We've been making the most of the lovely weather and getting lots of work done around the place. Its been a hard weekend but very rewarding, the last three nights Ive gone to my bed, with sore and aching muscles from the extra effort we've been putting in , but its all worth the hardwork. I love it!
Rick has now finished rototilling the whole back terrace, and raked it smooth and flat, yesterday evening we finished making the very professional looking strawberry bed plus automatic drip feed irrigation system Rik made for them. Basically a 5 litre water bottle attached to hose, which runs under the plastic the length of the bed with holes drilled at regualr intervals, so I can fill the bottle once a day and thats it done. The black plastic should keep them warm and the water condensating to provide perfect growing conditions all summer.... well thats the plan anyway...
The rest of the whole area will be devoted to corn and tomatoes later.
Meanwhile Ive been pruning the kiwis, and the blackcurrants, I trimmed a lot of the prunings and have planted 60 blackcurrants cuttings, just to see if we have any luck, I know I should have done it during autumn really but I thought if they were going to be composted anyway, I might as well try to grow them on, nothing is lost if they dont take. And who knows I may end up with tons!
We also began our planting out schedule this weekend, Rick retilled part of our main patch and we planted out almost 50 cabbages, around half green and half red. 15 caulis, and 15 brocc. A dozen or so lettuce and also started off a nice big lettuce seed bed , with hopefully enough to last us the summer as they come on at different times. We put in a packet of spinach and some coriander, a big patch of rocket and then up at the house some pumpkin and Okra seeds in pots.
It felt so good to be getting food in the ground again, we still have the odd cabbage for eating but nothing else ready , all my winter caulis are finished, I just keep them in the ground as I pick the leaves for the dogs food and some for soup for us, the cabbages are more or less done and the leeks dont seem to have moved all winter. My broad beans have flowers but its going to be a while before we get to eat any of them. So we are having a lean time in the garden, we still manage to eat from it most days, even if it is just leaves for soup.
Rick has also been working on a new water system for the caravan, that is used by our helpers, the tank that feeds the shower in there is so small, by the time the system is primed, its almost out of water again, so he's built a new system of a larger tank which feeds into a smaller one which houses the pump.. its looks a little 'Heath Robinson' but it works a treat. And it means we can pump from the well to fill it...
Ive a few helpers enquiring now, but although we want them its trying to decide if we can afford it at the mo, we are not short of food at all, but if I was feeding lots more people , things may get tricky, so we have to decide soon...
Things we are planning to accomplish this week while the weather holds...
We are hoping to build a small square lockable genny house, over on the top terrace, to house our generator, at present to water the veggies we have to drag a lead all over the road and our backyard to plug in the pump to the genny, for pumping from the well. If we build this we can leave it plugged in and dont have all that fuss. Rick will bricklay, I'll labour and fill buckets of cement etc... I get all the best jobs eh...
I have to finish weeding the front of cottage area, over the weekend I did the odd hour here and there and cleared the graveled patio of weeds, but still have two flower beds and the carpark to do yet...
Rick has promised that this week he'll make my seed house too ..a kind of mini polli tunnel crossed with a upright greenhouse type thingy. I have found some good poles from the forest and we have some scrap clear plastic and plan a very basic seed house in the warm sunny back terrace, where I can try to germinate some seeds and especially some flowers this year. I always end up buying cheap bedding plants for the pots on the cottage patio and around the pool to make it look pretty for guests ect... although they are cheap, it would be cheaper still if I grew them myself... but we get such frosts till quite late in the year and I need a frost free place... so this may help, at least it will cost us nothing but effort to try it...
I want to plant my Bird of Paradise plants in the warmer area near the medicinal herb garden area, plus a couple of nice Cacti I have, Ive had to keep them in pots till this year as we didnt have a warm enough area for them so moved them to shelter during winter.
I can now plan and design my herb garden as its all tilled and raked ready for me... such an exciting time... but too early to plant seeds out there yet... the waiting is so hard!!
