Tunnel Vision

More bamboo structures, this time for sweet peas.

It seems hard to believe,  but it’s a bit late for sowing some annual flower seeds.  I was at the garden centre at the weekend with most of the local population who wanted to get out of the rain and spent a happy half an hour looking at the sowing and planting times on the backs of the packets. Most of them had to be in pots by April so I think if we want a flush of colour in the garden it might have to be perennials this year. 

I did have a few trailing perennials in baskets last year, I’m not sure what they are, but I think they were blue. I have divided them up into 10 pots and they are doing well. It’s still early enough to plant most salad crops. I eventually bought a packet of radish and some very attractive pick and come again mixed mustard to add a bit of spice to the summer salads.

Inside or Out?

I’m finding it an enjoyable task deciding what to grow inside or outside of the tunnel. I am, as always, edging my bets by sowing leafy salad crops such as spinach both inside and out and I’ll probably do the same with courgettes. The sweetcorn is inside as will be the tomatoes when they are big enough to plant into the ground. 

Water Sparingly

I’m being very sparing with the water in the tunnel. I have the beds planted up in very neat and tidy rows, which is unusual for me as I usually just plant in clumps cramming everything into raised beds. I am giving the plants a bit more room and leaving enough space between the rows to get the Dutch hoe in to keep the weeds down. The same system has been applied to the peas and beans too. Planting the seeds in these tidy rows has made it easier to water and weed. I made small trenches (about 1”deep) then just poured water into the groove. I then lightly scattered the seeds in the row and covered up. The visible wet soil helps me to continue watering just where it’s needed, leaving the rest of the bed dry, which I am finding is keeping the weeds down. As the plants mature I will no doubt have to water the whole bed, but for now, in this damp weather, it’s keeping the tunnel far less humid. I have hoops at either end of the beds with string tied to each side to finish off. This tells me I have planted there and hopefully will keep the dogs off.

More Bamboo

My obsession of making structures from bamboo has continued this week. I had a few shorter pieces left over after the peas and beans went up so I have been making towers for the sweet peas to grow up. They only go up to about three feet but are reinforced with some green jute string. Things like this bring out the landscape designer in me as sometimes I prefer to just have the structures than have plants growing all over them and covering things up. Don’t tell anyone that though. 

 

U turn

Last weeks wet weather uncovered a bit of an issue with how the tunnel was set up.  When the plastic went over the structure I chose to dig it into the ground. I thought that would give it more strength. The plastic goes into a foot deep trench and then soil is backfilled into the hole on top of the plastic. To keep the plastic in place it was recommended that it be in a U shape and the soil filling the centre. This might work on an open space, but on my giant raised bed it looks like the water had nowhere to go and the area around the tunnel filled up like a swimming pool. I had a few floating nasturtiums. I did come up with a simple solution though. I went around the perimeter of the tunnel with a garden for and plunged it into the ground about 6” away from the tunnel making holes in the plastic underground so the water has somewhere to go. Like a very wise builder I worked with recently said. “Everything can be fixed” 

I can plant herbs around the tunnel now.

Buy Cheap, Pay Twice

Training the dog up not to walk on the veggie beds.

I don’t know why my eyes are drawn to cheap products in the euro shops. It’s probably the thought that one day I will actually buy something at a really low price that doesn’t break within a day. My thirst for a bargain isn’t relegated to euro shops either. I was in Band Q the other day and bought a staple gun for a small job.( I’m putting up a bamboo screen near to the wheelie bins and needed to secure it to the fence to get a level. ) After a bit of simple maths I worked out that the staple gun and staples worked out cheaper than just buying the staples on their own.  Within half a pack of staples the gun was broken.  Luckily I had an identical and amazingly unbroken gun from a euro shop that I bought last year, so I finished the job with that one using the rest of the B and Q staples. The following day I went back to B and Q with the staples gun and got my money back.

I’m still not sure if I got a good deal, the petrol taken to get to the shop probably cost more than the product. I eventually got the job done though and I do have a few of the staples that didn’t go back in the box just in case I need them.  

Invention of the week

I’ve been really inventive this week. I have put the fence and gate up around the tunnel to keep the dogs out, but our Springer somehow managed to turn herself into water and slide underneath the gate. I’m still not sure how she does it; I think it’s something to do with turning sideways and deflating herself until she is all but flat like a puddle. I don’t mind the dogs in the tunnel when I am there as I am training them up to not walk on the beds or use them as toilets. It’s when I am not there they do the damage. So I’ve put a plank of wood on the bottom of the gate with two hinges (bought cheap and now starting to rust) which fold up when I open the gate. It’s a bit like a one way cat/dog flap so if they were inside they could get out. It’ll be a while yet until I can say this is going to work as the dogs are very good at overcoming barriers.

