Little Helpers

A difficult day yesterday and today as always life moves on.

To lighten my day yesterday I had two willing little helpers at the Lottie,  My oldest and littlest nephews came for a visit at the Lottie and it was fun to do 'little jobs' with little people.   We dug over the flower bed and pulled up the weeds,  a little tutorial to begin with on weeds and flowers just so that the right things were pulled up.  That bed was soon tidied,  I had some tulip and allium bulbs which should really have been planted by December,  I had forgotten about them and figured better late than never!  I used my dibber to make holes in the bed and left the boys to randomly plant the bulbs.

Next onto the onion bed - I have been meaning to weed this bed for ages and a perfect job to do with the littlies - the little one did get bored after a while and spent ages playing with the water pump, not the best day really to be playing with water - the ice on the top was about and inch thick,  but he managed to have a great time!  My oldest nephew helped pull up the weeds,  he did advise though that some planks of wood between the onions might be a good idea - it would stop the weeds and we wouldn't have to walk on the ground - how did this 9 year old get so sensible and how come I'm listening to his advice!!    It was great fun having the boys around and lovely to have some help - this week I am going to look out for some boy size gardening gloves for them to keep in the Lottie shed for the next time they visit.

Mr Milly and I finished the wire frame for the raspberries and that was about it for the day.   I forgot the camera yesterday so no Lottie pics today.

Finally I have finished the Cathedral window cushion - I am really really pleased with it and have now decided that it would be good to make some more to match my living room - just need to find the right fabric and I can make a start on them.   I really hope the recipient of this cushion will be pleased with it!

Cathedral Window Cushion

All Fixed

Mr Milly and the Portuguese Housekeeper came to the Lottie with me today,  this is the first proper visit to the Lottie this year.    Mr Milly went armed with nails and hammers and he has fixed the shed door - a little touch up with paint required and then it will be as good as new.

Near as good as new.

The Portuguese Housekeeper (she isn't really our housekeeper - it is just a teasing name we have for her! She house sits for us  and looks after the animals when we are away - she is also Portuguese,  hence the nick name!)  she helped me weed and cleared the soon-to-be flower bed.  

The bed which housed the Brussels sprouts was finished - I'm not sure what I did wrong with the Brussels this year as they looked so promising and then came to nothing - has been cleared today.   I dug the bed over and with the help of the Portuguese Housekeeper we cleared it and then planted the raspberry canes.   We did laugh a lot today,  mostly as my expense....  I am rubbish with a hammer and the stakes for the raspberry canes were tough to hammer into the ground,  I am not sure what I was doing with my face - possibly it was the lovely blue colour as I hold by breath when hammering,  but both Mr Milly and The Portuguese Housekeeper sat and laughed at me for ages....  it did get too much for The Portuguese Housekeeper in the end and she took over!

The New Raspberry bed - I know they look like dead twigs,
but trust me they are raspberry canes

We finished the day by tidying the shed and a few other little tidy ups around the plot.

Nice tidy shed

Anyway today it felt like some progress was made and has given me the push I needed to start getting the Lottie ready for the growing season this year.   And what a beautiful day it was today,  yes it was very cold,  but the air was clear,  the birds were chirping and there was a lovely bright winter sun,  a perfect day for being out in the open and  really welcome at the end of a long week stuck in the house. Fingers crossed it is the same tomorrow as I'm champing at the bit to get back to the Lottie and tackle a few more jobs!

Mr Milly and The Portuguese Housekeeper surveying their handiwork!

A little helper

Firstly, thank you for the emails and comments I have had following the break in at the lottie - I have really appreciated your thoughts and humour too!

On a positive note - I am now feeling motivated to get to the lottie and start sorting it out ready for the spring,  both Mr Milly and the Portuguese Housekeeper have pledged time this week end to come with me and make a start - I expect the work will be down to me,  but the company will be extremely welcome.

