The essential nature of Nature

This year more than any other (perhaps because my life is generally so brilliant and balanced these days) I've found myself afflicted by Hibernatyitis. (Another possible reason is the replacement of one -itis by another: my severe bout of Londonitis seems to be well and truly over and lifted at the beginning of this year, rather suddenly.) Thankfully, life has been such that my Hibernatyitis hasn't been too torturous (I just find myself more inclined to curl up in a small ball and sleep) but I have been missing daylight so much. Walking to work means that for the majority of the year I get at least 30 minutes of daylight exposure, and in the summer often more when I loiter on the beach on my way home. But for a good while I've been lucky to see much daylight either side of being in work. Which just isn't a good thing.

Wednesday saw me go and administer an hour of daylight in the middle of the day (I hear some people call this a lunch hour...) but TODAY I got to get my favourite dosing of daylight - up on the hills, with a pair of loppers and a pruning saw in my hand. And the obligatory rain and hale showers here and there. Of course.

It wasn't a particularly strenuous day but I like to hope one of today's activities in particular will have made my Da proud: Beasting Elders. We have a long family tradition of attacking these poor, unsuspecting trees (in fairness, they generally get replaced with other native trees but I recognise how weird this family trait - one I absolutely share - may seem, particularly for a card carrying tree hugger). My beasting was of the mild variety (severe lopping rather than complete removal) and was inspired by the fact that another bundle of elders in the same location had been lopped last year and produced many more flowers and fruit. The whole business of pruning is an interesting one and although a brief visit, my time today in this local forest garden added yet more food for thought to my plottings of "Tigger's Idyll".

It also added comfrey to a couple of works' borders (removed with permission, I hasten to add!) Comfrey very much seems to be a double edged sword in permaculture applications, being a great nutrient accumulator, ground cover and voracious grower...but also being a voracious spreader. It's fairly contained in its new locations and (the theory goes) will help "feed" the fruit bushes it's planted alongside but at the moment its all very experimental. The process of devouring a great book on perennial vegetables with a view to choosing different plants for different locations (work may not have a lot of space, but being on various sides of a building it certainly has lots of rather distinct microclimates!) is continuing and I may even get around to hunting seeds and possibly small plants by the end of the weekend. With such a blank canvas ahead of me, anything could happen.

But best of all, I can feel the Hibernatyitis lifting as the days lengthen. Huzzah! That's not to say I won't still take the option of curling up with a duvet when the mood takes me - simply that I'll do it entirely through choice rather than by any midwinter affliction.

The Jungle at Chez Tigs - a photographic summary

This is a fairly long and rambling blog about the ins and outs of my growings at home - in many ways I've used it as my own personal growing diary so if gardening's not your thing, you may want to skim / skip this one!

Sunday lunchtime
Today was a day without plans but with lots of potential - and after breakfast on the beach I fancied "getting on and doing" - and what took my fancy first of all was playing with my various plants at home. And having played with them, I fancied doing a bit of a summary!

The biggest challenge is knowing where to start. With the plants that have been here the longest? From the top of the house down? From the bottom of the house up? Inside to out? Outside to in? I have a true delight with my house in that I experience it in different ways - coming in through different doors, different "journeys" through the house on different days and at different times, and even things like temporarily forgetting part of the jungle (in this case, the outside plants at the front - how I could forget those when I see them every time I come in and out of the house I have no idea!). And I'm still at a loss as to where to start...so I'll just start and see where it takes me.

Spider Plants

One of two tubs that "came
with the house" up on the
second floor landing

So, spider plants are a bit marmite-esque in people's response to them - folk seem either to love 'em or hate 'em. But the truth of the matter for me was that they were the only thing that survived the neglect any plants in my home were subjected to when I wasn't living here full time.

Most rooms have at least one
spider plant if nothing else!

They also seemed to work in some kind of symbiosis with one of the house plants that was here when I moved in (the stick in the photo on the left) which resurrected itself quite successful...although has since given up the ghost again. But given their seeming ability to grow through any amount of neglect (and mainly desertification) makes them somewhat of a staple in my house.