Unwelcome guest

I’ve had other unsupervised and unwelcome guest in the tunnel this week too.  There was a rogue snail wandering around and ate most of my F1 tomatoes. I only got eight seeds in the packet and they were tiny so the snail got a very expensive snack. It was last seen flying through the air into woodland. I’m not sure how it got in; maybe it was on a pot or crawled under the gate flap.

Nip them in the bud

I’ve been planting out beetroot, spinach, pick and come again lettuce, spring onions, wild rocket and broad beans. It’s still a bit early to put the runner beans out but they need to go out soon as the biodegradable cardboard pots are bursting at the seams as the roots grow daily. I’ve realised I haven’t many flowers, we have sunflowers, nasturtiums and night scented stock coming on and I also have taken a few cuttings from some hardy hanging basket plants. I think I’d like to get some surfinias for the pots and baskets. They are very expensive so I might get away with buying one then taking cuttings. I used to be able to get about twenty cuttings from one young plant. I’m not brave enough to nip the tips from plants on council displays or from garden centres so I might just have to befriend people with baskets and tubs to get cuttings.

Making comparisons

It’s been another week of soil sieving, this time under cover in the tunnel. I’m making simple rectangular beds with small foot wide paths in between into which the tomatoes (newly bought and planted to replace the ones eaten) and sweetcorn will go. I’ll no doubt be planting more salad crops and I’m going to try the spinach in the tunnel too. It doesn’t really need the protection but I think large leafy plants such as these will give bumper crops under protection. I’ll try a couple of kale and broccoli too as an experiment and compare them to the outdoor grown ones. Such fun.

A Plucky Affair

More pea and bean structures

A neighbour of mine recently asked me if I wanted to try some wood pigeon. Always up for something new I said yes, expecting a pre wrapped, plucked and oven ready bird to be presented to me. I wasn’t really surprised when I popped around to their house to pick them up.  The birds were still fully clothed with all of their limbs attached.

The same thing happened to me a few years back when I was living in Newport, Co Mayo, a neighbour asked me if I wanted a pheasant and after saying yes please, had it unceremoniously slapped onto the kitchen table with its beautiful plumage shining in the sunlight and dead eyes staring up at me. It took me all afternoon to pluck the feathers, retching continuously as I did. This time I was invited into the neighbour’s kitchen where we “prepared” the three unlucky birds. 

The horror of it

The whole scenario was akin to a horror movie with blood and feathers flying and made me realise just how much I like these birds. Alive.  Wood pigeons remind me of my mother’s garden and I love to hear them cooing in my own back garden and down on the park.  It might be a coincidence but since I brought the birds home and cooked them according to a recipe online, I haven’t heard a sound from the pigeons in the back garden. I’m not saying that I have eaten my garden friends, but I think that they know what I have done and are keeping well away. I have realised that this is why chickens either run away from me (or that they try to attack my legs) It’s because they know too. I eat their relatives. I didn’t really enjoy the meal and the lads spat out a few lead shot which didn’t go down well. I think I understand vegetarians a little better after this week.

Tunnel Vision

I love the tunnel. It’s been up a week and I have put all of the seedlings in there. I have also started to dig a few beds. I am not going down the road of building raised beds. The tunnel is built on a giant 12x20’ raised bed as it is so to build smaller ones on top of that would mean the drainage would be too good. I would need to be going in there every day, (maybe even twice a day for tomatoes), and water. By letting the plants find natural water with their roots will save me a lot of time and energy standing around with my hosepipe. I haven’t gone too mad digging the beds; I am expecting a delivery of two eight foot long tables courtesy of the old Fruit of the Loom factory. I had some in the old tunnel and they were great, just the right height and not easily damaged by water or humidity. I like the idea of just digging the soil as it makes the design of the interior so much more versatile. I can change things around at a whim. It’s funny I have this way of thinking. I did write a book of the virtues of raised beds after all last year. I might change my mind next year when things have settled down and I can see where things fit.

I have had so seal up the dummy door in the tunnel this week. The cold wind was relentless and came straight through one side of green netting and out of the other. It’s made a big difference to the temperature and the seedlings seem to be happier.  

As per the seed packet instructions I have been planting some seeds directly into the soil. I put in a few rows of beetroot, wild rocket and spinach. A Facebook chum told me that it’s still too cold for beetroot but I think if I don’t do it now then nights will be drawing in.  I’ll take my chances.

Just the way I like it

The other thing I have been doing this week is setting up the pea and bean structures. My lad informs me that I always seem to be making these, I agree it does take a bit of time and I tend to make a big thing of it, but I assured him it’s only once a year. The big difference is that I didn’t use hazel rods from the woods. I actually bought pre wrapped and prepared bamboo poles from the garden centre. They were neat, uniform, trimmed, clean and tidy. They were prepared in the very same manner that I would like to buy all of my meat in future.