Toms and beans

WOW, can someone hold the clock hands still whilst I get some planting done pleeease!!!! I have so much to do and it feels like the year is whizzing by, our forthcoming hols add to the pressure of getting plants in and settled.

I managed to get another row of canes in for beans, this time I have planted 'Best of All' runner beans and my 'Borlotto' beans (the Italian ones with red streaked pods) I've got just enough space left for french climbing beans which I've sown in modules inside.

By the look of the pic I've also got a carrier bag tree....nice 'aint it!

The other VERY over due job was to sort out the toms. Due to the watering side of things I decided that these will have to stay at home. Directly outside the back of the house is an area that I always call the 'Ginnel' area (a good northern name for a narrow passage between two houses or a back lane behind terraced houses) anyway, this ginnel area is directly outside the back of the house before you go into the rest of the sprawling estate. It's the perfect spot for my toms in grow bags and I also put a big pot with 3 canes in to grow some french climbing beans on (as if I didn't have enough beans!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I grew beans there last year before the allotment entered our lives, it was so nice to be able to walk out the back door and grab a handful for tea, hence me doing it again.

In both of these pictures you can see one of my plastic planthouses that I've used to propagate most things. I'd love a 'proper' greenhouse but I just don't know how we'd fit it into this garden, it's big enough but there just doesn't seem to be the right space anywhere, I'll have to ponder that one a bit more though and convince 'D' that it's a good idea!!! :)

Some of my Sweetcorn, Leeks and Nicotiana seedlings

Madeleine McCann Missing

Not horticultural but a very important posting..... people all over Europe are being asked to keep the image of Madeleine McCann in the public eye. Anyone can download pictures of her to make into posters or include a phot of her on their blog or website so that hopefully (please God) she can be returned to her loving family. Please do your bit. This took me less than 2 minutes to include in my blog....I'd love it if it helped to bring her back!

These photos show her very distinctive eye birthmark. Click the title of this posting or click this writing to be taken to the official Find Madeleine website.

Evening therapy

I decided that the runner beans that I've been growing at home in loo rolls really needed to be liberated so I went up to the plot at about 7pm last night. My day off was full of important stuff like going for therapy to sort out my 'flying phobia' (Greek holiday looming ahead) and going to the dentist, so I didn't get chance to get to the plot in the daytime as planned.

To be honest there is something quite magical about the evening time at the allotment, I'm not sure what it is but I always love the feeling of peace. Most of the time when I've been up there at that sort of time I'm the only person there and I just love the feeling of pottering which is when I find gardening really therapeutic.

I've got loads of stuff almost ready to put in the plot all growing like mad at home in loo rolls, newspaper pots and modules. The beans that I planted last night are 'Wisley Magic' runner bean and I have 'Best of All' runner beans, French climbing beans and Borlotto beans to put out as well. The plan is to have 2 double rows of canes with a different variety bean on each side to accommodate the 4 different varieties. I think my problem will come when we have the harvest to end all harvests and we're eating beans until we go blue in the face....I just can't do it by halves!

Video below shows the plot on Easter Monday (9th April) once we had dug all the plot and before we'd put many things in. If you have your speakers on you can hear the birdsong (very peaceful) and then at the end the train going by, the track runs right behind my plot. For some reason you have to click the arrow twice to play this video. (Wed 23/5/07 Just found that at work I don't have to click twice! Oh the joys of modern technology!)

pics

I managed a quick jaunt up to the plot on Tuesday evening, it's still been raining like mad and I was intrigued to see what had developed at the plot in my absence. I'm chuffed to say that after a failed attempt at the beginning of April, my second sowing of carrots has germinated!!!!! I almost danced for joy that I'd managed to get them to grow, I think it proves that it was just too hot and dry for the last lot.

