The dairy farm up the hill managed by my friends Charlie and Beccy may be certified organic but even so it uses toxic chemicals to clean the pipes in the milking parlour. These come in plastic barrels and once empty are scrap. Over the years I have trained Charlie to ask before throwing anything away so when they ran out of uses for the empties he offered them to me. There were 2 sizes – big green ones and smaller yellow ones. The green ones make really good waterbutts so I cut the tops out with a jigsaw, wash them out with rainwater and leave them for a few months to fill with rain and then empty them again. At the moment the ones which are ready for use are being filled with weeds I don’t want to put on the compost heap – nettle roots, bindweed, couch grass and such like; as they fill with rain the weeds drown giving me liquid fertiliser like nettle or comfrey tea (but not as potent) and in Autumn the sludge at the bottom can go on the compost heap.
These 2 latest ones are standing on the driveway filling so that when they are emptied the water goes into the gravel where I don’t want anything to grow and filters away harmlessly.
The smaller yellow ones were cut down to make outsize plant pots. I drilled holes in the bottom for drainage and 2 on each side near the top to make rope handles so they can be moved around if necessary. I lined 4 up on the side of the drive and planted flowering shrubs – Buddleia, Forsythia, Weigela, (all grown from cuttings) and a hydrangea (bought). The soil is spare from moving around the veg patch, the rope I keep in stock for tying structures down, so the only expense was the Hydrangea. The driveway is a bit utilitarian at the moment and I wanted to mark the edge where it drops away so this seemed like a plan.
Another barrel pot is now home to a Horseradish I bought last autumn so it stays put but has plenty of depth to grow big roots. The pot is standing on a thick layer of cardboard too discourage thuggish weeds from going in through the drainage holes and coming up in the top!
Scrap Happy is hosted by kate and Gun and anyone who makes things out of scrap of any kind can join in – just contact one of them using the links below. Not all of us post every month but all the blogs are worth looking at anytime.
On this steeply sloping site we always used the greenhouse at the end of the house for propagating and then moved veg plants to their patch on the terrace above. My late husband built a bench filled with sand and a soil warming cable to bring on tender things. Above it there was another shelf to grow seedlings on further until they were ready to go outside. The soil heating system stopped working but this year I bought a replacement and tried using it again. It got the temperature up a bit but I still needed to use the small electric propagator indoors for the really fussy stuff. By the time I worked that out it was too late for the peppers. But eventually I got tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash plants.
I moved them to the greenhouse to get more light and they were promptly munched by slugs and snails. I sowed more and this time transferred them on the bedroom windowsill once they germinated.
Everything else which started in the greenhouse also got munched – trays and trays of nothing but weeds! I don’t have enough sunny windowsills for everything! There are so many places on and around the staging (which is built of wood) for slugs to hide and as it is all built in I cannot effectively clean there or see the little menaces.
I am not alone with this problem. Yesterday I was at a meeting of the Carmarthen Permaculture group and we were all having the same moan – especially with stuff growing outside. When people who run aone of the plots at the National Botanic Garden of Wales and others who produce seed to sell have the same issue you know it isn’t just something stupid you are doing.
Luckily I remembered watching a YouTube video by Liz Zorab. She lives at the other end of Carmarthenshire and I have visited her in her garden. I know that the conditions on her site are similar to those on mine so her advice is particularly useful. (If you haven’t heard of her she has written 2 books, writes every month in Amateur Gardening magazine, and makes videos and podcasts on YouTube, sometimes in collaboration with Huw Richards, Steph Hafferty and Peni Ediker, all of whom live quite near here, and all worth following)
Anyway Liz showed a piece of reinforcing mesh, of the kind used in slabs of concrete, suspended from the crop bars of her polytunnel with baler twine. The idea was that although it was a bit fiddly to set up – getting it reasonably level being trial and error – it lifted her seedlings off the floor and any slug would have to crawl up the sides of the tunnel and down the string to reach them. At which point I suspect most of us would think it deserved a bite to eat before removing it!
