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...

Eisenia fetida

This post is dedicated to the worms. Eisenia fetida a.k.a. the red worm, the red wiggler (my personal favourite), the tiger worm or even the brandling worm apparently.

I don't know if it is normal to feel excited about a worm farm, surely I am not alone? A quick search on the net will show you otherwise.  Here is one example. Voici un exemple.

I am uploading videos of the worm farm for your pleasure - and possibly disgust depending on your sensibility.

I don't know what you did this morning before lunch, but I fought off an invasion of larvae of the Black Soldier Fly from the worm-bin. Click on the link for a quick idea of what they are. And click on this link too to see how to free your farm. I had a larvae blocking the exit for the worm tea!  Have a close look, you can see the larvae sticking out...

According to a few minutes research (as time is precious), if I want to be rid of these larvae then I can pick them out!  I need to know if the (apparently easy for the moment) co-habitation of the two species in the worm bin is going to be a problem in the future - will they kill my worms? In the meantime, it was great watching the chickens enjoy their treat - video to follow. More research to be done.

I am impressed with the worm farm so far. On 23rd July I added the third and final layer - I only added the second layer a couple of weeks before that and have 'harvested' a fair amount of worm tea - I'm afraid that when I first took out the bottom layer, once the worms had moved up a layer,  I discovered sludge instead of the rich dryish manure expected - I simply watered it down and poured my first lot of home made lombricompost (worm poo to us peasants) around the garden, I don't think it smelt too bad.
I am thinking about adding the lombricompost to the carrot box which has duly been filled with sand thanks to Patrick the tree grafting man. I haven't had time to mix the sand with any soil or earth yet, so am gradually adding the coffee grounds recuperated from the local café , which comes highly recommended, and some straw from a local farmer (who also sells wine). Yipee, the straw has utterly transformed the garden, making it look great and hopefully, amongst other advantages, protecting it from the worst of the hot summer sun damage which could potentially be a problem for the trees. Indeed, two of the trees are already suffering, both commercially bought, not from the local guy! One of them came in a pot, the other with naked roots - racine nue in French, I am unaware of the English equivalent.

We are eating meals almost entirely from the garden, the salads are fantastic even if I say so myself :/ or they were at the beginning of the summer, they are sorely missed at the moment! I am happy with our garlic and onion harvest. The potato plants have suffered from a blight - almost all the plants are affected, and I have been too busy with other parts of my life to treat them as I would have liked, for example using nettle tea. I am sure the plants could have battled on for longer. Actually we have more than enough potatoes, so I am not worried. I will buy more resistant varieties next year, and maybe will have more time to prepare my concoctions. I have noticed that the potatoes planted individually and isolated from other potato plants are not affected - as expected. The potatoes are 'Monalisa', 'Bintje' - for oven and chips plus a few 'Ratte' for posh meals. Here is a link to the European database for varieties, but be warned, there are no photos.

With help from a couple of American friends who are hoping to settle not too far from Fa, we have reclaimed a couple of sections of the garden, ripping out the ivy (do people really BUY this plant?) and replacing it with jasmine and rosemary cuttings that I took some time ago. And of course surrounding everything with straw. Mulching. Much mulching :) 

The Chinese Gooseberries (shhhh aka Kiwis) have suffered, again they are commercially bought, not local, and they are probably used to lots of water and will have to acclimatise to a drier environment. The grapes too, but they have fruit on them.

Summer has not been too harsh on the trees, we seem to have managed with help from friends to keep them going on this their first year - fingers crossed.

After a wonderfully hectic summer, as we head into another school year, the harvesting becomes paramount. I would like to see how long I can make the garden produce last - there is a wall of aubergines crying out for my attention, the peppers are hanging heavily on their plants too. I have already managed to preserve one lot of each of those fruit, plus a single load of pesto too. I will do one more load each this year hopefully.

The old garden is not forgotten, Ivor and I were suitably impressed by the work that Jonny has done - do keep up the good work - we will have loads of fruit! The garden will show itself again! There must be thirty odd fruit trees up there.

Ivor and I cleared around a tree that had previously been rescued by Alex in the spring. It was fun hacking our way around to meet on the other side - brambles and clematis beware - yes, it was that bad!
This photo shows the tree in the middle of the jungle...

The treasure for our hard work was the several apples that the tree produced for the first time - it is an apple year apparently, and it's true that some of the trees that have never fruited before have done so pretty spectacularly - I just hope we have the time and energy to transform or simply eat them all! I can already see me using the local cooperative fruit processing unit to make jam and juice. In the meantime, here is a picture of Ivor helping to juice in preparation for some jam:

The pear tree in the new garden that we discovered when we arrived was laden this year! I have only picked the windfalls.

And just for fun, for those of you who made it thus far, here is a video of the hard working nephew and sons as they planted the orchard - a historic moment, 17th December 2017. Reuvan wanted to measure the size of the hole he was digging (we know a song about that!) so he decided to lie down as after all, he knows how tall he is :)

And here are Salix and Noah cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs - a scary job...

And here is a picture of some of the jam...

