon, I've driven back up, unloaded (loading, with three of us, was much easier than unloading single-handed!), cleaned the van, and collapsed onto the sofa. The van was surprisingly easy to drive (rear visibility aside), and I was pleased to keep the fuel consumption as good as 29mpg. Ten hours of driving later, I've about a ton of chestnut poles on the kitchen patio.

Jumbo the Transit van waiting to set off (© Ian 2016)

The House in Prickly Nut Wood (© Ian 2016)

The van full of chestnut (© Ian 2016)

Starting work on the jigsaw puzzle they represent will have to wait, though. I've several weekends away coming up, and really I need to saw, split, and stack some/most/all of the firewood on the driveway to get space to do the work.

Tidying

I spent a fair bit of this morning trying to get to the bottom of why our intelligent solar-PV diverting water heater doesn't appear to be working. It seems to be a hardware fault, after a lot of diagnosing, and it'll have to go back to the manufacturer this Monday for repair. A real pain, but the company's been excellent in trying to resolve it, and the unit's under three years of parts & labour warranty, so it'll all be fine soon enough, I hope. And then we'll be back to having lots of hot water.

We're reinsulated the accumulator tank, which hasn't been properly returned to order since we installed the heating elements. That's meant reshaping the outer casing, and replacing the foam insulation I had to carve away in order to access the blanking plugs with expanding polyurethane foam. While I was messing around with the equipment, I've also cleaned (and fixed, in fact) the chimney exhaust fan, and swept the biomass chimney, as well as the sitting room chimney. The former needed it—the latter less so, but it's good to do every few months.

Having got the cables to the right position, and leading all the way back to the control unit on Wednesday, we've now mounted the external CCTV cameras, and positioned them to give us a good view of the outside of the house. I think they might need slight tweaking, but they seem about right.

Liz has undertaken a massive tidy-up while I've been so occupied, weeding all the fruit beds and cutting back the raspberries, cleaning the house, and weeding some of the ornamental beds. The garden's looking really good, even though it's October: so much so that actually there was no envy when we managed to get to Harlow Carr this afternoon. Our much smaller garden is, I think, stacking up well.

Friends

It's felt like a pleasingly long weekend, as we had Friday off, and we've had visitors with us from mid-morning Friday until mid-afternoon today. Philip and Rachel arrived first, followed by David and Ann around 2200. Katherine arrived early morning on Saturday, hot on the heels of Liz and Robert (and children; the younger's just 10 weeks old, and very cute). They only stayed the day, but we managed to get outside for several hours (with barbecue), and without any children falling into the pond (or barbecue). I'd call that a success.

Everyone else left over the course of today, after what's been a very pleasant houseparty. We even came up with a new name for the garage (as it isn't, strictly, a garage any more, and was accommodating David and Ann). Henceforth, it'll be the Preservatory, because of all the bottled fruit, bubbling demijohns, and jars of jam.

We then set to chopping a load of firewood, as one was delivered during the week, which is now safely stacked away.

Chippings and Chopping

Earlier this week, I had a large load (about 6m³) of chippings delivered by a tree surgeon. He was very accommodating, as well as offering a good price, and they're split between the driveways, meaning they've been easier to move. The first task has been weeding the hedge up the side of the orchard, and giving it a thick layer of chippings. The plants are looking better than we feared, actually, and hopefully the hedge will grow on well over the next twelve months.

We also weeded the apple walk, and finally spread a good layer of chippings over the weed membrane that goes up the centre of it. More still went around the beech trees at the edge of the games lawn, and over the path in front. We've finally laid out membrane along the two paths of the herb garden, and covered with more chippings, and done the same up the two bare paths through the Colour Wheel to the future patio. We then topped up the paths through the kitchen garden, and, finally running low, used the last to weigh down some membrane in the copse, which we're going to slowly start bringing into cultivation, and not leave grassy.

Today, for a change, we chopped firewood.

Marking Out

This weekend hasn't brought anything particularly exciting, but we've managed to get exactly through the list of preparations for the mini-digger's arrival that we drew up at Christmas, which is pleasing.