I love these shelves but have
been on such a clear out that
I don't yet have gazillions of
books to fill them - so spider
plants it is

In addition, while I'm still cultivating other more "useful" (edible etc.) plants, they're still doing their photosynthesising and bringing a bit of (plant) life to rooms which otherwise would be empty of such growing.

A useful spider-plant
nook in the hallway

I occasionally take to composting the odd one (another fine use for spider plants - although I'm not sure of the quality of compost they produce...) but the general plan at the moment is to cultivate some more large-ish plants which I may then be able to use as ornamental plants at work - while they're small, spider plants just look a little pathetic!

I must confess I also do rather like the way they cascade from high shelves and the like so for now, the spider plants will be staying. In if you're a spider plant hater, there will be a few more creeping into later photos but they'll be hiding amongst other plants - so do persevere!

Currently cropping...with the spider plants out of the way, on to my current grand success! I got myself some troughs which I had always planned on using as salad window boxes and which are coming on a treat - and also my main source of leafy greens at the moment. That all three of the said troughs are up on the second floor simply adds to their healthiness - the odd bit of running up and down the stairs to furnish myself with some spinach or lettuce doesn't go amiss!

My plant identification skills are pretty shocking at the moment (I'm working on it...slowly!) but when I originally planted the troughs they had a combination of lettuce, spinach, perpetual spinach and rocket in them. At least - I think they did!

The lettuce and spinach have been growing well for a while now and I'm beginning to really see the difference between the perpetual spinach and the "normal" spinach as well. However, the rocket was nowhere in sight.

There's one "weed" (for weed read "plant I haven't yet identified and therefore don't know what to use it for so for the time being am eliminating it to focus on the things I do know how to use") which I think the troughs picked up seeds for when they were outside (in anticipation of the drip trays I'd ordered for them) and which have been particularly fertile - and are now merrily composting.

Thinning out those has definitely helped the target-edible-leaves but today I attacked one of the troughs with a plastic fork (I don't have a small thinning out tool - but said fork worked rather well) and potted on some of the plants that were crowding out the others. I'll be intrigued to see how this trough does compared to the others but in addition to having a whole bunch of plants which hopefully do better with more space, I also found my first rocket plant! Hurrah!

Spinach and lettuce line the ledge in
front of the largest window, with 4 little
tomato plants just starting out to the
left (oh, and a spider plant, of course)

I've also hit my weeks-long target of having exhausted my pot supply - this will not in any way prevent me from cracking on with new projects (my favourite tricks of turning plastic water bottles into pots and using empty tetrapaks as drip trays will soon net me more containers I'm sure) but has been a bit a milestone. And milestones deserve celebration - so huzzah huzzah :)

A related milestone, of filling every window ledge of space, is still in progress and it looks like my plan of having mini shelves going up the side of windows may be coming to fruition sooner than I'd anticipated which may put that milestone somewhat further off again - but increases the jungle-potential rather dramatically which is very exciting.

My kitchen window ledge - not the
sunniest spot in the house but enough
light to keep things ticking over - and
the site of many a carrot seed sprouting!
The low tray is home to some thyme
seeds, then there's a lettuce plant, a
spinach and a pot I planted with "some
seeds" (I knew what they were at the time.
Not any more) and which keeps showing
signs of some sprouting but never
quite coming to fruition...

One thing Grow the House Down is really bringing home for me is the desireability for starting early. In my case, early may mean several years as the plan is to get a bunch of perennials going so when I find bits of open-air space I could use I've got established plants I could put straight in. But it also means my expectations for harvesting this year are very modest given many of the plants had their growing seasons rather limited by when I actually planted them (the tomatoes being a case in point).

The second herb pot getting
some growing in (the other
tub has purple sprouting
broccoli and carrot seedlings)

Another "currently cropping" are my herb pots. I have two (one which is in my kitchen ready for use and another which lives in a sunnier spot to do some more vigorous growing - and then they get swapped over) and although I'm in an ongoing battle with some whitefly, regular spraying with soapy water seems to be helping a lot. Parsley and chives are the main staples in the pot, with some spinach and coriander doing the best they can. Snip snip and the garnish is done = genius.

