The Head Gardener at BerryFields

Spud Time

2007-07-15T09:54:00.000+01:00

We decided it was time to go looking for the potatoes om Sunday. THe girls and I tipped out the contents of one of the spud tubs into the wheel barrow and it was all hand on deck. The girls loved the feel of the soil as they searched for little new potatoes.

Success, we found enough to feed the family. Enough for two meals. Ceri gentle boiled some and could not stop eating them. The taste and texture was fantastic.

A good time to be a gardener, a good time to be alive

2007-06-29T20:05:00.000+01:00

After only 4 weeks of putting the glass in and finishing the structure, the greenhouse is looking really good.

The weather has been awfull these past two weeks but dispite this everything is growing along at a phenominal rate.

I plan to start sowing salad crops for the autumn and putting them under the staging as you can see with one of the boxes already.

All the outdoor beds are looking good too.

The shallotts need to come out soon to make room for the next crop.

Things are looking up

2007-06-04T07:25:00.000+01:00

At last the glass is being put into the greenhouse. All except three panes. This is beacause one of the vents is smaller than the rest and have to get a piece of glass cut for this. I have to leave out the other two panes to enable me to fit the vent piece.

Several pieces of glass were cracked and a few are too badly marked so I guess I will have to replace about 6 to 10 pieces.

No glass will be put in the partition yet. This I will leave until autumn.

Its going up at last

2007-05-20T17:26:00.000+01:00

The bricks have been cemented and, at last, the 'large meccano set' is being put together.

It feels good to be putting together the greenhouse that has been in pieces on the upper patio since February. The door has been swamped and is just visible through the rampaging honey suckle.

Just the roof bars to be fitted next. Then it needs to be painted a darker shade of green, rubber seals fitted to the glazing bars and then..................the glass.

The digging has ended....finally

2007-04-24T22:07:00.000+01:00

With the area dug out and all levelled the foundations have also been dug out and filled with hardcore. I can not believe the amount of stones, bricks and breeze blocks we have dug out of the small area beneath the old shed. We have filled up a 2 ton bag and we have also made a mound of stones beside it.

There was the small problem of discovering a soak away that was dug umpteen years ago so we have had to bring the greenhouse forward to the edge of the path now. Also in the top left corner there is a massive stone that we have left in place as there is no way it is going to be moved my human methods. Luckily it will not encroach into the space that will be ocupied by the green house.

Greenhouse foundations next

2007-04-15T08:45:00.000+01:00

Now the trees are gone, we have to dig out the foundations for the greenhouse, a massive area 18ft x 12ft. It wouldn't be so bad if it was on the flat but the area is on a slope.

The old shed is down and the place looks like a building site!

The Tree Will Hit the Deck

2007-04-02T20:20:00.000+01:00

The conifer that has defeated me for the last several days, hit the deck tonight.

Jason answering a call on his mobile whist 20 foot up another tree we are taking down.

The New Shed Goes Up

2007-03-25T08:37:00.000+01:00

With one coat of preservative on the outside of the shed, it was time to start to put it all together. The series of photos will show the progress in stages so far.

Jason and I also did a man 'man thing' and had our chips within the shelter of 'the shed' looking out, contemplating and putting the world to rights.

Foundations Finished at Last

2007-03-20T19:55:00.000Z

With the help of Jason, the foundations for the shed were nearing completion.

All the shuttering was in place and all level. Bricks were also used to hold the shuttering in place and to stop it bowing out under the weight of the concrete.

After 3 nights of mixing and pouring concrete the last bucket of concrete was poured in and tamped down. A professional job even if I do say so myself.

The new shed is due to arrive tomorrow, Wednesday, and so it is important to finish off the concreting tonight.

Change of Plan

2007-03-16T19:52:00.000Z

Ok, so now a big change of plan.

We are removing the old shed and laying a new base the other side of the oak tree. A new shed has been ordered, a 10ft x 6ft double door jobbie.

The old shed is coming down and the new green house going in its place.

This has been decided because the old greenhouse is in the shade until 10am each morning whilst the old shed is in the sunshine right from when the sun rises.

New old greenhouse

2007-02-25T19:23:00.000Z

Just collected our new old greenhouse from the West Midlands. Tony our property maintenence contractor kindly drove me on what started out as a sunny Sunday morning. This eventually turned into heavy rain which lasted most of the afternoon.

The greenhouse was purchased via Ebay. A large 16 foot by 8 foot aluminium.

We have to remove our old greenhouse and reposition it once we have laid the new foundations for it. Then we can dig the footings for the new greenhouse and have fun putting it back together again. I took a picture of one on the ends as we had to completely dismantle it to fit in the van.

The other picture is of the 'jigsaw' in the back of the van.

I may end up paining it a darker shade of green though as the paint is a little bit on the light side for our garden.

The glass is going to be the best bit. It is going to take forever to work out which bit goes where as they are all different sizes.

I will let you know how things get on.

Spring is just around the corner

2007-02-17T22:49:00.000Z

We have rotated the crops again this year and now the Runner Beans are going to be planted in the top bed (one of the two we dug out at the end of last season).

I have dug out a trench, 1 spit deep and 2 foot wide. I am going to line the trench with newspaper and put all the veg peelings etc into it. These will, ove rthe next few months, start to rot down.

