Thunder stops play

Last Sunday we were back in action, reasonably early (for us) at 11am. The weather was a lot different, there was cold air and then sunshine back and forth until later the heavens exploded and thunder rumbled, rain poured and I thought for a moment if our shed would work as an ark - boy, the rain was heavy! In the end running out to get tools and running to the car and back etc I was soaked through - that sort of soaked were you just start to walk at normal speed; you simply can't get any more saturated, lol.

My big project was to sort of the back of our shed and get things off to the dump. It was rather daunting to begin with but then I really got into it and loved it all. I love creating a clean and clear area out of a complete mess - it feels like I am clearing my messy mind at the same time - it's calming.

So here it is (shame all on show here)...

We came to the same point about our old broken bench; there was no way we could save it, the wood was rotten so much in a lot of areas (and secretly, now Andrew has his fancy saw, he wants to make a new one altogether!) So he went all caveman on it and smashed it to bits. Fun!

Is it just me or are the slugs bigger this year, goodness there were so many under the old timber we had laying at the side of the plot. But when I meet our frog again I thought to myself, no way am I getting rid of this, I shall merely stack it up neater - obviously it's a great habitat for wildlife.

The finished cleaned up area - that big white bag has our fire wood in it and I even managed to get the wee hand rotary mover over all the grass. What a great workout for my bingo wings :)

Andrew was dealing with the old broad bean patch, they were all ready to be lifted and the peas too behind them in this picture, growing up a little net support.  I do love my broad beans so it's great that Andrew had done a succession planting and we'll have a new batch soon :)

There is something so utterly satisfying about those broad bean roots and those little nodules shown below; Chemistry and Biology in action! These nodules actively improve the soil by depositing nitrogen into the ground which is a great plant food and benefits the next crop you plant in that space ~ hurrah! Plus the stems are great fodder for the compost bin = free natural fertiliser and soil conditioner, and you know I love freebies :)

going

root nodules

ha ah, gone! and a nice big harvest in the shopping bag

Then little rain showers started to happen. They weren't particularly long lasting but they were heavy and put a stop to works for a while. 

 We hung on but then the real thunderous downpours came. The shed became our place of sanctuary; the noise of that rain on the roof was deafening and Maggie just was not happy at getting wet at all, she clawed at my leg until I picked her up and then I took the keys and ran to the car with her tucked under my arm - lucky she's so wee :)

But from all that work and the harvests of the day before we were able to come home, cold and wet from the (what felt like buckets of rain thrown on us) lottie and have this stir fry rustled up in no time - bliss. Chard, carrots, dwarf beans, turnip, all only a maximum of 24hrs old :)

Homemade beer 'fridge' and a bbq

During the past weeks we had been blessed with some very nice days and on such occasions we love nothing more than a wee BBQ or picnic down the Lottie. I've mentioned this before but exciting news my friends we have a new little BBQ and Andrew worked out how to keep beer cold on a hot Lottie day...

First to the beer, it's more important. Andrew saw something about this on a science programme once and his brain is specially wired to remember important yet random pieces of information, so this idea came back to him rather quickly. For this fab foray into the world of beverages and their temperature you will need :

• 1 bucket


• some cold water from the outdoor tap


• 1 terracotta pot


• 1 large stone


• some beer

Now, you dip the pot in the bucket of cold water and totally soak it inside and outside upside and down. Let it sit a moment, it needs to be saturated. Then take the beverage of choice (we choose beer - Chinese in this case) and place it on the ground. Take your very damp pot, run it upside down and place it over the bottles, place the stone over the drainage hole. Leave the pot to dry in the shade.



Through the magic of science which I am sure you can look up somewhere (something to do with condensation etc) the bottles are cold once the pot is dry!!!!! Ta Da ..."Whoa!!", I hear you declare in awe.

Then we move onto the new BBQ, a bucket shaped one that only cost about £6. I really need to get a photo of it all collapsed down; it folds up and just hangs on a hook in the shed. Here it is in this fiery glory and again when it was HOT!!! The heat from the wee thing was exceptional and we could have cooked enough for a small army, as it was there was only us and the lovely Mamma G present.



Also, there seems to be some love in the air - Maggie and Gus like each other, ooohhhhh!!!

Soil and Coffee

Ronnie had a very nifty gadget he let us borrow - to test the PH of our soil. We had heard that it was a little acidic but why waste an opportunity to do an experiment. Between us, Andrew and I did all the Sciences at A-level - we're geeks at heart!

So, this was cool to us and we got straight down to it. With this particular tester we had to dig a whole around a trowel's depth and add a little water (unfortunately we had no distilled water which would have made the experiment better, but I digress..) so it was the consistency of wet soil. Then plonk (science -y term) the tester in, making sure the probe was nice and wet all over (and the switch was flicked to PH rather than Wetness testing mode). Then we had to wait... for a minute........

The Result - the soil was a wee bit acidic. The needle hovered just on the line between 7 and 6. Isn't science fun!!?

So our soil is pretty neutral, which is a good place to start I think, we can add stuff to it to please certain fussy plants - making it more alkaline or acidic where needed. Good news indeed.

After that ,we added some Used Coffee Grounds from Starbucks (you get big bags there for FREE) around the baby Spring Cabbages - there are some thoughts that caffeine deters slugs. I don't know if it works but we're giving it a go. Check out the link below for a discussion thread on it, which seems to suggest the opposite!

But anyway, it made my hands smell lovely and the rest of the bag went into the compost bin (which is what we usually do with these free used grounds); coffee is a great soil conditioner. (Bit acidic, science-y again).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/archive/science_nature/slug_caffeine_mail.shtml