Posts filed under 'The Green House'
As mentioned before, I’ve got my herb garden started, and at the weekend, I planted some strawberries. Well, today I finally planted something in the veg beds! Around half a “bed” each of red onions (haven’t sourced white yet) and runner beans, and some garlic too. Hoping I haven’t left it too late as the temperature’s dropped over the last couple of days.
I have spinach, rocket and radish seedlings growing under cover and only very slightly heated, too. I’m going to try and transplant at least some of them as soon as I can find some wire to make some cloches with… Don’t know if any of them will survive the cold though as I couldn’t find varieties that recommend autumn planting. I’ve also planted some wallflowers out, as the first part of my plan to supply myself with cut flowers rather than have to buy them - which is expensive and can be polluting as it’s hard to tell if they’re UK grown and nearly impossible to source organic ones.
Apart from the strawberries, these are all new territory to me and I’m not really sure what will work. Still it feels good to have got started again. Looking forward to lovely fresh veg and flowers, but it’ll be a good while yet…
November 2nd, 2006
Long time for me with no blog too. Over the summer I’ve been very busy with work on the house, the garden - oh yeah, and I’ve even done some work on the PhD now and again, too. The good news is that I’ve also acquired a boyfriend, who as well as being generally lovely has added much-appreciated brain- and muscle-power meaning that work in the garden particularly has proceeded at least twice as fast.
I’m going to give a very quick run-down of the story so far, then plan to go into more detail on some of these areas when time permits!
The garden’s now looking more civilised, and has 8 raised beds for vegetables, allowing a 4-way rotation, and a herb garden. Bird feeders are up but currently being ignored. Plans are afoot for a pond and planting of lots of flowers that insects etc. will like. And it’s now much easier to get the bike out of the shed too!
Inside, one of the first things I did was to remove the carpets upstairs and sand the floors, then treat with Nutshell’s floor and furniture wax. I’m really pleased with the result, particularly as I’m prone to walking around with no shoes or socks on! I also fitted a shower downstairs although unfortunately I was unable to source a low-flow shower head or tap aerators. I did put some 0.5l water bottles in the toilet cistern though, to help reduce the volume of water per flush. The whole house is now fitted with energy efficient light-bulbs.
I haven’t yet done much painting so haven’t had much chance to try out natural paints. I am considering painting the bathroom however, so this may move up on the agenda. More about this later, and also about my attempts to reduce the potentially hazardous chemicals used in the house (recently kiboshed, of course, when I had to have a damp proof course installed. Still got the headache to prove it too…)
October 29th, 2006
Not scary really! Unless you have arachnophobia….
Before I bought it, my house was rented out a few times. One of the previous occupants had obviously left a load of stuff in the shed (which is quite a good wooden one and quite sound, just needs a lick of timber treatment - very handy indeed!) in bin bags. Closer inspection showed that this was a push chair, a cot, baby clothes and various other kid’s paraphernalia. I put it all on freecycle and it’s now mostly gone - much more satisfactory than going to landfill, I’m glad the stuff I wanted to get rid of is doing some other people a good turn.
Freecycle operates in many countries throughout the world. To find your local group, start here - http://www.freecycle.org/. My local group was quite small and slow when I joined but now there are usually 10 or 20 posts a day. It’s a great scheme and I do recommend you participate.
See, not a horrible hairy spider in sight - actually i’m sure there’s plenty in the shed, I just didn’t notice them!
June 16th, 2006
Two interesting gardening programs that were on tonight, one with an eco-bit and one not really :o)
First on was Alan Titchmarsh’s ”How to be a gardener”. Tonight he was explaining how to design a border, which was particularly useful for me as I’m hoping to plant out my front garden this weekend and maybe, if I’m feeling brave, borrow a strimmer and try to get a bit of a grip on the back, (currently complete with lions, tigers and bears).
This link has some info about the show and online courses on gardening basics (from series one) and garden design (from this series) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/tv_and_radio/htobg_index.shtml
The eco bit came in Gardener’s world which had a section with Monty Don all about using grey water in the garden - including what looked like a handy device for syphoning the water out of the bath. A bit expensive for me at the moment but not out of the way for the future, although i do mostly shower - guess I could put the plug in and collect the water that way though… Here’s a link that lets you watch Monty tell you about using grey water in the garden, and at the bottom are the details on the syphoning device. http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/tv_and_radio/factsheets/pages/28.shtml
June 10th, 2006
