IN & OUT JUNE 2020

Continuing to view the poly tunnel interior, we see my giant salad tub, along with lentil and tomato and leek seedlings. Next, the table at the rear of the tunnel displaying lettuce, carrot, lentil, rocket, mustard, lemongrass, even a clematis cutting I am hoping to grow for Liz.

Next, another shot of the side border - showing the geraniums I planted outdoors from inside, the flowering onion, roses and ferns...and a longer view of the same.

The kitchen is starting to fill with crops that I am drying ready to store and eat - here is the first onion of the year and my shallots drying out. My windowsill is as always filled with drying garlic....

 

The crops begin to flow fruitfully - quite literally - in May and June - here we see a sample day's harvest - strawberries, raspberries, nasturtium, gooseberry, pea and broad bean.

Finally for today, a one-person sized red lettuce from the poly tunnel for lunch!

IN & OUT MAY to JUNE 2020

You can see our onions, cabbages and potatoes in front of the raspberry canes in the first photo from my allotment plot today. In front of the raspberries and gooseberry bush, beside the blackcurrant bush and rhubarb - is my blueberry patch - with a row of parsnips that never surfaced in front.

The empty looking soil near the compost 'dalek' contains about 20 chitted red desiree spuds from a sackfull my neighbor from over the back gave me. I have also since planted tomatoes near the garlic/onions. Liz gave me some spare plants...

...which I have since planted at home in the stretch of back yard that runs from the kitchen window to the pond. You can see that it already contains Lychnis and bluebell, fern, rose, primrose, flowering onion, yew....

...and that at least one rose is flowering.

Next, are a couple of shots of the poly tunnel - the first one shows the left hand side, with potato, sweet potato, cauliflower, and my soil station. The next shows mostly spuds with a few other potted items - parsnip and chili for example.

IN & OUT April to May 2020

In today's first shot, we see the corner where my fruit mostly is. The rhubarb in the end corner, with blueberries and a couple of cauliflowers in front, the gooseberry and blackcurrants round the side, and raspberries surrounding it all.

Back home to the back garden now - and here we see a broken ceramic farm duck sticking its head out of the borer of hawthorn, rose, yew, jasmine, lemon balm, primrose, bluebell...

This shot shows from the last down to the kitchen windows - planted with rose, primrose, lychnis, yew, bulbs, violet, cyclamen, wild strawberry, etc. My next photo is of the area sited on the other side of the garden - where the smaller apple tree used to live til I chopped it down. You can see the old stump and some of the sawn off logs from the trunk. You should also be able to make out the yellow pom-pom bush Liz gave me and a few other plants.

Next, we move into May 2020, and I share shot of the front stretch again - with all the mushroom com post I could spare scattered as mulch on top the well dug and replanted stretch from kitchen window towards poly tunnel.

Back to the allotment and you can see all the hard work Liz has put in to get rid of the weeds, while I focus on watering and picking/planting the crops. The marigold was a bush of a plant, so I split it this past week and it is now in 3 new locations as well as down the plot. The onions and garlic are being pulled and the shallots are gone.

Here, you can see how neat and tidy the plot looks now Liz is helping me with it. you can see my strawberry beds, onions, lentils...

IN & OUT Late April 2020

Back to that border -

...and let us look in more detail at what plants I have in situ....

Starting at the hedgehog hotel, you can see my sedum, geranium, bulbs...

roses, lychnis, more bulbs... yew, jasmine, roses, lemon balm, hyacinths....

Here is where we reach the hawthorn and shrubs, and end the flowering plants.

Popping back to the allotment plot, here we see the front, running from weed tub/bin across a span of carrot, garlic, onion, cauliflower, shallot, and odds and ends, and just showing the strawberry beds.

Here are the strawberry beds, looking back to one more mixed patch on the left and another on the right, with the larger compost bin central. It shows how far Liz and I have got with our weeding and digging over. This should have been don e over winter - but as it rained for 3-4 months....did  not gert done!

