homeschooling... and of course the spring garden update

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago:

Proposed Weekday Timetable Number oh, I have no idea as it seems to be in constant evolution, which I am sure is not the idea of a timetable.

alarm 7.30 yoga
hugs with Ivor 7.50 to 8am
breakfast, wash bowls, brush teeth, hang clothes and ready to go by 9am
2 hours school work with 10 year old whilst trying to telework - with breaks then at 11am 1  hour in the garden together.
Get lunch ready, eat and clean. Phone calls, Ivor to read alone.
2.30 wash on (cheap electricity) and back to school work 20 minutes to half an hour sessions with breaks, until 5.30.
Go for walk for about an hour.
Cook, eat, clean, read to ten year old - nightly ritual, then fall asleep exhausted myself after an hour's reading.

A couple of weeks later - I am 'on holiday' from being a teacher, and Ivor has been away for a week to his dad's.

The above failed majestically, so here is my broad outline for the coming week of school holiday:

Try to re-instil in my ten year old, the desire to learn, and not just to colour in, or cook, or dig holes in the lawn, or make parachutes - which he did for two days!
Try not to lose my temper with him. No shouting.


Meanwhile back at the ranch:

During my moments in the garden, which over the weekend are more abundant, I have been weeding. Lots and lots of weeding. Slowly I am making my way round the garden, preparing for the plants that have been sown and are busy


germinating and growing in the greenhouse.

The fledgling orchard is starting to look a bit less like a field with a few twigs sticking up in the air, some of the trees are looking good, others are struggling, for one reason or another. On the left you have Elizabeth, a tree sponsored by the Williams, she is a cherry 'Noir de Meched', a sweet black eating cherry - mmmm - patience!

 On the right here is a general view of the South West orchard, looking at mainly apple trees (one of which is a special Rosa sponsored and one a Gaby), the above-mentioned cherry and two almonds, one of which is sponsored by Jim.

  To the left a general view of the South East orchard, showing apple trees including the sponsored Andrew and Michael.

The garden looks truly fantastic, every possible corner is bursting with life and smells and colour. We have been given a new hen, who is supposed to be a sitter - she is a bantam with beautiful grey white feathers. She has been disturbed so doesn't seem to want to sit yet - we shall see.

Here are the reed beds, which will hopefully keep the water in the natural pool clear. Nigel is busy building the structure for the shade, and a rose named Mozart is to be planted there. This is a very exciting project, the fish have survived the winter and Charlie, our biggest fish, is looking lovely. And big. The lily-pads are growing and it looks like they are already producing buds so will flower soon!

 Hey mum, this is one of the apricots you planted! Looking good.

 Another tree planted today, - apple, Elstar variety, click here if you want to know more about the variety.

And another, apple again, Jonagold, click here for information about the variety.










If you are squeamish, look no further, as the following may offend - warning, worms and bugs below!

 Here is the worm farm, coming back to life as the weather warms up - they are doing fine!

People may wonder why I have planted nettles in the middle of the garden, yes, that's right, I planted them there. To the right you can see the caterpillars of several butterflies, probably the Small Tortoiseshell, and possibly the Peacock butterfly. There is another one on the left hand side of the photo that I haven't identified yet. Click here for an amazing array of caterpillars to find, identify and possibly raise yourself! There are four butterflies that will only lay their eggs in nettles! Our garden is bursting with buddleia and other butterfly plants.

Two weeks in

Just trying hard not to check the news every five minutes.
Home schooling going fine. I have the impression he is working. The ten year old whose life has been turned upside down by global developments.
I have recorded myself testing him on his dictation. My french accent is appalling and he has to say some of the words himself - my pronunciation is laughable.
Today may have been the first day that I didn’t freak out at him. Phew.
I banned myself from working this weekend. It’s all been a bit much, not going in to teach any more. First ever video conference with my students. Just to check up on them. Fun but not productive. I’ll use that tool when necessary.
So when not helping Ivor with the school work he saved for the weekend, I managed to weed most of the onion and garlic beds. Lots of seeds have been sown and the ducks and chickens are happy laying a good number of eggs every day.

We went picking wild garlic this week, and did one shopping trip.  We walked to my sisters house and delivered some fresh eggs and pickle and wild garlic pesto, she has the Covid.
Ivor is given a few pages of school work four days a week, the activities are varied. As part of hits homework he wrote that he loves gardening!
Here’s a short video, be warned I’m not looking my best ☺️

Had a great Saturday all in all, grafted 10 trees. Did all the apples today. Lots of different varieties. Two different ones on one tree.
M111 and M106 rootstock. Tomorrow pear, apricot and plum.
I am feeling emotionally exhausted. I think most people are in shock!
Worried about everyone and everything even if I’ve been preparing for something like this!
Lovely pre dusk walk. Found a sunset and some hay bales.

