Just a little garlic

Garlic

We have harvested all of our garlic. They are currently enjoying the sunshine drying out. It's been a pretty good haul this year, half of which popped up from plantings that disappeared with the bad weather last summer. I wasn't sure what to expect of these considering that they had been in the ground for almost two years but I left them growing between the other plants as they appeared to be healthy, they have bulked up nicely and harvested you can't tell any difference.

My initial plan is to make a plait, I've always loved these and they are quick and easy to do. Long term I will probably mash and freeze the cloves before they start growing again but if they do sprout they'll go straight into a pot. Waste not, want not!

This years garlic was started off in modules thanks to our late spring. This has been such a success that I'll probably do it this way again. I tend to plant in spring as I've never had much success from autumn sowings. By doing this I can get away with using garlic purchased from the supermarket. I've actually achieved better plants this way than by using cloves purchased from the garden centre, it's better on my pocket too. Ideally I would plant from my own garlic but somehow there never seems to be any left over.  

Kinston Lacy inspiration

These blackboards make great, versatile signs.

Kingston Lacy is a National Trust property within comfortable driving distance for us. I must admit that I do find a lot of the house and garden pretty boring having been several times now but I do enjoy the grounds and I love the Kitchen garden/allotments area. It was here that I focused my attention the other day whilst looking for inspiration.

Lavender edged beds.

We were greeted by a volunteer offering us some of her freshly picked strawberries. They were absolutely delicious, hot from the sun and very, very sweet. I was amused by my son turning them down, apparently he's had too many of our own! Alas, ours are now over but I hope to increase our stock for next year.

Same view, but closer!

The Kitchen garden is stunning, the plants were all looking healthy and made me itch to increase the size of mine. But it wasn't too perfect, there were still a few weeds dotted around to prevent me from feeling hopelessly inadequate.

Sweet peas

I thought that these sweet pea wigwams were lovely. I can imagine recreating these with an opening to place a bench inside. Who am I trying to kid, the bench would never make it in there. My boys would fill it with junk and turn it into a den! Still, it is something I fancy trying and I must scout out a spot to place one in next year.

I also enjoyed an amble through the allotment area. I don't have an allotment so I'm not sure of the standard size but I did get the impression that these might be half size plots. They were far more everyday than the kitchen gardens but still had a beauty of their own, even those that were fighting the weeds for dominance. There is something very satisfying about seeing plots looked after by 'normal' people after the prettiness of the Kitchen garden, somehow they seemed to balance each other out nicely.

Organising my potting shed

Potting shed is complete!

So what do you think of it? I'm really pleased with how my shed has turned out. The interior has been painted throughout in white which has brightened up the whole space. The walls only have one coat as I knew that the resin in the knotty wood would keep coming through no matter how many coats I apply. The goal was to make it feel light, not to turn it into a summer house.

Tool boxes

My first priority was to fit in all of my tools. There are nails across the top for hanging hand tools but all of the larger ones are sitting in boxes to keep them all in one space.


Old mini greenhouses as shelves

On the opposite side I have used old mini greenhouses as shelves. Their plastic covers have long since decayed and are quite rusty in places but they will do the job for a few more years.



Boxes of compost, leaf mould and horticultural sand

 The window itself is south facing should I need to leave any trays of seeds in the shed. In front of it is this fantastic trolley that I picked up in a charity shop a few days ago. Ugly but strong, it makes a great surface for working on as well as being able to store buckets of compost, leaf mould and horticultural sand.

Bunting

 All good sheds deserve a bit of bunting just to put a smile on your face as you walk in.



A blackboard

 A blackboard may not strike you as essential and I confess that it is there to be decorative rather than useful. There was a big white space that was crying out for something so that something became this. It is 'rustic' as I didn't see the need to trim the edges straight!

I have already used this space for potting up seeds and it feels like such a luxury to be able to put my hands on whatever I need. I know that in time it will fill up with more essentials but I hope that I don't let it get too cluttered, I love how it is now.





100th post! RSPB nature sanctuary, Arne.

Bay at Arne

A couple of days ago I was introduced to a lovely place, the RSPB bird sanctuary at Arne. It has some wonderful heathland and grassland walks but our main focus that day was the small, almost deserted beach. It was incredible being there with our families for several hours with just an occasional visitor wandering past. It felt very decadent having a sandy beach to ourselves!

My youngest was happy just to play in the sand though my eldest braved the mud to splash around in the water. This did concern me when he kept wading out to find a deeper patch, it is not a swimming beach and I have no idea of the nature of the mud here and how safe it is. Thankfully he listened(!) to me and came closer to the shore. Actually both boys behaved well, I was quite impressed. This is a definite lesson for me to push all of us out of our comfort zone more often.

Whilst waiting for our friends to arrive we also had a quick look in the nature/visitors centre where there were a few guides waiting, I believe that an organised walk was about to start. The guides were great, volunteering information about the reserve and talking my boys through each item on the nature table. It looks as if owl pellets are in my future, I'm not sure what to think of that.

I would love to revisit Arne when it is cooler and explore the other paths. When we finally left the beach and it's cooling breeze it took but a moment to find the more humid heat. The walk back to our vehicles felt like quite a slog thanks to the weather though it was really no great distance. All in all a fantastic day.

Can you believe that this is my 100th post? - I can't! Let's see if I will make it to 200...

Weeds et al

Bindweed

Summer is such an exhuberent time in the garden with all the weeds trying to outdo each other. It hasn't helped that with my big lawnmower out of action I'm having to use a small push along which takes up to 4 hours to complete the garden. Thankfully most of the weeds are not too bad, the worst is a small patch of bindweed in the old greenhouse area that I'm trying to keep on top of.

Nettles

The majority of the weeds are nettles which I find quite easy to deal with, the only issue is the quantity but each year I manage to get a little bit more of the garden under control. I love this image above, it reminds me of a crowd of old, bearded men.

stump

There are also several stumps to remove. The big tree stumps I just have to live with but these smaller ones I would rather have removed. But with only me prepared to put in the work it may be a long time.

Contorted pear

This last image is not of a weed but our contorted pear that had a major 'prune' last winter. We were a bit worried about whether or not it would come back but it had so much brittle and dead wood in it that we had little choice about chopping it back. It is in a favourite play spot for my boys and with their love of tree climbing it was just a matter of time before there would be an accident. It looks as if we may have been lucky as it is finally resprouting.

New shed!

J preparing the foundations

When we first moved here we had a budget for a few extras that included two garden sheds. Actually it was to be one shed but for the size that we wanted it was better to get two. Our storage shed has been up for some time as we needed somewhere to keep occasional use stuff. But the second has spent the last two years still in bits.

The plan was to lay a patio area on to which the shed would sit. This was clearly not an inspiring project considering how often it was put off. But last weekend J, fed up of the woodwork hanging around, got started.

As you can see from the above photo the patio idea was ignored in favour of digging out small trenches and using concrete blocks for the frame to sit on. Our soil is so lovely in much of this garden that this took very little time at all though I did feel a little concerned at how small the outline felt.

Shed with walls up

As is usual with self-builds(!) as soon as the walls went up it felt like a more sensible size, plenty of room for me to potter.

Completed shed with coat of timber paint

And here is the finished structure. It may not look like much but I am so pleased to have a space near the vegetable patch for all my regular tools. It's a bit dark inside but I have plans!