Well, we're here again- another New year. It has been some time since my last post due to commitments with one thing and another! A lot has happened since the last time I wrote- the big one was I was rushed in to have major bowel surgery which left me almost useless for at least 6 months. Fortunately i'm more or less back to normal now and back gardening so things are returning back to the way they were. I'm now Secretary to the new district association of the NVS (national vegetable society) based here in the West Midlands. I have let the position of allotment letting officer go as I was finding it hard to get round all the sites and meet the new tenants. This year I feel is going to be a busy one- i'm booked to give my very first gardening talk, I have another allotment open day to organise, I have decided to take the NVS judging exam later in the year and I also have our mini show to judge (Phewww... busy? extremely busy me thinks...)
Not a lot happening in the garden at the moment. Have been redesigning some parts of the garden- the jewel garden has now become the tuxedo garden and we now have the makings of a small shell grotto (sounds exciting doesn't it- I can't wait to see it either!)
The veg garden has been turned over to no-dig beds so I spent a couple of days over Christmas fetching lots of well rotted manure to mulch the beds. The majority of beds are 8ft square with several beds on the edge measuring slightly larger at 19x 10ft. The bigger beds are destined to take maincrop spuds and legumes. It will be interesting to see how the no-dig methods compare with the more tradition approach that we have always taken. (Will keep you posted on that one!)
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| A view across some of the beds... |
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| Beds covered over to encourage the worms to do their business! |
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| Beds topped with manure or garden compost |
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| Then a dressing of biochar fertiliser |
Those of you that regularly followed this blog will have met our old girl Cassy. Unfortunately she has gone to a better place and we naturally miss her very much. We spent 18 very happy years together and she was my very first gardening 'buddy'.
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| Cassy |
We decided to have another dog and now have a cracking little fella called Monty (after Monty Don of course!). He's is mainly border terrier with a little Lakeland in him. We fetched him when he was 7 weeks old from Stone which is around 30 miles from here. When we got there he was on a farm, amongst many other dogs in kennels caked in mud- he looked a sorry little chap- a little on the bloated and muddy side. Now he's 8 months and turning out to be a right little gardener! I can see many more happy years to come with this new gardening 'buddy'.
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| Monty aged 8 months |
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| about 4-5 months I think here... |
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| 7 weeks ahhhhh... |
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| Feeling his teeth! |
looking great adam :-) ( liz )
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz- keep checking in!
ReplyDelete