The above picture is a panorama that I took of the plot and shows next door's traditionally cultivated plot (immaculate!) and obviously my bed system (not immaculate!)
We have left the first 5 metres of the plot (far left of pic) undug so that we could park the car on it when we need to, the only problem though is that I'm starting to feel like I'm running out of space and also when I went there the other day, on the bike, the lady who has a plot almost opposite me arrived and parked on my plot without saying a word (apart from 'Hi!' ) She just parked up like it was a local car park and walked over to her plot to work on it. I do feel a bit scrooge like that I have now put obstacles in the way to prevent it happening again but it does seem a bloody cheek and to not even ask if it was ok! I really do need space for the squashes etc. so I do think I'll be digging some of it up soon anyway.

The potatoes had grown amazingly well in the week or so of rain that we'd had, it just shows how essential water really is. The picture to the right shows the potato beds, the nearest one shows 2 rows of first earlies and a row of Pink Fir Aplle which are only just poking through!

The garden is looking great, unfortunately it appears devoid of flowers when viewed from afar as in this picture which was taken from the bathroom window (my overhead vantage point for planning changes and viewing my vast estate!!)
The iron tree plant support from Malvern spring show can just be seen in the bottom of the pic with clematis now attached to it.


The other pic shows the garden as dusk is taking hold, on my home pc this is quite a good pic but on my work pc it's crap!! Apologies if you can't make it out.
What I'm trying to show is the lighting system that I installed recently which consists of small lights strategically placed amongst the plants and a spotlight bathing the apple tree in light to create a feature at night. I think it looks great, D is slightly unsure and has made comments about 747's wanting to use it as a runway! Cheeky sod! You just can't find the right class of partner/garden help these days! :)

... and the heavens opened!

OMG (as the yoof of today say) it has rained like it has never rained before! I was very kindly given complimentary tickets to the RHS Malvern Spring Garden Show (as seen on 'Gardener's World' no less!!!) D was hesitant to go due to the expense of tickets (complimentary tickets sorted that out) and the imminent bad weather conditions (NOTHING could sort that out!) We set off on Sunday morning around 11 am on our 20 minute car journey to Malvern. Approx 1 hour later we were walking around the wettest show ground I have ever had the misfortune to be at! But we had the most amazing time. We had watched Friday's Gardener's World programme with salivating mouths, I always love the big RHS shows. We weren't disappointed. The show gardens were brilliant (especially Chris Beardshaw's)

These sort of shows are very tempting but we try and behave ourselves and only buy things that we have never seen before or we would kick ourselves for not buying. Both these pics show these. Above is a picture of our latest Obelisk/willow wigwam (Top Pic) Although we've obviously seen these elsewhere before we never find ones this well constructed and they seem almost impossible to come across, so I quickly snapped this up and walked around the rest of the show with a bloody great big wigwam attached to me!!

The other purchase is the wiggly iron tree in the other picture.

This was bought from a really lovely couple who sell under the name 'Straysparks' They were seen on Friday nights GW programme when Carol Klein borrowed a wrought iron wigwam they had made for the presenters border that she was making.

I would have loved to have bought one of those but finances dictate otherwise (forthcoming hols etc!) Anyway this is their plant trees, designed to be pushed into the ground or a pot and then used to support a climber (in our case a clematis that we bought 10 minutes later!)

By around 3.30pm we decided to call it a day and trudged back to the car. When I was a child I remember getting as wet as this after playing in the local stream, as an adult I don't think I have EVER been so wet whilst still in clothing! I almost expected to be told that I was not allowed back into the house in that state and that I would have to strip off at the door! Obviously I am a grown up (apparently!) and the only person that could have told me to strip was D and he was as wet as me!

Ne'er cast a clout till May is out

Well the old saying may be correct, the weather is changing but we still managed to wizz up to the plot today and spend a few hours pottering about. D strimmed all the paths which makes such a difference to the look of the place. I dug a couple of bean trenches to fill with half rotted compost and newspaper to help hold in water for the beans when planted. I also erected one of the bean pole rows, it's amazing what a difference it makes to the place, it almost looks like an allotment!

