April 2017 in pictures

Viewed from east to west with the garden shed at the bottom. Looks very messy and scrappy but there is a lot going on. Fruit trees and bushes in blossom, brassicas flowering, swiss chard still growing, onions and garlic filling out, Babington's leeks ready for cutting, strawberries spreading, grape vine against the shed budding.....

Time to assess what we have in the preserves cupboard. Damson chutney in there from 2014!

Cowslips in the lawn.

Early morning - brassicas in flower. 

The early morning light really makes the yellow brassica flowers standout in the garden.

Ramsons doing well in the garden and spreading!

"Bright Lights" swiss chard cropping really well.

Garden veg for lunch: swiss chard, cavolo nero, spring onions, Babington's leeks, ramsons, lovage.....

And this was the result!

The main herb patch is doing well apart from the chives not re-appearing this year. The spanish bluebell has been there ever since we moved in over 30 years ago. I have tried to remove it on several occasions and plant it somewhere else but it keeps coming back. Ramsons are coming towards the end now and the flowers are going to seed. Oregano going bonkers as usual, as is the lemon balm. Mint, lovage, rosemary, sage and thyme in pots.




Looks as though we might have more than one pear this year (last year's harvest). The blossom escaped the frosts we had a few weeks ago.

Mapping the Garden - Zone 1

I have been intending to map our garden permaculture zones for about two years but have only now just started on the project. The idea is that the map will serve as a reminder of what was and is already in place, what grows well and what doesn't, and will also help me adjust the plantings. Although this is starting out as an ordinary blog posting I will make these maps individual blog pages so that I can easily update them and add more photos.

Rather than tackle the whole garden at once I thought that if I mapped the different areas separately I would be more likely to finish the project. For the first map I choose the area between the end of the kitchen/bathroom extension and the ancient garden shed because it is one of the smaller patches in the garden. When I started to map it in detail, though, I realised that the area may be small but there is a lot going on here.

The boundaries are a six foot wooden fence to the left, a 4ft 2in high brick wall on the right, an old home made garden shed that was erected in the 1940s and the end of the bathroom extension.The wall is used by many of the local cats as a walkway and they then drop down in front of the shed or into the neighbour's garden to continue their daily prowls. So we have a small zone 5 incursion at that point.

There is an earth/gravel path between the north side of the shed and the wooden fence that leads into the main part of the garden (zones 2-4). There are two raised beds in front of the shed on either side of the shed door, and concrete paths along the end and to the side of the bathroom/kitchen extension. When we moved into the property there was a thin layer of concrete in the middle that was badly cracked and broken in places. We replaced it with gravel and stepping stones some of which were made from the concrete we pulled up.

We have two water butts fed by rainwater coming off the rooves on the back of the house and the extension. We should really install a third to make the most of the run-off (we do have the space). The roof of the garden shed slopes in the direction of the raised beds and, ever since the guttering came off, rainwater runs directly onto the raised beds.

The main productive area is the right hand raised bed in front of the shed. This is how it looked for many years during the summer.

21st August 2013 - rosemary bush still flourishing

The runner beans do well here but to pick the beans on the plants nearest the garden wall I have to step on the bed, which is usually a no-no because it compacts the soil. I realised even before I started harvesting, though, that there is a permanent, narrow track just in front of the beans. This is created by the cats using it as as short cut through the garden, so I decided I might as well walk on this part of the bed as well!

The rosemary bush in the middle flourished for many years and provided us with a regular supply of the herb until it died at the beginning of 2015. Luckily I had taken cuttings the previous year so we now have several new plants in pots.

The other herbs in the ground are ramsons, chives, lemon balm and oregano. These are supplemented by hairy bittercress and nettles. The herbs in the pots vary as I move them around from one spot to another to test out the best environment for them.

28th March 2015

This is the same area in March 2015. The rosemary bush has been replaced with a pear tree (Concorde), which I had bought in autumn 2014 and kept it in a container while I considered where its final location should be. The demise of the rosemary made the decision for me.

At this time of year the available herbs are chives, ramsons and lemon balm as well as some hairy bittercress.

Comfrey was added to the upper right hand corner in late 2014 and is now well established.

During May and June, the herbs and the comfrey begin to take over and are pruned back. None of it goes to waste. The herbs, including the nettles, are dried for cooking or teas and the comfrey leaves are used to make fertiliser (see Comfrey juice decanted). The ramsons have usually died back by now and set seed.