We are still alive! I haven't killed my ten year old!
I set a routine, to which I am managing to stick - I know, it's early days yet. I set my alarm early, do some stretching, at 8am wake child and by 9 in front of his books. Half an hour including faffing around for school work (son's) and then he does something else for half an hour, and so on until lunch. Then a walk to find wild food if possible (you never know what the future might bring eh?), followed by a few more bouts of work interspersed with dinner making, gardening and reading.
Today was definitely a better day than yesterday which was simply emotional and exhausting. I don't like myself when I shout.
I felt somewhat better meeting another mother (she teaches too) on the track who was on the verge of tears and tearing her hair out about her 9 year old daughter. I am not alone.
We made a little video, here it is. click here

French président, Macron, has just said no one should go out for  15 days starting from tomorrow at midday.
I've been self-isolating for a only a couple of days, I'm having to refuse to see my son. He wants to come round, with his girlfriend and I don't know if it's a good idea.
Home schooling started today, along with my teleworking, really don't know how I'm going to do both AND get into the garden to grow my food!
Speaking of which, the garden looks amazing, and I'm enjoying the time with Ivor.




video diary:

day one



day two

words do not suffice...

 ...to make you feel the strangeness of these times, as my brain tries not to compute where our society is heading.
Reports from China, Iran and Italy scare me, I find my sanity in my garden.
I wonder if teleworking and home-schooling will be less energy or more than previous lifestyle?
I wonder if I bought enough toilet roll (joke). Plant more peas and broad beans tomorrow.
I wonder if any of my close family will succumb. Home-schooling starts tomorrow.
The numbers make me think of course I will know some affected people. We shall see just how many.

Planning on doing two weeks self-isolation if we can, minimise trips, only to pharmacy if necessary. And only after phoning to check if they have whatever we need.

Not sure I have enough chocolate.

I should be grafting the trees amongst all other duties, this week.

Here's a beautiful photo of a beautiful woman to boost our spirits - planting an apricot tree for the future.

It's all about the edge

How would you like this as your front door?

Here is the cottage garden entrance and the front door to the ruin. It is looking rather pretty!








 
One of the most diverse and plentiful environments is that of the edge, the between. Between the forest and the plain, between the lake and the shore. When we create different milieu in our gardens we encourage diversity of flora and fauna.

Photos - On the left the lavender path early spring... on the right middle spring.


The trees are looking great, still babies of course. I have been out fighting the aphids and thrips and so on, and thinning out the trees that have fruit - almost crying at the same time, but I know it's best for the tree. Thanks again to our sponsors, I think of you each time I am out doing the rounds. Remember, there are always more trees to plant and sponsor! Just email us!

I am interested in a layered orchard, so some of the trees will be standard-sized, then coming down to dwarf (mainly M111 and M106 rootstock) and I look forward to planting bushes between them. Here is a graft that appears to have taken, unfortunately a lot of them appear to have been knocked off, possibly by the chickens. We did do them a bit late anyway, so next spring I will try again.

Most exciting is the discovery that there is a well on the property! This was not certain until now. And we will have to wait and see if it fills all summer, as I shall certainly use it in the greenhouse - already dreaming of doubling the size of  the greenhouse towards the path! I will have to pump it out of the reservoir, but it will cost hardly anything and the aim will be to run it from solar panels and a battery.

The weeds are growing faster than I can keep up with, I simply chase round the ones that are about to flower and try to give an advantage to the favoured plants. The garden is producing, the peas are not so good this year, but the lettuce makes up for them. We are still eating greens from the garden, and potatoes - I dig them up as and when - which I believe I may never have to buy again - wonderful! Left and right are photos of the greenhouse about a month ago.

I just shared a strawberry with a slug (those little slimy characters always pick the best ones) and it was a taste sensation. I am still dreaming of having enough strawberries to make jam - maybe this year will be the year of strawberry jam. (I did cut off the slug-attacked bit)

I am sitting here listening to the frogs (we know a song about that click here:), which have moved into our pool (you can listen to our resident frogs here and the local frogs here), which is being converted into a pond. It has been a learning process - I have dropped a few stones and a whole pot full of plants has fallen to the bottom. Hopefully once the conversion is completed we will be once again able to swim in there. The system is a reed-bed filtration system. I already feel much better about it than when we were constantly chucking chemicals into it. Yuk. Of course, the edge between the pool and the garden is an exciting project too - which plants and trees should be planted there, taking into account the shade, the amount of autumnal fallout and so on.

Here are the ants on the sticky tape that I put round the trunk of the baby tree to help it fight the aphids: ants farm the aphids for the sugar that they steal from the flowers.














 And here are the aphids on the right if you look close enough! Can you zoom in?

On the left are the ladybirds whose babies will feast on the aphids!







 I must mention the worms, who are doing a wonderful job, just to remind you of how easy it is to encourage the worms in your garden here is an in-bed worm 'farm'.