The last of the patio flagstones are out of the way, and the arbour has been dismantled and moved to the seating area in front of the beech hedge bench (well out of the way). It'll be there for some time, and the arbour is far too heavy to move intact: stacked neatly there, it won't kill any grass, and we can give it a good clean, and a coat of paint, before reassembling it once we get the patio relaid.

We've moved the two dustbins and packing crate, which have been filled with water in an attempt to keep a number of wet/pond plants going since being pulled out of Jenny's pond when she filled it in. The irises are clearly alive, though I remain unconvinced about the others.

Once these were out of the way, we've used a number of poplar rods to mark out the planned edges of the pond, and flower beds in the new colour-wheel garden, and the patio that will form the corner of this. We're happy with how they're all looking, but we've got a few days to consider them from different angles, before the digger arrives on Maundy Thursday.

We've had a bit of a potting up session, putting tomatoes, peppers (sweet and chilli), and cauliflowers into pots from their sown modules. The caulis always look quite sad for a couple of weeks after transplanting, but should be fine, and we've got more of the others than we need. There's a third sort of tomato (Black Russian) still to go, but these two (Maskotka and Alicante) are ready to pot on.

Finally, we've sawn the wood from the shed base (mostly requiring sawing, rather than splitting, as it's drier than we usually split wood, and I think it's oak, to boot), and that's allowed us to lift the base (sawn up and flung into a corner of the orchard, where I'll make a compost bay later this year). It's a relief to discover that there are just three cast-in-situ concrete beams on which the base was supported, and not a whole slab of concrete.

Having got to end of our excavation-preparations, we've been able to do a bucket-worth of plastering, meaning that our bedroom's back wall, and most of the sewing room's bathroom-wall, are now done. Slowly getting there!

Clearing Rubble

A day off, and we've spent it on the ramp, more-or-less, shifting several tractor buckets of rubble with Chris, which has really broken the back of that job. The remainder we've managed to bag up into the bags from the gravel for the land-drains, and it should now just take a couple of hours more with Chris taking the tractor back and forth, and we'll have reclaimed our herb garden.

After lunch, we've sawn, split, and stacked a load of firewood. It appears we still know how to do it, fortunately, although this is only the second load in months.

Master En Suite

Yesterday we connected the new bath in the master en suite (waste and both taps), levelled the tub and fixed it down, and then tiled around the bath. That was followed, this morning, by grouting the tiles, which now look really good; we've also attached a shower-curtain rail that doubles as a normal curtain, and installed the glass shower screen.

While Liz grouted, I've properly hung the door between the guest room and that en suite—it couldn't be done until the blockwork wall was down, because the door couldn't open. That's now up, and allows access as intended. On the landing, we've put up the last section of plasterboard in the lobby, as well as finishing the stud wall separating the side guest room from the en suite, and plasterboarded the unfinished guest room side. That also meant hanging a wall light (reusing the cabling for the shaving light from its bathroom incarnation.

That really does bring us the end of major operations, which has meant that we've been able to clear the dining room, which has been the staging arena for tools, consumables, and building material for months, now—since August. We've been able to return tools and the small remaining amount of materials to the workshop and garage (as was), and collect up the waste, which is broadly either scrap metal, wood for recycling, and a small amount of 'domestic' waste. It's lovely to have the dining room back, which now feels like a big room again.

We've also resorted to turning on the central heating, as the stove is starting to struggle as the only heating in the house. Not bad, turning on the boiler right at the end of November.

Logs

Just a short note: after several months of not doing so, I've spent this afternoon sawing, splitting, and stacking a load (or thereabouts) of logs. Several loads have built up on the drive, and we needed to clear some space. Secondly, as we're now running the stove, we're starting to burn wood for the winter, so it's time to start filling the shelter as it's emptied. Liz was working today, but helped with transporting the wood down, and stacking. Light ran out after 19 barrows (25 is a full load), but there we go.

In other news, Jenny and Philip have properly moved out, their sale/purchase completing at noon, and the new owners beginning to move in.

