Gardening on Thursday.

A good afternoons work today in the garden.

A bee on the grass, drinking the moisture?

I managed to get a couple of photos before it flew away.

Growth in my raised vegetable beds...just not sure if this is something I have planted or otherwise!

I definitely planted this one, a bean is sprouting.

I've dug this over and put in two short rows of potatoes, partly as an experiment to see if they will grow there.

I've also started two potato bags.

I started work on this area today as I want to clear it and dig it over to plant more potatoes.

A lot of rubbish including old carpet dumped there.

I believe this is a slow worm?  I moved him to another spot.

Yes this is the carpet that was dumped and 'hidden' underneath weeds and rubbish.

I dug it all up and until we can take it to the dump, I have folded it up and stacked it in one place.

I dug over the ground in front of the compost bins, and raked up old branches, twigs, stones, rocks, and old bits of plastic and wire.  I moved the wooden bins over and put the two plastic bins side by side facing frontwards.  Funny thing now is though looking at the pictures I think I actually preferred the bins how they were in the earlier picture!  Typical!  Still this way will work better for easier access to the openings at the bottom, although in all honesty, it is just as easy to lift the bin up off the compost! 

 I think the wooden bins still needed levelling up a bit, so I might do that another day.

A pile of stones

The wood and twig pile.

Friday in the Garden.

A productive few hours were spent in the garden on Friday - split up to before lunch and after lunch.

I wanted to clear a space next to the wooden compost bin as I am getting another for my birthday and wanted them to go side by side.  There was all sorts of rubbish partly 'buried' in this space, rocks, bricks, an old metal trap (?) plastic plant pots and an old carpet just dumped.  I dug the carpet up and the other rubbish and have started different piles ready to be dealt with.  Some will have to go to the tip I think, some will break down - the small roots etc, and the wood we will eventually put in the chipper machiney thingy that we don't have yet.  Yes great technical terms there, the name of it escapes me at the moment.  I also need to do a brick/rock pile as they are currently along the brick wall.

All ready for the new bin when it arrives.  I wish there had been space for the two plastic ones to also go side by side, but there isn't so I may rethink what I will do with either the second one, or both of them. 

After lunch I planted out some seeds in the vegetable beds and the glass house.

I've planted some of my Dad's Dalmation beans and my friends Blue Lake (I think that is what they were called) in this bed as well as some carrot and spring onions.

In here I have planted some spinach and salad vegetables.

Various seeds planted - tomatoes, cucumber, courgette, radish, and sunflowers.  

I really don't have any idea what I am doing as it has been some years now since I have grown any vegetables apart from beans, I probably need to read my gardening book a bit more, but I just wanted to get going and by doing I will learn.  

I also started trimming around the fruit bushes.

I used my garden shears to cut round them and had my sleeves rolled up as it was quite warm...of course I forgot about the stinging nettles, and now several hours later, my forearms are still tingling and stinging from them!

I forgot to take after photos, but still have some more trimming and clearing to do, so will hopefully get that done in the weekend.

It was really lovely working out in the garden today.  It is a big garden and there is a lot of clearing of rubbish to do, but it will be worth it and it feels good when you are making progress.

Building a Compost Bin.

This afternoon my long lost wooden compost bin that I had given up on arriving arrived.  Of course it arrived the day after they gave me a refund, so I had to phone them up to get them to reverse the refund!  It took me five trips to take the pieces up to the back garden and I decided to build the bin this afternoon as the weather was dry.

I moved the metal bin and cleared a space for it.

Finished.

The inside.

I've emptied and moved the metal bin.

I've put some of the garden waste from the metal bin into the compost bin - grass cuttings and apples.

I think I'd quite like to get another one now to go beside it so I may move the plastic one before it gets too full.  It will be interesting to compare the different bins and how the compost develops in each.