As important to all the work that we did was sitting, enjoying and planning. We set up a couple of fold out chairs and put the whistling kettle on the camp stove for a quick brew whilst we planned what else there was to be done and where other crops would be planted. Nothing like a bit of procrastinating with a good brew!

Garden holiday

I'm just coming to the end of my 'Garden Holiday'. I did the same last year, took a week off work and spent the whole week doing all the overdue jobs and spring cleaning in the garden that never get done in a normal day off or weekend. I managed to stain and varnish all the furniture, as we have two patios there is a fair amount of it and it is bloody tedious and laborious!


We had some friends from Glasgow come and stay, we became friends with them years ago when D first met them in Corfu and we meet up most years in Corfu but they'd never been to our place back home in the UK. Anyway, we'd rattled on about how our garden has progressed from when we first move in 18 months ago and that we'd won best city garden in the 'In Bloom' competition so the pressure was on to make sure that it did look good when they arrived (It's looked totally crap all winter!). To be honest I don't think any one else would notice if it wasn't perfect but when it's your own garden you notice EVERY imperfection, well I do and I become like a thing possesed trying to kill myself in the process of cleaning and sorting. So true to form we spent ages blast cleaning the patios, mowing, digging, weeding etc and by the time they arrived it looked great but better than that was the fact that the weather was fantastic, their company was superb and we had a really relaxing and over indulgent few days.





...................................
D and friends on top patioI went up to the plot mid way through the week to weed, water and hoe. The carrots and parsnips that I sowed hadn't appeared and to be honest I think it was through lack of watering. I re sowed the two rows of carrots and today I managed to repair my mountain bike which has only taken 2 years ! So now I am able to ride the bike from house to plot in 5 mins, water hoe and back in no time! It was great to do actually, it felt so good to be able to get to the plot without having to take the car.

The other big job for this week was to sow all the outstanding veg that I have been meaning to do. I spent around 2-3 hours sitting on the patio at home in the blazing sun sowing beans, courgette, squash, peas, sweetcorn, cucumber and lettuce into loo rolls, modules and pots, a very therapeutic way to spend an afternoon (especially if you've got a good red wine and fab weather!!) The runner beans always intrigue me, they're just beautiful, the markings on them are amazing, the feel of the beans is like a worry bead, they are so tactile, they really are beautiful things.

So, now I've got the bike up and working there shouldn't be any excuse to pop up for 10 mins or so when I get home after work to slosh some water around and a quick bit of weeding...well that's the idea anyway!

Time in the garden

I feel slightly guilty, we spent all weekend at home and only went to the allotment for 10 minutes on Sunday evening to quickly check and water.

I went to the car boot on Cheltenham racecourse in the morning to go and get some more tools for the plot and home. I may have mentioned it before (I forget!) but car boot sales are just fab for bargain tools and things! I've managed to get all the tools for the plot at approx. £1 an item and this Sunday was no exception I bought a really nice old garden fork for £2 and a fab old galvanised watering can for £2! Bargain! I hate the idea of vandals stealing things from the plot but at that price it wouldn't be as financially crippling.

Some good friends that we don't see enough of came around unexpectedly for lunch so we had a fab time eating salads etc in the garden appreciating how nice the garden is looking with all the spring flowers.

Later in the afternoon (after one too many pimms!) I constructed a brick path that I have been promising to do for ages (to myself) . We have a couple of gravel paths in the garden which look nice but come the wet weather I end up with half the gravel stuck to my boots so I decided to add a brick centre path leaving the gravel around the edge.. An amazing website that I found called Turning Earth has some amazing artistic elements and is the sort of garden that I LOVE!!! I have copied the brick paths (quite unashamedly! This lady has FANTASTIC flair and style when it comes to design) from this garden. The millennium shed is great, an old outhouse that she converted herself, knocking down walls etc. to create an open fronted summerhouse...inspiring!