Well, my workshop and sheds are full of ‘things which will come in useful one day’ but none of them was a sheet of reinforcing mesh. Incidentally in another video or one of his books Huw Richards said he puts his seedlings on mesh shelves and that as the roots emerge from the bottom of the modules the air dries them forcing the plant to produce a shorter fatter root ball. But the only mesh things I had were stock fencing (too hard to flatten and it would need a wooden frame) or chicken wire (too soft and floppy). I had some offcuts of plywood but the best one, though a decent length, was a bit narrow. The best shape and size was some rigid insulating foam so I used that. I drilled holes in each corner and used a reel of 8mm hemp rope (bought for my scrap happy contribution which you will be able to read about on Wednesday) and with Laura’s help hung the sheet from the bracings in the apex of the roof, fiddling with the knots until it was pretty level. Then we added intermediate ropes where the other braces were.
There were only a few trays of seedlings which looked worth trying to save so we put those on top, planning to re-sow other stuff later in the week. But later that evening, when I went to make sure we had closed the doors properly, I found the whole shelf bowing alarmingly and the ropes were pulling on the holes in the foam and enlarging them. So I tied more rope underneath to give better support overnight and slept on the problem. I pulled the rejected piece of plywood from the workshop and with Laura’s help put it between the foam and the ropes. It is now holding a full load of seed trays and seems OK. And the plants on it seem to be surviving uneaten. Phew! A thing of beauty it is not but if it lets me eat this summer I can live with scruffiness.
Somehow having to redesign the veg garden to deal with the rotting wooden sides to the raised beds has made me rethink the whole gardening set-up. John organised it and gave a lot of thought to it so, when he died and I took it over, I just did it all as he had done. Having been forced to rethink one bit I now realise that, for me, it would make more sense to do all the sowing and propagating in the greenhouse at the veg garden level and just bring some plants down to the smaller, house level one or keep that for perennials and self-seeders. So this shelf only has to last this summer. Then I will swap everything around and build something better, actually sourcing what I need rather than improvising. In fact the beds in the greenhouses are rotting too so I need to have a new long term plan for them. My ‘to do’ list just gets longer all the time!
Teddy Bear was easy because I walked into my local branch of CCF (a farmer’s co-operative) to buy dog food and on the counter was this little chap.
A statue proved more elusive. I thought of several I could use locally but kept remembering to take the picture only when I was driving home! However I decided to use this chainsaw carving of a wizard which I bought from a young local man and which now stands under an apple tree on my driveway. The straps are to hang a low swing for Alicia’s little girl Ayla whio is almost 3!
Blossom is also from my garden. From left to right Cherry, Bird Cherry and Crab Apple.
Next month we will be photographing Blossom, Teddy Bear and Tea Room. Do feel free to join in – just leave a link to your post in the comments on Cathy’s.
I realised that I haven’t written about the garden for ages. But progress has been made especially now the weather has turned drier and warmer.
We have been able to pick green salads from the garden for about a month – a mixture of perennials, self-seeders, herbs which have overwintered and winter leaves sown last autumn. Lambs lettuce (corn salad) which I sowed a couple of years back flourishes in the North bed of the lower greenhouse and has almost filled the space. Nasturtiums, rocket, chard and parsley also spread. Wild garlic, jack-by-the-hedge grow wild and the first hawthorn leaves are unfurling too. There is usually not a lot of any one plant in my salads but together they make a big bowl of tastiness.
New seedlings are coming up on windowsills and in the greenhouses. My last frost usually happens late this month so nothing goes outside until May. This year I bought a new soil warming cable for the propagating bench but the weather has been so miserable that it has struggled to get that hot enough. The neediest seeds have gone in the small propagator in the house.
The garlic went in late so we put it in the lower greenhouse and it is growing well. As is the rhubarb which lives in huge pots on the path up to the veg patch.
The peach tree in the top greenhouses (shown left below) is thriving but the Apricots are producing very few leaves. One is not too bad but this one on the right is really bare. I have no idea what the problem is so any advice would be welcome. The 2 other Apricots I grew from stones are in the conservatory and the lower greenhouse and seem fine though neither has flowered or fruited yet. The strawberries under the trees have been there for a while but are doing particularly well this year so I don’t think the soil is the problem unless Apricots and Raspberries have very different needs.
