Lupins - now slightly less Ignorant

I have two Lupin plants in the garden that where an impulse buy from the supermarket early last year - I believe I paid a couple of pounds for them and they've done me proud.

I always seem to forget just how big they grow both in height and spread - note to self for next spring: give them a bit more room to avoid losing the plants next to them!

Plant one

Plant one is planted in a sunny spot - it gets sun from about 11am through to about 8pm and is always ahead of it's sibling in flowering.

Plant two

Plant two is planted in more shady spot, it gets good sun but for a shorter period of time, slower to come to flower it still produces masses of flowers albeit somewhat smaller than plant one. Both plants are in fairly good soil owing to bags and bags of compost in the raised beds although these sit of a clay heavy soil.

In my bid to be less Ignorant I've found out that Lupin (Latin: Lupinus meaning 'of Wolf') are perennial and good for locking in Nitrogen to the soil which is beneficial to other plants - in particular Cucumbers, Broccoli & Squashes. I was also surprised to discover that the beans can be edible and contain up to 40% protein which is close to Beef, however you need to note that in an unprocessed state the Beans are poisonous causing some pretty nasty symptoms - to render edible they need to be boiled and then washed for a week.

Further reading revealed that a species called Tarwi, (Latin: Lupinus mutabilis) is an edible variety without the risks of normal Lupins that can be easily purchased and grown - I think I'll be trying these next year!

I've always had a soft spot for Lupins, loving the bold spikes of colour they bring to the garden and the way little drops of water gather in the leaves reflecting the light, looks like next year I'll have the best of both worlds with flowers and food!

Jewel in the Crown

Apples Under Attack...

My Apple tree (hopefully soon to be an Espalier) is under attack! I noticed a couple of leaves were skeletal,  nothing left but the main veins, on closed inspection I noticed lots of little green caterpillar's busily munching away many of the appearing to hang by their jaws only - quite an impressive feat really.

Rather than squish them all or use a pesticide I detached the leaves which where a lost cause anyway and discarded to a wild bit of the garden where they can take their chances but will probably just become part of the food chain, on checking the rest of the tree I couldn't see anything resembling eggs so I'm hoping that's the last of them.

Leafroller Catapillars?

I've been trying to identify exactly what they are, lots of Google image searching for Green Caterpillar with Black Head on Apple Tree Leaf hasn't managed to confirm, I initially thought they were Leafroller Caterpillar's - that said I couldn't find any evidence of leaf rolling, might be they are too young, and the heads seem to be darker plus these have a row of black dot's down each side - can anyone confirm what these are?

How I built a Pallet Chair

I've enjoyed recently being able to get in after a day in the office and relax in a comfortable chair made from an old pallet in the last of the days sunshine surveying my extensive estate and marvelling at the way everything is coming to life; I also made a mental note to myself tonight that I really need to take make a record of just how big certain plants grow, not just their height but also their spread. I enjoy the garden having a slightly random/anarchic feel but several plants are dwarfed and hidden by others - I guess the trick is to have planed randomness - something I think will take quite some time to master!

In a previous post I said I'd provide a run through of what I did to make my Patio set - so here goes how I made up-cycled chairs from old pallets

Step 1 - Creating your pile of Timber

First job is break up the pallets, brace yourself for this job, it's nasty - resulting in bad language, splinters and a bruised thumb from too much enthusiasm with a hammer. If you Google how to break up a pallet you'll come across many theories and ideas - one of the more interesting I found utilised a hefty Garden Status and two breeze blocks..... I'll let you pick your weapons and you'll find out what works best for you but note each pallet seems to come with it's own challenges. I used a small crow bar, a hammer and a heft screw driver - for the more stubborn pallets I used a JigSaw to cut out the usable timber and discarded the rest to a relatives wood store - pallets burn very well!

One more point worth noting - pallets come in two preserved flavours - heat treated and chemical treated, this is usually indicated somewhere on the pallet, I made sure there was an HT stamp on the ones I used.

Once the pallets were dismantled I graded the wood into piles of rough & very rough and then set to with my master construction, I'd doodled some rough design ideas and searched the internet for inspiration - I'd like to say I was working to detailed designs with all the measurement calculated - but I can't so I won't - Instead with a rough idea in my mind, in the best of traditions I made it up as I went along!

