2023 Week 12
20th - 26th March 2023
Its a sure sign of the imminent arrival of spring when the Magnolia buds starts swelling with colour. It is also a reminder of the harsh frosts that are still to come before tender plants will be able to rave it out in the big wide world. This Magnolia Heaven Scent is the second tree of the species that we have had in this location on the lawn at the front of the house after the first fatally suffered a late 2021 hard frost only a few months after it was planted here. The supplier; Barcham trees were excellent in providing a replacement quibble free and, on their advice, I held back putting a new one in the ground until October 2022. With a winter to bed in it now looks well settled and happy. Just hoping that its presence does not invoke Jack to come late again this year.
The focus this week was to finish decanting the topsoil and compost into the raised beds and to clear up the greenhouse space to start work on the frame.
It doesn’t seem to matter how much timber that you have, its never just right for the job in hand so, inevitably, we have to make a trip to Travis Perkins to get the best deal that we can on a product that appears to be leading the charge to record levels of inflation. Its much more of. ball ache now that the Uckfield branch is shut not least because we no longer have the relationship with the team there that gave us a chance of some healthy loyalty discount. First we tried the Crowborough branch which is actually in Jarvis Brook. The choice of wood was simply pathetic and the guy there was much more interested in producing vast plumes of Kiplings Smog* than offering even the slightest wood chip of help on what might be available. *(look up Moderntoss on Instagram if you need help understanding this reference). ‘I’d go to Tunbridge Wells branch mate. They’re way better than me!’. We went to Tunbridge Wells and vape man was right, everything was better and with frame timber ordered for a Wednesday delivery plus sufficient 6” x 2” treated timber stowed in the van to finish raised bed 13, we got home in time to enjoy the spring rain which is spoiling us with its abundance this March.
The finished timber for the frame turned up as promised and now all we need is some fine weather to be able to start it.
And a scale drawing of the frame. I find great pleasure in reverting back to traditional technical drawing very therapeutic. No more CAD for me since access privileges to the company server have been fire walled.
I have found it very hard to find reference points on line for large greenhouse construction in anything other than some ugly DIY versions that have all of the grace of a backed whale so have had to wing it somewhat. I am hedging my bets and using the inner frame to double up as dividing portions within the 7.5 metre long space. These will be glazed and fitted with sliding doors with the intention of being able to create different climactic zones for different vegetation. Sounds great doesn’t it? It might even work!
We figured that it would be better to use up materials as best we could rather than just move them…again! This is some left over cladding from the gym enjoying a new lease of life as raised bed cladding. Nothing goes to waste.
The pile of old roof tiles needed to go as well to make way for the outside potting bench thats going to fit onto the side of the potting shed so we used a lot of them up on the gable end of my office. Just a couple of fascia boards and a lick of paint on the rafter feet ands is all finished.
Leo was barking in the middle of the night and a study of the CCTV footage revealed that we had been visited by some of the deer that had escaped a recent local culling. It seems that whilst every bit of bramble blackberry in the garden is totally safe from their midnight munchings, the cultivated thornless variety is, to a deer, the best thing since Vesta Curry. Hopefully, the canes will give a poke in the eye if they come back. Either that or I call the neighbour to come round round with the hunting dogs and guns…
The new window cill shaped propagator arrived and was quickly put into action with this year’s chilli plant crop. Hopefully, the greenhouse will be ready by autumn so that I can try to over winter some of the plants to come back into fruit next year.
Surplus timber stacked up in the yard
and the greenhouse area cleared ready for some carpentry action!