Macro images from the back garden

So who doesn’t love a bit of Macro?

We had some beautiful leaves and flowers Hosta, Cordyline, Dhalia, Bamboo and Lily that we’re looking stunning after a morning shower so had to take some photos and wanted to share the beauty with all our wonderful followers.

We hope you enjoy them!

Cordyline Leaves

Building our compost bins from old pallets

So, I have a friend that has a warehouse – with lots of pallets! When I sent a photo of the 99+ pallets to Ben, he immediately said; “GET THEM ALL!”.


First task…finding a van…check

Second task…loading the van…check

Third task…transporting the pallets…check

Fourth task…emptying the pallets from the van…check…

Fifth task…transporting the pallets to the garden………..PAINFUL!!


Anyway, we managed to get 49 pallets inside a Sprinter van and we drew out a plan for the pallets and decided where they were going to go. Managed to transport 9 pallets over to the grounds for assembling.


Sixth task…taking apart the pallets…[insert crying face]


When I say that I have never come across pallets as stubborn to come apart as these…the plan was to take away one side and then the middle sections to be left with a nice panel, build into three separate large squares – not sure why, but I am sure Ben will explain…[one of his completely unnecessary ideas if you ask me – but I’m just going with the flow].


So we managed to get ONE clean pallet side, then gave up for the day…we were exhausted! We propped up the other pallets to check the sizings and see how they would look – its starting to resemble the shape of a compost bin…

Next steps is to remove the rest of the squares, level up, line and fill!

Tools used so far: Small Rotary saw to saw out the middle sections, a hammer and wrench to take away the wood blocks on each side and an electric screwdriver to join together one side.


This challenge is to still be faced…to be continued!

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D.O.A.N.G

In the jungle, the broad bean jungle…the broad beans sit tonight!

Go on…sing along – A WHIM A WAY…(I can hear your humming now!)

Thought we would give you an on our first little haul of broad beans/ fava beans/ pillows of goodness (whatever you’d prefer to call them)- an interesting journey through growing nevertheless.

We have these a try in the garden at home and at the allotment and WOW, was there a difference in growing and haul!!

Blackfly and aphids reigned supreme on the majority of plants, strangely only one of the back plants in the garden at home with a few soldiering through to the front plants but the poor guys at the allotment – ANNIHILATED! Sadly I’ve not yet got a photo but I will show you the state of them.

However, happy to report that WE DO have our first small crop of broad beans supplied by the garden plants that managed to escape the wrath of the blackfly and aphids. Wonderful pillowy pods encompassing the sweetest, most perfectly green pods – sweet, delicate and moreish (wishing we had more!).

The first three broad bean buddies we had the heart to pull from the plants – we do have more – saving them to get a bit bigger though!

A TOP TIP that I mistakenly discovered after trawling the internet for ways to remove blackfly and aphids (where the majority said to squash it scrape) was to put the garden hose on full power and BLAST the plant tips where the aphids are…gone in a second and wish I had discovered this trick sooner- I hope some of you manage to get aphid water blasting soon!

Aphid and ant attack!

D.O.A.N.G

ENCORE…in the jungle, the broad bean jungle, the broad beans sit tonightttttt….or listen to those beautiful UK garden birds chirping away in the background!