First I created the seat & backrest side frames, this primarily involved measuring the number of deck planks between my foot & knee whilst lying on the deck and then laying the wood onto the decking to get the correct angle, once the timber was marked up I then had the bright idea that a curved seat would be more comfortable than a flat one (my posterior is not the most padded as I have discovered sitting through some particularly long & mind stultifying meetings - I find bum numbness is an excellent measure of how engaged you are), to achieve this I used the jig saw to cut a shallow curve into the Seat Side frames and curved the front of the posts so there wouldn't be a sharp angle cutting against the back of the knee's.

With the seat posts cut to shape I then screwed the seat & backrest posts into position - I'd recommend using coach bolts for the joints to ensure their sturdy.

Seat & Backrest Posts fixed together.

With the side posts in place I then used a slat to join the two sides placing it just behind the back rest posts to provide a little more support, the width of the slats was once again calculated using exact scientific principles - I sat on a plank of wood then added on a good few inch's to allow accommodation of a more robust posterior than my own.

Basic Frame In place

With a couple of slats in place to steady the two sides of the frame I then turned to the front legs, I used sturdier timber taken from the pallet sides for these which would also allow reasonable support to the arms of the chair.

Front Legs attached

The tricky construction complete it was then a simple but repetitive task to add the rest of the slats, each drilled with 4 pilot holes and then securely fastened making sure the screw heads where countersunk to just below the wood surface level to avoid catching anyone sitting.

Slats in Place

Final task was to sand the chair down - splinters were likely to a real issue if not, luckily I'd bought a small  electric sander for a previous DIY task in the house - an hour or two later, a lot of dust and a lot of noise which I discovered half way through seemed to be caused by the vibration off the Sander being amplified by the decking the job was done. 

Sanded and ready to relax in

When looking for inspiration on the internet many people went to great lengths to disguise the fact that the chair was built from a recycled pallet, filling the old nail holes, varnishing or painting - personally I like the rough & ready look, showing their origins - on  commenting to my long suffering partner that I thought they looked 'honest', I was greeted by derision & laughter - I'll keep my artistic airs to myself in future me thinks.

Waste No Space

I've mentioned in a couple of posts that the back of the garden is a steep slope, it's about 4 meters square and for quite a while was true 'set aside' land left to the weeds to slug it out for dominance, on the odd occasion madness would grip me and I'd attack it with the strimmer before wearily conceding defeat whilst wondering how much strimmer line I needed to buy before attacking it next time.

Now I'm lucky enough to have a south facing garden and this area gets full sun for the majority of the day, it seemed a real shame to leave it to the weeds especially when I wanted to grow more veg - so I hatched a patient plan, one that wouldn't require miles of strimmer line! Early last year I gathered up all the empty compost bags I could find and covered the areas I wanted to put the raised beds (and my miniature wild flower meadow), weighting them down with a collection of bricks, rocks and surprisingly useful old metal washing line posts I'd taken an angle-grinder to when I built the decking , I left things well alone for a good nine months.

When I eventually lifted the sacks I had pristine earth, weed free and good to go with the minimum of effort, utilising wood left over form the old fence we'd replaced I built raised beds and then managed to fill two of them with compost from what I'd thought was a very small compost heap - still surprised how much it yielded.

View from the top

The result is a little rough and ready but it's allowed me to get a crop of veg in and a couple of tasty meals worth already, the next step is to make the area more productive and less purely functional, I have a glut of plants needing a home and figure flowers around the veg will probably be a good thing and help with the aesthetic!

View from the bottom

Infestation

I have a plant, yet another that I don't know what it is but I'm happy to see it grow and do it's thing; it's been in a large pot for the last couple of years, it bursts into life in spring developing masses of leaves before tall shoots spring upwards and small pink flowers appear usually in mid to late spring - this year it's been later than usual along with most plants to be fair but now it's flowered is looking a bit bedraggled - initially I thought it might need re-potting or a good feed but on closed inspection it's crawling with aphids.

Now I'm not sure the Aphids would cause it's current bedraggled state and suspect it's a combination of needing a good feed and re-potting but I'm amazed at just how may Aphids are crawling over it (and please correct me if these aren't Aphids, I know they're normally green), it's surprising that the flowers are still upright with the weight of them and the lack of sap. I don't know anything about Aphid control, initially I tried squishing them off with my fingers but soon gave this up as a losing battle and am letting nature take her course.

I've been thinking I may plant this out rather than re-pot, my raised beds at the back of the garden are surrounded by Dandelions & Buttercups - a never ending war; I covered up an area with old compost bags last year to kill of the weeds and have sprinkled wild flower seed this year to create a miniature ( and I do mean miniature - about 1.5 x 4ft) wild flower meadow - I think I can find a space for this somewhere & it can do battle with the local weeds and add a touch of colour, may even attract some beneficial insects.

