Back Doors and Flapping

We fitted back doors to the polytunnel but they got blown off again.

We've also found that the tension of the plastic pulling against the door frames has caused them to twist allowing the plastic to become loose so that it flaps in the wind and makes my erection look a bit sloppy... not a good story. The problem is that the ground is so wet and muddy that everything is moving, we might have to concrete the door frames in place come the summer when things are a little drier.

Got the all clear

Phew, we got the all clear on the trees. Very happy.

The Ash man Cometh...

Unfortunately we had a visit from the the Food and Environment Research Agency today. A representative came to discuss the Ash dieback disease Chalara fraxinea recently covered in national news media. 550 Ash trees were planted on our site back in February this year and sadly it looks like this disease is a serious threat to them. The fungal disease has been found in a number of countries throughout Europe with Common ash being the most affected species. Counties in the south east of England seem to be suffering the worst and FERA are currently trying to stem rapid infection of the wider countryside by visiting sites like ours that have inadvertently bought trees from nurseries where the disease has been found.

Aside from the movement of infected plants the disease is spread locally by spores which are released during late summer. As it's November FERA have time to inspect our trees, analyse any that appear to be contaminated and if tested positive remove all 550 trees from site.

Adding to the complication of the inspection is that we have over 1,500 other trees of various species all planted with identical guards to the Ash. It will be a good deal of work to locate and inspect all 550 trees. I'm hoping they can perform a little bit of weeding while they are at it. The sad thing is that there doesn't appear to be a solution to the problem and it is likely that the disease will eventually reach us regardless. There are a lot of questions that we need to consider regarding shipments of plants from other countries and the impact on our countryside. We save a few pounds here and there through economies of scale but catastrophic damage can be caused in the process.

Find the Ash Tree

On a brighter note, we now have doors on the polytunnel, well front doors anyway. The fold up back doors are next to be fitted but they require two people to fit and unfortunately with Jake around it takes us a little time to get the two person jobs done.

Sally very happy with her new doors.

This is how Jake rolls. A proud Dad with his doors

It's getting hot in here...

Two days of work on the polytunnel and the cover is almost fixed tight. We are really grateful for the help given to us by Bill, Meg and Heather & Gwyn (Meg's parents) to get trenches dug, door frames fixed and heat tape applied. They all worked really hard so we're eternally indebted to them, we'll have to pay them off with lots of polytunnel grown veg next time they come to visit.

The weekend just gone Amy, Wayne and Charlie came down for the day while Beth & Andrew were visiting for the weekend. We got really lucky in that there was only a moderate breeze, some sunshine and everyone was willing to spend the day getting a massive plastic sheet tucked in around a 2.5m high metal frame. It was all a bit tricky, the breeze didn't help as the trick is to get the plastic fitted as tightly as possible. Time will tell if we managed to do a good enough job but again we're really grateful for all the help.

There she is

Overgrown veg plot... oh the shame of it all.

It frames the view very nicely don't you think?

 We finished folding and burying the ends of the polytunnel on Sunday, the only bits left to do are filling in one of the trenches and building and hanging the doors. We're working on the basis that a tunnel wont take off in the wind as the wind can blow straight through it and out the other end. Hopefully that's not an incorrect assumption. Feel free to comment if you know better...?

In all her glory, don't worry it will be shielded by hedges eventually.

Polytunnel Progress

The polytunnel is starting to take shape, we have the metal structure mostly completed with the door frames, doors and cladding yet to complete. The cladding requires a warm still day and a few friends to lend a hand. The problem is that we need to get it all done in one day. One of the tasks involves digging two 15m long trenches 30 x 30cms so by my calculations that's one person digging for each trench, two sets of two watching one set for each trench and then another person to get the tea on. It's not me, this is just how these things work. We also have to tape over all the metal parts that come in contact with the plastic and then there's some pretty fiddly bits and pieces involved in finishing everything off and getting the plastic nice and tight so it won't damage during the winter.

What has been erected so far has been with Sally doing most of the calculations and Jake and I doing the heavy lifting. Jake lifted so much he had to take a rest after lunch...

Foundation tubes carefully positioned and hammered into the ground

Jake having a rest after lunch

The first few poles going up

Starting to take shape

Looking more like it

Does that look straight to you?

That'll do, we hope

Harvest

While the weeds and the slugs are growing rampantly we have managed to harvest a few pieces of veg successfully. The potatoes in the raised beds have been a hit and my mum harvested a load of onions the other day while dad and I attacked the lawn with the strimmer and the mower.

Potatoes

Onions

The supply of veg has been fairly good considering the neglect the garden has suffered of late. It's good enough that when we go to the supermarket I get slightly paranoid about turning up at the tills with very few fresh veg.  If there are a few veg in your basket the donuts, crisps and chocolate look much healthier as part of a 'varied' diet.

Long time no blog...

I was trying to add something to this blog at least once a month, not because I was worried about my precious readership (Hi Dad) but more so that I can look back and feel better about where we started from and how much we've got done. The last little while i've failed to write anything for a mixture of reasons.

The weather has a large part to play. This part of the UK has been terrible of late, plenty of time for writing blogs but not much time for making progress in the garden. Even the BBC have been reporting on the terrible growing season with deluges of rain and slug infestations. We actually have slugs the size of dogs running around our little veggie plot. So this has dampened my mood for writing updates. Selling veg this season has been put aside and we're just opting for providing our own supply of veg if nature will allow us.

The other issue to make me lose enthusiasm for writing has been the task of obtaining planning permission to do the work we want to do in the field. In my last post I mentioned that we were putting up a poly tunnel, well that didn't happen for fear of upsetting our neighbour. Anyway the neighbour has since given us a nod of approval and planning permission has been approved by the council so when the weather gets better we could be all systems go. The work in the garden will be co-ordinated around work we plan to do with hard landscaping around the house and rebuilding our garage.

The third distraction and the most important one is the arrival of our baby boy. He answers to Jake, likes milk and nappies and tends to wee on walls, other people and pretty much anything within a 3ft radius of his winky. His Mum and Dad think he is adorable, hopefully those thoughts will last for at least 30 years.

Jake looking sweet and innocent.