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 ….?

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!

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!

Polytunnels!

The polytunnel is up at last!

It arrived earlier than I expected, when I was out at work (of course), and landed in twelve enormous pieces in my neighbour’s garden. You see, I live at the end of a street that is no longer a street, which is very good for my privacy, but confuses delivery men no end. They usually end up dumping things with my neighbours, whose cottage is the only one that can be seen from the road.

Luckily, I have lovely neighbours. So my polytunnel went the way of many deliveries, being handed over the wall, piece by piece, with the help of my neighbours’ American visitors, who’d already braved Icelandic volcanic ash to get here. How to see life in Snowdonia!

So I then had twelve pieces of polytunnel sitting in my living room….

I would like to say it was easy, and that I heroically put it up by myself. But I’d be lying. I took one look at the instructions (I don’t do instructions), had a large glass of wine, and phoned a friend. Several friends, in fact. One of whom had done this before (phew).

The first part seemed to take an awful lot of digging holes and measuring, and checking angles via Pythagoras. Not helped by the patch of nettles I’d been carefully preserving to make plant food. Plus the fact that we found the old base of the Victorian end-of-the-garden loo, which was impossible to budge, and means I’ve got a shallow patch of soil that is going to need a raised bed at some point.

The frame went up quite quickly, and suddenly it was real! I spent a few evenings digging and raking and getting out as many stones and bits of slate as possible and chopping down the last few bits of overhanging branches, and then we were ready for the covering. I’d arranged for plenty of friends to come and help for the big day, with homemade chocolate cake all ready. And, of course, after weeks of endless sun, it chose that day to rain. So we just ate the cake.

But the next evening was fine and finally the cover went on, with much huffing and puffing and pausing for thought.

And so now I am the proud owner of an 8ft x 10ft polytunnel. Having turned philosophical after doing my back in, I’m just concentrating on getting used to it for the moment, the plan to concentrate this year on starting things in the summer to grow over winter.

At the moment I’ve got lots of tomatoes, and an aubergine plant I got half price because it was almost dead but appears to be alive. I’ve put in a few squashes that appear to be flourishing, and three melons that seem to have died. And some nasturtians for colour.

Oh, and my vine. I thought long and hard about a vine and what kind to get. Then I remembered a flat I’d rented when I lived in London. It was on the ground floor of an old Victorian house with an old wooden conservatory and a grape vine that came from a cutting from the Hampton Court vine. The grapes, I remember, were delicious: small, black, sweet and juicy. A bit of research, and I discovered there were cuttings from the Hampton Court vine for sale. And not for a king’s ransom, either. And okay, so this isn’t exactly the banks of the Thames, but it’s definitely worth a try!

Which, I discovered, when the vine arrived (via my long suffering neighbours, yet again), meant even more digging. Lots of it. A huge hole outside the polytunnel, to be exact, with drainage and plenty of compost, a touch of limestone and plenty of bone meal. Phoebe the dog got very interested in the bone meal. Which might sound disgusting, but is positively civilized compared to the other things she snuffles out in the nice, newly dug, cat-friendly soil around the polytunnel. (I know, don’t even go there. How can a dog in a pink collar have such disgusting personal habits?)

So far it seems to be working. My vine is flourishing. And I’m enjoying pottering around of an evening, watching my tomatoes grow and plotting for the future. It’s a wonderful space, and its own little world. I’m getting used to opening it up every morning, and watering every night before I shut it up against slugs and the dark.

Time I think for a celebration. The elderflowers are just at their best. Time to try making elderflower champagne again. That was the sound of summer, when I was a little girl: the sound of elderflower champagne bottle popping gently under the sink…

Backs, bread – and polytunnels!

Ah, and I was doing so well!

There I was, listening to my body, in a mature sort of a way, doing a few hours gardening here, a lot more hours on the computer there, and my polytunnel patch was coming along nicely.

I should have known it wouldn’t last. Why do I always go and overdo things? I was so close to clearing the ground one weekend when the sun was shining, so I just went for it. Followed by hours trying to catch up on the computer. Result? Ouch! My back went.

Which means the past weeks have been spent hobbling around with a walking stick and feeling ninety-something instead of fifty-something.

Arg! The indignity of it all.

The worst thing has been the dandelions. I’m quite sure they know I can’t do anything about them. They’ve been blooming with abandon all over my path and garden. Just you wait, you tormenting little monsters, just you wait. I’ve just heard that dandelion wine is rather good…

I suppose one upside has been that I have finally had time to crack the art of making my own sourdough bread. Sort of.

