12 week turnaround: week 1

I've just completed the first week of my 12 week turnaround and what a busy week it's been! Despite going away for the bank holiday weekend i've managed to tidy and declutter the cupboard under the kitchen sink, rehomed 3 cookery books, taken 2 foot off the very overgrown hedge, cut the grass and given it a much needed weed and feed, waterproofed the front of the house ready for winter and washed down and repainted the porch ready for my new front door which arrives on Wednesday. It's amazing what you can do in a week, although I have been off work so I suspect not all of my weeks will be as productive as this one. I've also learnt how to prune roses, it's been on my to-do list for ages but i've never got round to it, now after a quick search online (whatever did we do before the internet!) i'm a rose pruning 'expert' and my roses have just started to flower again.

I've also had a few offerings from the veg patch this week - some gorgeous freshly dug potatoes, broad beans and a large courgette. There's plenty more to come, especially courgettes as my 'dwarf' Verde di Milano courgette plants from the Real Seed catalogue  are taking over the veg patch!

I can't believe how huge they've grown, they've sprawled about a metre in width, and as I thought they were dwarf plants i've planted about 6 so the veg patch is slightly over-run at the moment. I suspect it's something to do with the erratic weather we've been having, or perhaps the huge mound of compost I planted them on, but i'm not complaining as they're producing plenty of flowers and hopefully lots of courgettes to follow.

Hetty, Betty and more decluttering

Sadly, Anais and Lily have recently passed away - I think as ex barn hens they were just 'egged out' and exhausted. This left Violet wandering around the huge run on her own and looking rather sorry for herself so i've got her a couple of new friends, a couple of bantams named Hetty and Betty:

At first there were fireworks as Violet chased them around the run, ensuring that they knew that she was the boss. I brought out extra feeders and drinkers, lifted them into the coop for the first couple of nights and by the end of the week she had accepted them as part of her flock. As you can see from their barely visible combs, they're only young so i'm not expecting any eggs from them until spring, but they seem happy and quite clucky in their new home.

I've also got another, rather exciting, new addition to the run coming very soon, but i'll save that for another post...

On the 'housey' front, I spent yesterday morning decluttering the cupboard underneath the stairs. I've found a few old coats that i'm going to drop off at the charity shop tomorrow and i've managed to finally organise my tins of paint and painting supplies from my 'decorate two bedrooms in two weeks' challenge in August (yes I do like to put the pressure on). I also got rid of two bags of junk that were lurking in there, recycling what I could, and I also discovered a bag of hay from my guinea-pig keeping days (over 2 years ago!) which i've rehomed in the shed ready for when I build my no-dig raised bed in the spring.

Today, i'm hoping to keep up with the decluttering vibe that's currecntly enthusing me by cleaning out the cupboards under the kitchen sink. I'm sure i'll find more junk, but hopefully some useful things too!

Progress

Remember the junked up area at the bottom of the garden that I posted about here, well four months later and i'm pleased to say that i've finally finished it (I said I was a flighty person!). The junk area has gone from this:

to this:

As you can see i've created another compost area and have started to lay down some cardboard to kill off the weed growth. I've also been given a load of tyres which i'm planning to grow next years potatoes in. The area isn't completely finished yet as i'm planning on building a no-dig raised bed there but i'm waiting until the weather's a bit warmer before I begin that, otherwise the bed will keep in the cold.

Well at least that's one thing I can tick off my list and my life now feels slightly more clutter-free!

Photo Reflections Day 4

Whilst outside cleaning out the chooks I had a rather pleasant surprise. My outdoor tomato plants had provided me with this offering, I can't believe they're still growing, especially when the ones in the greenhouse have long since wilted and died. They've still got ripening fruits on them too so i'm going to leave them for a while longer and see if they manage to fully ripen before the cold weather really hits.

Potatoes in the compost heap!

Look what I found growing in my compost heap:


I suspected there might be something going on when I saw the stems emerging from the top of the bin but I didn't expect to unearth such fine, perfectly edible specimens when I turned the heap.

It's been almost a year since I took over the role of head (well only) gardener and I have learnt so much along the way, for example, don't be too eager to start off your seedlings or they will, as I have found, die and you'll be back where you started. Also, that fleece isn't the best way of protecting cabbages when you live on the windy coast. There's still so much to learn too, especially as i'm a bit of a magpie when it comes to gardening and I like to try out everything at once instead of learning a little bit at a time. It's exciting though and I felt so proud when my Nanna, a seasoned gardener, commented that my veg patch was doing well.

This year, I've fallen in love with the Real Seeds website and have purchased most of my seeds from them, in fact i've bought so many that I think I may even be able to set up my own shop! But I like the fact that they encourage you to save your own seed from what you grow and use it in future years, so in theory you only need to purchase the seeds once. They also have lots of unusual varieties such as the exploding cucumber, which i've chosen to stay well away from!

