The garden has taken priority in April but we’ve still managed to get some work done on the kitchen. The plasterboard has had it’s first coat of plaster, and the chimney and walls have had a second coat of cob put on them. The slats in the loft space have mainly been insulated, plaster-boarded and plastered apart from 3 gaps where we plan to put some windows in. We plan on leaving some of the timbers in place of what is now the kitchen ceiling, but removing others so we have installed an extra beam and support so we can now remove either part of a timber or all of it.
In the garden some of our vegetables have started to make an appearance which has pleased us, at least we’ll have something to eat if the bugs don’t get there first. The straw mulches are working well, and we’re making loads of fresh compost for planting seeds next year.
Richard and Danni have now gone on to pastures new but before they left they made us a bench out of an old hay feeder we found in one of the outbuildings.
A driveway has been put in to allow easier access to the main veg garden for manure deliveries as last year we ended up churning and compacting the soil and generally making a right mess. We paid someone to do this; we’ve got so much else going on, and neither of us fancied doing the job. It took him three days, where it would have taken us a week! We’ve also had some fun and games with our soakaway!
Julie, love those willow(?) supports in the vegetable plot ….. l’m copying that idea. Your veggies seem much in advance of ours … does the straw mulch push them on? Do you still get frost at night? Out with Annie, Joex2, lain and Janet on a final field walk today… looking for Roman pottery but old habits die hard so managed to find a couple of nice flints too. Lunch in the Llama Karma cafe. Talked about your blog and the amazing things you and Joe are doing….xCarol
We started most of them off inside at the beginning of March and planted them out at the end with cloches over them.The potatoes were put in 3 weeks ago.We haven’t had any frost for about 4 weeks, the straw is to stop the water evaporating, it’s been in the mid 20C over here and we are forecast it getting to 30C this week so it’s quite hot here all ready. I’ve not found any flint here yet but I keep looking when we go out for a walk, as you say old habits die hard.
Very nice drive, love how you have put a bed next to the hens, guessing this will be for fodder plants. Very Permaculture 🙂
It sounds wonderfully warm Julie, no wonder your stuff is further on!! Had really cold nights here last week and today was like a winter’s day, howling wind, really cold and thrashing down with rain. Got the woodburner going all day and not all of veggie seeds in yet, although purple flowering brocolli is delicious! Do you need any seeds? Can post on.
Your garden looking terrific though and so is the house. Great work guys, well done! :~)
Yes, thinking maybe nasturtiums for ground cover or climbing, sunflowers as a trellis for drying for winter, but a bit stuck for a mid-layer crop. Perhaps some fruiting bushes would be good, but it would be nice to have a leaf crop for them later in the year. I wonder if chard would be good?
We’re good for seeds thanks Sally. Thanks for telling us it’s still cold. Sometimes it drops below 10 degrees here and we think it’s cold, but then we’re reminded it’s still winter in the UK, and fell a lot better!