The Pool area in transformation, thanks to Tana for the pots into which I can re-pot the plants I haven't dropped to the bottom of the pool.


The cucumbers are coming on nicely

On the left same as on the right but half an hour of weeding difference between the two.

And just for fun below are the thrips also caught on sticky tape!

Various notes from a busy person

A video of frogs croaking, just what you need? For your auditory pleasure and you can actually just make out the toad and its body expanding for the croak: click here
and if that wasn't enough to sate your thirst, here are the frogs that have moved into our pond conversion project, which is very exciting, no visual except of the pond! WIP - work in progress  click here

The totem pole has been quite the project, the artist has been a friend of mine for many years, and in exchange for the mast for his boat, he is sculpting a totem pole. I hope to make it into a Maypole as I like the idea of a Mayday dance...

 click here for a link to the photos
 
Christophe Cardon, the artist:

and here are some photos of the garden

 on the left, an in-the-ground worm farm, with anemones planted next to it, the potatoes were in this bed last year, so there is the odd stubborn one left, otherwise that is a row of onions disappearing into the distance.
On the right, a row of prize lettuce (very happy with them this year!)
and below is the other side of the greenhouse.

On the left is the lavender path, looking amazing
 since it has been weeded by Alex (thank Alex, great job!)

And on the right, how's that for a front door?









you'll just have to come and visit for more information!






Tours available :)

Spring update

I spent the day grafting fruit trees 07/04/19 thanks to Patrick (my grafting guru), so the orchard is coming along nicely. Will show you the photos of these grafts once they have leaves, it is so exciting!

This autumn and winter there has been some progress, with new raised beds (thanks Nigel) filling in what was a gaping gap in the vegetable garden, plus thanks to a priceless present of horse manure, the trees are blossoming and seem to be growing as expected, and the pool is being transformed with some beautiful plants and lots of preparation for the filtration system.

 

The worms are doing fine and their produce is feeding the garden which in turn is feeding us. Just look at this rose bush which I have been feeding with the worm tea!

The cuttings taken a couple of years ago have been planted out so we have a bed with a row of gooseberries, the mother plants being from my mum's garden in the UK, a few rows of blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries, rhubarb too. We just ate stewed rhubarb and apples for pudding tonight. I had to buy the apples, but I sincerely hope that after planting lots of (I've not counted recently) apple trees one day I will be picking them from my trees or bringing them out from storage. I am particularly happy with this bed of 'petits fruits' as they call them in French, as most of them are babies from my plants, thus it was almost completely free to fill it!

We have been eating greens and spinach from the garden and the greenhouse all

winter - it has admittedly been a mild one. Oh, and lambs lettuce. We have also been eating the chutney and tomato ketchup (Jamie Oliver's recipe highly recommended), tomato and vegetable sauces and jams from the most busy harvesting period of the year. I have worked out that I need to double that production! I shall I shall I shall fill that store room!

The greenhouse is now harbouring a plethora of germinating seeds, from courgette to pumpkin passing through tomatoes and peppers amongst others and of course including some flowers.

The home improvements are coming on, the idea being to reduce our bills and become as environmentally friendly and autonomous as possible. The wood-burner is a success, it looks good too! It has not really been put to the test this winter as it was a mild one. So far so good, we have not had to use the radiators too much (would like to install alternative as they are fuelled by diesel). For only part of the winter we had to turn them on in the end rooms (Siberia) as there has been a leak in the roof (Oh NO!) and Ivor's bedroom wall is to be re-done.

There was much sadness the day that we were visited by a predator, which ate a good number of our chickens and two of our much appreciated grass-eating ducks. So with a vastly reduced and interestingly enough no male flock, we have strangely the same if not an increased number of eggs on average! I have drawn some conclusions from this and will house no more male fowl (probably).

Several of the grafted trees from my first ever lesson have taken, and one was dug up and brought down from the old garden to the new and duly planted with the help of our new friend Kami from New York. (Update - the tree is looking good after moving home)

This cherry tree is taking pride of place, I am dreaming of it as a large tree in front of the house, children climbing in the branches. My only trial and tribulation now is that I must wait for all these amazing trees to bear fruit! As a youngster, computers taught me patience, trees will carry on the work.

 In other news an old friend, Christophe Cardon59 from Lille, a wood sculptor of amazing talent, (check out his work here) has been visiting for over 15 years now and is working on a sculpture for the garden. Some of the trees from the farm needed cutting, so he has gained a mast for his boat, and we have gained a Maypole/Totem Pole for our garden. It is an original project, and I am enjoying watching the transformation of the oak tree into a feature for the center of the garden. None of us like cutting down trees, being mainly interested in the preservation and plantation of these, but sometimes it is necessary. Agro-forestry and managing woodlands, husbandry of this beautiful planet on which we have the good fortune to reside is imperative.

More photos to follow, as the Totem pole deserves its own post!

There have been many more developments, I shall have to write more often...