D has gone berserk buying Lavenders, delphiniums and foxgloves for the garden and spent the weekend constantly asking where he was 'allowed' to plant them! Sometimes I think I am to dominant with the garden and allotment....talk about 'Get OFF my land!!'

The garden is looking great at the moment and I have a good feeling about it's prospects for the rest of the year, I'm also nicely content with the plot at the moment too, it really has helped getting it all dug over the other week, I feel so much more relaxed about it (until next visit!!!)

Carrots and Parsnips

I've sown the first seeds on the plot which to me was a momentous occasion, ceremonial almost which I was relishing in the peace and quite of a remote allotment site until the grandchild of one of the plot holders starts screaming that he needed 'a wee wee Grandaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!' at the top of his voice to try and get his Grandads attention over the drone of his rotovator! Poor kid didn't realise that on this site you find a convenient bush and.....

Anyway, I managed to get in 2 rows of 'Early Nantes 2' Carrots and 2 rows of Parsnip 'Tender and True' plus loads more digging of couch grass root.

Back at home I sowed loads of Nicotiana (Tobacco plant) for both the allotment and the garden. Last year we had one Nicotiana plant at home which was absolute bliss, the perfume in the evening was just heaven, I have a real thing for heavily perfumed plants/flowers so I've decided to include some up at the plot. I also sowed Calendula (Pot Marigold) and Sunflower, again for both the plot and home and then finally I pricked out 48 Leek seedlings into pots to grow them on before planting out.

Easter Bonanza

Well we did it! We have finally manged to dig all of the plot! We spent something in the region of 10-12 hours at the allotment over the Easter weekend and managed to dig every bed. D was a saint, he managed to de-turf every single bed and dig them over roughly!

I followed in his wake fine digging the beds removing as much perrenial weed root as possible and boy was there a lot of root to remove!! The pictures really don't do it justice and it seems amazing that it's taken that long to dig it all but my God it was tough going!! So we now have 10 workable beds and space to put in some more as and when we need more. I had a mad idea of making a bench/seat out of some of the turf so D stacked a load up at the back of the plot to create a living bench, once the grass grows over it and we sow some flower seeds around it it'll make a nice place to sit and look at all our hard work.

My Good Friday plan of getting the remainder of the potatoes in worked, so I now have 60 potatoes in, I also managed to sow some parsley so that's the devil taken care of (see previous entry for explanation!)

On Saturday I put in the 'Red Baron' onions (44 sets), deciding to only sow half a bed of those as we don't use them as much as white ones.

The weather throughout the entire weekend was amazing, we both caught the sun, it also brought out loads more plot holders so we've met loads more people which is great. We finally met our neighbours and they seem to be great, a couple called Will and Sue. They were there for most of the weekend too and worked like mad.

Now I'd better go and fill the beds with edible stuff!

April fools!

' D' working like a trouper digging new beds

We spent a huge part of Sunday afternoon up at the plot. After my (now compulsory) sulk and teenage rant when we arrived, we set to with lots of digging. I say WE because D came with me again today having not been up for a little while, it's SO nice to have the extra help and calming down!!

D set about de-turfing and digging beds and I followed along digging out couch grass root and breaking the soil up. It was very hard work but once we got into a rhythm it was good. The weather was fantastic and when we first arrived we were the only ones there (apart from Scottish John who is ALWAYS there) Within about 20 mins or so we'd been joined by another 5 plot holders and their families including our neighbours who we have never seen so that was good. It was really weird having spent so much time up there alone to suddenly be surrounded by others but it was also really nice.

On Monday I popped down in the afternoon to get some onion sets in, I prepared and raked one bed and managed to get in 84 sets of New Fens Globe, I then netted the bed to stop the birds from pulling them all back out. I've still got the Red Baron to put in but they'll have to wait until the weekend.