Paths

Today started with a soft-fruit picking session. The raspberries are nearly over: probably one, maybe two more pickings left. However, the gooseberries are really just starting: the fuzziest, first variety at the top of the bed, Invicta (which also seems to have bigger fruit) is mostly ready, and some of the red and golden Hinnonmaki are there, too. While I prickled myself collecting these, and then a bowl full of blackcurrants, Liz collected about 80% of the redcurrants. The whitecurrants are always a bit later, and some of the red weren't ready yet...but it's still a lot of fruit. The bushes have now properly hit their stride, in their fifth year (we planted them in December 2009), although one of the blackcurrants isn't doing nearly as well as the other two. That's a shame, as blackcurrants are my favourite (compared to red/white/pink...I don't know how I'd choose a soft fruit, let alone a fruit, as a favourite), but there you go. I'm hoping that a couple of year's good mulching and pruning might see it straight. Alternatively, it may not be getting as much irrigation, as it's at the top of its bed (which is, literally, the highest point of the kitchen garden, and furthest from the watering system inlet).

A few clumps of ragwort have been growing in the orchard, and while certainly not an infestation (there's a nearby field which is just a mess of ragwort—and, worryingly, is a horse paddock), I wanted to remove it before it sets seed. When we bought the land, there was, comparatively, quite a lot, which a year of strimming and pulling has mostly resolved. Anyway; I pulled up what I found, and checked in on the graftlings, which all seem to be doing ok.

When I'd done so, Liz had weeded beech bench bed, and the bed to either side, and had also put down cardboard mulch sheets around the beech. That was a prerequisite for spreading chippings around the beech, which will now have much less competition for light, water, and soil, and look a lot tidier. I moved the turf stacked in front of them, and the spoil heap of stones (including a couple of large lumps of concrete, and several stones worthy of walling or pond-side). Between us, we've laid out weed-membrane, and covered it with chippings, to form a path down that side of the lawn. During the winter, when we're bringing wood up from the wood shelter, that path quickly gets muddy, so this should be a better route, now.

This was really part of a larger chipping-spreading activity, as we've put a path (membrane and chippings) through the middle of the herb garden. It's not planted, apart from the lavender lines crossing it, and having the lined path will mean a bit less weeding. The un-dug part of the potager, which has had weed membrane down on it for some time, has now also had a layer of chippings, which makes it look much more attractive than black membrane.

Putting this path down meant moving four box that were an edge in the old design, but are no longer, as the edges have moved, and aren't going to be box any more. The four plants have moved into the long border, replacing clumps of alchemilla, and will gradually form balls.

Lastly, I've had to add more strings to the legume supports, as they finally, slowly, start to grow. They went out too late, really, delayed by the work on the back of the house, so it's not going to be a productive pea and bean year, sadly.

Odd Jobs

Today—as Wednesday will be, I expect—has mostly been little jobs. Liz has finished 'weeding' the orchard, and I've cut paths through the grass. That leaves things flowering (which looks good), and takes less time (also good), while looking deliberate and allowing easier access to the trees and clearings.

I've topped up the chippings on the steps under the greenhouse, and in front of the wood shelter (where they were getting weedy, and decomposing). That's let us re-stack a load of wood, delivered last week, more neatly on the drive. We'll need to spend a day next weekend sawing, splitting, and stacking, though.

The greenhouse is finally sorted, and we've potted a load of things into proper pots, and laid them out on the new 'patio' outside the dining room. That needed levelling, before pots would be stable, and that's done. We need a new load of chippings to spread on the membrane, so that it looks a little less artificial.

We've also been able to collect enough flowers to start 2 gallons of elderflower wine, as well as (yesterday) bramble tips (the first 4" of brambles) for a gallon of wine (a new one for us, to make up for missing the dandelions). The bramble tips steep in hot water overnight, and then get simmered for fifteen minutes (over lunch), before straining the liquor onto sugar (I'll add yeast before I go to bed). The elderflowers have boiling water poured on them, along with sugar; yeast will be added in the morning.