Peas won't be long...

This year I've expanded my selection of veg and touch wood it seems to be doing well, last year I had potatoes (about one bags worth!) a few Radish, some very woody Beetroot and about two very stunted and misshapen Carrots; this year I've added in two additional raised beds on the back slope of the garden and planted Potatoes, Broccoli, Beetroot, Carrots, Beans (2 varieties) Rocket, Lettuce, Radish's (first crop eaten & enjoyed) and Peas.

The Pea's are coming on a storm and the pods are fattening up rapidly - it won't be long until we can harvest the first crop.

I lost the first few plants to slugs & snails within a couple of days of planting, always really annoying & frustrating when you watched a seed poke it's shoots above the soil, full of potential, only to see it mown down by a voracious appetite. I try to avoid using chemicals due to my daughter who loves to help me out in the garden still having a tendency for tasting anything that looks tempting and secondly because I like to think there's always an alternative way. Randomly browsing the web a few days later I came across a tip to use toilet roll tube around the base of Peas, I didn't think it would work, surely the slugs & snails would happily climb up & into the tube to munch the fresh shoot I thought - but clutching at straws I gave it a go anyway and to my surprise have found it works a treat.

I'm now using toilet roll tubes on lots of different plants (should have lots of Sun Flowers this year!) while they get established and as long as the base of the tube is below soil level it works, you can even half the tube so only half an inch is above ground and it still works - no idea why the slugs & snails don't like it and one of these days, maybe when Winter rolls in and the Garden is not so habitable I'll try and find out.

Mystery Plant....?

So in typical fashion, on finding a bag full of unidentified bulbs in the street I had to plant them and have been quite surprised that they have all sprouted in vigorous fashion, the question now is, what are they?

Mystery Plant?

I'm hazarding a guess it's some kind of Lily but really have no idea - can anyone help solve the mystery?

Easy way to collect Worms

Excellent tip on the A-Z of Gardening if you're creating a Wormery and need some worms, mix 2 spoons of mustard powder (needs to be English Mustard) with 2 litres of water and pour onto the ground, the mustard powder is a mild irritant and will bring the worms to the surface where you can collect them up and add them to your Wormery - This I had to try.....

Creating the Mixture

We mixed up a litre of water to 1 teaspoon of Mustard powder and headed outside, selecting a threadbare bit of lawn we poured the mixture out and waited with baited breath, we didn't have long to wait....

And the first Worm

 Within a few moments worms were popping up everywhere, including lots of tiny worms you could only just see, we scooped up a few of the worms to add to the compost bin - another successful experiment & a little tip well worth remembering.

Our haul of Worms

Week 4 of my 52 Week Project

Week 4 now added to my 52 Week Project, weather isn't so good today especially for June, briefly thought summer had arrived last weekend.

Week 4 - It's Raining....

An Espalier Apple Tree to be?

I have a small space in the garden that's currently under utilised, a small fence area that gets sun from late morning to mid evening, I initially thought I'd put another raised bed border into this slot but have recently been reading up on growing fruit tress against a fence or wall - I've now learnt that this technique is known as Espalier.

Spare Space

Above is the space I have in mind, what do you think - is this a suitable space? I believe I could eventually get 3 to 4 levels growing up this space providing a good source of fruit, unfortunately there's not enough space to plant a free standing tree which I believe would provide higher yields.

The tree I have in mind to go here is one provided by a relative who has a fantastic house/garden out in the countryside and suffers from tree's sprouting left, right and centre - when I found out I offered to take as many as they wanted, in the main to feed my fascination with Bonsai - more on this in a later post.

Apple (Hopefully)

I believe the tree above to be an Apple tree following Googling of Apple leaves but I can't be certain, any tips on how to positively ID this would be very helpful. I'm hoping that if it grows well this year I'll be able to plant out next year although currently unsure if I need to prepare the tree at this stage to get it ready for it's role as an Espalier - I'll keep you posted on this Journey of discovery!

Squirrels aren't a problem, But....

Glancing out of the window a small movement in the bird feeder caught my eye, on closer examination it turned out to be our visitor of a few days ago grabbing himself a free lunch - and I thought it was squirrels that where meant to be an issue with bird feeders!

A free lunch...

After gorging himself for a good 5 minutes our little friend made his escape leaping on to the half coconut then scurrying into the vine - now I'm wondering if I should come up with an obstacle course to see how good he is?

