Small Visitors and More Tasks

At the weekend my son and his family stopped by.  After eating cake, we went to my garden and I showed them what I have been doing.

We planted some sunflower seeds and I showed them where everything will be planted in a few weeks.

Future gardener?

I showed my grandson where an old blackbird nest is.  Today I found a second nest hidden away under a bench.

With all the rain we've had over the past couple of years, the acidity levels in the soil have crept up.  Vegetables grow better and absorb nutrients from the soil a bit better when there is a bit of lime in the soil.  Agricultural lime was added today.  (face mask as the stuff is caustic)  

The soil will be tilled more finely in a few days.

Do Over!

Last week we had a cold snap.  It was a killer.  It was also a sharp reminder that this is the north.  We are at the same latitude as the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and Hudson Bay in Canada.  Places where you can see polar bears!

The days in the summer are gloriously long, but the risk of frost still holds until the end of May.  I've got another month to go before I can put tender things out.  Plants that are not frost hardy have to be kept in polytunnels and greenhouses until then.  If we get a late frost, those places really should have a heat source.

 I didn't bring the tomato and cucumber plants and seedlings home with me.  They died.  The fuchsia took a hit too but I think it will survive.

New tomato plants were purchased and I started some tomato seeds in the house.   I'm going to see which plants fruit first.  Do the seeds germinate and catch up to the established plants?

If a forecast is for frost, then I'm going to have to make a mad dash up to the garden and wrap up the tender plants or even bring a load of them back to the house over night.

There is also a mouse problem!  When carrying  in the new plants, I saw to my horror that mice had climbed up and eaten a lot of seedlings and germinated seeds.

Mice ripped a swathe through the corn and cucumber seeds.

You can see the empty seed shells lying on the top of the now empty potting soil.

I don't have any more corn seed but I re-sowed the cucumber seeds and moved them to a different bench that I hope is more mouse proof.

What I wouldn't give for a nice fat snake to sun itself in the polytunnel.  As there aren't any snakes that will eat mice in Scotland, I will have to set traps.

Bailing Twine Holds the World Togther

The earlier part of the week was cool, dry and sunny.  Brilliant weather for getting things done!
The piles of plastic buckets and the other things that were raked out of the polytunnels were hauled away.
I sowed some more seed.
Corn has made an early showing.

These two showed up to try to protect the plastic at one end of the smaller polytunnel.  It has a couple of rips and the increasing winds threaten to rip it further.  Bailing twine and cable ties hold the world together.

This wonderful old machine is called into service

I don't even know what make it is. . . I'm going to have to ask.

Three of us spent a little time pulling up old pea sticks and the frames that used to support beans.  We also pulled up some unrequited leeks, old turnips and ancient brussel sprout stalks.  Those were thrown into the field for the sheep and donkeys to have.

Geoff is in his element.

The first furrow is made . . . perfectly straight.  I think he's done this before.

Now look!  The garden is all plowed over.  It will get rotovated in a few weeks to make it ready for planting.  I'm going to dress it with agricultural lime before the soil is tilled for the final time.  We've had a LOT of rain over the last couple of years.  Vegetables do better when the soil is not quite so acidic as it is now.

Showing Improvement

I've been up to the new garden every day now.  Keeping things watered is important.  I can't miss a day now.  I've sowed some seed.  By the time it is safe for them to be put out, they'll be well on their way.

Piles of plastic that is destined to be hauled away Saturday morning.

The workbench was sorted through.  I've kept all the useful things and thrown away all the crumbling, sun damaged plastic things and poisons.  It still looks like a jumble, but I know what everything is and where it is when I go to use it.

Strawberry beds are almost cleared.   There are some gaps in some of the strawberry beds.  Those can be filled at some point.  It isn't a sprint.

There are definite signs that somebody is there and caring for the place.

Two Hours Today

After a morning appointment, I nipped across to a local garden centre and got some supplies, a few seeds and some plants out of the "scratch and dent" shelf.

I then went home and finished gathering all the things that are going over the the garden, grabbed the dog, packed a lunch and away we went.

Unloading the car in the wind wasn't fun. . .

The seeds are now in a mouse-proof container so can be safely left over there.

Sowed the bean seeds and some flower seeds.

Having something that I've started in the polytunnels is good.  I'll have something to cluck over.  Beans can't actually go in until June. . . so they've got six weeks of start time.  I think I'll start the sweetcorn too.

I just pottered around.  I may go back this evening and scratch around in the strawberry beds a little while longer.

Forgetting to bring the radio was a big mistake.  I hope I don't do that again.  It was quiet.

This is the door all closed up and rabbit proof.  Yes, I used a hay fork to keep it closed.