The magpie in me is also being enticed by the moreveg website, although, so far i've managed to refrain from ordering anything from them as I keep telling myself I have enough seeds and I don't need any more. I do think their monthly sowing offers are great though and if I found I had enough space i'd probably opt for one. I'm also tempted by the funky veg gift set with it's blue cabbages and purple carrots!

So yes, a year on and I think i'm even more enthused about growing my own veggies than I was when I started. Long may it continue!

I never thought I could get so excited about pulling up radish - but they are just so much bigger than what you find in the shops!

I have chickens...well hens!

As part of my focus on turning my house into a home i've taken the next step towards self-sufficiency and have bought some chickens. They arrived just over 3 weeks ago and are some of the most fabulous and quirky little creatures i've ever come across - i've lost count of how many times i've had my toes pecked, they just don't seem to realise that they're not edible! I bought the complete starter package from Chicubes and opted for the extra large run as I knew I wouldn't be able to let the chooks free range while I was at work. It came with everything I needed to get up and running, right down to the hens, which were three rescued ex-barn hens. So far my chooks seem very happy and I seem to average about 2 eggs per day from them, though I suspect that one isn't laying yet. It doesn't matter though, so far they've provided me with hours of amusement simply by their quirkiness, and it warms my heart to think that i've given them a better future than they would have had, the eggs are just a tasty bonus.

Anais and Violet on their first day of freedom - Lilly is still hiding inside!

Having a nosey around the garden (once again Lilly is being camera shy).

Lilly comes to say hello.

30 things - Buy a plum tree for my garden

In this post here I listed 30 things I wanted to do before I was 30. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been keeping an eye on the list but when I looked over it the other day I found that i've been doing lots of things on there already. One of the things on the list was to buy a plum tree for my garden, it's something that i've always wanted but when I was with my partner our plans were for this house to be more of a stop gap while we got some money together, paid off our mortgage asap and moved on to our dream home, so a plum tree was going to have to wait until we moved.

Looking back now, I realise that we really put our lives on hold and were forever living for the future. Strangely enough, since our separation, my views have completely changed and while a mortgage free future would be amazing i've realised that you still have to live for the present moment because, as cliched as it sounds, you never know what the future is going to bring. The fear of losing the house when we separated jolted me into realising how it had become a home for me, not just a stop gap. Needless to say, the first thing I did when I found out that I was able to keep the house was order a plum tree and bizarrely enough it arrived on the day I finally completed on the house.

Planting it was backbreaking work. The soil around here is a heavy, clay type the forms a rock hard crust if there hasn't been enough rain. I hadn't thought ahead to clearing the area of weeds and brambles so that had to be done before I could even think about digging a hole large enough to accommodate it's roots.

I suppose really this year has been a bit of a learning curve for me, previously the garden was largely my partners domain and i'd do the odd spot of weeding and pick a few strawberries or tomatoes but that was it, but to dig out a load of brambles, prepare the soil and plant a tree - that was completely unheard of! Anyway, I was quite impressed with the results, even if the plum tree (aka Twiggy) did look a bit wonky, i've even started to consider myself a bit of a gardener!

The plum tree look much happier now, it's started to sprout some leaves and hasn't blown away yet in the strong gales we've been having so I think I must have done an okay job.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Whoops!

Well I haven't been on here for ages, life and all it's busyness took over for a while...a very long while in fact. There were times when I thought about this blog and the posts i'd like to make but there has just been so much to do that by the end of the day i've been too exhausted and any attempts at 'posts' would have been nothing more than incoherent drivel! Over the past 8 months i've learnt that sometimes you've just got to stop, in fact I think that one little piece of advice has kept me sane. There really has been so much to do, i'm not quite sure how I managed fit it all in! I'm now officially a single homeowner after buying my ex out of his share of the house. Despite not being married there was still so much to do and the process of transferring the mortgage took a whopping 6 months to complete - the paperwork seemed to be lost at least 4 times which didn't make things any easier. Then the changing of names on bills seemed to go on forever and there were joint accounts to close too, combine this with various car problems and a nasty house leak, not to mention the actual process of coming to terms with the breakup and things seem to have been pretty much relentless.

However, it hasn't all been doom and gloom. In fact i've been quite productive over the last few months and i'm quite impressed with my efforts. I've redecorated the hallway, complete with a new carpet, and i've even made my own lampshades too! I've also had the kerb at the front of the house dropped so that I now have a driveway, plus i've bought a new car to go on it (yay!). I've managed to tame the garden, which sadly had been left to it's own devices since August, but which is now fully under control complete with a freshly dug over veg patch, a wildflower bed and plenty of seedlings sprouting in the greenhouse - i'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they'll keep growing. I've also kept myself well fed with plenty of home cooked meals, though I must admit that batch cooking has been a real saviour.

I'll update more soon, hopefully with some garden pics...but in the meantime here's what the wildflower patch looked like before...



and after my conifer clearing session...



I was quite proud of my efforts and I can't wait until the wildflowers start to grow!