Juliet's Blog is Moving!

Juliet's Blog is Moving!

Hello, and thanks for visiting my blog.

My blog is moving, and from now on you can catch me talking about writing, gardening and going green in comfort on: http://julietgreenwoodauthor.wordpress.com/

Look forward to seeing you there!

Juliet

The Vine is Alive!

Well, I had good intentions. I always do, every spring. I’ll get in there, vanquish the weeds, dig that bit I never get round to, and have seeds sprouting all over the place.

And then something intervenes. Usually – being an overdoing sort of person – my back. This year it was work and my back. So self-inflicted. Idiot.

But then life is amazing. I managed to control the weeds, and nature did the rest. The garden is beginning to bloom without much extra attention, and the polytunnel is getting there.

The vine has survived its first year. Hurrah! I was having severe doubts, but then it appeared and is growing strong. I’ve managed to start some salad leaves (in a slightly haphazard way, but who cares). I’m going to try just a few tomatoes this year, and leave the squashes. We have more than we can eat from the wonderful organic veggie box anyhow.

So, okay, it’s not exactly self-sufficiency, or a production line. But it’s growing slowly. And I’ve had so much pleasure from just sitting in the polytunnel on coldish days, enjoying the sun, it’s been worth it for that alone.

So now that things have quietened down a bit, I’m going to finish clearing that outside space for spinach and get a few chillies on the go.

I’ve got this dream of a mini solar fountain in the middle of the (very) mini pond in the polytunnel. Gently rushing water as I sit there admiring the grapes grow and the salad flourish.

Hey, what’s life without a dream ….?

Gardening - At Last!

Finally! I got out into the garden proper (as opposed to the polytunnel) this weekend.

It was a beautiful day, fresh and just warm enough to keep comfortable and smell spring in the air. The frogs were singing away in the pond, vanishing every now and again when one of the cats decided to go and watch proceedings. For the first time in what seems like forever, I spent almost the entire day doing the stuff I should have done last autumn, except that the snow and ice appeared so quickly and then stayed so long.

The mountains of dead and rotting leaves had been prodding me every time I went past, which – as you go through my garden to get to the house – meant at the very least four times a day, during dog walking duties.

I didn’t quite get down to serious weeding and sorting. But at least now it looks as if I care, I can see which plants have survived and which look very dead and might have to be replaced. And the daffodils have room to breath and grow.

So now I know where I am with the whole garden, which is good. I also know just how much work needs to be done in the next month or so. Which is not so good. Seriously scary, in fact.

Thank goodness for the vegan chocolate-and-ginger cake I made at Christmas to practice for lots of parties with vegan friends. Being holed up with flu meant I didn’t see any one. The non-vegan one got eaten anyhow, and is now compromising the belt of my trousers until the serious dog walking season arrives. Luckily the vegan one ended up frozen in chunky slices in the freezer for just such an occasion as this.

There are some days when nothing but cake will do. A full day’s gardening is just such a day. The cake was as eco-friendly as I could make it (not sure about the icing sugar, but what’s a cake without icing, and have you ever tried to buy truly vegan chocolate bars? I rest my case). It was certainly comfort-loving. Yum, yum.

Well, at least I’ve made a start. And the weather forecast was right and now there’s lots of rain, so I can catch up with all the work I should have been catching up with this weekend. On the other hand, gardening is like dog walking: serious thinking time. I’ve mulled over what I needed to mull over in the edits of the Work In Progress. Plus I feel energised after all that fresh air and green shoots and fully recovered from a week of cash-flow forecasts and business plans for the day job and raring to go.

Back to the Polytunnel Handbook, and Alys Fowler’s ‘The Edible Garden’, which has just arrived. I’ve got a definite craving for salad leaves at the moment, now the veg box has finished until June and the potatoes, cabbage and leeks are gone. Time to get planting! Yippee!

Okay, cheating. From B&Q

(other gardening and DIY stores are available)

:)

Survivors!

