It's Da Bomb

Oh my. This machine is awesome. My goodness, it does the job. WOW!

If any of you looked at that video, well, I am the woman in the video, with my wellingtons and garden gloves. However, do be aware that it is hard work. I mean, you have to hold the "on" button, whilst manoeuvring the machine, and digging it right down into the soil - I was muscularly sore this morning when I woke up. BUT, you see, that comes from passing over the entire patch in probably an hour. So the same amount of work as with a fork, but in a quarter of the time. Not bad, eh?

By the way, you may have noticed there, I have moved the compost bin. Hurrah! Finally I moved it from it's old position



down at the end of the left border, to this space where it will get much more sun, and produce a proper bit of compost. I actually did this a few weeks ago - and just today, I finally put it in it's final resting place. When I initially moved it, I put it in the middle, but realised that (1) I hadn't really cultivated the soil underneath, and (2) why in the middle? Plus it was slightly leaning to the side which was rather annoying, and would bug me ad infinitum ...

Well that was a good move, because in the end by lifting it (again) I managed to get even more of that lovely stuff to spread around.




That will be cultivated in tomorrow, before some vegetable planting. With the lovely green beast!

Another New Garden Toy

I have been wrestling with the fact that our vegetable patch will be expanded this year. Which is good news, of course, as I will be able to grow much more. But part of that soil has been under wraps for too long.

From the third fence post from the right at the back, will be the expanded vegetable plot. That's 12+ feet. About 5 ft down to the lawn.

The situation was, it was under a tarp. Not good for soil. Sure, it kept the weeds down, to a certain extent, but it is hard as a rock when it's dry. Very, very difficult to dig over.

Do any of you remember it looking like this?

I realised that the dryness of the soil was a problem, because it dries like cement. So last weekend, I put the sprinkler on it for an hour or so.

In an hour I managed to dig a couple of feet of it with a fork. Seriously hard work.

I was considering renting a smaller version of "the beast" which we used to dig over the entire garden when we first moved in. But then I thought, hey, why don't I just buy one? Surely we'll use it again and again, to dig over the ground for the vegetable patch every year?

I found it - I almost bought something off e-bay, but this tickled my fancy more and I was outbid anyway. Here is a link, and do look at the video if you get a chance; I would be interested to know if any of you have tried this?

http://www.clifford-james.co.uk/ProductDetailInfoWithoutOptions.cfm?ID=GF741&ShopRef=68&Prime=Yes&shopListRec=33257

I am so, so excited to get this baby and do some tilling. Ready for all the vegetable plants I have ordered from Sutton's! A job lot of 160 plug plants, 12 different varieties from beetroot to broccoli. Bring it on!

The War of the Weeds

I have a new toy. It came from Lakeland, one of my favourite stores, but I have seen them elsewhere and have been eyeing them up for a year or so now ...

Well, I finally bought it!

Husband is in love with it, too - I couldn't get it out of his hands yesterday.

Weeds do not stand a chance in my garden anymore!

The Parasene "Weed Wand". A little beauty with a jet of flame. Here is a link:

https://www.parasene.com/vshop/details.asp?prodID=384

There is a video on the left so you can see it in action. I highly recommend it. My, it works a treat! As the website says, it "disrupts the cell structure of the weeds, causing them to die in a day or two without using expensive toxic chemicals". Result!

Apparently you're not supposed to "burn" the weeds, just pass the wand over them with it's intense jet of heat, but as I say, husband was having way too much fun ...

Weeds beware!

Compost Bin

At last, I have moved the compost bin to a more suitable area.

Last Year's Prediction

Weather-wise, it was for a "wetter and warmer" summer than the previous year (which wasn't much to speak of at all).

That was pretty much correct - apart from the fact that I did have a nice harvest of tomatoes, lettuce and potatoes, it wasn't much of a summer. It was what I would like to call a "damp squib".

But do you know what they are promising this summer?

A "barbeque summer". That means sun and heat, temperatures more regularly in the 30's celsius (that's in the 80's for us non-metric types).

Hurrah! Bring it on!