I Can Smell New Life!

It's been almost two months since I left my lovely home.   I now live about three and a half miles away in the next village.  It's been an enormous adjustment. I don't think I'm going to plaster my heartbreak and sordid details all over the internet.  I will say that I am seeking a divorce from The Man of the Place.  It isn't fair.  Life isn't fair.  As I don't have control over some of the events, I do have control over how I move forward.

I now have neighbours.  I have to remember to lock the door.  I have a small postage stamp of a back garden.

To keep me busy, I asked a friend if I can have a corner of their garden in which to work.  They responded by giving me the entire vegetable garden!

These are the before shots:

They are going to plow up and prepare the soil.  They have a tractor and rotovator and I don't.  This is going to save me weeks of digging!.

In the meantime I have all the work inside to do.  This polytunnel has a grapevine in it!

The other tunnel has potatoes at one end and strawberries at the other. Lots of things that will need to be evaluated for their usefulness.

There are rabbits too. .. . that is going to have to be managed.  Polly spent most of our time there, trying her level best to chase the rabbits.  By the time it was time to go home, she was so tired she had to have a bit of help getting into the car.

I will also need a wheelbarrow

Did mention that there are donkeys that live in the next field?

After hauling all the things I have scavenged from my old place from the car to the polytunnel, I worked at cleaning and straightening up.  Tools were put in one spot.  The paths were raked  and I started weeding the strawberry beds.  It was so very dusty!  Later on when I had a drink, it tasted of dust . .   After about three hours, having removed my jacket despite the cool weather, one strawberry bed was much tidier.  I then set about watering all the plants I could see.  I watered some that may already be dead . . .just to see if they can be revitalised.

It seemed that three hours was a good enough start.  Don't want to overdo it. The rabbits will have their merry way, if I don't shut things up properly.  I shut the top tunnel up and went back to collect my jacket and radio from the tunnel I had been working in. . . . and I noticed that it smelled differently.  Where it was dry and dusty before and didn't smell of anything in particular, now it smelled of life!

Sad Endings

I write in this blog about the garden that I neglect.  I love my house and the garden that surrounds it.  I may have to give it up.

The Man of the Place and I are splitting up. I am heartbroken.  I've told my immediately family and a few friends. The neighbours don't know yet though. I have no idea what I am going to do next.

I am staying with my son and his family. They say that I can stay for as long as I need.  That's lovely but I just want to go home.  I want to be in my house with my dog.  I want to water my houseplants, feed the fish and plan what I am going to put in the garden this year.

When I was leaving last week, I grabbed some mail that was addressed to me on the way out.  One of the envelopes contained seeds I had ordered.

I thought this would look lovely by the pond.  If it had ever stopped raining this winter, I would have got the vegetable patch dug over.  Now I don't know if that will happen.

Safer Red Squirrel Feeding

We have a small population of red squirrels.  Last year a nursing female was killed on the road in front of our house.  We were all horrified.  We didn't know where this female was hiding her babies.  Our only hope was that the babies were old enough to fend for themselves.

The squirrels have returned to our part of the world and have been helping themselves to food at the squirrel feeder and bird feeders.  One squirrel became two squirrels visiting.  I identified a male and female squirrel.  With the hope of romance in the air, there will be little squirrels later on in the spring.

Not wishing a repeat of last year's road accident, I have moved the squirrel feeder across the road into the trees.  This means that I won't see them as often as I don't look out the windows that face the trees very often but it isn't about me.  It's about helping the squirrels.

new location for old squirrel feeder

I have also added a second squirrel feeder.  If there are going to be babies, we're going to need more food! The food that was put in is a mix of corn (maize) sunflower seeds and peanuts.

New and larger squirrel feeder

Checking the feeders yesterday, there was evidence that the feeders have been visited.  One of the feeders had all the peanuts and half the sunflowers carefully picked out.  The squirrels had started picking through the second box as well.  It seems that red squirrels prefer peanuts to maize and black sunflower seeds.

I pulled out the remaining maize from the smaller squirrel feeder and refilled it with whole hazelnuts in the shell.  I have a small stock of hazelnuts in from Christmas.

As of this afternoon, the hazelnuts are gone!  I watched them get removed one by one.  There was no stopping to nibble on a nut.

The new squirrel feeder is larger.  It turns out that a red squirrel can fit inside it quite easily!

red squirrel inside the feeder

There are no hazelnuts in the large feeder.  The squirrels are just going to have to eat the maize.

I am hoping that this is the year that I get to see baby squirrels. . . .but the hitch in this plan is that most of the spruce trees across the road are due to be harvested this spring.