Well, time at last to venture out into the garden and take stock. After such a harsh winter – and with the ground frozen hard again this weekend – I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

But life is amazing. Already little bits of green are appearing. And I’m not just talking the daffodil stalks. Tiny new leaves appeared as I began to clear away the tangled brown slush that had once been hardy geranium. The first primroses are starting to flower. And, most unexpected of all, the parsley in the hanging basket just outside my kitchen door is still going strong. From frozen parsley to green and growing. It even tastes good, too.

And so to the polytunnel. This is the first real year of the polytunnel and I’m beginning to get excited about the growing season ahead. I’ve cleared out the old manky stuff, leaving just the vine hanging on in there. It needs a good dig over and then it will be ready.

I haven’t quite decided yet where to start with the seeds and how to make best use of the polytunnel yet. But I do know the first thing I’ve going to do is to sort out an irrigation system. So much for the romantic idea of standing there each evening lovingly waving the hose to the soothing strains of Mozart on the iPod.

I mean, just who was I kidding? I’ve got as much energy as I ever did – more, even, it seems at times. But I do need rather more rest and recovery time in between. And why is it that you seem to have so much more to do as you get older? Between work and the long walks needed to keep a collie happy, training sessions to keep the collie brain out of trouble, ensuring the house doesn’t fall down and the car stays on the road and the rest of the garden doesn’t turn into a jungle – oh, and that little thing called socialising – standing watering a polytunnel every day needs to be as painless as possible.

So irrigation systems and planning in the warm it is, for the moment. I want to make the rest of the garden more productive this year, too. So plenty of reading and planning ahead!

I wonder if that parsley will survive?

Welcome 2011!

My poor polytunnel,

It has, I should hastily add, survived its first experience of deep snow. A polytunnel in Narnia. I brushed off the really heavy fall, then left the second, not so heavy, layer, as insulation at protection against ice.

The structure is intact. The overflowing nasturtiums are not. Ah well. I had planned to plant winter greens and salad. Perhaps it’s as well that life took over and I didn’t quite get round to this. I have a feeling any greens would have gone the same way as the nasturtiums. Mind you, the veg box is still going strong, winter greens and all. But then they have much bigger polytunnels. (Well, that’s my excuse, anyhow.)

But at least it’s up and ready for action. Having missed the early growing season last year because I ended up getting the polytunneltoo late, this is going to be the year of the polytunnel. The year it really comes into its own.I might even get some grapes.

Well, at least I did manage to keep to the resolution of making preserves and sloe gin for Christmas presents.The Ginger andRhubarb jam didn’t quite make it. It wasfar too nice, and the little bit left has already been opened. The spiced plum chutney, on the other hand, has survived. It was gorgeous, but thanks to a friend with a glut of plums, I made so much it actually lasted.

And the sloe gin? Not quite as good as last year, when the sloes up here were juicy and plentiful. But pretty tasty, though I say so myself. And definitely went down a treat as Christmas presents.

I did stick my nose outside today. It was dry, and the birds were singing. There was even the faintest sniffof spring in the air. But there was ice on the pond and it was a bit too cold for the comfort-loving gardener. So the dire mess of rotting leaves the snow and ice have left behind can wait until another day.

Meanwhile, I’ve got freshly ground fairtrade coffee, the last of the seasonal chocolate, and the future of a polytunnel to plan.

Welcome 2011!

Autumn Plenty

Oops, that’s a long time I’ve been away from this blog!

I know life - as it does - took over for a while, but I never thought it was that long. But I have managed to keep up with some of the things I meant to do this autumn. The sloes are in the sloe gin all ready for Christmas. The smell (well you do have to check these things now and again) is tantalizing. I tried to be more sophisticated this year and add less sugar. That didn’t last long. The sugar sort of crept in of its own accord and is now brewing nicely in the spare room/office/preserve cupboard/general junk container. The colour is already gorgeous and the smell is tantalizing. Roll on Christmas!