Redesigning the Knot Garden

The herb garden's been in the planning for some time, and the design's evolved in the making. Originally, we thought we'd have just box edging, and primarily herbs. We added roses to the planting, and lavender to the edging. Then, when we worked on the design, rather than the concept, we came up with something that needed three edging materials to work well, and so we added step-over apples. The last couple of years of growing the kitchen garden suggested that we actually needed a little extra edibles space, and so we added runner beans, peas, and French beans to the planting -- which helped with height -- and then over-wintered onions, garlic, and elephant garlic. Trying the design last year made it clear that the squares of the design weren't really big enough, so we made them 50% larger. In turn, that meant the design changed, and now we need only two edging types once more. The design, now, is really one of a potager, or ornamental kitchen garden, encompassing roses (technically edible), herbs, apples, and ornamental vegetables -- the attractively podded (and flowered) Shiraz mange tout, Blue Cocoa runner beans, and red/purple Brussels sprouts. Out have gone the inedible box (now to form evergreen box balls in the herbaceous border), and a predominance of herbs.

This weekend, then, we've spent getting as far as possible with the new design. We got started on clearing the ground a week ago, and (after a vet trip that took much of the morning), continued this yesterday. We finished that by about mid-morning today, and then, in an afternoon punctuated by someone coming to finally take away the oil tank, finished preparing the ground by about 5 o'clock.

The oil tank, half-way out ( Ian 2014)

The oil tank has been waiting for removal for a while, and we eventually found someone who wanted it, thus avoiding having to pay (several hundred pounds) for someone to remove something we didn't want. Getting this heavy steel tank off its piers, missing the greenhouse (just the other side of the protective sheet of ply in the photo), across the patio, down two sleeper-built steps, and the length of the games- and pond gardens, and then up the driveway to the truck was, shall we say, tiring.

But now it's gone, and we have a 6x4 space in which a shed might go -- and now no smell of kerosene on warm days.

Now: back to the herb garden. We'd marked out the pattern (basically unchanged) last time, so apart from fine tuning a couple of measurements that had been hindered by rocks (which Liz made excellent progress moving: it really feels thankless work), we were able to immediately see where each square/diamond went.

Into several of these, I sank the climber supports, which Liz started yesterday by painting (I'd only done some of them). We've not had time to add the woven willow sides, so these will have to wait until autumn. For now, there are strings tied round them to get everything growing: they'll be invisible soon, and the willow will be in place for the winter, when it's actually meant to be an attractive feature.

Having sunk the six supports into the ground, we topped up the soil in all of the squares (but not the edges: lavender doesn't want rich soil) with compost, neatly finishing the 'ready' bay of compost, and started planting. The plants are mostly those that we potted up and set outside a few weeks ago, and included enough lavender to complete those edges that we've cleared space for (almost).

From the greenhouse have come the Laguna, Speedy, and Castendel French beans, the White Lady and Blue Cocoa runner beans, and the Shiraz and Delikata peas/mange tout. We've also planted out 32 red sprouts, a load of chicory, a dozen or so bronze fennel, a pot's worth of aniseed, and the Japanese ginger we bought at Tatton. All that obviously needed watering in, and tying to supports where necessary, and it's meant rather a late finish (I came in at 11, and Liz only came in half an hour earlier, to cook)...but it's looking really good.

Vegetable Planting

It's that time of year when the vegetable beds in the kitchen garden go from bare (or green manure covered), to filled, quite rapidly. The onions and potatoes went in about six weeks ago, and are doing well. We've now planted out a couple of blocks of beetroot (half a variety of mixed colours, and half Boltardy), 32 Brilliant celeriac, six courgettes (Defender), and scarlet kale and cauliflowers amongst the spinach. We've sown some more radishes, and sown a pot of scorzonera, as they haven't germinated in the bed. Some of the summer-sown brassicas (winter cabbage, cauliflowers, swedes) have gone into pots to germinate.

As a result, the kitchen garden's looking a lot more full. There's space, still, for leeks to go out (still in the greenhouse), and of course the potatoes get replaced as we lift them.

