Garden re-vamp: End of Day One

Wow, these guys are hard-workers.  They arrived before 7.30 this morning and didn’t stop until the rain got too heavy at about 3.45.  The old lawn was in the skip before 9.30!  And they’ve even put my bird box up.

So here are the day one progress photos……(click each one for a bigger version)

Looks a bit of a mud bath after the rain but it’s definitely taking shape.  We are recycling some things, such as edging the path with left over blocks from when the patio was done, and some old slabs that were down in the gravel are going round the back of the shed to put the grow house on.  The rocks will go round the bottom of the holly to make a bed for comfrey.  And at the risk of reintroducing self seeded weeds were are reusing the gravel.  There will be weed membrane underneath so nothing will come upwards but we’ll just have to keep on top of the ones that grow on top. Unfortunately there isn’t space to have kept the old turf and composted it down.  So that went in the skip with the forsythia and the holly prunings (and an old gate).

So we shall see what tomorrow brings…..

Late sowing

Since I harvested the potatoes, the used compost has been sitting in a big bucket because I didn’t want to throw it away.  But what to do with it?  As a newbie veg gardener I am not sure what you can sow at which times of the year but some of the magazines seem to suggest that you can sow quite a few things this time of year.

So this morning I got the potato grow bag back out of the shed, mixed half and half used compost and new peat free compost and filled it halfway up.  I folded the top over and made two drills into which I put some carrot seed and some turnip seed.  In my trough which had had mixed salad leaves and radishes, I again mixed in some new compost and sowed pak choi and chicory.

All the seeds are freebies which I have collected from various magazines so if they don’t produce much it’s no biggie.

Meanwhile I have the tiniest of shoots coming up in one of the pots I sowed with parsley about 10 days ago.  I was starting to think nothing was going to grow but looks like something is happening after all!

And, we have decided to let the guys our builder recommended loose on the garden.  They are going to come around the beginning of September to do all the manual work like ripping up and replacing the old weed membrane and gravel, taking out some shrubs and root stumps, digging me a veg patch and laying a new lawn.  Then it is up to us!! Yikes.

Recycle your books

I have always been an avid reader.  I remember going to my primary school fair and choosing a copy of Worzel Gummidge and Saucy Nancy from the secondhand book stall.  The lady at the stall said that it would be a bit advanced for me to read but I asked my nan to buy it for me and took it home and devoured it.  I was probably about 7 at the time.

I’ve been reading ever since.  I do buy quite a few new books but I also buy second hand.  I can’t resist the bookshelves in charity shops, and there is a cute oldie-worldie second hand bookshop called Words & Music on the walls in Chester where I picked up a book recently that I had been looking for for ages as it was out of print.

I do like to hang onto books when I have read them but there comes a time when you have to cull them a little.  So what can you do with them?  Well you can donate them to charity shops, release them “into the wild” through Bookcrossingor you can use a site like GreenMetropolis.  On this UK based site you can list books you have for sale.  If another member of the site (free to join) wants one of your books you post it off to them and your account is credited by £3 for each book you sell.  You can also buy books, and all are priced at £3.75 no matter the size or condition of the book.  Postage is free for an average sized paperback but sellers can add a small amount extra to cover the postage on larger books.  For each book you sell or buy a 5p donation is made to The Woodland Trust.

So why not have a rummage through your unwanted books and see if you can make a few pennies whilst also helping The Woodland Trust.  It’s heartbreaking to see books  just thrown away.