Category: garden (Page 4 of 6)

Winter cabbages planted out

July 24, 2014 / stephen

And this time, I have planted the cabbages under some netting. The last lot of cabbages (and broccoli, for that matter) were eaten by the wood pigeons. They made quick work of polishing off a dozen cabbage plants and about the same amount of broccoli.

We have planted these cabbages where the early potatoes were planted. We have harvested these and are now onto the main crop of potatoes. We have also planted more leeks and sown some carrots. We have just about finished all of the carrots that we grew earlier in the year in the polytunnel.

The onions seem to be doing well, but not as well as the weeds!

Now the early potatoe crop has been harvested, it is time to plant out the winter cabbages. There are two varieties here:

This time we are going to try growing cabbages under netting. The pigeons ate all of the summer cabbages. Last year, the cabbage fly ate most of the cabbages in the polytunnel (which was the wrong place for them anyway). Hopefully, we will have a bit more success with these.

In there, amongst the weeds, are 6 sweet corn plants. We would have had more, but for some reason I had problems getting the seeds to germinate. Goodness, whether these will flower, but we shall see.

Update on the vegetable patch

June 10, 2014 / stephen

The vegetable patch seems to becoming on in leaps and bounds. No doubt due to some of the (very) wet and (slightly) sunny weather we have had over the past few weeks.

The weeds and grass seem to be doing particularly well.

In terms of vegetables, we have potatoes, onions, cabbages (although the pigeons seem to have had these), cauliflower, broccoli (the pigeons like these too), sweet corn and some leeks. We haven’t attempted to grow anything in this soil before, so it will be interesting to see how the vegetables do this year.

We have also planted out some tomato plants in grow bags. While there are a couple of plants in the polytunnel, we have put the rest against the wall outside my study. This gets a fair amount of sun, particularly in the afternoon, and having tomato plants both inside and outside will hopefully spread the harvesting season. We will have to see.

We have only planted from the other side of the piece of wood down towards the end wall. We haven’t got around to clearing the last patch. I guess we will as we start to need the space.

All I can say, is that they must be desperate!

MMmm….without exception, the pigeons have managed to munch their way through all the cabbages that I planted. They are probably so fat they can barely fly!

Final toppings added

April 22, 2014 / stephen

Yesterday (Easter Monday) we managed (with help from Gordon and Liam) to get all of the toppings on the remaining end wall. With all of the toppings in position, we have the opportunity to have a bit of tidy up. The remaining toppings are put to one side and the left over pallets are stacked in the back field. We do have some left over walling stone and this woo will be stacked in the backfield.

After the great weather over Easter, it has started raining today and it is due to rain for most of the rest of the week. Ah well, at least we made the best of the good weather.

Placing these large topping stones is definitely a two man job. They vary in weight, but are probably in the 50-75Kgs each. These is me and Liam carrying one into position.

These stones are heavy and often it is difficult to get two sets of hands on them at a time. This is my and Liam placing one of the topping stones – the sawn side is put to the back of the wall so that it cannot be seen from the sunken garden.

The back of the stones are chocked to ensure that the top of the stones are level (or nearly level). Occasionally, we chock the stones from the front, but we have to be careful as these can often be seen. You can see one further down the wall on the right. The chocks at the front usually run the entire width of the stone or even two stones.

When it comes to nudging the stones into their final position there is no substitute for brunt force. Gordon is pushing this one into it’s final position.

The stones are placed in position (they are not cemented into place). They are chocked to ensure that the tops are (more or less) level. Steel toe cap boots are a bit of a must. Liam is nudging this one.

Although it is wet today, we managed to get all of the toppings on the end wall yesterday. With enough time for a few drinks in the pub.

We have not built up part of the wall in the back garden. This is to allow access to get the flagstones into the garden. It is going to be a couple of months before we get around to laying the flags.

Finishing off the garden walls

April 22, 2014 / stephen

All ready for the topping stones tomorrow.

The walls now in the sunken garden are now at the correct level and are all ready for the toppings to go on – just as with the other wall in the garden. The weather has been kind again to us today, so we managed to get it finished by lunchtime!

You can see the large topping stones in the background. Once the sand and cement has set, we will have a go at getting this into position. Rain is forecast overnight, hence the plastic bag over the cement mixer.

We had some sand and cement left over, so this went into the top of the wall to help keep it together. Although this will be hidden underneath the topping stones, we left our mark!

We had another good day, so it was time to get the end walls up to the same height as the rest of the walls in the garden. Then there are only the topping stones to go on!

Some more photos from placing the toppings

April 21, 2014 / stephen

Courtesy of Jo……

Yes, I did say the weather was good on this day. By mid afternoon, the sun had come out. I even took my hat and coat off and got a sun tan!

