For Peat's sake

If you're anything like me you'll get through bags of compost every year. Over the last couple of years I have seen an increase in Peat free compost but didn't really understand why it is seen as better solution for the garden than using Peat based mixtures. After a bit of online research I can tell you that the reason is that it's best for the environment to stay clear of Peat. Peat is being consumed at an alarming rate and supplies are starting to dry up. It takes a Peat bog about 10,000 years to form and as such natural Peat bogs cannot be replaced so once they have been destroyed they're lost forever.

It's a sad fact but 60% of peat use in the UK is that which is consumed by gardeners and as such I will be sticking to Peat free mixtures from now on, especially as there is no direct benefit of using peat rich compost anyway over the peat free alternatives.

(Disclaimer: This may be a well known fact but it was news to me.)

Salted Garden Peas

Lots of people grow peas in their garden and at this time of year garden peas are at their best. There are all sorts of ways to eat them but my favourite way is to chuck a couple of handfuls of freshly picked pods into a steamer for 3 minutes. Then when the machine goes ping simply put them in a bowl (still in their pods) and mill some sea salt over the top tossing them until evenly covered.

Then serve, remembering to put out an extra bowl for the shells. Delicious!

Another wet weekend

Not much to report from the garden this weekend. Just lots and lots more rain. Every-time there seems to be a break in the deluge and I get my gardening shoes on the heavens open again. Worse still, all the veg is starting to rot in the wet ground so I made sure that I did manage to dig up a few more potatoes. For some reason I still find it enormous fun to get very, very muddy.

I guess that given the flooding that others are having to endure at the moment I should just be grateful that the water levels around Lavendon aren't too bad. There have been issues in the past but the controlled flooding of the meadowland around Olney seems to make sure that the water levels in the rivers keeps consistent.

Let's hope the weather breaks soon and we et some much deserved sunshine, although for the next week it looks unlikely at the moment.

Ravenstone Village Open Garden Day

Julia and I went to nose round a few of the gardens in the nearby Northamptonshire village of Ravenstone today. We didn't just break in, It was for their open garden day in aid of the Red Cross. It's only a few minutes up the road and we thought that it might be a good source of inspiration for our own bit of green space. When we got there it turned out that only three gardens had been opened up to the public but my what gardens they were. There was a formal garden, a cottage garden and also a huge country house garden. I didn't take any photos as I thought it a bit rude since they were private residences and had been kind enough to invite us in so you'll have to take my word that they were lovely.

After a good bit of nosing we headed back up to the village hall for a drink and a cake before heading home. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Whatever became of the Lavendon Garden Cucumber?

Well it grew into a monster! We just harvested our first pickling cucumbers from the plant and they're delicious (actually I'm told they are as I don't actually like cucumber). As they're for pickling the next few are heading for jars but it's amazing how far it's come in the last month or so. It could do with a trellis to grow up but it seems to be doing ok sitting on the old bench.

Double Decker

I took last week off work to undertake the most ambitious construction project I've ever done - to lay some new decking for us to sit out on this summer. Ever since we've owned the house we've had to put up with horrible cracked concrete in the garden near the house and I have been itching to do something about it for some time now.

My Father in Law is a whiz with wood so I invited him and my Mother in Law over for the week to help me out (lucky them). On the first day we received the wood order which I was expecting to arrive on a lorry with a crane arm for lifting the wood off the back. When the lorry arrived it was clear that it had no arm and Tony and I had to off load all the wood into the lay-by infront of the house. Once it was all unloaded it then had to be transferred into the garden. No mean feat!

Once we had the wood in place and had unpacked the tools we started on the wooden sub frame on which the decking would sit. We were meticulous about the levels and ensured that the drop was correct to allow water run off while creating a nice flat deck.



The wooden sub-frame is anchored to the ground with a mixture of bolts and posts, cemented into trenches. This was to make 100% sure there would be no movement in the deck.



The sub-frame was made up of four pieces all bolted together, we did this mainly for ease of construction but also to make it easier to bolt down. Each frame is secured to either the house or the floor with an expansion bolt.



Once the sub-sub-frameframe had been constructed it was time to wire in the decking lights, these were a gift from my Parents in Law for my upcoming (gulp) 30th birthday. The decking lights were put in place and the wires pinned to the sub-frame to raise them off the floor. All the wires were brought together at the side of the house an run into a junction box housing the transformer which was wired to a fused switch inside the house.



The next job was to lay the decking planks. The planks were cut to length using a rotary mitre saw with each angle individually being carefully checked and cut.



It's been a tiring week and we've worked long hours to get it all done but the final result is fantastic and I'm going to enjoy sitting out this summer. All we have to do now is move the plants back up from the end of the garden and put down the gravel we've bought to cover the last few bits of concrete.

Here come the Potatoes

Our potatoes are now ready to eat so we dug a few up this weekend and indulged by having some new potatoes with our dinner. The problem with digging up potatoes is that it's addictive and I always have to force myself to stop or I'd have them all dug up in an hour or so.

If you want to do something special with your new potatoes there's an excellent recipe over at My Tiny Plot for Broad Bean and New Potato salad.

Getting started with vegetable gardening

I came across an interesting article today on the Timesonline site that has some good advice for getting started with vegetable gardening. It's titled the ten most important things to know when starting vegetable gardening and can be found here.

It had to happen

It's been in threatening for a few days now but today while bending over planting out my red onions I did my back in and I'm in agony. I've been suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis for several years now and frequently suffer from back pain. It normally lasts a few weeks so I'll be taking it easy for a while. So I'm hobbling around today with a heat pad wrapped around my back that's making me look like I'm wearing a nappy.

Of course Julia's laughing at me bent double like an old man, unable to put my socks on.

Oh and here's a quick joke (I have to cheer myself up somehow). What's orange and sounds like a Parrot? A Carrot of course!