OUTDOORS 37

The next task outdoors was relining one of the three raised beds. The couch grass was growing rapidly and hiding the strawberries as well as stealing their nutrients and water. The first task was to remove the strawberries to somewhere safe, as shown in the following photo. Above, you can see me measuring the weed-out and cutting it to size, with 1/3 the soil in the bed dug over and de-weeded.

Here is a wider angle shot of the plot, showing where other matters stood. Potatoes and leeks in the front of the shed - with 2 cabbage to the side of my weed bin. Behind right, chickpeas, beans and shed; behind left, the raised bed in question and one of strawberries and nasturtiums. Beyond right, the third raised bed of strawberries, my weed pile now growing a spud, and raspberries in rear. Beyond left, corn, toms, cabbage, raspberries...

I have now completed the raised bed, having dug thru all the soil, removed 1/3 at a time into a barrow and layed triplicate lining (poly, black trash bags, weed-out) and refilled with horse muck and weeded soil. It now remains for me to replace some of the strawberries and gather some runners.

This may appear to be a short blog today - but it does end with THIS VIDEO showing the contents of my poly tunnel on the final day of June 2018. Regular readers may recall me sharing a video of the tunnel a while back showing the smaller plants....it's now quite a jungle in there, with large tomato plants fruiting/flowering, a flowering butternut, 3 potato buckets, multiple spring onions, chilies, lemongrasses, parsley, chives...

INDOORS 56

Here you can see my work late June, with a painted back door drying in the warm air and the foot pouffe positioned in the coffee lounge as the only seating til such time as I select purchase and install a 2 seater lounge and coffee table.

Next up, my son dropped the toilet seat/lid too heavily and a chunk of the rim fell into the loo. The plumber has been notified that we will need a new toilet bowl installed...sigh.

In more happy news, I mixed and baked a wholemeal spelt dinner bap and filled it with homemade vegan mozzarella and homegrown lettuce one lunchtime - YUM - definitely not fast food! Meanwhile - the crops keep pouring in. As June ended and July began, strawberries petered out to 2-3 a day, while raspberries stole the limelight with a medium freezer bag full being cropped daily and gooseberries came in third.

As you can see, the large pineapple-flavor ones are gigantic this year - I added some regular purple ones to show comparison! Some of these monsters are bigger than brussels sprouts! I also dug up the shallots on the final day of June.

I was cropping so many raspberries, and unlike the strawberries I cannot eat 2-3 dozen a day and freeze the rest - just a handful every 2-3 days. The freezer was therefore not going to take them all and despite giving a bag to Liz and a bag to the lady who likes raspberries I often stop to chat to on my way to/from the plot, I decided to throw a couple kilo in a pot and make raspberry syrup - to float rhubarb and gooseberries in for making pies and crumbles. More crops to pick....sigh. It means spending a half hour a day watering and at least a half hour a day cropping in June/July, unless it rains...but its worth it for the delicious real foods!

OUTDOORS 36

Here you can see the result of my Mid-May hammering. The bike alleyway on the side of the house had a fence that wobbled in the wind and needed to be connected to the roof - which was still sturdy in framework if chipped in one corner. Liz suggested I ram a piece of wood in to stop it bending in and out and I located a bar of wood to begin with, expecting to have to saw it into two pieces to fill the gap.

I could not remove the nail/screws, though - so aimed to bang the wood up into them, then slot in a seconds horizontal bit below to wedge the gap. This proved too difficult - BUT - during trying to do so, I discovered that the wood lodged behind 2 screws would bend the fence into correct posture were I to bend the wood back vertically. I therefore secured the wood trapped at the top between two screws - and bunged a couple more new ones in in case they bent - and nailed it into place. It's fixed!

Above is Liz's working solution to cats on poly tunnel rooves who dig claw marks into the poly - netting pinched back home from the plot. here is the result of some of my crops - the lettuce from the poly tunnel, chives from Liz's garden, and nasturtium from the plot!

The crops just keep coming now May has turned to June - this was one day's strawberry pickings for example. the following shows the gooseberry haul from the same day.

& again - another sampling of crops. Liz mentioned lambs wool slug repellent pellets - and I investigated. I had a £10 online voucher, so bought two packs to 'try'. My verdict is that the product works very well - 2 chilies and 2 lemongrass plants have not been touched by a slug when using the first pack - the downfall being the cost - to cover the allotment would cost around £75....per annum!

INDOORS 55

Once the tools were safely installed in the tools alcove, I put up the shower curtain - to hide them out of sight. you will have to forgive the electric drill in a Sainsburys bag sticking out - the carpet was rolled up and has yet to lay flat - so I put it on the corner.

Here are my takings from a trip to Chichester Liz and I went on recently - I have just this weekend made my first batch of vegan feta - photos of the result follow!

