An Afternoon in the Garden

This Friday I wasn't at the CS for a change, so I had the day to myself, which was a treat.  OH was heading off up to Yorkshire for a cycle race, whilst LB and I stayed in London.  As a consequence, I also had the house to myself which is quite rare these days.  (OH works from home!)

I didn't wake until gone 8 and then I had a pretty lazy morning, beginning with starting a new book in bed.  OH headed off at 9.30 am, so I then was free to do as I pleased.  To be honest I didn't do anything exciting. Just the usual catching up on housework and blog reading. I was going to take the dog to the allotment with me and do some more clearing, but I never did get there.

Instead, I decided to have a lovely afternoon in our little garden, pruning a neighbours tree that was over hanging the fence and trampoline at the back and had got a bit out of hand, along with some other shrubs that were obstructing the paths around the vegetable beds.

I managed to fill the brown bin and then filled another 3 sacks that I need to take to the tip this weekend, if I get the chance.

There's still a bit more to do inside the trampoline, which hasn't been used in an age due to the overgrowth, so it will be good to finally clear it and see if LB will get on it and do some jumping this summer.  (I doubt it!)

I think that she's perhaps outgrown it now, so we might pass it on to some neighbours if anyone wants it. I have to  admit that I have that corner earmarked for my potting table, pots and garden tools at some point in the future.  It would definitely help to tidy up the decking outside the back door and give us a bit more usable space.

Here's how it looked before I started work (this photo was taken a week or so ago, but you'll get the gist).

And here's what it looked like after I'd finished for the day.

A satisfying day that will make access to the trampoline and around the beds to harvest, a little bit easier.

Allotment Tales

I finally got to the allotment today, for the first time in 4 or 5 weeks.   I was expecting it to be overgrown, due to the mix of rain and sunshine, but not quite as bad as it actually was.  I took a couple of pictures before I got started.

Here's the back  left hand corner, completely taken over by nettles, brambles and bind weed.

I managed to spend some time clearing this today and it looked like this when I left.  At least you can now see the rhubarb and my blackcurrant bush, both of which have just about been liberated.

Here's the two piles of cuttings, one of which I need to bag up and then put in the site compost bins and the other, which is made up of comfrey and nettles only, that I will use make a very nutritious plant food.

As I only had a couple of hours to spare today, I couldn't tackle much of the rest of the plot, but I did dig up the potatoes, which looked like this before I started.

To be honest it was a measly harvest. Quite a few had gone green, because I didn't bank them up well enough.  Once I'd dug over this area, I put some climbing french beans, cucumber and mange tout plants in.  It looked a lot tidier.

There's still a whole lot of work to do.  The mint and lemon balm have got totally out of hand and need cutting right back.  I think I may dry some and keep it to use for making tea or as dried herbs. There's also quite a bit more pulling up and cutting back of nettles and other weeds to do around the edges of the plot, so plenty to keep me busy.  I'll probably go back again tomorrow, weather permitting.

I think I mentally made a definite decision today, to let go of the plot this year.  Now the back garden beds are getting productive, I can probably grow almost as much in them (if not more), of produce that we use, than I harvest at the allotment, due to my neglect of it.

I'm now certain that the time has come to hand it over to someone else, to make what they can of it. I'll continue to cultivate it this year and try to clear it up as much as possible, so I don't leave a total mess for the next plotholder, but I think it's definitely the end of an era for me.

I've enjoyed having an allotment for the past 12 years, but I am now looking forward to concentrating on gardening in a small space at home.  The challenge will be to be as resourceful as possible, in order to grow as much garden produce as I can, hopefully all year round.

The ease of just stepping outside my back door to tend and harvest everything has definitely been brought home to me since we've had the new vegetable beds and it makes the effort of going to the allotment seem even more burdensome.

Time to move on and enter a new gardening chapter.

Breaking the Book Buying Ban

I instigated a self-imposed book buying ban this year, mainly because I have over 40 books on my shelves that I haven't read yet, which was plenty to last for a couple of years, never mind this year. I wanted to concentrate on reading these first.

I've been pretty good so far, although I have picked up the odd book from the Little Free Libraries in my area, but I don't tend to count these, as I don't have to pay for them.  Nevertheless, truth be told, I have acquired a few more books over the past six months.

I have noticed that the majority of books on my shelves are fiction books, a few classics, but many are pretty light reads.  I think my tastes in books are changing again and I'm finding some of these books quite unappealing and a struggle to read.

In addition, I like to mix up what I read and include some non-fiction from time to time to break it up and vary things a bit more, and I'm currently decidedly short on this genre of book.