A whole variety - tomatoes, mint, spinach
aloe vera, jasmine, geranium and coriander

Other ground-floor growings While we're down in the kitchen seems like a good time to look at the living room and back room window ledges. I love having lots of plants in my living room and the geranium plant feels like one of my "oldest friends" when it comes to plants (I somehow don't have the same affection for the spider plants). My Mum got it for me when I was in Halifax and it was one of the few plants that really thrived over there - and being in a hanging basket makes it even better. The way it cascades over the side is wonderful. I'm still not convinced about the vigorous growing potential of the windows on the front of the house (which is north-east facing) but plants are able to survive which is a step in the right direction and the jasmine seems to be enjoying itself. I'm looking forward to putting some supports (possibly just some string) in to train it upwards. Space for lots more on this window ledge, too...

From left: purple sprouting broccoli,
first year asparagus plants and a
couple of cucumber plants

 The room at the back on the ground floor (which was originally a shop and still has the - rather dilapidated and currently boarded up - shop front) has until recently been the workshop for a local part-time guitar maker. Life's changed for him so he's moved out but I've yet to decide what to do with the room. But in the mean time, there are window ledges to be used!

My solo aubergine seedling, plus more
asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli

I'm cultivating a whole series of asparagus plants - I purchased some year old roots which in theory should have rehydrated and been growing away, but every single one I planted failed. Which was a shame - but is making the delicate fronds of my grown-from-seed asparagus even more exciting.

Next up: my back yard. For a long time this was the focus of my growing efforts because it had the highest chance of getting at least *some* watering (in the form of rain) in my absence. The bushiest greenery you'll see at the far end of the frame is a miniature tree I bought years ago which has continued to grow and be small. Along the back wall you can just make out three treelings - on the far left, a greengage that was a gift, then two apples. I think these are likely to end up at my office building next year, but for now they're merrily growing leaves and having a whale of a time.

Many of the plants that were also in the frame (an old divan base which just gave me a structure to start with) have now moved to the front yard or further afield, but there's still one lone gooseberry bush awaiting a new home, again, probably next year now. However, the other two highlights of the yard are my water butt (which I love - but note the not-yet-finished nature of its connection to the drainpipe top right- it's not actually lined up directly beneath the pipe due to the location of the drain in the ground and my plan for finishing off the piping) and two rather innocuous looking white tubs in the left foreground. Growing plants in containers is all well and good but fertiliser is going to be important - and this weekend I harvested myself some comfrey and nettles from the wonderful Middlewood Trust  and have started the festering process (given the smell it creates it can only be described as festering) of the mix with a healthy dose of water which, fingers crossed, will result in some great vegan low impact liquid fertiliser. That was one of this mornings jobs so I'm still feeling particularly pleased for having got it done (it's been on the list for quite some time!).

The front yard has, sadly, been subject to some vandalism so although the bathtub should be thriving and full of strong plants, it's actually just hanging on with much smaller plants than I'd hoped for. It's been a real disappointment that someone (or a group of someones) has decided to make my plants the target of their repeated vandalism (it's one of the reason I've got the apple trees in my back yard:  one of them had been pulled out of the soil and dumped exposing the roots to the air and leaving them to dry out. I was fairly convinced that would have well and truly killed it, but I try popping it back into some soil in a rather more protected spot and it's come back to life rather well) but I've decided just to get on with it and hope they cease. It's brought home the immense vulnerability of plants, even fairly established ones, but will not put a stop to the growing!

The part of the front yard which is down a set of steps has, to date, not been prone to the vandalism attacks the bathtub has experienced and has a range of plants growing, including broadbeans, some more chives, some of the ubiquitous purple sprouting broccoli, carrots, courgette, gooseberry and blackcurrant (which has some little green fruits on - hurrah!).

I've recently also added some plants in a very sheltered, but surprisingly sunny (in these summer mornings, at least) alcove between the steps and one of the windows - seen here along with my feet (a rather fun hark back to my photographs from Bolivia where my feet became a bit of an intentional theme...)

