Gardening

I'm sorry I haven't posted much of late.  I've been very, very busy.  Like, not just regular old busy.  Really, really crazy busy.  Working all day and then some in the evening busy.

Also, I decided to dig up my garden.  This is all part of a vastly overambitious and, undoubtedly, ultimately doomed (but what is the blog for if not to tell you about things going hilariously wrong?) plan to landscape my garden.  After spending quite some time digging up the grass (with my sister saying things like 'Why are you doing it yourself?  Should we not get someone in?  What if you do it wrong?' - to which I responded 'Because it's about 2 ft sq of grass, and if we got someone in they'd laugh at us for being pathetic, and then charge us, like, £400, and anyway, how hard can it be, and what's the worst that can happen?') the plan has been slightly scaled down, and is now more of the order of making a place for the bins to sit.

I initially had a mind to put up a new fence as well (the old one is going to just fall over some day soon), but this was roundly decried by the naysayers who don't think I could construct a fence, so we're getting someone in to do it instead (of course, when they said I'd never be able to do it, I wanted to try even more, but then I realised the materials would be quite expensive and I don't want to go wrong with expensive things).  Our current options for the Fence Constructor are as follows:

1) A man who did my aunt's fence.  Having been quoted £600 from everyone else, this guy charged about £100 (these figures may not be literally correct, but they give an idea of the relative gulf between the quotes).  Now, ordinarily, this would worry me (you will recollect that The Builder wasn't the most expensive guy in the... um... place where builders are), but my dad was already leaning towards hiring him, and then heard that he works hard all day and doesn't accept any offers of cups of tea, and this seemed to clinch it.  You may recollect that The Builder didn't accept offers of cups of tea either, and look how that turned out.  Also, there was the guy who did the windows a few years ago.  He was cheap and didn't drink tea, and is now in jail, which may have invalidated my warranty.

2) Sister's friend Lucy's cousin who is a gardener.  This was going well until I pointed out that what we really need is not so much a gardener as someone to build a fence.  Anyway, he's coming round on Monday to give us a quote.

In any case, I'm perfectly certain it will be a merry disaster, as these things always are, but you will, of course, be kept informed.

Rain, holidays and carrots

Well the holiday has been on hold, due to the impressively abundant rainfall in Belfast over the past week. Fortunately the rain has not been as much of a problem as it might have been, due to the Roads' Service having had the foresight to build a large water storage facility just off the Westlink. This is capable of holding as much water as 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and cost £15 million to build; at first glance an excessive sum, but in dry spells it doubles up as a road, and is therefore good value for money.

But to get back to the point: the holiday will hopefully take place over the next couple of days. It is all rather weather-and-can-I-be-bothered dependent, but the sun is currently shining and the prospect of a day or two as a tourist is seeming quite appealing.

On a different topic: does anyone know how you can tell when carrots are ready to be harvested? Is it like in Bugs Bunny where the tops start to stick out of the soil? That's what I've been waiting for, but it doesn't seem to be happening, so now I'm thinking that maybe you just pull them up once you get bored waiting. All advice appreciated.

It's the 200th post!

Well, here we are, 200 posts on and much the wiser for it.

Anyway, I came here today to let you know that the holiday has been slightly postponed, owing to WhyNotSmile having temporarily found a form of gainful employment, which cannot be passed up. But the delay is only temporary, and the holiday will take place next week. There is still time to sign up for a postcard.

In other news, you'll be pleased to hear I have added broccoli to the garden; this came last week after a phone call from my friend Philip which went like this:
Me: hello?
Philip: Hello! Can I come and visit you tonight?
Me: yeah, ok.
Philip: I'm going to cycle. I'll leave at 6.30, so I'll be there about 7.30
Me: OK, see you then.

Now Philip lives in Bangor and I live in Belfast, so when 7.30 came and went, I wasn't too concerned, but then 8.00 came and went, and at 8.15 I started to worry and tried texting (I don't really know why - either he'd be cycling and not hear it, or he'd lying in a ditch unconscious and not hear it). By 8.30 I had given him up for roadkill, and then a few minutes later he came cycling down my street, muttering things about how it was a bit further than he'd thought, and with a broccoli plant over the handlebars.

I've been assured that I can eat the leaves of teh broccoli plant, but I'm not sure I want to, so I am eagerly awaiting it growing some broccoli.

I grew potatoes

I have finally started harvesting potatoes:



Had half of this little lot for dinner tonight, and they are GOOD! Hopefully there are a few more in the planter, but this was all I could find on the first rummage.

I also forgot to mention the flowers (don't have a photo yet) - they are special ones to attract bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Not sure about the hoverflies and butterflies, but the current shortage of bees in America may well be due to them all being in my garden... so it's a bit buzzy, but really nice to lie in the sun and watch!

On Carrots and Holidays

I have harvested a carrot. Not a big carrot, not a carrot you could respectably feed to visitors, but a carrot nonetheless, and one that I grew myself. But I think I harvested it a bit soon, so I'll leave the rest for a while.