Me and Gordon trying to work out the best way of placing the toppings. They aren’t all the same shape, so some of them have to be chocked at the back to make the tops level (hence the yellow spirit level and the bit of string).

The boss. Under a blanket. Zep has selected these stones personally and they are now under guard. Soon long as he doesn’t fall asleep!

Walls in the sunken garden

April 20, 2014 / stephen

We have made the best of the good weather over the Easter Bank holiday and have been finishing off (or attempting to) the walls in the sunken garden.

We now have the large topping stones on the upper wall. This is a two man job as many of the stones are too heavy to be lifted by one person. Many thanks to Gordon for his help in getting this is place. And no flatten fingers or toes in the process!

We are going to use reclaimed flagstones to pave this area, but this is going to have to wait for a little while. We looked at new Ashlar flags (they would look too new) and Indian sandstone (really, what in Yorkshire!), but we are going to hang on until we have the money to put down reclaimed local stone. At £50-60 a square meter it isn’t cheap and with around 100sqm in the sunken garden, it all adds up.

And while we are on the subject of money, we decide to invest in our own cement mixer. We bought a second hand one on eBay for £150. If we sell it in 4-6 months time for £100, it will have cost us £50. In contrast to the £40/week it would have cost to hire. It was a bit of a no-brainer.

We now have the topping stones on the upper wall in the sunken garden. The smaller ones are just about manageable by one person, the larger ones require two to lift. The end stone is a monster and two of us struggled, but we got there in the end.

The upper wall complete with toppings. These topping stones are 30cms high x 20cms wide x 40cms deep. There are cut from old stones in one of the local quarries. Many of them are old steps, window heads or door cills.

You can see the topping stones on the upper wall in the background, we are still working on the remaining walls. Hopefully, these will be finished in the next couple of days.

We still need to get the end wall up to the same level before we can put the topping stones on. We decided to invest in a second-hand cement mixer.

New vegetable patch

March 27, 2014 / stephen

At the weekend, we converted a bit of the bottom field nearest to the house into a vegetable patch. It is only 6ft x 6ft, but more than big enough to grow some spuds – the first lot are already in. However, it did take some time to tidy up this piece of land and move a couple of tons of top soil into place.

Since we had an 8 ton excavator on site to relay the top soil in the top field, it seemed like a great opportunity to increase the size of the vegetable plot. Well, it is now 6ft x 40ft!

The original vegetable patch was 6ft x 6ft and at the far end. Since we had an 8 ton excavator onsite to relay the top soil in the top field, it seemed like a good idea to make it a bit bigger. It is now about 6ft x 40ft!

Replacing the topsoil

March 27, 2014 / stephen

Now all the building work is complete, it is time to replace the top soil on the top field. This was removed when we put the pipework in for the ground loops. While we replace the subsoil, we left the top soil in a pile. Otherwise, it would have got everywhere.

We are going to have the local farmer re-seed this field for us, but first we need to get the soil back down.

The time has come for us to put the top soil back down. It was taken up when we installed the ground source heat pump. We haven’t put it back down until all the building work was finished, otherwise it just sticks to everything and gets everywhere. There was probably a few hundred tons of topsoil here.

The topsoil is deposited in to heaps across the field. We then used the digger to level these heaps out.

The front wall finished

February 10, 2014 / stephen

The front wall and the flagstones were finished on Saturday morning. All of the materials used (except the sand and cement) had been salvaged from elsewhere on site. Most of the flagstones were from the kitchen in number 10. It is good to see them being reused and not one bit out of place.

We have already laid the conduit and a set of cables for the lights that will light up the front of the house at night. We should get around to this later this week, depending on the weather.

There are two steps up to a set of flagstones. All of the flagstones were had salvaged when renovating the property.

We had to remove the shoe off the bottom of the drain pipe to accommodate the new flagstones. We will cut the drainpipe and refit the shoe now that the flagstones are in place.

This old stone drain (and cast iron grate) was still in use when we bought the property. It was however elsewhere and we have relocated into the new flagstones in the front of the property.

Front wall

February 6, 2014 / stephen

The front wall outside the property is now complete and we are focussing on getting the flagstones down behind it. All of the flagstones used here were recovered when we renovated the old part of the property. Some were on the kitchen floor, some were in the barn.

We have laid cables underneath the flagstones so that we can install some external uplighters into the flagstones. We have marked where they need to be installed and will cut holes in the flagstones once the mortar has set.

About half of the flagstones have been laid at the front of the property. The white conduit carries the cables for the external lights. The black corrugated plastic pipe is poking up through the original stone drain that we found when we demolished the barn. We are reusing it together with the cast iron grate that fits it.

The flagstones have only just be laid and no one should be standing on them. However, this doesn’t apply to Lurchers (apparently!). The tarpaulins are to protect the wet mortar from the impeding rain. It arrived about 30 mins after this photo was taken.