Today, whilst volunteering at the CS, in a quiet moment, I couldn't help but take a look at the non-fiction book shelves and within just a few minutes I had found four books that I wanted to buy.

I set them aside and then took a closer look at them to make sure I really wanted to buy them.  At this point I managed to discard two of them, but the remaining two did come home with me.

Here they are:

This book called No Logo by Naomi Klein, is one that I've wanted to read for a while.  I've heard it mentioned in other books I've read and was curious to read it myself.

It charts the history of marketing and suggests ways we can resist the multinational mindset that prevails today.

She also suggests ways of taking this idea further by conscientiously objecting to the power wielded by multinational corporations in our modern day society.

It sounds like a fascinating read, although it is over 450 pages long and the print is very small. I'll certainly give reading it a try though.

The second book I bought was this book called Looptail, by Bruce Poon Tip, a socially responsible entrepreneur, who created a company offering adventure travel in more than 100 countries.

What differentiates him from other entrepreneurs is his management approach.  His company doesn't have a CEO, nor an HR department and it is committed to generating good 'karma' for everyone that comes into contact with it.

His philosophy is that business is all about the cycle of the Looptail, giving back in life and in business, is what it is all about.

Both of these books sound totally riveting and fascinating to me, so how could I resist them?

I'll  post a review of them once I've read them, if I find them to be worth reading.

A Make Do and Mend Project

I've been using the same black pleather rucksack from ASOS for probably the last 6 months now and have found it really easy to carry, plus it was more than plenty big enough to hold everything I carry on a daily basis.  Here's a picture of it.



It wasn't too expensive, I think I paid £18 or so for it earlier in the year.  I liked the rose gold hardware, i.e. zips, buckles, etc., but the long top zip that opened the bag had always been a bit temperamental, as the teeth of the zip sometimes moved and it wouldn't zip up or open up easily on occasion.

Anyway, I persevered with it, until the other week when one of the teeth fell out, leaving a gap in the zip, so that it just wouldn't work anymore.  I was a bit disappointed, as I haven't really had the bag that long.

I proceeded to cut the zip out, with the intention of trying to replace it and carry on using the bag, and then it got set aside for a while and I used a different bag for a month.

On Friday night, I decided to try to sew the new zip in.  It doesn't fit exactly, and doesn't match the zips on the front of the bag, but I figured it would do for everyday use, going to the gym, etc.  I hand stitched the zip in place, as central as I could and then stitched up the ends where the zip didn't quite reach to. I was pretty happy with the results and my bag is now back in action.

Here's what it looks like now. I t doesn't look too obvious and it  has prolonged the life of the bag.  In addition, I now don't have to negotiate an annoying zip every time I use it.

I much prefer this bag to the one I was temporarily using, as it has more small pockets to house the various bits and pieces I carry around on a daily basis, instead of them all swimming around in the bottom of my bag. It is also more secure, for use in a big city.

I'm not sure how much longer I will use it for, but at least when I do decide to stop using it, I can donate it to the Give and Take for someone else to potentially use, instead of having to put it in landfill and the repairs cost me nothing as I already had the zip in my stash.

Another Wardrobe Cull

Friday morning and I was looking in the wardrobe for something to wear to the CS.  I've been trying to make a bit more effort this week because one, the shop is in quite an affluent area, two, I feel better when I feel good about my appearance and three, I was deliberately trying to get more use from some of the items in my wardrobe.

The problem was, nothing seemed to look or feel right on me.  I tried on numerous combinations, but none of them cut it.  I decided there and then that more things from my wardrobe just had to go. What is the point of them being in there, when I am never reaching for them and when I do, I just don't like them?

When I got home later that evening, I set to at having another cull.  To be honest there were quite a few things I now felt happy to part with. Styles that I just don't wear anymore or that just aren't very flattering.

I accumulated quite a pile from the cull.  Here's a photograph of it.

There were  a couple of items that have been in and out of the donate pile several times in the last few months, but I think I have now finally made a decision about them. Who knows, I might even feasibly be able to join in with Project 333 at some point, although maybe not just yet!

While I was in the zone, I decided to go through a few drawers too. In total there were 21 items culled and added to the donation pile or cut up for cleaning rags.  My wardrobe and drawers are now heaving a big sigh of relief.  I don't particularly feel like I need to replace anything either, which is good, so I'm not just culling to allow more in, I'm doing it so that I can live with less and enjoy what is there more.