There were a few people around again which was nice, I wanted to chat with Scottish John about our bills that had arrived for the plots, it seems that there has been a raise since last year and John was far from happy. I can see his point but to be honest I still feel that it's cheap, mine is just over £31 (I can't remember how many pence!) which I feel for the size of plot is good value, people are always shocked at how little allotments cost to rent when I tell them.

The weather has been amazing and it is predicted to last for the rest of the week and weekend (fingers, toes and other bits crossed!) I'm wanting to get down again on Friday (Good Friday) and put in some more pots and onions. It seems that Good Friday is traditionally the day for putting in spuds and I've also been told that you should sow parsley on Good Friday to ward off the devil!
I'm a sucker for traditions and old wives tales!

Netted onion bed.....

Ups and downs and spuds in!

A jaunt up to the plot yesterday to dig more and to check things over. I also decided that I'd put some of the potatoes in (some from the potato mountain in the shed at home!)
I have a small journal type book for the allotment to keep a check on things and I'd written down in it how far apart the pots needed planting and how deep etc, so there I was hunched over one of the beds with a book in one hand and a spade in the other, refering to the book as I'm planting the pots, like a novice cook refering to a recipe book "....now plant your potatoes 4" deep, cover with soil and leave to grow for 3 months"

Pic...Duke of York spuds & a GIANT silhouette

I do feel like such a novice, I keep wanting to feel much more at ease and not so pent up about it all, I mean for God's sake it's only growing veg! Things happen though that you don't expect and it leaves me wondering what I did wrong. The one thing that has puzzled me are the broad beans. When I planted the first rows I covered them in lemonade bottle cloches (apart from one plant) I removed the cloches last week as they'd reached the top and I left them to it. When I arrived yesterday all the 'cloched' beans had gone black on the edges of the leaves and bits of the stems, they also look a bit leggy and floppy. I think I know the answer, I think they should have been left without cloches in the first place, I've made them too tender and with the cold snap we just had I hadn't hardened them off properly. The one that hadn't ever been in a cloche is fine. Of course if anyone has any other thoughts on this please let me know!

I attempted to dig another new bed, previously we have had to de-turf each bed first and then dig the soil over but as the plastic has been down for a fair time now it is not necessary to do the de-turfing, the grass layer has broken down more so I am just digging through it all with a fork but it's still BLOODY hard work. I hate this bit, I wish the beds were all dug over so that I could get on with the growing bit! Just reading back over this entry I sound very 'down' this week, I do feel it and I'm not going to delete this, much as the temptation is to do that! I think there will be lots of ups and downs with the allotment...I prefer the ups!! :)

Allotments and recycling

I love the way allotments are made up of begged, borrowed and found materials and objects. When we were looking at getting an allotment we visited a couple near by and I was instantly taken by the ramshackle way in which they have been created, on one site a shed had been made using an old glazed door for a window and a great big old window for a door! MAD! But it has a fantastic charm to it, it worked and what's more it's free!

I am saving anything and every thing to use in the garden and the plot and today I took a load of lemonade bottle for cloches and lots of little bottles from the yogurt bio drinks that we have every day for cane ends up to the plot.

When I arrived the broad bean plants in bottle cloches were escaping out of the top of the bottles, I'd decided they were going to be liberated today anyway so I quickly set them free. I planted up 16 more broad beans that I took up with me and covered them in bottle cloches. Total broad bean plants now 26.














...Broad bean plants in trug ready to go to plot (spot the snail!)


Now, the idea of the yogurt drink bottle going on top of a cane is for 2 reasons, the first is that any cane tops are covered to protect your eyes and the second is that in the wind they will rattle and scare away any birds trying to eat the crops. Good idea you may think but while I was crouched planting (having set up the yogurt pot canes already) a blackbird flew down and landed on the bed about 2 feet away from me and just stared at me! Oh well, you can but try!
I also managed to dig 2 of the beds that we'd already de-turfed, I haven't made the seed bed as hoped (soil still bit too wet) but at least I have space now for potatoes to go in soon.