My Upcycled Patio Set

Finished (almost) - my Upcycled patio set constructed from some old pallets, three reclaimed decking posts & a fair few screws, cost? a couple of pounds for the screws!

Just add Sun to enjoy!

I've recently found myself with some spare time on my hands and was looking for a mini project to keep myself occupied, browsing on Google & Pinterest I came across many examples of chairs made of old pallets - some rough & ready, some very slick and proffesional looking - how hard can it be I thought, this is the project for me!

As luck would have it a relative was able to provide me with a number of pallets and as soon as the weather permitted I set to - 3 days later I now have a patio set although I'm looking to treat the wood before the summer draws to a close.

I've been bitten by the bug now and am actively looking for other ways to upcycle pallets - currently toying with the idea of building a vertical garden as the wall behind the table & chairs is empty space and it seems a shame to waste an area that gets sun all day - any ideas or suggestions welcome.

Bearing Fruit

After a weekend of sunshine the weathers turned, the wind is blowing & regular downpours, the Clematis that was standing so tall from the top of the fence now huddles in a matted clump as if seeking shelter from the onslaught. With luck it won't last long, slightly longer than a 2 day summer would be appreciated especially after last year.

Looking around the garden much is starting to spring into life after a particularly cold spring, listening to an article on the radio it was stated that this year could be amazing for flowers due to the late start they'll all come into bloom around the same time - not really sure that will be the case but I shall watch with interest.

Strawberries on the way.

Strawberries which I repotted this year into a Strawberry Pot are flourishing & if the birds don't get them should be yielding their first crop shortly. I intend to try and gain some additional plants this year to increase the yield for next year - just need the suckers to appear & a little bit of research to reduce my ignorance.

First crop of Radish where eaten at the weekend and today the salad bed offered up fresh Rocket - I believe fried Whitebait with Rocket and Balsamic Vinegar with fresh Bread & Butter are the order of today's menu.

Fresh Rocket

A Place to Enjoy the Garden - Day3

The prospect of finishing was a great motivator, giving the neighbours a reasonable lie in (it was Sunday after all & I like to imagine I'm a considerate soul) I was out to complete the deck area by mid morning.

On the fly I modified my original design for the L shaped raised beds on the top deck, as this was placed directly onto the deck boards I didn't want soil in direct contact with the wood causing rot and seeping out of the cracks so I narrowed them slightly so that I could slot in a couple of troughs I had to hand and filled over the gaps with more decking giving a surface on which to place pots.

Top Raised bed in place.

The raised beds to the left where a somewhat trickier affair - whilst the construction was simple, getting them into place without ruining the plants I had growing up the fence, along with the snug fit I had between the deck & fence resulted in quite a few lesser used & colourful words from the English language punctuating the air. My old friend hindsight was sat on my shoulder throughout whispering in my ear ' this really would have been easier if you'd done it before putting the decking in place!'.

The final change to the design was to drop the idea of the raised beds forming a gateway at the foot of the decking, whilst the design had looked fine on screen, in reality it would have resulted in a postage stamp of a lawn & I do like to have a bit of grass underfoot now & again; instead I splashed out on two short lengths of half log fence to close-off the decking area.

View from the Deck.

The final task was the tidy up,  I used the turf taken up at the start to partially fill the raised beds covering with a layer of old newspaper to supress the weeds before compost was added to fill the remainder and my few token potted plants where strategically placed - my first major construction project was done, I could sit on my deck in the late afternoon sun and consider the next challenge.

The completed Project.

The Decking Goes Down - Day2

At the start of Day 2 I was up early valiantly ignoring the groans of protest that my body was making to continue getting the decking down. The deck plan had upper & lower sections, first to go down was the lower deck, I built a basic framework to support the decking planks and then it was a simple job to lay down each plank, drill pilot holes and screw into place - it struck me when fixing roughly plank 15 into place that you didn't really see much decking in gardens until after cable free electric screwdriver/drills came into popular circulation - I'd hate to build one of these with a normal screwdriver!

Lower Deck in Place.

Next to go down was the upper deck support frame & planks, I was fully into the swing of it by this point, making rapid progress and feeling like a seasoned professional, before I knew it the upper deck was done & it was only mid afternoon.

Upper Deck Complete.

Ignoring the impulse to enjoy a cold beer and marvel at my craftmanship I cracked on with the first raised bed - a containing wall to the lower deck.