I’ve also managed to make jams and chutneys. It’s hard growing fruit this high, but a friend in the valley had a glut of plums, and another was given loads of apples. So I’ve made plum jam, plum jam with cardamom (yum, yum) and spiced plum chutney which was supposed to be for presents but is far too tasty and going down fast. I found this recipe while browsing. Highly recommended! http://cooking4chumps.com/Chutney%20Plum%20Recipe.html

The apple chutney ain’t bad, either. I was going to be adventurous and try grape chutney from a friend’s greenhouse, but the grapes died before I got there and turned to mush. Something to try when my own grape vine gets seriously going in the polytunnel.

Ah, the polytunnel. Okay, my plans for carrots and salad all winter long didn’t quite get there. But the nasturtiums look great, and taste pretty good, too. So I’m leaving them in possession at the moment, and sitting in the warmth planning my polytunnel year for 2011.

Number one priority: an irrigation system. I had this romantic idea about tending each plant personally each evening. Even with the iPod at full blast that wasn’t going to happen. Especially in the rain. Horizontal, Welsh mountain rain at that. The kind that feels like hail even when it isn’t. I have quite enough of that with dog walking, thank you very much.

I’m sure I’ve got a bit of old hosepipe to weave in and out and put holes in lying around somewhere ……

So How Did That Happen?

So now I’ve been the proud owner of a fully up-and-running polytunnel for a whole month. And I’ve learnt one or two things.

The first is – it works! It’s amazing. And I love it. I know it’s only a tiny polytunnel, and I’m not exactly going for self-sufficiency, but I can certainly see the potential.

Because I was so delayed, due to bad backs, dog walking, work, age, life …, I was worried my polytunnel might look a bit pathetic for the summer. This is not exactly scientific, but I shoved in what I had got, which wasn’t much: tomato plants I’d been given; an aubergine and a chilli I bought and a knock-down price from a local garden centre after they’d done their best to kill them; four melons (which promptly died) and about six squashes I’d grown from seed, and a few runner beans and peas (also grown from seed). To fill in the enormous gaps, I put in the old staple of nasturtiums, on the principle that they look pretty and are edible, and would keep down any weeds until I’m ready to plant my winter crops of carrots etc.

And then I got busy. Not on polytunnel stuff, but work and life. And somehow, without me even looking, a jungle has taken over in there. I’m still amazed. Halfway up a Welsh mountain, this makes such a difference! I keep on looking at the weedy specimens I’ve kept outside as a sort of control group, and the huge, lush things inside, and I just know that me and my polytunnel are going to be happy for years.

Just one or two things to get sorted. The first is an irrigation system. I didn’t bother when I ordered the polytunnel. I had romantic visions of me and my iPod wandering out each evening to uncoil the hose and water peacefully, in between pulling out a few weeds and picking the odd tomato or so.

Okay: hands up. It doesn’t happen.

Well, it does most of the time, but uncoiling the hose is a faff, I still haven’t got an outside tap, and watering in the rain (and up here in Snowdonia we have serious amounts of rain) after a day of dodging showers, driving through puddles and getting drenched while walking the dog, is not exactly my idea of fun. There are warm sunny evenings when it’s a nice way of unwinding from work, but I think an irrigation system might be better. And then there’s the question of what I do if I go away. Not even a whole polytunnel of tomatoes might lure my neighbours or cat sitters into getting out the hose every day.

So an outside tap and a simple irrigation system, plus timer for holidays, is my next priority.

But these are just teething problems. And in fact, although I was disappointed about not being able to get into full swing this year, it’s actually been quite good in that it’s given me time to get to know my polytunnel and understand its potential and what might work best for me, before I start serious planting.

I’ve now added a few lettuces (also half-dead bargains from the garden centre), and I’m going to plant salad stuff from seed (rocket, yum!) to keep on cropping through the year.

And maybe I’m relaxed about this because the veg box has started again, so I’ve lots of lovely organic, locally grown, freshly picked and dug up veg every week. And am I glad I resisted temptation and didn’t plant courgettes. I love courgettes, but there are only so many one woman and one dreaming-of-non-veggie-sausages dog can eat.

This week I also found a jam-making pan in the local charity shop for £5, while doing my usual root around. I was about to go out and invest in a new one, so I quickly grabbed it with both hands. There’s lots of lovely fruit out there at the moment.

Time to start trying my hand at jams and chutneys!