Broad beans in bottle cloches with number 1 helper in background!

There has been a fair bit of work on the site by different people since I went down there 2 weeks ago. It's really nice to see actually, I've only been on site since November and not really seen much activity and the site looked a bit rough to say the least but now it's starting to wake up for the spring. The forecast cold snap hasn't been too much of a problem either, I've covered a few delicates in the garden with fleece and put the paraffin heater on in the greenhouse as a precaution but I think it would have all coped anyway. Isn't it great as things are waking up, even small set backs like a cold snap seem less of a problem and only a slight hiccup in the start of a gardening year.

Impatiens!

All the tweaking of newspaper has paid off, here is a pic of all the busy lizzy plants potted up in their little paper pots, when ready to plant in the borders they get planted ... pot and all! The pot rots away like a peat pot. I did this last year and it worked really well, the greenhouse that they are in is a cheapy polythene planthouse from Focus, once it is free of plants in the summer I aim to grow a couple of Capsicum pepper plants and maybe a cucumber in it if there is room. (it is bigger than it looks!)

SPRING!!!!!

View from balcony of our holiday home!

We went to Pembrokeshire (Wales) last week with some very good friends for a much needed quick break. I lust after the main fortnight holiday of the year when we go to hot climates but equally these shorter breaks in our own country are bliss!!

When we got back on Monday Spring had arrived in our 4 day absence, the garden has changed SO much in such a short time and we have been able to work in it without fear of getting stuck in the mud. New roses planted and new herbaceous plants placed on beds ready to plant.

The one thing that I really love to see at this time of year are the hedgerows coming to life. We're lucky to live in an outstandingly beautiful area on the edge of the three counties Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire and we have some amazing, wonderfully maintained ancient hedges and hedge laying appears to be on the up in our area rather than neglecting them and or worse still grubbing them out altogether.
I love the almost acidic lime green colour of the new foliage unfurling and the way in which the hedges and trees are just speckled with this green as if someone has loaded a big paintbrush with lime green paint and flicked and sprayed colour all over them, pure magic and such a welcome sight after the barren months of winter.

This weekend is supposedly going colder again but hopefully it will remain dry and I can get down to the allotment to attack some more beds, the chitting potatoes in the shed are coming on well and I really need some beds prepared for them and a good seed bed created too...hopefully!

by 'eck

Well, I'm a Derbyshire lad by birth and spent a large chunk of my early years growing up in the Peak District so you'd reckon I'd be quite hardy to the weather down here in Gloucestershire considering that it's the south in comparison but we've had some cold weather again that's been a bit of a shock to the old system!

I've spent the last couple of nights making newspaper pots to transplant seedlings into and I'm glad that it's a job that could be done sitting in front of the fire in the sitting room, folding paper around a jam jar and tucking the ends in creates a surprisingly robust little pot which of course can be planted out complete once the weather and seedling are right.

I was hoping I could get down to the allotment this weekend but I'm not sure it's worth it, as I sit here typing the rain is battering the window and the wind is howling, a real horror movie type scene!

I've just bought some plug plants for the garden, Tesco of all places are selling a good selection of plugs so I bought up a load of busy lizzy plugs. I had busy lizzies last year and they really were amazing, I planted them in May and the first frost at the beginning of November finished them off...not bad going! Lets hope the weather improves so I can start the potting up process, I feel that it's going to suddenly get warm, spring will arrive and I'm going to have to be working every hour God sends to keep up with it all, let's hope he's on my side through out spring!

I planted something!

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I've finally planted something!! Ok so I've put in some raspberry canes and a climbing rose but this is a 'real' crop. I planted the broad beans that I grew in loo rolls (at the same time as the sweet peas, previous entry click here) I spent the morning adding more to the living willow fence/hedge in the garden and then this afternoon I drove over to the plot with 10 broad bean plants (The Sutton) I've planted them with a lemonade bottle over each one as a mini cloche, I don't think it was essential that I did this but I'm concerned that the birds might rip them out if they're unprotected.