Which brings us to our penultimate location - my bathroom window ledge. The little cactus (one of two cacti I have - the second being a housewarming present from a friend which is down on my kitchen window ledge) and the "money tree" are two plants I wasn't quite sure where they should live - so they keep the toilet roll happy. The jasmine was a rather impulsive purchase (along with the other two I got) but when in flower brings a lovely distinctive smell to the room. Which is all rather nice.

And finally - the second floor landing. In many ways I thought I'd start the tour here, this being the first set of plants I generally see of a morning - and the last I see before going to bed (I do have a spider plant in my bedroom, but it somehow rarely catches my attention).

I love this view as I'm coming down from my room - a light, airy space with plenty of plants, the penguin mobile my sister got me for Christmas and my wonderful Whatnot. And no, it's not that I can't remember the name for the piece of furniture - it's actually called a Whatnot. Brilliant. This is one of the first pieces of furniture I ever bought - I think Whatnots are brilliant and when I saw one for sale very cheaply back in my teens I bought it. For a long time it lived in my bedroom at my parents' house, then on delivery to Morecambe it became my "stuff next to the shoe rack and coats" shelf but somehow didn't quite suit there. It then got relegated to the back room while I worked out where it should live - until it found its new home.

As odd as it may sound, I feel like this is the spot my Whatnot was bought for - over a decade after its initial purchase. I've never seen another Whatnot like it, it folds flat and just has a lovely sense of space to it - and fits perfectly in the corner of my landing. As you'll see there's still plenty of space to fill with more plants - although it doesn't get much direct sunlight (plenty of brightness, just not sunshine per se). I love it.

The two plant-jobs I started with today (which rather multiplied once I got started) where starting off the liquid fertiliser and potting on 11 little asparagus plants - who are now merrily living on the Whatnot, along with a cyclamen from my Mum, some more spider plants and another aloe plant (which has survived well but hasn't particularly grown - another result, I suspect, of my rather absent-minded care regime).

And that is the current state of play of the Jungle. It's very much a juvenile jungle (in fact, jungle's probably not the word for it at all, but that's the "end-game" picture I have in my mind) but it's terribly exciting and makes me happy.

If you have any tips on any of the plants I've mentioned - or, indeed, any suggestions for other edible plants that do particularly well indoors - please do let me know!

Operation Grow the House Down is ON

Monday evening

Now, don't let the title confuse you. I'm not ACTUALLY trying to grow so much plant matter in my house that it pulls the thing down. It was just a catching sounding title in my head. For ages I've been repeating the "if only I had a garden at home...I've only got a very shady yard". And yet I've a GAZILLION window ledges, and generally lots of Space. It's not the same as outside - but it's definitely space to grow! I'm continuing to try some outside pots in different spaces (sadly the biggest space I have is currently prone to destructive behaviour from person or persons unknown - but I'm contemplating options for there as well. Spiky type options which are less appealing from an interference perspective) but am now on a mission to have every window ledge and light-enough-space occupied by edibles at various stages of growing.

At the moment, as I've mentioned previously, I'm churning through various packets of annual seeds to get things moving but I'm also, slowly slowly catchy monkey, getting closer to planning what perennial plants I want to get started with. I'm anticipating many of these (including the asparagus I've already started) will remain on my window ledges for a while as they get established, even if they will ultimately end up in one of the outside spaces I have access to - and I look forward to having to solve the problem of how to fit all my pots and plants in! I've already started thinking about window-shelving (although I'm aware that'll impact light getting into the rooms) and options for hanging plants. Today I was inside for most of the day on a curtain creating mission (which was entirely successful - even to the point of discovering that the top of the Sewing Chest is a much better location for using my sewing machine from AND finishing off by packing everything away again so my bedroom became my bedroom again!) but I kept noticing all the places in my house which DO get direct sunshine - even if it's only for an hour or two. Many possibilities...

I'm also getting more and more fond of my Garage-Basement. I have a massive luxury space-wise in this house and my basement is basically just an expansive garage without level access but with a lot more nooks and crannies! I'm currently aspiring to go through the last few corners of the basement to check for some drainage pipe (which I don't think I'll find, but can guarantee will be hiding somewhere if I DON'T hunt for it, and will appear just after I've bought and made unreturnable identical new bits) but the mood hasn't yet taken me. Although my desire to maximise use of my water-butt is increasing...

