A Good Day
Finding simple pleasures in the garden and the nature within it
Yesterday was a good day. The wind had dropped, the sun shone and the birds were singing. When I opened my curtains I saw my first chiffchaff of the year hopping around in a flowering red currant bush. I decided to make the most of the favorable conditions and spend the day pottering around in the garden.
An early stroll revealed that a previously dormant hedgerow had burst into blossom, and that it is blackthorn! How lovely. Because we moved into our new home in January, every day is like a voyage of discovery. New plants popping up, coming into leaf and bursting into flower. When we moved in we had no idea what grows here - it is exciting to see and identify new plants as they appear!
While I was admiring the blackthorn blossom I could here a skylark singing above a nearby field, and a familiar cry alerted me to a pair of buzzards circling overhead. Predictably a pair of crows building a nest among our Scots pines soon saw them off, accompanied by raucous cawing.
I turned and took in the view over our pond. After living my entire life in housing estates I still can’t quite believe that we now live here. It seems surreal. I take time to just breathe in the feeling of space and calmness.
I don’t feel a sense of ownership - more of responsibility. And opportunity. I can’t change the world or the awful things happening in it. I can’t take world leaders and bang their heads together and force them to care about things that matter. But I can do my very best to care for this little patch of the earth and the plants and animals that live here. I can use this space to be as self-sufficient as possible, while minimizing our impact and benefiting the nature around us.
Time to get down to some work. Most of our land is to the front of our bungalow, around the pond as seen in the photo above. Although beautiful, this land is not suitable for kitchen gardening. It is too exposed to the frequent strong winds and prone to flooding.
Although not obvious, our land is situated on a slope that goes from right to left in the above photo, with the pond in a bowl. After heavy rain, water flows down the slope and the pond fills and overflows. The water then continues to flow downhill to the left. Perhaps this explains why our land was so affordable - it is not particularly suitable for development or cultivation.
There is, however, a much smaller garden round the back that is sheltered by dense hedges and fences, and is an absolute sun trap. This area was mostly grass, with flower borders and shrubs along one side. We decided to convert this into our kitchen garden, and one of the first things we did after moving in was to install four raised beds.
These took a lot of filling. We used the turf removed when we planted the trees in our new orchard, fallen branches, leaves and pine needles from around the garden, vegetation skimmed from the surface of the pond, and many bags of homemade compost which we brought with us from our previous home. We also had a bulk delivery of vegetable top soil to finally get the raised beds full and ready for planting. Here are a couple of photos from February when we had just started filling the beds.
The paths between the beds are a work in progress. First we lay down a double layer of cardboard (from the boxes we used for moving). This is then watered well, and covered in wood chip we have prepared from branches and twigs found around the garden (the recent storms helped!) Eventually we want to extend the paths all around the beds, but it takes a lot of branches to make a decent amount of wood chip with our small and aging chipper, so this is a slow process.
Yesterday I planted out spinach, chard, dwarf pea and cabbage seedlings that I have grown from seed. I added some oregano, thyme and sage plants that we brought with us, and sowed lettuce, carrot, parsnip, parsley and coriander seeds.
It was a pleasant task, accompanied by the songs of the previously mentioned chiffchaff, wrens, chaffinches, robins, blackbirds and a very vocal song thrush.
When I looked up I saw a coal tit checking out one of several nest boxes around the property - I hope it meets with approval.
Various alliums have already been planted in the raised beds, and these should help to deter some insect pests. Later in the spring, after the last frost date, I will add flowers to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects. Alyssum, marigold, Calendula and poached-egg plant seedlings are growing in the house ready to be transplanted in due course.
After completing the day’s planting in the raised beds, I shift my attention to the first of our beds created using sheet mulching. Like the paths mentioned above this was created using layers of cardboard laid over the grass. The cardboard was watered thoroughly, and then covered with a mixture of top soil and compost.
In this new bed I cut holes through the cardboard layer, and planted sprouting broccoli and Brussel sprout seedlings through the holes. Stakes were added to support the plants when they grow. The bed was then covered with a vegetable cage we brought with us from our previous home. This was our first attempt at sheet mulching, and I am happy with the result.
After a break for lunch we headed down to the very front of the garden, where a large raised bed was already present when we moved in. On the way I spot a beautiful peacock butterfly fluttering by. And a little toad in the long grass, presumably heading to the pond. I hope the heron is looking the other way!
The raised bed at the front of the garden is too large to access without walking on it, so we created a path down the middle, again using cardboard and wood chip.
It is a bit of a trek down here, especially in wet and windy weather, so in future years I intend to use this bed for perennial plants that don’t need a lot of attention.
This year, though, I planted several varieties of potatoes and sowed some tough Swiss chard, beetroot and kale seeds, which will hopefully survive the exposed conditions. And my prized Babington leek bulbils which, when established, should provide food for many years to come.
In the photo below you can see Matt in the background hoeing an area where we are sowing native wildflower seeds. Hopefully these will provide food for all manner of creatures - and be beautiful, of course.
While I was working I heard a sound that got my heart racing. I looked up and, sure enough, there was a group of nine whooper swans flying past in a perfect ‘V’ formation. What a wonderful sight! It seems unfeasible that these large, hefty birds with their long necks can actually take off and fly, and yet they go all the way to Iceland and back each year.
But then the tiny chiffchaff that greeted me this morning may have migrated from North Africa, and even butterflies cross oceans. These feats are so precarious and fraught with danger that the least we can do is to ensure there is suitable habitat for these animals when they are in our part of the world. I believe that supporting conservation societies is one of the best ways of doing this. The reserves they create and manage are so vital for both migrant and resident species.
After all our exertions it was time to pack up for the day. Walking back to the house my back and hip ached alarmingly, and my bad knee kept threatening to give way with every jolt. But it was worth it. There is something so immensely satisfying about achieving tasks in the garden, and knowing you will reap the benefits later on.
And seeing the whooper swans was, as always, just so special.
It was indeed a good day.
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Lots of discoveries in your land - what an exciting time to have moved up there. I've found that with poached egg plant, once sown you never need to sow again a following year, as it self-seeds mightily!
Sorry about your creaky knee. I will say that Pilates and lifting hand weights have been the best things for my 60 years plus body - far more core strength to offset all the strain on the back, and stronger legs and arms for the digging and lifting.
You are making what appears to me to be rapid progress: and I am mightily impressed. I have never been a fan of massive areas of grass: so it's the raised beds and clever path-making that appeal most… – making brilliant use of all that excess cardboard!
Good luck with everything; and find a good physio to look after your aching bones!