Monday 17 March 2014

Phew...

Hello Kelly and thrift deluxe, welcome to my blog via Bloglovin!

The only problem with all this sunny weather - is you don't know when to stop!

All raised beds are now painted except for one alpine bed - which is black. It has to wait until I finish all brown paint jobs to do black painting. The bird protection nets are half way through being painted brown.

The compost from bin 2 (closed down last Spring) has been sieved and saved in bags for later use. I know you don't really need to sieve it but we compost old envelopes and it helps to remove plastic and stones etc from the composted material.

The 'still to complete composting' stuff in bin (1), has been turned over and placed into the now empty bin 2. It has a brick on its lid to remind us not to put any more into it. It will be emptied and sieved next Spring!

How much compost we end up with varies due to how much can be composted in the first place. Our composting bins are around 4' high, and are anywhere between 1/2 to 3/4 full when turned and left to finish rotting down. Once it has finished, we end up with around 1/4 to 1/2 a bin of compost to be sieved; beautiful and wonderful smelling goodness. My bins work on the 'cold' composting system so it takes them a full year to do their thing! Experience has taught me that I cannot compost thick, woody material so that goes into my brown council compost bin.

The raised trays for the strawberries has been put back together and the troughs of plants moved back onto it. When the next lot of frosts come (and they will come), we shall cover them with a thick layer of fleece just to keep the troughs from freezing and damaging the roots:

The trellis for the bramble is up and the plant tied in:
All canes in the fruit cage are tied back in after the winter storms and old bits of blueberry that have died, have been snipped off. All leaf buds are well developed on all the plants in there, and the gooseberries have already started to unfurl their leaves:
The flowers on my red pear tree are also close to opening:
Here is my working space for all these mucky jobs:
Once finished our 'winter' seat goes here and the larger summer table and chairs come out onto the patio. Finally, a view of behind the garage where the water butts live, winter storage of nets (under blue tarpaulin, and bags of sieved compost:
This morning, when opening the bedroom curtains, I was very pleased to see Great Tits going in and out of the nest box (built by DS when he was a Cub Scout) attached to our apple tree down near the back fence. We only remembered to empty it a few days ago, they must have been very busy creating a nest in there! I do hope it wasn't their current nest DB turfed out:)






10 comments:

  1. Wow you have been busy DC. It's great now the weather's turning warmer and sunnier. John's been out in the garden all day and it's beginning to come along nicely. We are awaiting a wooden compost bin in the shape of a bee hive - something he's been after for some time and will be an added bonus to our garden as both a feature and its usefulness.
    Patricia x

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    1. DB made me one years ago, we had it for ages but chopped it up last year as it fell out of use and was going rotten. Lovely to look at but quite heavy to put the lid on and off, plus lift off each side to empty it. Mind you, he may have used a lot thicker wood than the bought ones!

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  2. Sounds as if its all go in your garden! I think things are moving faster this year because of our milder winter.

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    1. True but if the future forecast is anything to go by, we should be back to normal later in the week.

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  3. Isn't it a great feeling when spring comes and the garden starts coming alive. You are certainly a lot tidier than me - in fact you put me to shame! I have supplied all the other liveaboards around me with compost buckets and compostable bags (free from mother and the house) and so I have a good supply of compostable materials - perhaps your neighbours would do the same? xxxx

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    1. I wouldn't really want any of my neighbours stuff to compost as I am organic and they aren't. One doesn't use pesticides but his lawn is full of weeds! Good idea though. I used to have some of B's lawn clippings when she was alive, but no more sadly. The 3 or so bags I get is enough to feed everything in the back. The front gets other stuff.

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  4. You have been busy! We had a grey, wet and miserable weekend but Monday was a bit better so I got out in the back garden for a few hours. I feel so much better now that I have tidied everything up.

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    1. Can't beat a good clearing up time in the garden can you? The weather doesn't look too good from Friday onwards. All brown painting done, just the back gate in black, then all the black painting done. I shall decide which bed needs warming first to sow, then cover it with my thick plastic lids.

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  5. Looking good out there Dc! Jim has been busy in our garden, all raring to go , clean greenhouse, re-furbished compost hep, beds tidied and veg patch dug over and prepared. Everything is shooting up and the daffs and primroses are out. A lovely feeling of promise is in the air!

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    1. The nice weather has helped. Once the back gate is done (tomorrow maybe), all the painting will be done.

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