the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Litter Louts

I am absolutely sickof litter. Tonight when I went to feed Smokey, I took the dogs for a run across the fields at the livery yard. I started puling plastic carrier bags out of the hedgerows and putting them in my pocket. After a wee while, I had to start using one of the carrier bags as my pockets were full.

The amount of litter is an absolute disgrace. Our local Council seems unable or unwilling to do anything about it. Dan and I periodically pick litter from the road along to our house. Last time we did it, we spent about three hours and took thirteen bags of litter off quite a small stretch of road. You wouldn't know we'd done it now and we really should do it again soon.

The road past the livery yard is relatively quiet so seems to attract fly tippers and those who like to find a field gateway to eat their takeaway in, then they toss the packaging out of the car window.

Clackmannanshire is still quite rural - towns in the countryside. For a small area, there are lots of good paths and they are well used but it's so spoiled by the litter. Someof it is dropped by path users (WHY?) but a lot of it comes from passing cars.

There was a community action group called "Pride of Place" which organised litter picks, but I haven't heard anything about it for a while. It was two local businessmen who ran it. Both had tourist businesses, I think.

Anyway, when I come back from holiday, I'm going to try to organise a litter pick at the yard. I hope the Council will provide "helping hands" litter pickers and black bags. I'm also going to write to the Council to find out what it is planning to do about this scourge.

I'll keep you posted.

The Courtyard Garden

This is my new(ish) project. We have a small slabbed area on the west end of the house. It faces South and gets a reasonable amount os sun, particularly in the afternoon. It is enclosed on three sides, by a hedge (west), a high fence (North) and the house (East). It was pretty grotty, although it was slabbed with quite nice Yorkstone.

Last year, we decided to turn it into a courtyard garden. The idea is that this will be a quiet area for relaxing in with a G&T, after the rigours of the day.

We put up a screen on the south side and lifted a few slabs to make a small bed into which was put a small water feature. This year, I've resumed work on it.

The planting will be green and white, with fragrance. I have five climbers in already: white clematis "Duchess of Edinburgh" and a white honeysuckle "Lonicera japonica Halliana" and another three whose names I can't remember. Two of the three planted last year look a bit sad - the predations of the hens and various sheep haven't helped. Still, they've had a dose of comfrey liquid, so hopefully they'll come away.

I'm using mainly containers, although I might lift a couple more slabs to make another bed. I'm waiting for a delivery of "Muscadet" oriental lilies, "Hawkshead" fuschia and white container geraniums called "Blizzard". We bought a few more containers last week, so it looks less empty.

We do need to get a table and chairs. I know what I would like but I haven't seen it yet.

Dan's putting on a few before and during photographs, all from 2004. We'll put on some from this year as work progresses.

New tree

We have an addition to the orchard. One of of the original 14 trees died over the winter. It's been replaced by a plum tree, Oullins Golden Gage. This variety was carefully selected by virtue of being reduced to £10 in the graden centre. Actually it's a really well shaped tree and looks really healthy.

So, it's in. It should crop about August - a large, yellow dessert plum, sweet and juicy. Delicious eaten fresh, it also cooks well. So says the label. I can't wait.

Spring is sprung

We've had a busy couple of weekends in the garden.

Dan's finished constructing the new raised beds. The paths between have to be tidied up but the beds themselves are now ready for planting. Actually, some of them have been planted.

Shallots (Longor) are in, as are 800 (yes, eight hundred) onion sets (Jetset). We used Sturon last year, but they didn't keep well. Jetset is quite a new variety, so we'll see how it does.

Beetroot is in, too. We're using two varieties this year; Libero RZ and Carillon. We've grown Libero RZ before and it's very good, but we're trying Carillon for the first time. It's a cylindrical, long beet so it should be good for slicing for pickling, which is what we use our beetroot for, in the main.

We've used Tender and True parsnip variety. It's always done well in the past - lovely flavour and not woody, however big the roots get. We don't tend to get great germination but the flavour is so good it's worth it for the few we get.

We're trying calabrese for the first time. I can't remember the variety. Other than this, we're probably not going to grow any brassicas. If we do, they will be under fleece until they are harvested. We don't seem to be able to do these well.

Three varieties of peas have been sown. These will be planted successionally. We've got sugarpea Norli. We're only doing a couple of rows - we grew these last year and had a bumper crop. We were absolutely sick of looking at them The peas didn't freeze well and there is only so much soup you can eat!

In the greenhouse, tomatoes, lettuce and melon have been sown. We're only doing Supersweet 100 tomatoes this year. They were superb last year. The lettuce is up already so we're looking forward to fresh salad soon.

We're trying Sweetheart melon - because it's recommended for first time melon growers and that's us.

Hopefully, potatoes will go in this weekend.

Poorly Cassius

We've had a bit of a scare with Cassius this week.

On Saturday, we noticed that he was straining to pee and couldn't. We called our vet's emergency service and were told to bring him in right away. It turns out he had crystals in his urine that had irritated his bladder, causing it to block completely. Without treatment, he would have been dead in 48 hours. The build up of waste in his body woudl have caused heart failure (given he has a dicky ticker anyway).

However, after four nights in hospital, an X-ray and ultrasound and some other less pleasant treatments, King Cass is now home again. He's lost a bit of weight, has a special diet and some medication to take but he looks fine. He couldn't wait to get outside - we think he was a bit stir crazy!

Homer, Copper and the dogs are hugely disappointed - life is so much less hazardous when Cass isn't around. But Dan and I missed him.

Because he's the youngest of our cats (we think) and given that Homer is FIV, we've always assumed that Cass would be around for longer than the other two. So we always assumed that he would be the one to "teach" a vacancy-filling kitten how to be proper cat. The thought of Homer (dysfunctional) or Copper (obese) "teaching" a kitten life skills is too odd to contemplate.

Thankfully, Cass seems well on the mend. He goes back for a check-up tomorrow. Thanks heavens for pet insurance!