Well it has been a very nice day!
So sunny that I had to rig up some temporary shading in the greenhouse.
It is an umbrella without the skeleton.
The Beans are all planted out in the garden.
Some are runners or Pole Beans.
I let the seeder sow a few rows of french beans.
It wasnt perfect but then it is 130 years old.
Today I planted out the Cucumber,Courgette(Zuccini) and pumpkins.
Then about 16 Pea plants.
I sowed some Peas too with the other seeder which I thought wasnt quite as good.
Surprising really as it was the one with more original parts.
My slug repellant is Aloe Vera ,watered down a bit in a spray bottle.
The greenhouse is starting to look a bit less crowded but there is a bit more watering .
Spuds got another earthing up today.
They get one about twice a week at the moment.
The veg plot is starting to look more like its old self again.
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Wednesday 9 May 2012
Amateur metal working
I have been making bits for my wheel hoe.
Well , one bit really.
It is an oscillating hoe.
A lot of the new wheel hoes have them and I thought I would try my hand at a home made one.
Mine is made from a strip of iron bar we had, and 11 inches of a 24" steel rule(OH's late father had them everywhere so we had a surplus).
The steel rule is the blade.
So far I have had it working but the oscillating bit needs some fiddling to get it right.
I needed to bend the steel and used some pieces of wood and my own weight and a club hammer.
Once bent into two Stirrup shapes,one bolts to the other and all are bolted to the wheel hoe.
The oscillating bit is a little piece of metal that has a small space for the blade to wobble within so that it swings ever so slightly as you push back and forth but not enough to let it erode the metal or the bolts.
The deliberate agrarian has a few pictures of his own that he makes to go with his 'planet Whizz bang hoe' so that was a handy guide.
Also I have been playing with a couple of Absolutely ancient seeders.
They are from the late 19th Century I think as the only info I could find on the WWW was for one made around 1879 and is very similar with the same makers name.
They came as a pair because they were incomplete but there was enough there to make one whole machine with a bit of fiddling.
It seemed a shame to just discard the other parts so I have been fabricating my own replacement bits using the Dremel, a hack saw, a drill and several old bits of metal from things we had lying around broken.
I have one working and needing a new handle and paint the other is working,needs a better handle and paint.
The one with no handle has part of an old wooden one still stuck in the metal handle bracket so I have some work to do to get that out,the screws holding it in are stuck fast.
The other has a thin handle I connected to it rather weedily and although it does work as a handle, it isn't robust enough and will need replacing.
This morning I dug my bean trenches (finally).
The weather is still one long round of drizzle or mizzle or just thin rain.
Grey clouds and cool wind.
The beans are becoming taller and are going to need to go outside in about a week, so the trenches are dug and comfrey is laid in them thickly to act as a fertilizer.
The spuds are just starting to show their leaves.
The row with the shop bought seed potatoes anyway.
The others will show up in their own good time. They were not as far along in the chitting when they went in so will be later to surface too.
Everything in the garden is nestling in a cloddy mess.
The strawberries have loads of flowers and the rhubarb is doing well.
They don't mind the rain although it does encourage the slugs as well which means keeping an eye on the strawberries as they will hollow them out if they can get to them.
Well , one bit really.
It is an oscillating hoe.
A lot of the new wheel hoes have them and I thought I would try my hand at a home made one.
Mine is made from a strip of iron bar we had, and 11 inches of a 24" steel rule(OH's late father had them everywhere so we had a surplus).
The steel rule is the blade.
So far I have had it working but the oscillating bit needs some fiddling to get it right.
I needed to bend the steel and used some pieces of wood and my own weight and a club hammer.
Once bent into two Stirrup shapes,one bolts to the other and all are bolted to the wheel hoe.
The oscillating bit is a little piece of metal that has a small space for the blade to wobble within so that it swings ever so slightly as you push back and forth but not enough to let it erode the metal or the bolts.
The deliberate agrarian has a few pictures of his own that he makes to go with his 'planet Whizz bang hoe' so that was a handy guide.
Also I have been playing with a couple of Absolutely ancient seeders.
They are from the late 19th Century I think as the only info I could find on the WWW was for one made around 1879 and is very similar with the same makers name.
They came as a pair because they were incomplete but there was enough there to make one whole machine with a bit of fiddling.
It seemed a shame to just discard the other parts so I have been fabricating my own replacement bits using the Dremel, a hack saw, a drill and several old bits of metal from things we had lying around broken.
I have one working and needing a new handle and paint the other is working,needs a better handle and paint.
The one with no handle has part of an old wooden one still stuck in the metal handle bracket so I have some work to do to get that out,the screws holding it in are stuck fast.
The other has a thin handle I connected to it rather weedily and although it does work as a handle, it isn't robust enough and will need replacing.