My final picture for today shows the behind-shed stretch of plot - with mixed caulifower and garlic in a bed, jumping the spuds and pnions, running back to the fruit - raspberries and rhubarb this side.

IN & OUT April 2020

As you can in the first photo, I have begun to tackle the back yard border. Liz and I dug it over roughly and took out a lot of weeds one week, then I started to thorough-dig it and add mushroom compost, rearranging plants as I went.

Meanwhile in the poly tunnel, you can see I have a few potato plants growing in buckets - these should be ready to munch May/June. Going up the other side, I have a few more spuds - along with one tomato and some seeds.

My salad tubs and tomato seedlings can also be seen down this side of the tunnel. On my work table at the end, I have carrots, cauli seedlings, and multiple seeds and seedlings awaiting repotting.

The thermometer has been reading 30-40 most days in April - in the poly tunnel at least! The salad tub has lettuce, rocket, chives, parsley, coriander....

Here is another updated view of the border running from kitchen window to poly tunnel that Liz and I began working on.

IN & OUT MARCH 2020

My old fridge was inherited along with my house from my late father back in 2013. It was a basic full sized fridge freezer in the old style, with freezer shelves up top and fridge shelved with door insert and salad box down base. It began to get rusty marks on the exterior and earlier this year the light died. I could have bought a new bulb, but decided to buy a new fridge.

The freezer compartment was almost empty - all my frozen food still remaining fitted into one grocery sack. The shelves in the fridge fllled 2 bags and there were still 2 bottles of wine.

The Coronavirus was begining to make some stores limit their services or shut - so I decided to rush my purchase a week ahead of schedule and popped along to Rustingon one Saturday in March. I discovered that they were still doing deliveries, so picked a fridge-freezer and arranged for delivery that coming Monday. This meant no coffee with Liz at her place or local countryside walk, but coffee and gardening at mine - and an extra part-used rice milk for the fridge.

The new item was delivered on time - just in time - for the next day the lockdown began, and I might have had to wait weeks if not months for its purchase and delivery.

The fridge was at the top - with a two-part salad tub, but otherwise much the same. A few times I have forgot myself and gone to open the lower compartment and found a freezer instead of my vegan cheese or wine, but mostly I have recalled where the two main features are.

The freezer now has 4 boxes rather than 3 shelves. I do not know why 2 boxes are odd - the one at the bottom having holes in and at the top labeled something different - but I am hoping this will keep my annual crops long lasting from one season to the next.

Finally, for today, here is the view of the bush and flower border in the back yard - after Liz and I tidied it up on fridge delivery day - after we had tackled the front yard, cutting it back ready to have the repointing company give a quote for use later in the year. During the last week of the month, I ordered in 10 bags of mushroom compost from Culberry Nursery and began to use some in the poly tunnel, some on the finished parts of the above border, and then take the half bags down the allotment to top up my strawberry beds.

IN & OUT JANUARY 2020

The new year began with the old stove dissappearing to be replaced by a brand new cooker. Liz and I went to Currys and put in our order for the removal of the old stove, and delivery and installation of the new stove, shortly after Christmas. The old stove was working - 'but'...

As you can see it was rusting and remained grotty even after a clean. The oven was slowing down - sometimes it cooked normally, whilst at other times it took twice as long for foods to roast or bake. It was also impossible to get the muck off the oven walls or floor - some of which was around a decade old and dads', not mine.

Saturday arrived, and I waited...

The order was on its way! Here are the before and after shots of my kitchen cooker space:

BEFORE...

& AFTER...

As you can see it is slightly bigger than the old stove - and a grey not white color. It is also spotlessly clean, without any dirt or debris from my late parents' use.

The model (FLAVEL Milano E60) has a glasstop, grill, and main oven with an oven light, fan and glass door. I am looking forward to using it as I do a lot of baking, roasting, etc.

VERDICT:

PLUS: glass door on oven. light in oven. clean. no rust. no dad-grime.

MINUS: stinks of chemical residue stench for longer than 30 mins. rubber 'seal' baggy and only stuck on in corners. unused to oven having a noisy fan.