One Sunday in March ....

Back by popular demand - ..... alright, Martin said he liked my blogs so I thought I'd have another bash at blogging !

I've been a bit busy since my last posting - the main thing is that I moved back south, but not to "home" which got invaded by he who shall not be named - aka TBFGB-ex, but to near my daughter who has also been doing more moving of her own .... but that's another story, the most relevant bit to this blog is that I've now inherited a mog who shall make the odd appearance every now and then so I thought I'd better introduce him.

Felix doing what he does best

So, having left the Plot and the Lottie several hundred miles north-west, Felix (the mog) and I, have now settled in east Northamptonshire.  We have a climate akin to Jerusalem apparently - we get less rain than them and are now in the middle of a drought.  Gone are the days of a never-ending water supply in Glasgow, I have now mastered the art of water conservation.  I have halved my water bill in recent months (we're on the evil water meter here which is almost as expensive as the leccy and far more pricey than the gas !!!) and currently have three 200 ltr butts which is nowhere near enough.

when was the snow ?

I've been here since October 2009 and have spent the last two summers a) painting over miles of hideous blue fence and b) decorating the house.  So I reckon it's about time that the garden should take priority over all the other things, they will just have to wait.

Since arriving, I tried growing the standards (toms, courgettes, runners, chillies, broadies) - toms and chillies were OK and had enough to get to the freezer.  Courgettes and runners were complete disasters strangely enough - I reckon it was down to lack of watering: Note to self - pay attention to the watering or reduce the crops !  Broadies were OK and had enough to eat but not enough to freeze !

The ROTP (Return of the Plot) is east facing but gets the sun until around 3pm now, and obviously a bit later in high summer.

Sunny morning 11 March 2012

 I installed an 8 x 6 greenhouse at the beginning of last season - it is the "other way round" with the entrance in the long side - and I've got a ground bed dug to about 2' down one side.  Stuck in this afternoon, my bayleaf tree that travelled with me from the frozen north, and another herby thing that I bought down here last summer - can't remember wtf it is lol.  Smelly, small leaves, hardy (you can tell that I need to brush up on a few things lol).

Natural born ground is very clay but it's improving slowly slowly.

'post bins

I've had the compost bins going since I arrived and turned all three of them today.  I reckon I got one whole bin of useful stuff, one bin is full and cooking and one about 1/4 now full and partially cooked.

4 x 4

 I brought a 4' x 4' raised bed with me so dug in some of the cooked stuff and

New bed up side of hoos

the rest went into a border I have just created with bamboo fencing, down the side of the house.

1 of 2 strawberry beds and other fruit

There's a big gravelly bit right to the back of the garden which is earmarked for the fruit garden.  There are some strawbs and pots of various currenty type bushes together with a big mint pot !  Want to concentrate on increasing the fruit this year.

You know that feeling when you should have given up hours ago because your back is due to twang, well I reached that point hours ago.

(pre-publishing) I've taken some pics, so going to publish this and see if I can figure out how to get the pics up.

Am glad to be back :-)