I Love Spring

It's true, I do. Here's why...

So many forgotten treasures in the garden reminding you of why you love them
Progress in the greenhouse every day
Longer, lighter days
Sunglasses need dusting off
The Formula One season has started
It's the business end of the football season
Nearly the beginning of the cricket season AND it's an Ashes summer

All wonderful things! What makes this spring better than all the others? Not only am I very proud of Mrs P, I am also soon to be an uncle and am rather excited. Looking forward to meeting little niece-P soon (note I don't refer to her as P-niece - say it to yourself a few times and you'll understand why).

Here's a picture of a viola from my garden:

Gone for a predominantly yellow theme this spring with more colours joining the party as spring grows into summer.

Few other things before you go.
Had a great weekend. Got up for the live qualifying and race in Australia. Knackered now but I only have to meet my new CEO for the first time tomorrow, nothing important. Busy day Saturday in the workshop. Made a few things - a bench hook, a sanding pad and a mahogany test tube holder for Mrs P senior's botanical drawing classes (although stupidly forgot to take a photo). Experimented with some ideas - built working prototypes that look pretty good. Today had a lovely lunch with the family. Got home, planted up all my beautifully chitted potatoes, weeded my onion and garlic beds and added a few filler plants, including a couple of interesting dwarf miscanthus, to the borders courtesy of Mr & Mrs P senior-in-law last weekend.

Happy days...

Le jardin

Garden's going well too. While much of my time has been occupied with the workshop, there has been a little time to plant a few new additions. A bunch of Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea' offset by a single Cornus alba 'Sibirica' underplanted with several Heucheras (Key Lime Pie and a purple one, possibly Amethyst Myst). All this has a quickthorn hedge as a backdrop with a young laburnum to give a bit of height. All sounds very impressive but the plants are quite young so will take a while to establish.

Veggie-wise, last week's warm weather has helped things along very well. This year, I'm concentrating mostly on peas and beans with a few root crops. Here's a few of the varieties I'm trying:
Peas - Hurst Green Shaft, Little Marvel and some yellow mange tout and another clibming variety from Mr. H
Beans - Dwarf french 'purple king', broad 'red epicure', climbing purple, borlotti, dwarf french yellow 'berggold', Kidney bean 'yin yang' (from the Eden Project range!) and dwarf green 'Triomphe de Farcy
Kohl Rabi - both purple ('Modrava') and white ('Lanro')
Radish - normal red ones and some 'Hilds blauer Herbst und Winter'

Then there's the salad crops, a few brassicas and some peppers, a couple of types of carrots, my potatoes, japanese onions, garlic and horseradish. Sounds like a lot but we'll see what survives the squirrel attacks. Things are looking OK so far:


You should stop by some time...

Another New Beginning

Hello. Yes, yes, another long time between posts. I reluctantly apologise for keeping you waiting but there are two good reasons:
1) I've been spending every waking hour that I've not been at work building and furnishing my workshop
2) You don't exist and therefore are not entitled to voice an opinion (if, in fact, you do exist please post a comment, send me an email, give me a call, write about me on your blog, publish my URL... anything you like really).

So what's been going on in the world?

I'll go first...
OK, the usual rubbish about work - it's busy, challenging, tough, but actually quite fun. Enough of that. What about important stuff? Well, as you may have seen and guessed, I've been building my workshop. Woodworking outside in the winter doesn't sound too hard but it has been a rough winter and I have been suffering having been exposed to such miserable weather. Also, as the warmer weather arrives, I don't really want to be sawing and banging within earshot of all and sundry so a remote location (end of my garden) is perfect. Previous post shows the base Mr P senior and I built in January. Here it is again:
So then we built the workshop a few weeks later. It was on sale from a garden building website - actually remarkably good quality and easy to assemble:

So Mrs P and I agreed that "generic shed orange" wasn't the colour this building was going to stay. After a discussion about masculinity and a couple of Cuprinol tester pots, we agreed on a light green called willow. The result? Judge for yourself:

What do you think? I rather like it.

So in all, the project didn't cost too much. Aside from the building itself:
- I already had the slabs for the base so that part only cost me a few bags of sand and cement
- No additional screws or nails were needed to build the thing although I did invest in a roll of stronger felt for the roof
- I chose to insulate the interior. I was debating what would be the best solution and, despite being tempted by Celotex decided upon polystyrene and hardboard from Wickes. In all, that job cost about £50.
- The furniture? Bench is made out of an old door courtesy of my friends HY and W. Thanks again - it is perfect! The legs are made out of old fence posts etc that I had.
- I built a shelf unit for the right wall. I had a load of old pine shelves (also courtesy of HY&W) that had been sitting in the shed awaiting a purpose. Indeed they found one. I needed a few lengths of timber for the upright and long, lower shelves but managed to pick these up from a local timber yard for buttons.

So, in all, while it took quite a few hours, it cost me very little. Result!

Now, however, I must allow my little paradise to fulfill its potential. The potential to transform my spare time from well-intentioned pottering to a productive and lucrative past-time. Indeed this is a new beginning...