15th June 2015 - herbs and nettles taking over

In October the beans are still going strong as are the herbs and nettles.

10th October 2015

This is how the patch looked on 29th May 2016

29th May 2016

The beans are beginning to climb and the pear tree is now established. The herbs and comfrey have already been cut back once and the golden oregano needs thinning out. The pots on the right and left contain mint but most of the one on the right has been eaten by something I have yet to find and identify. It has started to recover and grow back. The pot in the middle contains lovage.

Tea Bag Index results

In 2015 we took part in UK Tea Bag Index experiment and one of the pair of tea bags was planted in the middle of the right hand bed. The Tea Bag Index decomposition rate was found to be group ii and the C:N ratio of the soil was also in group ii, both slap bang in the middle for garden soils.

An Easter bouquet

The weather may still be too cold to sow and transplant crops outside but the herbs and wild plants are flourishing. For our Easter meals I gathered the first bouquet of herbs from the garden: garlic chives, chives, mint, lemon balm, ramson leaves, dandelion leaves, fennel and hairy bittercress.

My rosemary bush has died

My poor old rosemary bush has finally given up the ghost. It is a bit old - about 20 years - but has thrived in this spot, which is not ideal, to the extent that it required regular pruning.

It's in semi shade and although the ground drains well it gets the run off from the shed roof. For the last two years there has also been a vigorous comfrey plant growing behind the bush and in the autumn I have simply left the leaves to rot back into the ground. So too much nitrogen might be a contributing factor. I have two small rosemary plants from cuttings but won't plant them here in case of disease. One I'll put in a pot and the other I'll put at the front of the house where it is sunny and dry.

I've decided to apply my recent permaculture training to help me decide what should be planted in this area in its place. Expect to be bored by sketches, photos and outline plans in the near future!

The garden shed

I repeated last year's experiment of growing runner beans up against the side of the garden shed, and it does seem as though the beans like it there. I attached some netting to the shed on either side of the door and planted the beans a couple of inches in front of it. They didn't need much encouragement to start winding their way in and out, and up through the netting. In front of the beans is a rampant rosemary bush that is now obscuring a comfrey plant (also rampant). The comfrey is regularly chopped back and the leaves are rotting down nicely in my improvised fertiliser bucket.

The rest of the ground is smothered in lemon balm, chives and oregano, and there is Greek basil, spring onions and Moroccan mint in the pots. Nettles keep popping up and are regularly picked for making tea and adding to our green vegetable mix for lunch. In spring there is also a patch of ramsons. Ramson flowers and leaves have a lovely, mild garlicky flavour and are wonderful in a salads or as an alternative to chives on scrambled eggs or in omelettes. Hairy bitter cress also likes this spot although it does better in the spring before the other herbs take over. I once regarded it as a weed but I now use it to add a peppery zing to salads. You can even make hairy bitter cress pesto! (http://huntergathercook.typepad.com/huntergathering_wild_fres/2013/01/hairy-bittercress-pesto.html). And, of course, there are the inevitable dandelions. Like the bitter cress, I treat the dandelion leaves and flowers as salad vegetables but don't let them run to seed. Plenty come in from adjacent gardens without our own plants self-sowing. There is no point trying to pull them up; a tiny piece of root always seems to remain in the ground ready to regenerate an even bigger and stronger specimen! My past experience is that weedkiller is not always effective - even if I were still in favour of using it - and not really an option in such a densely populated herb patch.

In the tiny patch of ground to the left of the shed door are runner beans at the back (again winding through netting), another comfrey plant going beserk, and herb fennel in front (about 3ft high). A foxglove struggled valiantly for a few weeks and managed to produce a few flowers, but in the end just couldn't handle the competition.
 
The shed itself was homemade in the late 1940s, or so we were told by our elderly neighbours when we moved here in 1982. The sides and roof are corrugated iron and the door is made from reused planks of wood. The cast iron framed windows finally came away from the main body of the shed about 10 years ago and now form part of a portable cold frame for spring sowings. Our neighbours hinted that they would be glad to see it come down and we did consider it for a while. Apart from the fact that it is a good size with plenty of room for storage of pots, garden tools etc., it is very solidly built (apart from the windows that fell out). It would require serious brute force, or a stick of dynamite, to demolish it. For much of the year vegetables hide it from view and, in any case, we have grown to love it.

Long live our garden shed!