At the other end of the garden, the rhubarb had put on loads of new growth, meaning there was about 10kg of stems to pick. With such a large amount at once, it's been worth bottling, so we've preserved four and a half big Kilner jars.

While doing so, I've also made a batch of rhubarb vodka, with 8oz of chopped rhubarb, 4oz of sugar, and a 70cl bottle of vodka. Should be ready in a few months...

That was this morning: this afternoon, we sawed, split, and stacked a load of poplar.

Garage

We've got a week of leave, coinciding with the bank holiday, and a long list of things to get done. We started work on our garage conversion a few weeks ago, putting up the plasterboard ceiling, and beginning the slow process of laying the new floor: we need to get further with that, as the building work will hopefully start in 10–12 days. As normal, there's also a lot to get done in the garden: it's weeding and mowing season, which always takes a lot of effort.

Yesterday wasn't a very exciting day, by all accounts: I re-stacked some firewood that turned out not to have been stable, and Liz weeded the beds by the septic tank. We then cleared as much as possible of the garage loft (the only loft in which we store anything), including a large number of cardboard boxes that are destined to be a weed-resistant but degradable mulch. A lot of other things from the garage are actually rubbish, so we then went on a tip-trip, before going round to Cath and Jason's for a rather tasty dinner.

Today was more interesting. We started by building a stud wall in the hole through which the biomass accumulator tank was installed. I've always intended to do this, but we've had a stop-gap measure for the last nine months of a layer of mineral wool held in place with chicken wire. Not very professional, but effective.

The stud wall will have solid foam insulation packed into it, and a plasterboard screwed on top; that'll be later in the week.

Stud wall partition (© Ian 2014)

After this was done, we spent the rest of the day in the loft, putting down supplementary rafters and boarding a walkway down the centre of the loft. There was a walkway previously, but the floorboards weren't secured, and the extra rafters (giving us space for plenty of loft insulation) meant it had to be taken up and relaid anyway.

Sprung

Today's been a phenomenally nice day, with temperatures around 17°C, and bright sun. Yesterday was cooler, and a bit cloudier, which made it an ideal day for chopping a load of firewood (sticky tricky pine, but never mind).

The warmth and bright sun today's meant that there are probably a dozen daffodils pretty much out, where yesterday there were three. The crocuses enjoyed it, too, and I'm pretty sure a bee flew past me (too fast to be sure) this afternoon.

The dwarf irises in the long border, and around the pond, are out, and beautiful.

Dwarf iris (© Ian 2014)

When the acer in the front garden was first planted, in a large pot in our last garden, we underplanted it with snowdrops. They never came to much, but after we planted the acer in our new front garden (before starting this blog: I think it was September 2009), they've started to come up, and the last couple of years have given us a decent show.

Snowdrops under the acer (© Ian 2014) 

I've actually got a big consignment of snowdrops on order—1000 common singles (Galanthus nivalis) and 500 doubles (G. n. 'Flora Pleno')—which will hopefully arrive, in the green, soon, and can go out, on hillside and in garden.

Which brings us to today's efforts. First thing was finishing the winter pruning, by working on the fruit bushes. The blackcurrants, gooseberries, and red/whitecurrants all needed pruning, and we also removed some old wood on the blueberries, which are still proving troublesome. The two oldest ('Grover' and something unknown) were several years old when planted in 2010, and the other three are now four years old—and still not very large (to say the least). These three have definitely grown better over the last year (hopefully the good mulching last spring and resultant weed-free year has got them going), at least. However, we decided that we had to take out some old wood on the oldest pair, as ageing stems is possibly the cause of their much-reduced yield.

Once we'd finished in the fruit beds, we went up onto the hillside, to start work on clearing the blackthorn at the back of the orchard. This is partly to increase the size of the orchard, as the two sweet chestnuts are nestled into clearings in the blackthorn, and the space for the second mulberry (which, I'm astonished to realise, I never mentioned) is currently somewhere inside the blackthorn shown below.