This is the dry and marinaded feta in storage for up to 2 weeks - though I munched my way thru 200g in the first 2 days and gave Liz a few cubes to sample. Here is one way to use it - with home grown lettuce and nasturtium as salad!

Plenty of color in the lower hallway from my two geraniums - rescued from dad's throwaways, they grew into bigger and better plants than the ones that he potted. Guess who has been lava-lamping their washing up liquids again, ho hum...

Finally for today, my latest lava lamp washing up liquids.

INDOORS 54

I covered over the 2-color floor with left over kitchen ceiling paint in a double coat - to make it look smarter - and be easier to clean, as this one is moppable! That brings us up to the close of April and start of May. On the 3rd day, I finished the coffee lounge.

The above pile of stuff had to be thrown out, placed in the tools alcove, or otherwise dealt with - that would leave the room ready to furnish and inhabit - as a coffee lounge.

The above are the two carpets and shower curtain to add to the room....but first a quick detour as I filled up the washing up liquid squirters...again, more lava lamp colors!

Above you can see that I have now laid the spare spare room carpet piece as a mat in the tools alcove. Below you can see I have put bags under the boots to keep the white floor white. I know muddy paw prints and wet laundry sloshings will color it, but....not yet!

I began to fill the tools alcove...

OUTDOORS 35

Here is the first of the 2018 crops - one stick of rhubarb! It, along with another stick, were harvested in the middle two weeks of April, mine being an early variety, generally ready to pluck the first sticks from late March or early April onward.

This view taking in the scene between my two compost tubs shows how well my garlic and shallots are growing this season! Additionally, you can witness the gooseberry leafing, and blackcurrant and raspberries also beginning to shoot out for the coming season.

The empty bed comprising the main part of this next picture is for my corn - I haven't planted it yet, its still in pots in the poly tunnel and yet to surface, which hopefully it will, ready for transplantation in May or June.

You can also view my 3 raised beds - the old strawberry one to the left, the new half one to be shared with nasturtiums in the front and the regular one that will be on its last season before a turn out to the rear right. Also in sight is a netted area for peas, beans and salad crops - to ensure pigeons don't munch MY food! Towards the camera of the netted area you might just make out 6-7 small curly plants - those are my chickpeas!

HERE is the link to a video I made in the poly tunnel in the middle of May 2018 - showing the crops in situ.  It shows the tomatoes, lettuce, chilies, etc that I currently have left to grow in the tunnel, after taking the Brussels sprouts, a few tomatoes, most of the butternuts and all the chickpeas down to plant out at the allotment.

Middle of May and I took three pictures down the plot while taking scraps and coffee grounds down to the compost. It was too wet to dig right away - so I would have to wait a few hours to carry down a half dozen tomato seedlings to plant or do any weeding. This first shot shows the chickpeas, celeriac, and Brussels sprouts plants.

In the second shot, you look across over the butternut and corn area to the prolific strawberry bed - with a nothing-came-up carrot/turnip bed in front and beyond to my red onions. In my final shot, you can see my next-to above pic bed of tomato, rainbow chard and kale planted the day before the photograph was taken - already 2-3 of the tomatoes have been munched, sigh. Then there are 4 garlic/oniony things that I left to grow for seed as an experiment in a patch of land to be filled with tomatoes as soon as the soil dries enough to allow me to take them down - hmm, one more hour perhaps?

INDOORS 53

My painting supplies will of course be removed before I furnish the coffee lounge and the tools alcove was all that remained to be done as April ran down into its last 2 days.

I emptied the tools out with the painting supplies and began - the horrid tear-jerking job of washing stained dirt engrained black hole-riddled walls, lashings of cobwebs, and bright pink brickery...

The shelf came off easily and is in good nick - that is one good thing! A quick wipe over and its perfect. not so the walls....UGH! I polyfilled, waited, polyfilled, waited, then on the final day of the month one final polyfill had those ghastly stained holes filled sufficiently to paint - it doesn't have to be perfect, as it will be curtained off and contain tools, not be seen, thankfully.

I began, shortly after coffee with my best friend. It was raining, and likely to do so all day - so I figured I would undercoat the tools alcove. I used up all the mauvey purpley pink paint first. I then began to use the last of the color called 'cookie dough' - but, it was runny liquid and I had an idea. Why not paint the strip of floor between the doorway into the kitchen and back door?

This strip gets filthy, as I use it daily carrying armloads of wet laundry outside and coming in with muddy gum boots - but I thought the former ugly cement might look better with spare paint, and spare paint I would have!

I didn't quite have enough, and ended the strip with a little green from my son's bedroom walls. The look was nice - and I am wondering if I should rip out the lino and paint the rest of the floor....but I didn't - yet.

April ended and I had used up the last of 3-4 cans of paint in the tools alcove - which I remind everyone will NOT be on show - I just didn't want ugly black stained holes, even for tools.