Crocuses and Others (by sarah)

Crocuses appear to be every where this year including the garden here!

This first two aren't crocuses but they are purple so I just had to photograph them! Ones with flash the other with out but its the same plant!

Crocuses, crocuses everywhere and I know that some of these babies are edible! alas I think that I might be introuble if I dug them up and cooked them besides I still need to work out which book I read this in and triple check lest I posion someone!

These lovely purple flowers are some kind of dwarf iris they are max - 10 cm of the grownd - these pics were not taken when the flowers where at their best unfortunatly.

Relocating the Wormery (by sarah)

It's that time of year again when we should be neigh already have been potting up seeds, this ment we remembered our poor wormery!

The wormery had fallen out of use for several reasons and Al was concerned that the worms would no longer be alive but they can survive for months with nothing to eat so I wasnt overlly concerned. Why had it fallen out of use?

Well...

a) We produce kitchen waste at a rate the new wormery with just one bag of live worms couldnt cope with so we had to take over spill to the compost heap. Last we looked we had filled all three trays (not all with fresh kitchen waste as that would be feast city! You need to stagger the amount that goes in or things get icky as it is the last lot we put in was obviously too much but more on that later!). Thus we were waiting for there to be space again to put new waste - the bottom try was already compost in the autum but we have no were really to keep the compost so it had to stay in there and bide its time.

b) So much random stuff had been piled around it that I personally could not easily get to it and as it tended to be me who did it - it was now relying on me reminding Al - which, well, didnt happen cos I'm a scatty cow.

So we cleared things away from it - Al drianed the 'worm juice' which we store in fabric condition bottles as plant food.

Having refound the camera! Here is a picture of him pouring the worm juice from the old milk tin into the fabric softner box - over the stream incase of spillage!

We then lifted the insulating bubble wrap that we put on when the temperatures drop to keep the worms munching their little hearts out rather than slowing down to complete inactivity. This when we found that obviously their had been some fruit fly eggs in something we had put in there. Little maggots were wending their merry way out of the little grids for ventualition at the top - then either getting stuck and dying there or not making it out of the bubble wrap which had hundreds of little maggot carcasses in it.

ok...

a) YUCK!!!!!

Unfortunatly that was my last pic as the memory card was full!

b) I DON"T DO MAGGOTS!!!! Give me spiders, catipillars, frogs, ear wigs - you name it I'm fine with it (unless the catipillars look like maggots that is!) but MAGGOTS - No, skins itching just writing this!

Unfortunatly Al couldnt lift the wormery by himself so I had to focus very hard on not running away and help him carry it out side so we could extraxt compost and relocate.

Now I was a bit concerned that it was too damp inside from the worm juice we had extracted (there is a sump in the bottom where putrid liquid pools - its conical so worms can crawl up it and not drown). Al took the lid off to risne in the stream. I looked inside - yep lots of fruit flies and it was too damp - it was sludgy mess so we had definatly been putting stuff in it at too fast a rate for the wormies to cope. Funily though it did not smell - I expected it to wreak to high heaven from the look of it but no - no odor at all?!

Lid cleaned, Al lifted the two top layers whilst I removed, the initially stuck, third and bottom layer. This layer was full of worms and nice rich compost, a bit sogger than I would have liked though I did not see any condrities (I think thats their name) - the little white worms that appear when conditions in the soil are too damp. The bizar thing though was that though the leaflet that came with the wormery had said they like egg shells - all the eggs shells we had put in were still there embedded quite prettily in dark compost giving an oolitic type of pattern.

We extracted as many worms as was easy and dumped them into the top layer. Then we put the compost into buckets with garden trowls - rescuing a few more worms on route!

This done I was muttering heavily about the twisted and bent leg on the wormery - Al recons it was were he'd just dragged it over cobble stones - I recon its were a damn great box of rubbish had been shoved next to it in the stable with no care or attention. I found another missing leg when going to get the worm treats from the stable.

We put our current kitchen waste in what had been the top layer but would now be the middle layer - liberally added worm treats and a layer of cardboard - I want to get some more coconut husk matting for it but having to wait for the money situation to settle down a bit at the mo before I can do that. We then put the now empty layer on to added lid and moved it to stand next to the drain in front of the house.

After all its ment for outside but I was initially worried that the badgers would knock it over and eat all the worms or that foxes would smell the rubbish - we'll just have to wait and see as it was pretty useless were it was!

Still the compost looks great can't wait to start growing things in it!

We got the wormery from Wiggly Wrigglers

The Mole Invasion (by sarah)

We have been watching with interest the advancing of the Moleys - when we first arrived they were at the end of the drive but slowely made their way down towards the house. The stream and cattle grid seemed to holt the advance for a good six months but now they are this side!

This is up by the veggi plots so I'm waiting for them to dig our plants up next!

Artichoke Harvest (by sarah)

I have been trying to get the artichokes harvested since the first frost but what with lots of pooing sillyness and illness and what not it obviously didnt happen as a result I got militant when I looked them up in one of our thousands of books and found that though we had missed the prime time for harvest (Nov, Dec, Jan) they can be harvested until early spring (half way through march).

I need them to a) make soup and b) to replenish the chutney stores as Alaric has seen fit to consume or give away most of our chutney and as they take several weeks to mature (about eight) I thought I'd best get started - my perants gave me a cool preserves and chutneys cookbook at christmas and it has a recipy for artichoke chutney!

So off we went on Saturday - this is our disgrace of a veggi plot though to be honest its not as bad as we were expecting.

First off we removed the rotting storks - this of course should have been done just after they turned brown in October as it increases the chance of fungi getting to the tubers (oh did I mention these are Jeruselum Artichokes rather than globe?)

Of course there was hollowing of some tubers (this is where things have eaten holes into them and eaten away some or all of the inside), my book says that this most lickly coursed by slugs - yep all the artichokes that had 'broken the surface' where covered in the little homeless molluscs. The book goes on to say that rarer is a soil dwelling catipillar which if found means oiking everything out and treating the soil.

Sigh - oh well looks like we'll have to dig the plot over and actually plant things than goiing for the self seeding technique. Some things are a blessing in disguise 😉

Not entirely sure what this feller is or weather I have to fret about him and his sisters, there was a bit of a disagrement over what a wire worm looks like so really not sure - suppose I should look it up!

Now I had got pictures of the HUGE amount of usable artichoke we got - put it this way it took me two days before I had washed them all! But unfortunatly its on the missing camera :'(

Harvest (by sarah)

It being nearly spring and me having writen this post way back in the autum I thought I'd best post it!!! I was reminded today as we harvested our artichokes (jerusalum).

We are very proud of our first harvest - especially as we have not had a lot of time to donate to the growing of things! The marrows and courette plants went in very late but still seem to have produced a bumper crop 🙂 We also had butternut squash.

Alaric just could not resist when we started cutting the produce up for pasta suace making and freezing.

We also had so many tomatoes that Jean started to refuse to eat them - mind due I had been feeding them to her with everything!