And the existing growings are already proving invaluable - today I was completely lacking in veg so ended up scavenging parsley, chives and a couple of spinach leaves. Nowhere near the quantity of veg I ideally wanted to have with my pasta, but a significant increase on the Zero I had in otherwise!

Planting a la Tigger

Tuesday evening, April 23rd 2013

I've been planting seeds since I was a child, but there was somewhat of a hiatus during the years that I was scatting between homes and generally not being anywhere for enough of a growing season to tend to said seeds and subsequent plants. That said, during said hiatus I somehow accumulated quite a collection of seeds from moments of being in shops and thinking "Oooh! I could plant some seeds". A noble response, but one that resulted in a purchase but no planting.

Until now.

Since my move to full-time living in Morecambe I've started dabbling with various growing opportunities but it's only in the past couple of months that I've really engaged with the prospect of planting things from scratch. But now that I have, and faced with a whole bunch of seeds, my approach is simple: if I've seeds, and soil, and pots, and saucers for said pots...I'll plant seeds! Over the winter I would occasionally contemplate planting plans and avidly read up on what should be planted when but that all rather went out of the window when I realised it was mid-March and I still didn't have a plan. And, I confess, I hate getting cold fingers. And my fingers have a habit of getting very cold very quickly - even in the luxury of my basement. So until the weather changed from "bloomin' freezing" to "mild" a couple of weeks ago, my best efforts were generally thwarted by Cold Finger Syndrome after about 10 minutes.

But no more! I have a rapidly multiplying selection of pots and containers, primarily around my house, which I'm gradually planting up with all sorts of goodies. The long term plan is to focus on perennials but the pragmatist inside decide that given I *have* a bunch of annual seeds and I *don't* have a bunch of perennials, I'd start with what I've got and go from there. If nothing else I can test out which window ledges promote the speediest germination / growing / harvesting opportunities. I've even managed to plant out some of my earlier plantings (the first things to make it into pots were some garlic cloves which were merrily sprouting of their own accord...seemed a shame to waste them!) and the tubs (bath-tub included) that got some attention back in February are showing great promise.

I must confess I'm now incredibly impatient, especially for the inordinate number of leafy greens that I've been planting, to get to harvesting some of these little wonders. Just as a watched pot never boils, it appears a watched trough never grows. Particularly interesting because the courgette seeds I potted up have gone into full-on sprouting mode since I haven't been able to check on them every day due to a house guest. Whether it's REALLY because I'm not watching them, or actually because they've decided it's finally warm enough to make an appearance is neither here not there - the point is they're GROWING! I've certainly got a lot to learn about optimising my planting and the joy of harvesting is still a fair few moons off (although the herb tubs - parsley and chives already in plant form, plus basil and coriander in seed form - for my kitchen are partly ready for use) but it really is exciting. And is reminding me of precisely how awesome photosynthesis is.

Linked in to all this I purchased a water butt a couple of weeks ago which I've been meaning to install. After a couple of weeks of fairly dry weather the rain looked like it was making an appearance last week so I went for a low-tech install (put water butt under drainpipe...watch it fill) which has provided me with many gallons of rainwater. Which is great - but means that before I can do the PROPER install I'll need to empty said water butt. Possibly not my wisest move ever, but it's already saving lots of water - both in the multitude of potted plants I'm generating and because I've taken to carrying buckets of it up to "flush" my toilet with. It's the simple things - but why use treated water when I could be using rainwater?

As much as I'd love to have acres and acres to play with, and already be getting the hazel and willow whips shoved in the ground for the magic maze, I must confess my mass-container planting experiment (with some bonus outside space to use as well) is probably the best for my learning curve. We shall see!

Gardening should come with a health warning

...because, for me least, it's addictive! But first, the sea...

Today really feels like the first day of spring. There have been blue skies and lots of sun all day and now here I am, sitting on the beach listening to the tide roll in. Bliss. The sea really is incredible and being able to sit by it with the greatest of ease is utterly divine. Thank you, world.