The Comfort-Lover’s guide to making bread: find an amazing, award-winning baker running a business in his kitchen just down the road, and pick up a warm sourdough loaf on the evening dog walk. And only when he goes away to France for three months to write a book on bread making, do you snaffle some of his starter and have a go yourself. And if you want to see why, have a look: http://www.bethesdabakers.com/english/home.html

I have made bread before. Well, actually, my breadmaker has made bread before. The sourdough experience is quite different, as I have discovered. For one thing, it happens over a long time. Not the same as takes a long time. The actual mixing and kneading take hardly any time at all, and the rest is the bread doing its own thing in a corner while you get on with your day.

Which is fine, once you’ve got your head round the idea, got the starter ready to go the day before, and then get the thing going in the morning. (Otherwise you end up like me, eating hot bread at midnight. Not to be recommended if you value your digestive system, even though it is yum). Oh, and always read the instructions. I’d assumed white flour didn’t go near a brown loaf, so my first attempt came out as a fairly credible doorstopper. (That's the one proudly kept for posterity in the photograph) Mind you, it tasted okay as toast. I did start to have cravings for the softest, gooiest sliced white loaf after a bit. But that could just have been my teeth (dodgy at the best of times) going into shock.

My last couple of efforts have been a pride and a delight, though I say so myself. And it’s the best and tastiest breakfast around. Plus it keeps me going until lunch, however long the morning dog walk takes.

But Mick the wonderful baker has definitely NOT lost a customer. I may be very proud of my efforts, and I’ll still carry on feeding my little starter and making a loaf every now and again. I now really appreciate what it takes to make a loaf of bread, and I shall feel more privileged than ever when I can once more stroll over the grassed-over quarry, with its view over the mountains, to collect my loaf, baked at the hands of an expert.

Plus Phoebe the dog gets a mini baguette. Which makes her the happiest collie in town.

If you want to get tips on bread making, recipes etc, then visit Mick’s blog:
http://thepartisanbaker.wordpress.com/

Right, back to the polytunnel ….

Gardening!

Spring finally arrived today. Yipee!

I finally sat in the garden without a fleece this afternoon (obligatory daywear when you live partway up a mountain in Snowdonia), and you could see the buds on the plants and the trees opening by the minute.

Fortunately, however, not the weeds. Well, only some of them. This is because since it stopped snowing, at the end of February, I’ve been in there, trying to get as many out as possible. I had two years’ worth of weeds this year, as gardening and puppies don’t go. Phoebe did try to help last spring, but the collie side went manic, while the spaniel side was heading for Australia. Fortunately, this year she seems to have calmed down a bit, and only joins in when I get particularly enthusiastic with the spade. Although I do keep on unearthing the most disgusting bits of dog chew …..

My polytunnel hasn’t arrived. In fact, it’s nowhere near, at the moment. I’m being philosophical about this. With the ground frozen for so long, I’m going to be late getting it up, so this year is going to be a doing what I can, when I can, year. You see, I want my garden to look nice, as well as start growing veggies, so the first bit I’ve blitzed are the flower beds, which are nearest the house and the bit I see all the time.

Plus the idea is to have friends over for long, hot summer evenings, for red wine and home grown salad and tomatoes to go with the veggie sausages. This has been the idea for the past couple of years. Maybe this year will finally be the much-promised BBQ summer. I live in hope!

Anyhow, whatever happens, this weekend I finally got the flowerbeds sort-of under control (if you don’t look too closely). I’m going to split the plants I’ve already got, like hardy geraniums, aquilegia and sedum, and fill the rest with things like nasturtiums and nigella to keep the weeds down. The aim is for this part of the garden to be colourful and easy to keep, so I can concentrate on the polytunnel, and building a herb spiral.

The ground here is full of slate, and not exactly rich, while the stone walls are slug heaven. I don’t use slug pellets, so my flowers are grown on the principle that if the slugs like them, they don’t get grown again. Plus I don’t have the time or the back, or the energy, to dig in manure all over the garden. And if I don’t dig it in very well indeed, Somebody will eat it.

However, over the past years, I’ve been gradually planting shrubs that will take care of themselves and attract bees, although my poor old lavender plants seem to have died amongst the arctic blasts and will have to be replaced.

With the flowerbeds sorted, it’s time to finally turn full attention on the exciting bit, and get that polytunnel up and going. But that’s for next week. Today, I celebrated spring with a friend by forgetting gardening and going to the beach on Anglesey. We had a beautiful view of Snowdon – still with large patches of snow on top – as we sat in the sun and watched a couple of seals vying for sunbathing position on the rocks.

I did mean to get started on the polytunnel patch when I got home. But I kind of fell asleep in the sun. I’m calling it sun worshiping. And that lovely warm sun hasn’t half been a long time coming.

And anyhow (I keep telling myself) there are light evenings after work, now. Plenty of time to attack the next lot of weeds.

Couch grass and creeping buttercup, here we come …