A lot of time has been spent on clearing the rotten raised beds beyond the greenhouses and making new, smaller growing spaces. These do not have much soil depth but will be supplemented by large plastic pots.
In the process I found that land cress had self seeded into the side of one bed so I have left it to go to seed. I will save the seeds and re-sow them somewhere else as well as having some to share. On the keft of the picture is the comfrey bed which will not move. The top layer of wood has come off and the bottom layer can just rot away.
We desperately need a long dry spell so that the wood from the beds dries out and can be burned,
This area will not be enough outside space so we have heavily mulched some of the beds at the other end of the greenhouses with cardboard and then added surplus soil from the digging out. Hopefully we will be able to keep the weeds at bay! There is couch grass, nettles and bindweed in them all – hence sieving all the soil we dig out. More soil has gone into another group of huge pots ready for parsnips and anything else deep rooted.
I spent a day weeding between the raspberry canes in the main row and mulching with newspaper and woodchip. The newspaper comes from a friend of a neighbour who takes 2 newspapers a day plus a couple more on Sundays. The woodchip is from the trees taken down on the bridge by the council. The tree surgeons were delighted to not have to cart it away!
It feels as if we have done a lot of work and there is promise in the air but not a lot to show for our efforts yet – mostly the absence of weeds! Like housework, gardening is most obvious when it isn’t done!
As Spring arrives more of the doors to my house stand open and get used to go out into the garden and back indoors. Given that this is West Wales where the winds which have crossed the Atlantic reach land and drop their load of wetness, that means mud gets trailed in in more places. So I have made 2 mats which may not be elegant or beautiful but cost nothing and can be bunged in the washing machine whenever they get too grubby. In winter they will be a small upgrade on newspaper or cardboard for standing muddy boots on in the porch!
The first one is made from old T shirts. I had already cut off the seams, hems and neckbands and kept the fabric to use as cleaning cloths. By cutting them as in the diagram below I get one long strip out of each piece. And no, I do not measure or cut accurately for this!
A lengthways slot in each end allows me to splice them together and then just work a granny square on a big hook.
As. i made this I realised it would be another useful yarn to use for the work baskets I shared in my February Scrap happy post.
The second mat was doubly scrappy! Several years ago, faced with the same need to have rugs at doorways that were easily washed and not precious I cut some old worn out sheets and duvet covers into strips and wove 2 rugs on the peg loom. One survives but the other fell apart when the warp threads broke, I salvaged the fabric strips and crocheted them this time. My fingers will forgive me eventually!
Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).
The photo challenge pictures of post boxes threw up some interesting comments about how other countries manage their post / mail. So for those of you who live in ‘Foreign parts’ I thought I would explain the UK system.
If I want to send someone a letter or Birthday card I need to buy a stamp and stick it on the envelope. I can get stamps in loads of places – a post office, a supermarket, greetings card shops or even online. I can choose between 1st Class which should get there the next working day (but that is not guaranteed) or 2nd class (cheaper) which is slower. If I really need to be sure it gets there next day I have to go to a Post Office and send it ‘Special Delivery’ meaning it will be tracked and is guaranteed to arrive before 1pm the next day but that, of course is more expensive than 1st class. Then I need to put it in a post box. Every post office has one and there are others strategically placed around the towns and countryside though there are fewer than there used to be as use of ‘snail mail’ has dropped. When we moved here 30 years ago there was a telephone kiosk (the iconic red telephone box) at the end of our drive which was then moved to a lay-by (passing place on a single track road) just past the cottage next door where there was already a post box. The phone box was moved as fewer and fewer people used it thanks to mobile phones Then the postbox fell down because the wooden post it was attached to rotted. It was never replaced so now the nearest is a mile and a half away.