So. Gardening. Today was effectively weekend number three of Tigger Does Gardening. The morning saw me potting on some garlic plants I'd started in my newly designated Gardening Zone. I'd been thinking of putting a table out into my yard but given a) it wouldn't be appealling in the dark or the wet and b) my yard doesn't get much sunshine anyway I opted for a spot in my basement, conveniently placed for access to my Bath Garden. Now, due to the exciting upgrade that's currently I'm progress on my bathroom I also spent a fair while sorting through various piles of waiting-to-go-to-the-tip but even that felt very productive as next time a tip trip is imminent I know I've got a car full all ready to load.

I also managed to repot a couple of plants that were well overdue new homes and I now just have to wait and see if said new pots will do the trick. By this point the sunshine was veritably demanding my presence so I packed my bags and headed off to buy...more plants! The same shop that has so merrily been selling me £4 fruit trees had some indoor citrus and smelly plants, perfect for the extension at work. We already had a kumquat and now also have a lemon, a small-orange type (I forget exactly what it was, but the fruit is orange coloured and smaller than an orange but bigger than a kumquat), a lavender "tree" and a rosemary "tree". My only concern now is that the smells will all compete! The room is perfect for these plants, however, so whatever happens I'm sure they'll be happy.

At the office there are some existing trees, bushes and plants which I'm assessing one by one as to whether to keep, evolve or get rid. Today the time had come to say farewell to some bushes. My plan had been to get the roots out with my trusty digging fork but it turns out said fork wasn't so trusty after all...one of the tines bent entirely the wrong way on the first attempt to extract said roots, so I opted for "lop off the branches" destruction instead. This went surprisingly well and rather than have a bunch of twiggy "waste" I decided to try being a low-tech chipper and return the former bushes to their original home after snipping them up. Whether this turns out to be a good or bad idea I have yet to find out, but when it's mild and the sun is out I don't mind having something to keep me outside.

I used the last of my pack-of-three gooseberry and blackcurrant plants and also planted out some more of the lavender plugs I got last autumn and have been nurturing indoors. The more I plant, the closer I get to creating a planting plan but for the time being planting is fairly ad hoc. There's easily space for another 4 or 5 large tubs outside at this office and given I'm planning on using several at home as well I foresee another order happening soon. Whether every tub will have a fruit tree in remains to be seen! I'm also eyeing up the window ledges in the room with the citrus plants for some troughs of greens...

But the awareness of this growing attachment to all things plant related when I was heading home and stopped off to buy some groceries. "Oooh, jasmine, I've already got some of that...but a magnolia might be nice...and a...." Yep, i'm smitten. And with such a brilliant array of locations to play with, I'm a lucky, lucky Tigger.

Grow, grow, grow your boat!

In case you start wondering, the subject line doesn't make any sense. It would do if I'd netted myself (oh, the puns, the puns) a boat as a container for my garden but I haven't. I do, however, have a bath. But subject line aside, I seem to be in the very lucky position of having FOUR different gardeney places to play with! The flip side is that I'm getting slightly bamboozled by possibilities and things I don't know about gardening - every book I pick up on the subject is fascinating and reveals more things I could learn about. Crikey. But such is the way at the beginning of learning about a subject!

I always thought I knew a bit about gardening. And I think I do. But with so many things I *could* know my existing knowledge seems paltry and in much need of bolstering. Like the fact that I recognised a hydrangea as "a plant that's familiar" but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. Anyway, the only way is up from here on in (today's least favourite fact was that it'll be best if I don't pick any of this year's rhubarb from the two roots that have already been added to two of the gardeney places to give the roots a chance to "bed in" and be nice and strong next year. Ho hum) and so it begins!

From the top of the patch looking down

Last weekend saw me over in Grange over Sands at the biggest of the gardeney places - I didn't take a complete "before" picture but the bit of garden I'm getting to play with is a sloping bit which the previous house owners had kept as a limestone pavement feature. Yes, limestone pavement in a garden. Amazing. Anyway, it's got rather overgrown but is a perfect Tigger project to try out various things.

