harray roosting

Golly its just ages since I last posted. A comment from a neighbour has kinda prompted me to post  an update. So busy with one thing and another. Re-hab is in progress…trying to be good and careful but so much needs to be done at this time of year. I have had some help from my son,  a neighbour  and a friend who is a very good gardener. I’m able to hoe one handed for a wee while but not being able to bend down makes weeding and planting out virtually impossible. The grabber kindly provided by occupational therapy does pluck out some weeds albeit very slowly so its a bit tedious! I’ve spread masses of poppy seeds everywhere I can in the hope that  they will fend for themselves and disguise the weeds to some extent…

We have been harvesting salads/veg from the garden for well over a month now and as time goes on additional goodies are available to change the flavours somewhat. I’m quite keen on perennial vegetable and salad stuff and have  added to my collection each year. I think I will maybe work harder at that in the future…I think it will give me  a longer season of picking for  less hassle and they seem to be hardier too and less prone to diseases and pests… Anybody got any suggestions for tried and tested perennial herbs and salad/veg stuff?

I suspect the seed companies have a vested interest in us growing short term veg…I believe there is a good book on the perennial veg gardening too…. I must see if I can get a copy…library?????

One good thing about being housebound for so long and not being out at work for the best part of the day is…I’m getting a good feel for where all the birds are nesting around and in the garden. Sadly I have a daily visit from a pair of Hoodies who have the same idea…they breakfasted on my Sedge warbler nestling t’other morning…How I do miss their cheerful song now

must go and catch up on this beautiful Orcadian morning

Looks like I’ll not be able to keep an eye on the garden for a month or so soon ( operation imminent) so I’m trying to get a few things in and providing as soon as possible..it is just a tadge too early as the frosts keep sneaking in overnight.

We have a good crop of rocket already, the perennial ‘wild’ type just keeps on  year after year. In the raised bed with glass over it is just raring away. Rocket pesto here we go. Over wintered spinach is very leafy now. I cheat with my early parsley…I get a pot of then from the supermarket and just tease apart and plant out, sometimes they bolt and sometimes they don’t. last year one pot gave us mountains of parsley all summer..and we use a lot! Cheating but what the hell. Do grow from seed too but they take ages to germinate and become useable. Broad beans started in root trainers are ready to go out. Onions and shallots are in. Tarrogon is rampant. Courgettes at two leaf stage…Watercress not ready to plant out yet, neither are the leeks so they may suffer a bit whilst I’m off the soil. Not growing any early tatties this year…must be the first time in ages. i’m going to do quite a large patch of green manuring…I will let it flower for the birds and the bees.

Slugs seem to have fattened up on my early radishes and a few other seeds sown a while ago….the slugs even climb up the trees…..when you go out in the evening you end up eyeballing the wee devils as you walk around the shrubs…

Might just be a challenging and frustrating year in the garden……

Seems ages since I last found time to do a wee bit of the old blogging…..just so busy. Once the snow decided to give us a break and its started to get lighter in the evening there was so much to catch up on…plus the inevitable domestic stuff.  Domestics are strictly at the bottom of the to-do inventory but eventually needs must and a blitz ensues….So now getting the essentials of the vegetable garden under control. Our season is so short you really have to get a move on as you do not get much of a second chance if a crop fails or you are a bit tardy. Not growing any tatties this year…. my garden is too small and the local farmers seem fairly expert at it…and they pick and clean the critters too all for £12 a sack or thereabouts and they are pretty good tatties.

The raised beds I have built and lavishly filled with seaweed, horse-dung  and compost will provide us with salad and herbs until November. I make my raised beds really deep and only half-fill. Then with enviro-mesh or recycled shower screens on top they act as frames giving me quite a long harvesting season that will withstand near hurricane gales. Has worked really well. I just keep on building raised beds now in all shapes and sizes…depending on what wood I can find in the skips. I have bought some good quality treated timber for the main beds, but recycled wood suitably treated is fairly reliable.

Shallots and onions, broad beans, spinach and herbs all in, plus a good selection of seeds sown. Leeks, spinach, beetroot and cabbage from last year still on the go…and the wonderfully perennial and bullet-proof wild-rocket is sprouting anew..spring is here!

Next week I’m taking my ladies out for the first time this year, we are going to the Stromness Natural History Museum and then on to Julias for a feed….we go out regularly to all sorts of interesting places throughout the islands…we are supposed to be looking at plants but lets face it…we look at everything and anything that takes our fancy. This Museum is in my mind the best museum in the world….run by a trust it has a wonderfully eclectic mixture of artifacts in it and especially those relating to John Rae and also good representations of the Orcadian Natural History. I never tire of visiting the place. last week I had my first visit to the Kirbuster farm museum….another regular place to pop into..so good and free too!

Golly just managed to add this photo of the garden and front of house at Kirbuster Farm Museum, it was a lovely sunny late afternoon last week, the light was very good.

Here’s another one…the Hellebore was looking lovely (mine are a bit battered) so special and nice to see .Tall and lush when most other plants have hardly broken dormancy.

Must go and sort out some photographs for the Camera Club competition on Wednesday…I’m off visiting the isles tomorrow and then its back to work, so its now or never! If only days were longer…

Well, pretty hard to imagine but on our way back to depot this afternoon we got stuck in a long traffic queue behind two combine harvesters…in February! and it was snowing! the gritter was stuck too! Incongruous methinks….I was having quite a giggle about it but my colleague who was driving was not so amused!

One combine is to be forgiven but two!!!

Just stating to get to grips with this blog…uploaded a couple of photos taken yesterday in Stenness. It looks lovely outside today…the snow last night magical but apparently its been abnormally cold at night for the nothern isles..we do not normally get deep frosts. I think a lot of the tender perennials I have maintained in the garden for years will be kaput…however that may make space for more plants. Optimistically I was checking iced up ponds for frog activity yesterday. They are normally pretty active by now…I think they must be ice-bound at bottom of the pond, poor chaps. I’m out just now to see if I can get any spring-like photos in the snow. I can hear a strange bird in the garden too so I must remember to put the specs on when I go out and find out where I put the bins….

I’ve never blogged before though I have read a few….some seem brilliantly entertaining others less so, not sure where I’ll fit in. I’ll give it whirl, when I have the chance.

Out and about later on today..usual Saturday morning domesticity delayed my escape into a splendid, calm, cold and clear Orkney day. Visiting a friend in Stenness  we had the essential inspection of the garden first to look at what’s flowering, what’s kicked the bucket and what can’t quite decide just yet. Usual snowdrops, croci and some very nice Cyclamen…plus Saxifrage just budding. Nice cup of tea and a proud drool over a new field guide to Bryophytes that has made both my friend and myself published photographers. Fame is such a hard cross to bear…..

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