I have had another offer of help today - from my oldest nephew,  he is 9 and often when he visits I will show him the recent photos I have taken and we talk about them.   He spotted the fox in the tree in a nano second!  Today we were discussing the lottie and  I duly showed him the pictures of the damaged door,  we discussed in detail what might of happened, he studied the broken door with great interest.  He has assured me he has some wood from his old bed that will help to fix the lottie door.  He asked his mum what he was doing at the weekend as he wanted to come and help me.   We talked about some of the other jobs that need doing,   planting the raspberries and building their frame,  pulling up the Brussel sprouts and clearing that bed,  a general little tidy up where the recent high winds have blown things around and whilst there is no new growth I would really like to cut down some more of the brambles at the back of the plot.   Now my nephew weigh all this up,  he established that he has some gardening gloves - and wanted to know how prickly the brambles were!

Anyway I have a lovely little list of jobs that he could do he was happy with that.    I'm not sure if he will make it to the lottie this weekend and as he was leaving I told that it would be great to see him this weekend,  but if he can't make it, then not to worry as there will be lots more weekends!  He did seem quite happy with this as he kissed me goodbye today.

Tonight I am sitting with some seed catalogues and trusty Google trying to decide what goodies I am going to attempt to grow this year.   Already there are things to be done - now is the time to be chitting seed potatoes ready for planting.   Which ones to choose - there are zillions of the things on offer and it is confusing and before even choosing  the type a decision to be made on which sort of crop - did you have any idea that the crop list was this long??????

Extra Earlies

Earlies

Second Earlies

Main crop

Late Crop

Pen and paper to the ready, trying to work out the whole thing out - how complicated for the humble little potato!

Breakthrough

Finally yesterday  I cleared one side of the Lottie,  right down to the front of the plot.  This was a biggie for me as I know it has to be done and the front 1/3 of the plot is still to be sorted.  This has really been getting me down for a while as it such a big job to doing on your own.   Yesterday I put my back into it and with my trusty Azada managed to clear a section of it.



Newly cleared section - to the right of the picture is the neighbouring plot

5 huge wheelbarrow loads of brambles, nettles, dock leaves, couch grass and other weeds were taken away.  I think my plot must have every type of unwanteds possible!   It is not all good though - it is still to be dug over.  The original plan was to make this into a raspberry bed with a long line of raspberry canes at one side of the plot.   I have been worrying about whether this is the right place to put them though.    This section is right next to the adjoining plot where the plot owner has not cleared this section and it has a lot of brambles growing.  In reality with the very best will in the world I do know that the brambles will spread and continue to grow on my plot along this side.

A monster bramble root - my flask in the picture to give an indication of how big this thing is!

So the dilemma - if permanent raspberry beds are put in here, the brambles would grow through and as this area won't be dug over twice annually I can just see a mess of brambles and raspberries within a very short space of time.   This area needs to have regular digging to at least try and tame the brambles.

As I was standing with my cup of tea looking at this patch contemplating what to do with it, one of the other plot holders wandered by - "You want to put potatoes in there" he said.  We then discussed this and my dilemma for a while.   Potatoes in newly dug ground for the first year helps to break the soil up apparently.  He also thought it would be a mistake to put the raspberry bed in this place.   So the decision was made.  I'm going to dig this bit over, cover with manure and compost and leave it until the spring - the new potato bed sorted!  (Well that sounded easy didn't it LOL!)

I have now decided that the raspberry bed will go in front of the water pump - no brambles have been seen in this area.  I don't think that this is  a particularly rich soil area as the turnips, suede and carrots in this bit currently haven't done to very well,  but this can all be enriched and it will be an easily managed area to cover to keep the birdies off my raspberries as they grow through.
 

The section with the sign will become the new raspberry bed.  
This is an old picture as swedes, carrots, spinach and turnips are currently growing here.


Just when I thought I was making progress - I have now given myself another job to do by the end of November  - sort out the new to be raspberry bed!   Oh well, I will just continue to plod along and tell myself it will all be done eventually!