Well, let's see what next weekend brings, hopefully they'll still be there!...(pic to follow next weekend (hopefully) , I forgot to take one today!)

Living willow fence AKA 'Fedge'

Not to do with the allotment but hey what the hell I'm gonna tell you about this. I decided that we needed to do something about the hedge between us and next door.
Most of the way down the garden it's ok, a privet hedge that D spends his entire summer cutting to within an inch of it's life! Unfortunately at the top end by the patio it's more of a wild bramble mixture and a bit spartan in places.



So our problem this year is that next door are in the process of creating a patio area by the side of this area of hedge which is also by our patio, we explored options of bamboo and other ideas but I was really taken with the idea of doing a living willow fence which also go under the name 'Fedge'. The principle is easy, you take willow cuttings and push them into the ground, weave them together and keep them watered until they root. Come summer they will be in full leaf and create a hedge/fence



I placed a wanted post on FREECYCLE website to see if it might be possible to get some free willow, as the small amount that I needed would cost between £40-£50, a very kind lady responded and yesterday lunchtime was spent in her garden cutting the off shoot willow away from her living fence.



By 6pm I had pushed, tweaked and woven all that willow to create the beauty that you see below (it carries on behind the shed) It was SO therapeutic doing it and now hopefully come barbecue season we shouldn't feel as if we're dining with the neighbours!

an inconvenient truth

Last night we sat and watched the DVD 'an inconvenient truth' with Al Gore, to say that this DVD was fascinating almost feels wrong to say but I urge you to watch it if you get the chance. Now I can hear you saying 'yeah? what's it about?', well it's a documentary film about GLOBAL WALMING, exciting stuff eh?! I could ramble on and say loads and having seen this film I would love to stand on the highest roof to shout the message to anyone who would listen, but the simple truth is that you have to see the film yourself to realise that we MUST change and we must change NOW!

I have never felt so excited about seeing a documentery or so sh*t scared!
I am not some nut who would stand on my soap box spouting biblical extracts or political quotes but this DVD has really hit the mark when it comes to what we are doing to our planet. Simple changes are the start, use energy light bulbs, drive less, cut down on food miles! One of the reasons that I wanted to grow our own veg is to know where the produce is coming from, what has been sprayed on it (or not hopefully!) and to also cut down on food miles.

When I named this blog 'Fork it' I also thought of calling it 'One foood mile' because it is one mile from plot to house. One simple mile. Why do people want food out of season? Why would you want strawberries that have been flown half way around the world and taste naff in December when our own from this country are FABULOUS! Why not wait and look forward to wonderful tasting produce at the correct time of the year and celebrate good British grown produce!

Think about it? Next time you are in the shop buy British and next time you are changing a light bulb put in an energy saving one...you will be saving money as much as you are saving the planet!! www.climatecrisis.net an american site related to this film but SO worth 5 minutes browse... you never know you might just tip the balance!

Another view!

This morning I posted the previous entry below about our attempt at attaching a door onto the shed. When I got home I found that D had sent an email to friends and family about our weekend which I am always sent a copy of. The following is his version of events....

'I had a day of working in a field in the rain yesterday - trying to make a new door for Chris's shed. We were freezing and muddy and bloody and not best happy - but we created a door of great beauty which swung and fitted so snugly as make one sigh with delight. Then we stood back to admire our work. And God decided that we had spent 2 hours creating a thing so terribly beautiful that he was jealous, and he sent down a holy wind to whip the door back so fast that it smash to pieces in front of my eyes - and also smashed the climbing rose which we had planted up the shed shortly afterwards to complete the perfection. God is a bitter and unjust old sh1t. We came home.'

Funny how people view it eh?? I knew I was frustrated but his version seems so much more comedic, bitter and frustrated! To any devoutly religious people I apologise for his view of God!!