Trying To Tick Jobs Off

 So I've been trying to do little jobs and often, it's a way I can move forward while keeping everything else running in the background. 

One of the jobs I've trying to get done (since this time last year) is the sweet chestnut raised beds. I really hate having this timber stacked up and not being used. 

The idea was to have them at the bottom of the veg garden where it lies wet all winter. I'm hoping this will provide a bit of drainage and make this area a bit more manageable. 

So far I only have a few fixed in place and I' haven't filled them yet, but already it's given that area of the garden a bit of structure. I can't wait to get them planted up. I'm very tempted to have one or two fo them for strawberries and try to get better at growing that fruit! 

Let's hope I can get the rest in before the growing season really kicks off. 

Do you like growing in raised beds? Or do the negatives outweigh the positives?

Two Large Baskets sold - But not collected

So I'm doing this post as a reach out to a lovely couple who paid for two of my jumbo harvest baskets at a talk I gave at Mickleton Gardening club the week before last. 

 They paid for the baskets even though I didn't have any with me at the time, the plan being they would come and collect - I was hoping for an email to arrange a time. If you see this blog post please send me a message so you can get your baskets. 

Many thanks

Kev

A Bit Of Burn Out

 Argh, what a couple of weeks I've had. It really feels like I haven't stopped and looking back I don't think I have. 

Until Saturday afternoon! I wasn't feeling my best on Friday, but had about £1200 worth of timber turning up and I have to carry each piece up the drive by myself as the lorry can't get up our drive. I had stupidly taken on another job which needed to be done that day as well (it was for a charity and someone local - more on that in another post later). By the end of the day I was feeling a bit broken, I cooked tea, ate it and went to bed. 

The next day I woke and felt terrible. Body hot and cold. Unfortunately it was also the day of a big organised scout hike here on the hills (900 scouts). If I dropped out our scouts and cubs (about 8 in our group) wouldn't be able to do it as I'm the first aider. So I forced myself up, the children got everything ready, did all the chores and made our lunches, whilst I hid under a blanket in the sitting room. Then we walked to the scout hut and set off on the 12km walk over the hills. By the end I was dragging my feet fairish. I'd felt worse and worse through the day. The children were great though and kept checking I was okay. 

We got back, got our badges, and then walked home again, I got in the house, climbed into bed fully clothed and fell asleep. My sleep was fitful, I was too hot, too cold, changed my shirt three times, but I basically didn't get up until Sunday night, and then only for an hour. Monday I managed to eat some food and get up in the afternoon, and today I've been up most of the day, although I've had no energy whatsoever, I did manage to pick the children up though! 

Some of our friends (really brilliant friends) picked up the children for school and then picked them up again yesterday which made everything a bit more possible as I lay in my pit of despair! 

I'm hoping I'll start to feel a bit better tomorrow! 

There is a bug going round, so maybe it's a combination of that, along with a bit of exhaustion that's made me feel so run down. I don't think the big long walk helped either, but I really didn't want to let down a load of our scouts and cubs. 

I always really struggle when I'm ill, my life is so active and I am so full of energy that people wonder how I do what I do at times, and I don't get ill often, I keep myself fit and healthy and eat good food and so far I've had good luck (which is probably the biggest factor to being healthy), but when I go down I tend to go down hard! And I really hate not being able to do what I usually can.

My wife has been amazing and the children as well, went into the greenhouse to see my eldest had watered and tended for all the plants, she's going out each day to listen to her audio book, and doing gardening at the same time!

That first night as I was lay there feeling terrible, my boy came in at his bedtime and hugged me "If you need anything in the night daddy, just give me a shout..." 

A Fence For A Friend

The last few weeks I don't seem to have stopped! This last week I was out every evening doing something (two talks as well!). 

My mate Neil, who has been mentioned on here before when he went with me to collect my second larger greenhouse, needed a hand with his fence. So I gathered up my tools and went to give him a hand. 

As you can see the old fence wasn't in a great way. Luckily he'd cleared a space for us to work and dig the holes, he'd even dug the one already. I brought my graft ( a heavy hole digging spade) and we made short work of the rest of the holes. 

 

Luckily it was a lovely sunny morning for most of it, and in all honesty it didn't take long once we were going. 

Turned out to be one of those jobs where it was lovely to take a step back at and look at what we'd done in a morning. 

It's also nice that he can get that area planted up now. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it in the coming year. 

What's your favourite thing to grow against a fence?

Planting Seeds - Not me

My girls have really taken the bull by the horns the last few weeks. They've been out there in the garden sowing seeds for me, while I've been doing some other jobs. 

I give them the packets and tell them how many of each we'll probably need and they just get right to it! This was after they cleaned out the greenhouse for me!