Plans for the summer holiday are coming along nicely; I have found lots of things to see and do in Belfast - did anyone know that there is a candy factory in Belfast, for example, where you can see candy being made? I not only didn't know about it, but have actually seen it every time I go to the dentist and not realised. It's even called 'Aunt Sandra's Candy Factory', but I thought they just called it that.

So, at the moment I'm thinking I'll have a day of doing churches etc, a day in West Belfast, and a day following some of the Art Trails around the city. I will hopefully take in the Ormeau Baths Gallery and possibly Crumlin Road Jail. The exact itinery is still to be determined, but I will let you know.

Unfortunately I have been out of action for a week or so, due to my doctor giving me new medication which has made me feel profoundly sick and sleepless. Thankfully this is now wearing off; the correct side of it, the side that makes me all happy and not anxious, has not yet kicked in.

I Grew A Lettuce

I have harvested the first lettuce. You can see the lettuce on the chopping board in the picture below. It was very green and crispy, and much nicer than the lettuces you buy in shops. Please note that these are baby lettuces which can be grown in window boxes; that's why it's not very big.



There are several more lettuces which are ready to be harvested, and then other ones which are smaller and will provide food later in the season.

The potato plants have grown flowers, so the potatoes are also nearly ready to harvest, but not quite.

In Which The First Photos of the Organic Garden are Revealed

The organic garden is going swimmingly; thus, the time is opportune to show you some photos.

Potatoes

Here are the potato plants, in their barrel:

You will note that the plants have a lot of leaves but no flowers yet. Once they grow flowers the potatoes are nearly ready for harvesting. At the moment there are tiny flower buds but no actual flowers, so the harvest is still some way off.

Lettuces

This is the largest lettuce:


This will be ready to harvest in a few weeks, although it could be eaten now if there was good reason.

These are lots of the lettuces, in their window boxes:

The ones at the back look smaller because of perspective.

Herbs And Other Miscellany, Including Carrots

Here is a view of the 'Herbs And Other Miscellany, Including Carrots' section:


To the top left you can see the more developed herbs; the carrots are in the pot which can be seen on the top right. In front of the carrots are little pots mainly containing lettuces (except for two of them, which have small herb plants). If you look closely on the extreme right of the photo you will see a water bottle containing compost; it occurred to me that, with the top chopped off, this would be precisely the right size and shape of container for one carrot, so there are carrot seeds in there. The propagator at the back is where everything started, but it's mostly empty because things have been planted on to other places. The remainder of the pots contain herbs and flower seedlings. Note the judicious use of a Stork carton for a saucer.

These are herbs in purple pots:


This is what the carrots look like from above:


I will post further updates as things progress.

Gardening Update

I promised you an update on the organic garden, and am pleased to report that it continues apace, albeit not without incident. The flowers have been a little slow to grow, but this is probably because I put the seeds in the ground, forgot, and then raked all the soil about before digging it up to plant a rose and a clematis. Anyway, something is growing now; whether it be friend or foe is to be determined.

The herbs are looking lovely; resplendent in their little purple pots, and growing with youthful vigour.

The lettuces were going well, planted in their windowboxes, until my dad needed to ask me something when he was inside and I was outside; the ensuing opening of the window, general falling-off of window boxes and splattering of soil and lettuces all over the ground was punctuated by the kind of language you don't hear on Songs of Praise, but fortunately the lettuces seem to be hardy souls and after being scooped up and stuck back in have, in all cases but one, recovered admirably.

The carrots are a harder bunch to check on, since they do most of their growing under the soil. I had to do some thinning out a few days ago, and there wasn't much that would obviously pass as carrot attached to the leafy bits when they were pulled out, but perhaps they'll put a bit more effort in now that there are fewer of them in the space.

The potatoes have been most pleasing of all; I beg you, please, if you have never done so, go and get yourself a barrel, or a bin bag, or any kind of receptacle, and plant yourself some potatoes, for they are truly joyous things to grow. I am growing them vertically; this means, basically, that every time they grow out of the top of the soil, you stick a few more inches of compost on top of them. Eventually the plants are about a metre high; this is the stage my lot are at (this is why you can grow them in a bin bag – just keep adding layers of compost, a few inches at a time, until the bin bag is full). Once the soil level has reached the top of the barrel/bag/receptacle, you stop adding more (obviously), and just leave the plants to their own devices for a while. Then in a few weeks (or maybe months – I have to read the instructions again), you poke about at the bottom of the soil (this is easy if you have a potato barrel like mine, with nice sliding bits at the bottom; it might not be so easy with a bin bag), and there will be potatoes aplenty.

I do rather get the feeling that one of these weeks I'm going to have a very intensive potato, lettuce and carrot diet, so next year, now that the basic technique has been mastered, I'm going to have to look into staggering the harvest a bit.