Orchard, with back boundary of blackthorn (© Ian 2014) 

The blackthorn (which have never produced loads of sloes, sadly) lies in front of a line of trees (hawthorn, elder, and holly, primarily) which would make a better boundary, probably underplanted with hazel, beech, and bulbs. We're working on it from above, so it looks much the same today as it does in these photos, but we've actually hollowed out the undergrowth quite effectively. It's probably still a couple of days' work, but it's a good start. As Liz cleared, I was burning the blackthorn on a bonfire in the upper clearing (a hot, fast burning bonfire, I must note: no smoky, smouldering eyesore), as blackthorn's a nightmare to chip.

The entrance to the clearing, through, hopefully, arch-trained plums, will be roughly central in the photo below. You can just make out the sweet chestnut's stake on the far right; the other is hidden on the left. The mulberry will probably go behind and left of the established apple tree just in front of the blackthorn (for now). So; the mulberry. For several years, our local garden centre has sent a voucher around early November, which I've managed to use for a cheap fruit tree: a Broadview walnut in 2012, and a Serbian Gold quince in 2011. Last November, they had a 'Chelsea' mulberry (also known as 'King James', as it comes from a plant grown at Chelsea Physic Park as part of King James IV's misguided silk industry initiative), which we thought would make a good partner to the Jerusalem mulberry planted nearer the front of the orchard. And with 50% off, it was rather a good deal. It's had to remain in its pot, unfortunately, as we've not finished clearing its space, but fortunately, as it's container grown, it should be fine for a little longer: there's not the rush to get it in the ground, unlike bare-root, field-grown trees.

The orchard, looking up at the doomed blackthorn bank (© Ian 2014)

Digging the Apple Walk

As intended, we've managed to spend a day working towards planting the apple walk. Unfortunately, about halfway up the left planting line, we uncovered a massive boulder, which is part—I think—of a terracing wall from long ago. The terrace has disappeared into the undulations of the ground, now, and isn't so necessary: the soil is stabilized sufficiently by the trees, I think.

The boulder, probably a meter square, and 30cm thick, has defeated us so far: it's too heavy to move (probably 500kg). I think it's entirely uncovered, so I have resorted to using the sledgehammer to break it up. Once it's smaller, and moveable, we'll heave what's left out. The ground here is so stony that the spoil heap of stones looks a lot like we're building a dyke.

Our other bits-and-pieces have gone ok: we've split a load of firewood, and stacked it, and re-oiled the hedge and fruit trees on the hillside. Some of the hedges had been nibbled, which prompted this reapplication of deer-deterrent. Fortunately, the hedge plants will benefit from the trim, as it should promote a bushier, denser growth.

Chippings

Back in June, we made some progress getting the paths in the kitchen garden towards their long-intended final state. They'd always been grass, in theory, which in reality meant mud down the middle, and weeds along the edges. Long dissatisfied with this, we wanted to level them, put down weed membrane, and lay a thick layer of chippings. This worked well in front of the woodstore, and so a week ago I arranged for our friendly tree surgeon to drop off a truck-load of sycamore chippings. This is the small branches, twigs, and leaves, put through a Timberwolf shredder. The mix is quite a lot like hedge clippings, which compost well, though it's probably got more wood in it. Anyway; while it's not as 'nice' as bark chippings, it has a lot to recommend it. It's free; it's a waste product that would otherwise be processed by someone into peat-free compost; it works well on paths to keep them weed-free and drier.

The biggest benefit: after a year, it should turn into really nice mulch.

We put a load of the chippings onto the paths, which now look really tidy. We then started scraping up the chippings from the front of the wood store, which have, now (after six months in a heap, and a year on the path) turned into really well broken down compost. That's been going on the sweet-pea beds, and we're about half way up the path, replacing it with new. We ran out of light, unfortunately, which is often the case at this time of year. Four weeks, I make it, until the solstice.

Other than that, we've started clearing and levelling the ground where the apple arch walk will go, in the corner of the orchard. I think we've hit a terracing wall, as I seemed to be digging out a pile of stones. It's gone reasonably, though: I think another couple of days clearing/levelling, and a couple of days actually digging the planting trenches (which will probably need a good deal of compost or topsoil adding in).