The previously mentioned success of getting wooden pallets in my brilliant Berlingo is demonstrated above - three sides of a compost bin with the fourth side being a stone wall. It's rough and ready but it works! The current plan is to put in a couple of beds running "across" from the left of this photo (the stone wall) to the path on either side of the pallet compost bin. The biggest challenge is getting enough soil together for plants but there's a potential source of horse manure and my thought is to create the "frame" of the beds and then use them as "live" composters for the year or so it takes to get the manure rotted enough and at the same time keep piling leaves into the beds for a bit of leaf mulch. Of course, we could just buy in top soil but that seems too easy...

From about half way down, looking up (the pallet compost bin is out of show to the right)

There are lots of volunteer trees that have somehow managed to find enough purchase to get their roots down and start to flourish - and plenty of holly plants too. I expect most of the smaller trees will come out but in case you're thinking trying to plant here is a recipe for disaster, there are already some fruit trees (apple, pear, damson) that are surviving. They could do with some more love but they're there!

Burning the evidence - this compost bin is proving a good point of reference, eh?

I've never been much good at capturing photos of fires, but you might get a bit of a sense of the size of last week's inferno - the round thing in the foreground is the top of a dining table. The bonfire patch is on the flattest bit of the land and will probably be one of the first areas to get "cultivated" - there's currently talk of tomatoes and rocket...

Looking down - hello Damson tree!

The remnants of the bramble heap

Having emerged from the trees at the top, below the bonfire patch it starts getting pretty wild again, as well as narrowing somewhat. I think that's the damson free in the middle. But, like I said, plenty for me to get my teeth into!

And finally, this is a view "down" from the bonfire patch and the remaining bank of brambles after last week's attack (the scratches are just about faded from my forearms now - they looked rather dramatic for most of the week but I really do prefer working with my sleeves pushed up to my elbows!) - and is a bit of a "this is somewhat representative of what the rest of it was like before I started". Lots to do!

I won't be back in Grange for about a month now but next time I'm there the days will be longer and the plottings in my head will be more advanced. Ha har! I'm already stockpiling plants and seeds to take...

Gardeney-place number two for today is the frontage of my house. About a year ago I had a small wall reconstructed along some of my perimeter (there had obviously been one there in the past but not within my memory) and for some time I've been wanting to try some container gardening. However, the key advance came with the upgrade of one of my bathrooms (which has really needed doing since I moved in but for which the time hadn't been right until now) - and the liberation of a bath! So, may I present to you: the fruit bath!

The fruit bath

Having only been planted today you can't see all that much other than the bath (complete with - non-working - taps) and in the foreground the gooseberry bush. At the tap end you may be able to make out the blackcurrant bush. Between the two bushes is a rhubarb root, along the "wall" side there are 3 strawberry plants, bulbs around the edges and I've rather hopefully scattered in some spinach seeds on the non-wall side. And yes, those are rather exciting screws sticking out. And yes, I have managed to jab myself once or twice. And I will do something about them, but not today (it's rather dark now).

The container is the proud owner of some more bulbs (Dutch Iris, to be precise) some more spinach seeds and...a Bramley Apple tree! Walking to the office yesterday (we had a course on I was assisting with - plus my spacetwin was coming along for the day which made it even better) I went into Aldi and discovered...apple trees at £3.99! And they are TALL! I ended up buying 3 (one Bramley as that was mainly what they had left, a Braeburn and a "mystery tree" - that may be a greengage and may be a Bramley and may be something else) as well as three raspberry canes (3 for £3.99 - again, amazing!). What I'll do with Braeburn and Mystery I don't yet know but I'll see how Bramley settles in and take it from there. Apples! Apples! Apples!

Space for another couple of baths. If I had another couple
of baths. Which I don't - so other plans shall have to be
developed!

There's still LOTS of space for other exciting pots and plants and brilliance but I'm starting with the bath and the planter and will see how they fare, being so very close to the general public as they are. Thinking about it, there was another bath in my life earlier in the year which I could have purloined for fruit-bath (or veg-bath) purposes but sadly it's now in a landfill somewhere. Ah well. Sadly I don't have any windows that overlook my budding (boom boom) green space but I'm so excited at the prospect of bringing some greenery to an otherwise very tarmacked area.