Garden/Allotment Catch Up

It's been more than a month since I've visited the allotment.  Mainly due to the awful weather.  If it's too wet, it just  isn't worth going, as it can damage the soil structure.

I was intending to go this week, but was asked to do an extra day at the CS.  I declined at first, but as rain was forecast I decided to go in and help out, as things are a bit busy there at the moment.

Needless to say, I'm now almost dreading when I do go, as I can imagine that it will have got a bit out of hand with the combination of rain and sunshine.  The potatoes should be ready to dig up, hence my need for it to be a bit drier.

I'm definitely going to go next week, come rain or shine, as it's only three weeks until LB finishes school for the summer and I need to get it up to scratch by then.

Once I lift the potatoes, I'm left with a dilemma, as it will leave the majority of the plot empty and I need to keep it almost fully cultivated all season. I am therefore in dire need of plants to put in. Unfortunately, the couple of courgette seeds that did eventually germinate got munched by snails in the mini greenhouse, which was very disappointing.

All I have left are a couple of small cucumber plants and some fennel seedlings to take there.  I took a look in a local shop that sells plants and they've sold out and aren't getting anymore in now. Then I went to B&Q, but no luck there as their young plants looked well past their best.

As is usual for me, I'd missed the window of opportunity to buy vegetable plants and my only hope left was to take a wander up to our local street market this weekend and see if anyone is selling any, or find a car boot sale where people are selling their surplus.

I was getting a bit concerned and then I returned to B&Q for some mulch and managed to eek out a couple of trays of half decent looking young plants, which were by then half price at £1.20 per tray.
I bought a tray each of climbing french beans (the previous ones I bought got eaten by snails in the garden) and a tray of mange tout, so these will be planted out on the plot to fill in the gap left by the potatoes.

Whilst there, I also managed to buy two trays of strawberry plants that weren't looking too great for 50p for each tray of six.  I might not get fruit this year, but they will fill gaps and will flower and produce fruit next year. (They may even give a second crop this year too)  As I'd previously dug up and discarded almost all of my strawberries at the allotment, because they were pretty old and getting a bit diseased, this will start me off again, whether I keep the plot or not.

As a last resort, I've also sown some different courgette seeds.  I might just get some to germinate and grow big enough to produce fruit, if we have a long growing season this year. It's worth a try.  I've also got some other seeds to sow, i.e. Rainbow chard, swede, mooli radish and kale, so I might be okay filling up the plot now afterall.

Meanwhile, the garden at home is doing well. The sweet corn and salad are thriving and I've salvaged some tomato plants from amongst the salad I sowed.  Their seed must have got in with the salad seed. I transferred them into the sweet corn bed as they can grow through the trellis , and they will hopefully provide us with a few more fruit this season.

The remainder of the mulch is also down around the raised beds, so effectively the new garden layout is now completed. The mulch I bought this week is slightly different to the original, but not sufficiently so to be a problem.

How's your garden growing?

A Thursday At Home

Thursday was the only day this week that I got to spend at home and I really needed it.

I worked an extra day at the CS again this week and by Thursday, chores and other things that needed doing had started to pile up.

I still went out to my normal class in the morning and then bought a few groceries on the way home, as we'd run out of a couple of things. As I'm now into July's budget, this was fine.

I spent a couple of hours over the lunchtime period catching up with a bit of online reading and listing and then put some washing on, did the washing up from last night that I'd been too tired to tackle, emptied all of the rubbish and recycling ready to be collected on Friday and made a phone call I'd been meaning to make for a while.

I also purchased LB's school uniform for next year on the school website, paid in some lunch money for her and then packed an eBay parcel ready to post.

Once these main jobs had been done, I decided to go out to B&Q and get the last couple of bags of mulch we needed for around the garden vegetable beds.  I bought a few plants whilst there too. (More about this in another post). OH spread the mulch later that night, so the garden is now officially completed, save for acquiring a garden bench, which isn't currently a priority.

I also popped into ASDA, which is situated near to B&Q and bought a few more groceries and a card that I needed to send off the following day, before finally posting my parcel on my way back home.

When I got in, I got the dinner in the oven.  Moroccan meatballs with couscous.  I decided to use up more freezer/cupboard staples to make this.  The freezer is now looking even more empty, which is all good.

I wrote a blog post whilst dinner was cooking, and later hung out the laundry on the indoor dryer, emptied the dishwasher and then finally, my time was my own.

I ended the day with a bit of a potter in the  garden, thinning and planting out the salad, whilst at the same time harvesting some more. It felt like a pretty productive day and anything that still needed doing, can now wait until the weekend.