This morning I dug my bean trenches (finally).
The weather is still one long round of drizzle or mizzle or just thin rain.
Grey clouds and cool wind.
The beans are becoming taller and are going to need to go outside in about a week, so the trenches are dug and comfrey is laid in them thickly to act as a fertilizer.
The spuds are just starting to show their leaves.
The row with the shop bought seed potatoes anyway.
The others will show up in their own good time. They were not as far along in the chitting when they went in so will be later to surface too.
Everything in the garden is nestling in a cloddy mess.
The strawberries have loads of flowers and the rhubarb is doing well.
They don't mind the rain although it does encourage the slugs as well which means keeping an eye on the strawberries as they will hollow them out if they can get to them.
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Free grub just lying there
Yesterday I discovered 2 big mushrooms growing in the compost.
One was about 4" across and the other a little smaller.
I picked them and brought them indoors,got out my mushroom and toadstool identifying book and found the ones that it looks like.
There were 4. One is not really edible but wont kill you, it goes yellow when you bruise it and smells of carbolic if you boil it,the worst thing it does is make you throw up.
I found the right one.
It is called abrupt bulb mushroom.
I nibbled a couple of little bits just to make double sure.
(I wouldn't have done if the 4th mushroom had been fatal,it would all have gone to the rubbish bin.)
We had them chopped up in our chicken stew.
The two mushrooms chopped up, were enough to fill a family sized christmas pudding bowl.
I also added a big bag of Molokhia which grows in our hedge and has done for all the years we have lived here.
I only recently discovered it is edible.
This morning the postman delivered some Russian Comfrey root cuttings.
I already have a couple of plants but didnt want to risk digging them up and dividing, until I had some more established.
A few years back, I bought the first lot, 10 cuttings from HDRA .
I planted them all in the shady bit under the trees and almost all of them disappeared for ever.
The three that emerged eventually,were moved before they too died.
Of course it is raining AGAIN so I have potted them up for now until I can get out long enough to get them a good site prepared.
The reason to use Russian Comfrey is, it doesn't seed itself.
It is only root dividable. Therefore,where you put it to grow,is where it remains.
Yesterday being only the 2nd sunny day this spring,I spent all afternoon chopping down a rambling rose that used to have a Trellis to hold it up.
The Trellis has sagged to nothing.
There was also an Elderberry tree growing up amongst it and some Sycamore.
The rose was hanging down into next doors garden as well as ours and is a nuisance so needed sorting.
It took me from 12.30 until 4pm to get it chopped down and then another hour and a half of shredding.
I have a huge pile still to shred but we wanted our tea and of course, it rained as soon as Tea was over.
With all this rain, the outdoor jobs just pile up and there isn't sufficient time to do everything when the sun dries it up enough to have a go.
One was about 4" across and the other a little smaller.
I picked them and brought them indoors,got out my mushroom and toadstool identifying book and found the ones that it looks like.
There were 4. One is not really edible but wont kill you, it goes yellow when you bruise it and smells of carbolic if you boil it,the worst thing it does is make you throw up.
I found the right one.
It is called abrupt bulb mushroom.
I nibbled a couple of little bits just to make double sure.
(I wouldn't have done if the 4th mushroom had been fatal,it would all have gone to the rubbish bin.)
We had them chopped up in our chicken stew.
The two mushrooms chopped up, were enough to fill a family sized christmas pudding bowl.
I also added a big bag of Molokhia which grows in our hedge and has done for all the years we have lived here.
I only recently discovered it is edible.
Comfrey
This morning the postman delivered some Russian Comfrey root cuttings.
I already have a couple of plants but didnt want to risk digging them up and dividing, until I had some more established.
A few years back, I bought the first lot, 10 cuttings from HDRA .
I planted them all in the shady bit under the trees and almost all of them disappeared for ever.
The three that emerged eventually,were moved before they too died.
Of course it is raining AGAIN so I have potted them up for now until I can get out long enough to get them a good site prepared.
The reason to use Russian Comfrey is, it doesn't seed itself.
It is only root dividable. Therefore,where you put it to grow,is where it remains.
Plant destruction
Yesterday being only the 2nd sunny day this spring,I spent all afternoon chopping down a rambling rose that used to have a Trellis to hold it up.
The Trellis has sagged to nothing.
There was also an Elderberry tree growing up amongst it and some Sycamore.
The rose was hanging down into next doors garden as well as ours and is a nuisance so needed sorting.
It took me from 12.30 until 4pm to get it chopped down and then another hour and a half of shredding.
I have a huge pile still to shred but we wanted our tea and of course, it rained as soon as Tea was over.
With all this rain, the outdoor jobs just pile up and there isn't sufficient time to do everything when the sun dries it up enough to have a go.
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