More fruit bushes! 

A few years back I attempted to use the space in my yard (at the back of the house) as a bit of growing space. Things grew - but didn't really produce fruit. The yard does get light but is very overshadowed and not much of an insect haven so I rather left it to its own devices. The yard is now becoming the "holding zone" for plants as I acquire them but before they're planted properly and I hope to make it into my "home brew fertiliser" zone (nettles and comfrey are the way, apparently!) later this year. But in the mean time, it's just being my yard. BUT some of the fruit bushes I'd put in all those moons ago had kept growing and doing their thing so I've moved them into the little yard outside the entrance to the basement - two gooseberry bushes in the lefthand tub, and a blackcurrant in the right hand (along with a tiny mint plant). Oh, and the rest of the iris bulbs. I'm fairly certain I need to prune these plants but, again, a job for another day.

I'm also beginning to take over all the window-ledges in my house with various useful plants. The stalwart is my ever growing collection of spider-plants: their use is to be an almost indestructable plant which takes in CO2 and gives out O2 and brings a little bit of life to a room, especially rooms that aren't in use much. The kitchen window-ledge was de-spidered today to make more room for kitchen-type plants (there are currently two parsley plants on it) and the front window ledge has a multitude of garlic plants shooting up, some mint, a geranium, a cyclamen, an aloe vera and I think one or two other things. The plan for that one is also to make it into an "edible collection" of pots - herbs, salady/leafy bits, whatever I can convince to live there. At present I think it's still a bit cool for much to be happening but I live in hope.

I've a lemon balm, parsley and spider collection in the upstairs kitchen and until this morning one of the window ledges on the stairs was home to a spider plant and two aloe vera plants (which are doing heroically in some very sandy "soil" that I scraped up from my tiny yard in Halifax as I was rather lacking in real soil). But now it has a new addition of a jasmine plant. I'd come to the conclusion in the past couple of weeks I quite fancied having some scented houseplants and this morning when I was buying compost I found some jasmine at half price - so bought three! One for that window ledge, one for my bathroom and the third is currently in the sitting room. I do hope they like their new homes - a jasmine scented house sounds rather delightful!

Gardeney-place number three of today is a "garden share" about 5 minutes walk from my house, the front yard of a house on the Prom. It's mainly concrete with planters on (although that may change with some of the concrete being taken out in the next few weeks) and I haven't done much there yet other than assess what's there (chives, parsley, marigolds, a hydrangea, strawberries, rosemary, lavender, a rhubarb root from my parents' garden, forget-me-nots and some other plants I haven't yet identified). Today I replanted two of the planters - one with a gooseberry bush and some bulbs, the other with a blackcurrant bush and some bulbs (Aldi were doing three-fruit-bushes-for-£2.99 about a week ago hence all the gooseberries and blackcurrants). I still don't have much of a plan for this particular gardeney place but I'm sure it'll come together. Here's hoping! (No photos of this one yet, I hope to provide some next time I'm there, possibly next weekend.)

And gardeney-place number four: the gardens and window ledges at the office.  There are already some well established trees and bushes there, and I've added a couple of containers by the front door with dwarf fruit trees (although only one of the trees now remains - there used to be one in each container, either side of the door), bulbs and lavender plants and we've put a bundle of bulbs in underneath one of the trees. There's one plant in particular I'm planning on taking out (it's an evergreen fir-type bush) and I'm hoping for more leafy veg along the window sills but beyond that it feels like there's potential but not yet much of a plan. Again, photos to follow!

I'd been wondering "why do I blog?" and have decided one of the reasons I will blog is to keep track of progress, successes and failures of my gardening exploits. I suspect other garden-related posts will be somewhat shorter and I also expect there will still be "inner ramblings" type posts - but as long as the gardening bug continues (and with fathers who supply, unprompted, delightful gardening books, I can't see it abating) I hope to keep track of it here!