If I want to send a parcel as well as a card I need to take it to the post office where it is weighed and measured – the cost depends on whether it can be delivered through a letterbox at the home of the recipient or must be handed in, and its weight. I also have to confirm that there is nothing dangerous inside! The cost is calculated, stamps put on, I get a receipt as proof I posted it and it goes into a large sack behind the counter. Some Post Offices are large ‘stand alone’ places and others are a dedicated counter in part of another shop.
The post box at Cardigan Post Office – a large imposing building on the High Street
Postmen and postwomen drive around in small red vans delivering post and collecting items from post boxes and post offices. Every postbox has a sign on the front (the white rectangle in the photo) which says when it will be emptied. Round here all of them say mail is collected at 9am which is clearly not accurate. What it really means is ‘Not before 9am but anytime after that when we get there’! At bigger post offices there may be 2 collections each day.
The sacks of mail go to a Sorting Office in one of the towns and are distributed into other sacks according to where they need to go. It all used to be done by hand but now we have to put a Postcode onto all mail which allows it to be automated. My code is SA34 0JH – SA stands for Swansea, 34 means Whitland and 0JH is this stretch of lane with 9 houses. Then they are loaded into lorries, trains and even airplanes and taken to the sorting office for the area where they need to be delivered. So post for me goes to Swansea then to Whitland and then into the right little van for my lane.
Post for me arrives early afternoon usually but if I am sent something by ‘Special Delivery’ the postman has to do his round in reverse order so that it arrives before 1pm. He just hopes he doesn’t have one of those at each end of his round! But it is rarely used so he is usually OK.
Houses that are close to the road usually have a flapped slot in the front door for post to be delivered through. The postman parks somewhere on the road and walks up and down delivering mail. But out here in the country where driveways can be long most of us have a box of some kind near the entrance to save the postman time. Like many locals I use a ‘dead’ Microwave oven ( or popty ping in local parlance)!
If any of you feel moved to tell the rest of us how your system works I would love to hear from you. I wonder what Teddy Bears and Statues, the April topics, will get us talking about?
This is the nearest post box to me about a mile and a half from my house. It stands at a crossroads and yes, it leans a bit! I realised that there are very few pillar-boxes in this area – all the postboxes are this ‘box on a post’ type or set into a wall. And I don’t think I have ever seen a postbox topper around here.
This chainlink fence borders my neighbour’s neglected garden and is collapsing but the daffodils are growing through it and later in the year it will be engulfed by grasses and wild flowers.
There is, or was, a tradition in this area of planting daffodils along the edge of the road in front of your house. Sometimes on the same side as your gate but often opposite. I am not sure why that was – to be able to see them from the windows? But even farms down a long track often have some opposite the entrance. One of my neighbours was particularly keen on this practice and there are loads of daffs and narcissi outside the house she used to live in.
Opposite my entrance there are a few old bulbs (probably pre world War 2) and I have planted more along the edge of the driveway but today I thought I would like to uphold the old ways and have made a diary note to put more on both sides of the road.
A small knitting project this month. I dropped my phone case – But luckily not my phone! – whilst out shopping. Out came some Aran yarn left over from my jumper. It is bright red in the hope that I can spot it if I drop it. I used the cast on for toe-up socks and worked in the round to avoid having to sew it up. The big rectangular button was in my collection – I have no idea where it came from.
Scrap Happy is curated by Kate and Gun on the 15th of each month to showcase stuff made from scrap. To be inspired follow the links below. If you think ‘I could do that’ talk to Kate or Gun using their links below.
Well flowers are certainly blooming here now so that was easy.
From left to right Hazel catkins were the first to open then the Cornelian Cherry (which flowers every year but has so far not fruited) and lastly the Peach in my greenhouse (The Apricot came between the last 2 but has gone over already).
The road was harder to choose but this afternoon I took this picture of my road home from most of my expeditions and it is where my heart lifts – nearly there to my little piece of Heaven. My house is out of shot on the right at the bottom of the hill just where the last kink is. The red is some temporary (I hope!) plastic fencing where 2 dying Ash trees whose roots were damaging the structure of the bridge were felled last week.
Going Batty in Wales 