I have four days to go before the end of my 100 post challenge. Hence the title.
Apart from that, I am short of inspiration.
I had a look round the MENCAP garden this morning. Here are some photographs.
Composting operations are going well, and the woodchip has all been tidied away. There’s even a scarecrow to guard the woodchip piles. This is an important part of the garden as the “soil” is, in places, only a few inches deep over the builder’s rubble that was left after the rebuilding of the school.
There is plenty of bird life about to, though they mainly manage to hide behind branches and prevent my autofocus working. Apart from the normal birds we also have a variety of gulls, terns, ducks, geese and cormorants flying overhead as we’re just the width of a path away from the River Trent. There were gulls and cormorants this morning but nothing stopped to pose for me.
A big project for the coming year is reskinning the smaller polytunnel. That’s what happens when you don’t have a policy of replacing things until they fall apart. Ideally, for you should reskin them after about three years as they become opaque and less light gets to the plants. This one has lasted seven or eight years so it hasn’t done badly. It finally became so brittle that it simply gave up. Julia taped it back together last winter but there’s now nothing to stick the tape on.
Polytunnel in distress
Overwintering broad beans
At least there is a good cropof broad beans coming along…
Very promising looking compost. Did it heat up well?
Considering the lack of balanced composting material (as in too much grass) and general neglect it seems to heat up well and turns out OK.
Yay for snow drops and broad beans!
Agreed!
Branches are the curse of autofocus
And grass. I swear I never even thought of grass until I got autofocus.
Yes
You’ve done well with this post – an interesting read!
What I would give for a pile of wood chip as shown in your photos.
They get it from a local tree surgeon, who is glad to get rid of it. You might be able to get some if you ask round. You just need the storage space!
Thank you!
Once you start using it there are so many uses. 🙂
I’m sure there are 😊
🙂
7 or 8 years on a polytunnel is a good long life.
I have sweet potato slips overwintering in my garage with a little heat. This is our first experiment growing these plants, and I hope they make it until spring.
I did think of trying sweet potatoes but like so many thoughts of mine it never came to anything. I hope yours go well. 🙂