Carried Away
- By Haidee Clarke
- •
- 07 Mar, 2019
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Today we are mostly feeling..... lacerated
What a difference a week makes. Last week we were basking in the warmest February on record and now the wind cuts through you like a knife.....one of the pitfalls of living on the side of a hill is that when it is windy, it is WINDY! But we didn't waste any of that good weather and got plenty done. We could be found in t-shirts at 8am one morning last week weeding the herb garden (all that warm weather meant it had a carpet of buttercups erupting that took the best part of two - therapeutic - hours to eradicate).
Whilst we were giving the herb garden some tlc, we gave the mint plants a little sort out. We have two: a minty minty that we use for mint sauce and a spearmint. Both have become pot bound as mints often get (never plant them in the garden as they will spread and be difficult to get rid of) so each came out of their pots, were divided with a spade and then replanted (as you can see in the photo). All the bits and pieces left over went to the bonfire and were incinerated - cant run the risk of that rooting! At least now the mint should have grown enough to make a fresh batch of minty sauce for Easter.
We did get a trailer of compost from the local garden centre (locally composted garden waste), so all the veg tubs are filled and ready to go, and there is plenty of spare for all the potato bags to be fully filled when the time is right. The children picked two different varieties of 'earlies' - Red Duke of York and Foremost. Normally these would be being planted but we have decided to 'chit' them before they go into the ground to give them a head start - it is too cold to plant them out up here at the moment. To chit them we have popped the potatoes with the eye side up in egg boxes and popped them on the kitchen window sill (light but no direct sunlight and keeps a temperature of over 10 degrees). Once they have started to sprout we will put them in their bags to grow.
The ginger was recovered from under a pile of bracken - it was having its winter warm. Looks like the top has been nibbled by a pesky slug or two, so a little clear out of the pot and a covering of fresh compost, and it has been stowed in the little greenhouse with the sweat peas to rejuvenate. Hopefully it will regrow as we are keen to see how that grows and how it tastes.
And finally to the laceration - we moved 10 ill-placed gooseberry bushes and removed several layers of skin!! We may have lived here for coming up 4 years but we have only just got around to moving the bushes that lived on top of a wall in the yard! The first year we came they cropped well (there were bleeding fingers on that harvest) but then we didn't have many chickens. The last few years we have just watched on as the chickens enjoyed themselves so we have moved them into the confines of the fenced veg garden so maybe we can enjoy them this year. It was quite hard work as they had rooted into the stone wall and we didn't get as much root as we would have liked. We have three varieties (1) Invicta (2) Careless (3) Whinham's Industry. It was a little unfortunate as they had started to bud with the mild weather so we hope they will survive well enough for us to do some research on these varieties and conclude their long term future.
At least they have been well-watered in over the past few days!
Whilst we were giving the herb garden some tlc, we gave the mint plants a little sort out. We have two: a minty minty that we use for mint sauce and a spearmint. Both have become pot bound as mints often get (never plant them in the garden as they will spread and be difficult to get rid of) so each came out of their pots, were divided with a spade and then replanted (as you can see in the photo). All the bits and pieces left over went to the bonfire and were incinerated - cant run the risk of that rooting! At least now the mint should have grown enough to make a fresh batch of minty sauce for Easter.
We did get a trailer of compost from the local garden centre (locally composted garden waste), so all the veg tubs are filled and ready to go, and there is plenty of spare for all the potato bags to be fully filled when the time is right. The children picked two different varieties of 'earlies' - Red Duke of York and Foremost. Normally these would be being planted but we have decided to 'chit' them before they go into the ground to give them a head start - it is too cold to plant them out up here at the moment. To chit them we have popped the potatoes with the eye side up in egg boxes and popped them on the kitchen window sill (light but no direct sunlight and keeps a temperature of over 10 degrees). Once they have started to sprout we will put them in their bags to grow.
The ginger was recovered from under a pile of bracken - it was having its winter warm. Looks like the top has been nibbled by a pesky slug or two, so a little clear out of the pot and a covering of fresh compost, and it has been stowed in the little greenhouse with the sweat peas to rejuvenate. Hopefully it will regrow as we are keen to see how that grows and how it tastes.
And finally to the laceration - we moved 10 ill-placed gooseberry bushes and removed several layers of skin!! We may have lived here for coming up 4 years but we have only just got around to moving the bushes that lived on top of a wall in the yard! The first year we came they cropped well (there were bleeding fingers on that harvest) but then we didn't have many chickens. The last few years we have just watched on as the chickens enjoyed themselves so we have moved them into the confines of the fenced veg garden so maybe we can enjoy them this year. It was quite hard work as they had rooted into the stone wall and we didn't get as much root as we would have liked. We have three varieties (1) Invicta (2) Careless (3) Whinham's Industry. It was a little unfortunate as they had started to bud with the mild weather so we hope they will survive well enough for us to do some research on these varieties and conclude their long term future.
At least they have been well-watered in over the past few days!