Raised Bed 1 of 5 Done.

With the bed in place I could resist the impluse no more, cracking open a beer I sat on my partialy completed project & surveyed my domain - all was looking good & with luck tomorrow would see completion.

Let Construction Begin - Day1

The Easter weekend dawned, the timber was piled high - I'd taken the oportunity to purchase a Compound Mitre Saw & I had thousands of Decking screws - it was time.....

The Beginning...

with a look the other way.

First step was to clear the turf (read: 'some grasss + lot's of weeds in a heavy clay soil) from half of the garden. By day I'm normaly deskbound - I'd thought I was reasonably fit but after several hours of digging I was seriously wondering if the garden wasn't actually that bad and maybe I could live with it after all? It also crossed my mind that here was a new fitness opportunity, if you can have Cross Fit & Military Fitness Class's amongst many others why not 'Dig Fit' - all you'd need would be a muddy patch of land and a few spades, it could be the next big thing, I could be rich - the exertion must have been taking it's toll!

Finally I got to the end and stood back to admire my efforts... Nope - no going back now!

Turf - Gone!

Next step was to lay a heavy duty weed control membrane not helped by the breeze that up until that point had been helping to keep me cool through the unusual bout of physical labour.

Keeping the weeds at bay.

Once the membrane was in position, it was covered with gravel of which I had plenty to choose from and as a bonus stopped the wind from taking it every two minutes, post holes where excavated (by which point I was developing a serious loathing for heavy clay soil) and PostCrete used to set the supports for the decking support frames. If your looking to concrete posts into place I have to recommend PostCrete - it's really simple and quick to use, dig the hole (the hard bit), place in the post - I placed gravel under the post to aid drainage given the heavy soil we have here, pour in the PostCrete then simply add water on top, check the post is straight and support if neccessay - ten minutes later it''s done - why isn't everything that simple?

By this point my muscles felt like lead, and I could feel myself stiffening up, the promise of a cold beer or two followed by a hot bath was to much to resist and looking at my handywork I figured I'd earned it!

Starting from Scratch - Day0

About two years ago the urge grabbed me -the garden was a mess! Overlooked, no plants to speak of bar a few small pot plants here & there, no wildlife, untidy gravel areas and a lawn with a well worn track worked into it by our dog endlessly circling not to mention the abundance of weeds - things had to change but to what?

A Blank Canvas

The picture above shows the garden before I started, frustratingly it appears I didn't take any pictures so a snowscape is the best I have complete with hasty snowman. As you can see it's not a particularly large garden & the backend slopes steeply downwards but it's a reasonable size compared to some of the places I've lived.

First things first - I needed a design, I wanted to be able to enjoy the garden - not too overlooked, encourage wildlife (Crows, Magpies & Seagulls were all I'd seen to date) & have areas for flowers, salad & veg,  fed up with the gravel (I have soft feet in the summer!) I thought decking the way to go surrounded by raised beds; but how much wood to order, how would the decking look? where would plants & flowers go? I have an artistic & technical nature so for me the obvious answer was to find some software to allow me to create and play with models of the garden to be. After much Googling of the web (and numerous diversions as I disappeared down rabbit holes of 'ooh - that link looks interesting...) I found a superb freeware program called 'Sweet Home 3D' that met my needs and especially the price, if you're interested take a look at www.sweethome3d.com; it took me a couple of hours to get to grips with & then I was away - I ended up building a complete model of the house not just the garden!

Initial design courtesy of Sweet Home 3D

After much fiddling and experimentation I finally decided on the design above, Note - Sweet Home 3D is capable of much better rendering and there are some truly fantastic examples on their website however this worked for me and allowed me to calculate exactly how much timber & decking I was going to need. Next step was to source the timber as cheaply as I could, as luck would have it B&Q announced a sale with decking boards at just over £4 each, with help from a local 'man with a van' the timber was purchased and delivered to the garden just in time for the long Easter Weekend - next step: let construction begin!

Visiting the Garden

Just saying hello...

Sat quietly in the garden today and I spotted a little visitor, not sure who was more surprised - me or the mouse, bold as brass he proceeded to run around the raised beds hoovering up dropped seeds from the bird feeder above. Last year I built decking across the garden (another tale to be told at a later date), this combined with our neighbours decking probably provides a fantastic environment, secure from predators & sheltered from the elements I have visions of a mousetropolis below my feet - something to keep an eye on, whilst I don't mind them outside & enjoy watching their antics I don't really want them moving in come winter.

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