In which English Towers forges on towards self sufficiency
So the day finally dawned, then, and we awoke to that most beautiful of sounds, the clunk of machinery. Now we’re no strangers to a tractor, seeing plenty rattle past the house every day, but to see one juddering up the drive caused much excitement. A van containing the railway sleepers arrived shortly afterwards and I set to work badgering the landscapers about the perfect position for my new kitchen garden, and generally being a huge pain in the arse. Eventually, catching on that raised eyebrows and stifled sighs aren’t a sign that someone’s particularly interested in what you’re saying, I let them get on with it, and here’s the fruit of their labour, as it were. Firstly, when we’d decided on the perfect position (low and to the right, thanks Coastal Aussie!), the railway sleepers were stacked on top of each other and cut in to the sloping lawn:
Next, they were all screwed together:
And finally, a trailer load of Cavan’s finest horse poo was added in a thick layer at the bottom, followed by several tractor-loads of topsoil:
And here’s what it looks like this morning. Seeing as it’s a bit daunting, I’ve divided it into quarters, and so far I’ve got my herbs in one and my tiny cucumber, aubergine and french bean babies plus sweet peas in another. The other two are going to be potatoes and, erm, something else. Now all I need is to buy that book that Thrifty told me about and soon I’ll be ‘knitting my own yoghurt’ as my mate 73man so nicely put it.
Now if only I could persuade Hubby about the bloody chickens…
Hockey: Welcome!! Ooh an organic gardening course? Do tell x
Why ????, in the words of Mr Izzard…. it’s pronounced Herb, as it has a f**king H in it !!!!!!
Surely you should try for broody chickens instead?
(Okay, okay that was woeful for a first comment. Sorry. I’ll get my coat).
We are on EXACTLY the same stroppy wavelength here! I’m teaching my kids to say HHHHHerb, and Basil (as in Faulty) and NOT as in Hazel. Grrr
EM, your raised bed looks great! Keep us posted on progress. I have 6 going, and they can provide our family with most of our veg. needs. I love the Square Foot Gardening method, but I don’t know if it’s popular in Ire. Takes out the intimidation factor when facing a large unplanted space. Happy Gardening.
Darragh: Welcome! Pull up a pink garden chair (yes, I’ve really got those). Okay I’ll admit it, I laughed at the pun. So you get to stay. For now. If you behave.
Sandra: What’s that, then? Oh, hang on, I see Thrifty’s come to the rescue as usual…
Thrifty: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s SUPERTHRIFTY! Loving the tights, by the way x
Oh, and they’re special untreated sleepers for gardening. Apparently, although he could have told me they’re gold plated and I would have believe him I was that excited. Do you know, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a broad bean? Might have to sow a row…
Tara: It could catch on… I remember once in London there were these guerrilla gardeners who swooped down in the night and replanted the city’s roundabouts and civic areas with trees and flowers…
PS: It’s just a Sky dish. Yep, the usual RTE, BBC (Northern Ireland, rather than England though), etc, plus Discovery, (Miami Ink!!), MTV, Sky Sports, movies, etc. What we don’t get is ITV for some reason, which winds Hubby up as he can’t watch the Grand Prix.
Susan: Thanks! It’s lovely but a bit difficult to plant teeny seedlings in when you keep coming across huge lumps of horse shite!!
DBM: ‘He likes big butts and I cannot lie…’ Sorry, no singing this early. You’re going to have to move him to a ranch or something. There’s a farmer inside him just bursting to get out, methinks x
Aidy: I’m working on it. He keeps pointing out (somewhat fairly, granted) that Bert will eat them and we won’t be able to find ‘chicken sitters’ if we go away (big piss up Irish wedding to go to in August). Damn being married to someone sensible.
TM: Ooh that’s good news. We discovered at the weekend that if you take the Sky card out you can get ITV. Weird eh?