Still no Floor so a little more garden

Well the third delivery date for our floor has been and gone and still no floor, we won't know why till after the weekend. Fretting about it won't get it here any sooner so we thought that we might as well get on with other things.

Steve has had his usual battle with tools that have been in the shed unused over the winter and refused to work when taken out. The lawnmower responded to a bit of bashing with the hammer and so we now have a neatly mowed Parking area. The strimmer, however remained stubbornly silent and no amount of poking and prodding would get it to work. Steve gave it a stern talking too, and put it back in the shed. He will give it one more chance in the morning, this technique has, rather surprisingly worked in the past.

Steve may have had a frustrating day, but I have made strides with the little greenhouse project. I have planted  four different types of chillies (kindly brought from the uk my our friends John and Cath) and coriander seeds. I have space left for a single tomato plant, which I intend to buy in hope of some early tomatoes and a pot which I may plant up with Strawberries as the sheep have eaten those I had previously.

I have also weeded the paths and put down a layer of woody mulch. I found also a load of leftover seeds from last year. A bit nibbled on my mice I might add. I never throw old seeds away I will either plant them in odd corners of the garden or in pots on the patio to see what comes up. A surprising number grow even when the packets have been kept in dreadful conditions or even rained on.

I Have tucked a Bucket for small tools and a bucket of wood ash under the table for use over the summer. We have a small garden shredder / mulcher and  I like to keep a wire bin of mulched material on hand as it has endless uses it gradually composts down anyway and any leftover adds to our compost supply, we have never yet managed to produce sufficient compost I use piles of the stuff.

Starting a Garden late.

It so long since I wrote a blog post that I had to sit and stare at the screen for a few minutes before I remembered what to do. I am hoping that this isn't a false start and that I can pick it up once again.

Time, or rather lack of time is a curse of the modern world and that is no less so with running a small holding. Although we have successfully cleared some of the busyness from our lives the sheer volume of jobs associated with our  (relatively) small piece of land means we never seem to catch up. Add to that a very wet winter and spring, and a big project inside of the house and we are way behind. When I say way behind I don't just mean no planting I mean nothing, Zilch, no preparation no mulching no nothing, and here we are and its almost May.

Sheep but not sheepish

As our economic survival relies on us producing a good part of our own food, I decided today that I really had better start. I have missed the best start times for some veg, and I may not have time to prepare enough ground to grow all that I would like, but I have decided that with a pragmatic approach I can still grow a good few things.


The first possible problem with this plan is the sheep. They still have access to the vegetable garden at the moment, and their destructive capabilities are impressive. So nothing out in the open then. This means my little plastic green house is my target for the day.

Gone to seed winter salad leaves.

Being limited in this way is no bad thing in my experience, When faced with the possibility of a huge quantity of work it can be a bit overwhelming, sometimes in fact it can paralyse you to the extent that you give up before you start. One thing that I have learnt, or to be more accurate that I am constantly learning is to tackle one small job at a time. Start small finish your small job, start the next and get wherever you get to. Its amazing how much I can accomplish that way.

So my garden job for today was to clear the beds and water. I also hosed down the walls which washed off snails, mould, green slimy bits etc. I will do the same again tomorrow, the reason for repeating the task is that any weeds I missed today will respond to being watered and poke their heads up ready to be pulled out tomorrow. The beds will soak up the water so when I add compost and seeds everything should grow.

Needless to say I had help! They are insatiably curious and there is not room in one small greenhouse for three fully grown sheep.......and a cat........and a couple of chickens.... and two large dogs and a handful of duckings..............