It is important to do this as runner beans like a rich and water retentive soil.

The next picture shows a closeup.

Busy Weekend

2006-05-15T20:12:00.000+01:00

Plenty of work was carried out over the weekend as you will be able to tell from the pictures.

We pressure washed the main patio area ready for bringing out the wooden table and chairs complete with the 10 foot span umbrella.

The weather was so good on Sunday that Andrew was able to work outside until 9.30pm. His jobs included mowing the 4 lawn areas, finishing off the feather edge fencing, turning over the compost heap and planting out the runner beans.

These runner beans, Polestar, were started in the green house and planted out when they were 8-10 inches tall. This, we find, helps combat the slug damage as the plants are off to a flying start already.

We have slug traps around the raised beds that we empty and fill up ever 3 to 4 days. Not many slugs this year so far, perhaps it is because we used Nemaslug last year and this has kept the population down this year.

The strawberries are doing really well in one of the coldframes with plenty of flowers and some berries forming. Grace can not wait to taste the fresh sweet flesh of sun warmed strawberries from the garden. She has not liked the imported ones from Egypt as they have had no taste.

The early potatoes are ready for their first earthing up too. Last year we were plagued with slugs but them traps seem to be doing their jobs this year.

And finally a lovely clean patio, albeit wet, and also showing the fencing that has just been finished awaiting a volenteer to finish painting it.

The other gardeners at BerryFields

2006-05-12T21:53:00.000+01:00

On oldish picture of a few other gardeners at BerryFields taken at the top end of the garden that was discovered after clearing over 100 foot of brambles.

Renovating a tired bed

2006-05-12T19:37:00.000+01:00

Looking out from the kitchen window is a raised bed that we have not done anything with since moving in a couple of years back. Now with the hot weather upon us we thought it was time for a raised bed makeover.

Andrew, the Head gardener enlisted the help of Clive, to do most of the heavy digging.

The bed is approx 5 foot wide and 12 foot long.

The earth was covered in a woven material with a couple of plants pushed through it and gravel over the top. It was a half hearted idea by the previous owners who never carried the idea right through to the end.

After the plants were removed, the woven sheet was removed, only to find a mass of Mares Tail weed. After 3 black bags full of weeds removed, 2 bags of well rotted horse manure was added along with the gravel, all well dug in.

The obelisque that Charlotte and Andrew made a week ago was placed centre stage with 4 clematis (Madame Le Coultre, white and Ernest Markham, Red) planted at the corners. Dry sand was then used to mark out the areas for the other seeds to be sown. Then Candy Tuft, Convolvulus, Californian Poppy and Godetia seeds were sown in a geometric semi circular pattern after.

Towards the back of the bed 4 penstamens were planted that had been hanging around in pots for a few years outside of the greenhouse( always new they would come in handy one day).

All in all a good afternoons work was had by all including Jacqui, Clives wife, who helped paint the newly errected fences.

A bit of DIY

2006-05-12T19:33:00.000+01:00

It has been frantic recently what with all the sowing and transplanting. Charlotte and Andrew took some time out and decided to put together an obelisque using roofing laths, scrap plywood and a ballcock.

Guess where the ball cock is?

Slugs

2006-05-01T21:24:00.000+01:00

The notorious slug population have polished off all but 5 carrot seedings. I am trying the gravel method now, I have sprinkled gravel around the row where the seedings were, hoping to nurture my last few carrots.

Spring Time at Berryfields

2006-04-24T21:50:00.000+01:00

The carrots we sowed in the first week of April have now germinated and at a very good rate. Nearly 100 % success. All we have to do now is to keep the dreaded carrot fly away.

These seedlings are undercover. Sowed in bed number 3 with a cloche covering the while bed to warm up the soil.

Into this seed bed, we also have sowed parsnips and swede.

The garlic have also put on a spurt this year, must be due to the very mild spring we are having.

These have been planted in bed number 1 with salad and spring onions.

Leeks have also been sown in the Greenhouse. These have just germinated and so will be a while before they are planted out.

The leeks from last year are still being pulled and eaten every week,

Charlotte starting a new bed

2005-06-29T03:33:00.000+01:00

Charlotte marking out a small bed for some early potatoes, again, Late Spring

Isn't Life Wonderful

2005-06-28T16:32:00.000+01:00

Oh the joys of Spring

Spring in the greenhouse

2005-06-28T06:35:00.000+01:00

Its Mid Spring and everything is growing well. And looks very tidy too.

View from the Kitchen Window

2005-06-28T06:22:00.000+01:00

This picture was taken from the kitchen window in Mid Spring, note the daffodils and wild primrose in pots.

Broad Beans in Late Spring

2005-06-27T22:22:00.000+01:00

These Broad Beans were sown in Mid Spring in the greenhouse and planted out in a mini poly tunnel (design based upon one of Geoff Hamiltons ideas).
Sluggs were, and still are, a major problem then so I put a ring of coarse gravel around each plant. This really helped.

Strawberries, this year, were brought into the greenhouse in Mid Spring, to encourage an early crop. These were plants I dug up from last years planting as I needed the space for the four raised beds, shown here with mini poly tunnels to warm up the soil.

2005-06-27T15:29:00.000+01:00

Planting out the rasberry canes. Notice the well rotted farmyard manure used as a mulch.