So Fa so good

The project moves on, with help from so many different sources. We will need to choose a name soon.

The trees are growing and some are being allowed to produce a few fruit - just the older trees.

We went to buy a trailer load of lombricompost - here's a link, as I recommend this compost, high in nitrogen and potassium.



I couldn't resist buying a loads of worms (who could?), and, when we got back, putting some into the worm farms Ivor and I had dotted around the garden, plus into the compost. Can you see the wriggly writhing worms?

Since then, we have acquired a 'proper' worm farm - from here, and are hoping that they will proliferate. After all, the worms do all the dirty work for us in a no-dig garden.

The farmer we bought the worm compost from buys in organic manure, and the worms do their job, leaving behind what I call 'black gold'. Before we started the garden I did test the soil, and there was no nitrogen (see previous posts) which will be amply provided by the worm compost.
Here is  a link to the Royal Horticultural Society's pages about lombricompost click here
I have also prepared some nettle 'tea' for the garden - and will be adding comfrey to it too (see photo).

Any progress made on the project is thanks to our helpers. Rose and Jim deserve a special mention this post, not only are they our biggest sponsors so far, but they have visited and helped out at the farm too.





New beds have been created, this one is named 'Jim's bed' for the moment ;) Here are the men creating the walls. (photo left)



and here is the still to be filled in carrot bed (Hi Rose 😊)









The asparagus have been planted too. They are funny looking things, like the octopus man out of The Pirates of the Caribbean - photo left.



 and here is proof that the 17 year old Fabien is able to help -with a smile- ;) photo right. I know you can't see his smile, but I think it was there.




The chickens must love their new, automatically opening and closing door, (see photo, right) they are out early into their amazing, orchard-encompassing 'coop' (don't worry, they are certainly not cooped up!), and we only have to visit them once or twice a day, instead of three or four times. Ivor and I and Alex watched said door close at 9.30pm, Ivor being allowed to stay up especially - it was 'epic, but scary' he must've used the word weird too, as that is his favourite, overused word at the moment. The water recuperation system is being installed, we should find out if the underground reservoir we found is water-tight or not. Oh, and the fencing! The deputy mayor popped round to see if the greenhouse is legal (he reckons it is and that is good enough for me) and was properly impressed by the fencing! A very professional job apparently.

It was great to welcome an old friend, a Wwoofer from the Funny Farm, Lucy and her two children to the new project. Look at the bed we filled while you were here, those onions look fine don't they? The sweetcorn are also on their way, following a lovely spring of rain alternating with some sun.





Jim, Rose and family, the leeks look lovely in Jim's bed :D
There is also green and red basil, courgettes, thyme and two varieties of parsley in the bed now, which has been given a layer of lombricompost after being filled with soil from the garden. The mulch on top is the remains of a rotten hay bale (hopefully not too many seeds will germinate) donated by Lolo.






and here is the verveine, do you remember Jim? I wanted to show you how to take a soft-wood cutting and I used the tip of the verveine (Verbena) plant... as a wise man once said (your dad apparently) cut it off, stick it in and give it three taps and you're done. Well, he was right and the verbena plant has taken - so then there were three in the garden! The small plant next to it is a basil just germinated.





The black currant plants that we potted-up are looking great too. (photo right)

Here is a photo of some of the sponsored trees - thanks to Gabi too, yours is the second one along - Reinette de Brive. (photo left)




The greenhouse has provided a haven for the seedlings, which as the frost is over will be soon finding a home in the garden - some having already been evicted. Being able to plant out early is a great advantage, the tomatoes and aubergines in the greenhouse are already flowering, and have probably set by now - Gardener's Delight, Andine Cornu, and Pinapple tomatoes in there (gotta try everything at least once eh?).



 Here are the tomatoes, looking strong! (right)


                                               
and the newly planted capsicum and cucumber (left)

The potatoes look amazing, even if I say so myself! So far no sign of the potato beetle, but we are

keeping an eye out. This year we have planted Mona Lisa, Bintje, and Ratte potatoes, oh, and some violet blue variety that I found in an organic shop in Carcassonne. Mona Lisa is supposed to be a hardy, resistant to all diseases variety, whereas the Bintje is a sensitive plant, but Salix the chef-son said they are one of his favourite. The Ratte potato is quite hard to come by and is particulary nice.

The leeks are in, about 100 of them, and today I planted out the Queensland Blue (seeds all the way from Australia), and some other pumpkin varieties, plus a couple of courgettes and cucumbers. I also split the yarrow plant that I planted last year, as it is a good companion plant. Lots of seeds are coming up, I guess it must be spring time!

A special shout out to mum, who came and supported us for a week or so, and is official egg taster for life, here she is trying Xandrija's recipe, although I believe she was supposed to have avocado with it - next time eh!

 and here are two intrepid explorers having successfully caught a couple of mating frogs

And here is Ivor bucket head :D

and here he is again, proudly carrying the flowers for the 8th of May ceremony in our village

And finally, who can name this alien-looking creature hiding amongst the chives - if you can spot it :D