Stempster

We had given ourselves a deadline: by the end of the February long weekend, we had to have planted the garlic. It's a fairly reasonable target. In many places, people have already got their garlic bulbs in the ground, but we're in the tip-top north of Scotland so we've got to take a bit of care. The cloves need cold weather to help them split their bulbs but, in Caithness, we run the risk of frost damaging the upper parts of the plants. We've had it before at the allotment, and all that time and effort can easily be wasted. Before we planted it, though, we had to finish off the area to plant in. The structure of the raised bed had already been created using the flagstones that were already there, and breeze blocks for the other side. Now, it just had to be filled. Several barrowloads of compost was wheeled from the Wild Wood (where the old compost heap was) to the Kitchen Garden at the back of the house. The compost itself seems to have never been turned, meaning some o...

Sunday sunrise over the broch Mum insists that January is not a month to do any gardening. I disagree. I believe there is a lot that can, and will, be done this month. The problem with preparing the ground in January is that, if the soil is too wet or frozen, you can damage it by digging. But right now, the shrubbery is on hold and I'm trying to prepare the Kitchen Garden for planting this spring. The more I see in the news, the more I see the need to become as self-sufficient as possible. The great thing about our plans for the Kitchen Garden is that we're trying the 'no-dig' method. This means that the soil will not get much disturbance. Instead, I am putting cardboard down and then compost above it. One of the beds has very poor drainage, so I'm trying putting homemade bark chips down before the compost. Yes, I know it's not recommended as a mulch because of slugs, but I think if the compost goes above it, the slugs won't be much of a problem. It's wo...

I'm dreading going back into work on Thursday. There's no real reason, except there have been multiple stresses over the last two terms. Forget that, the last two years! I love and relish every holiday because it's time spent recuperating and being able to be myself. But I made a decision. Rather than worrying about work, and other concerns that prey on my mind, I'm going to create the garden of my dreams: a haven that will help me offload all worries. I know it will work because being outside, for me, is real healing time. Even if I'm digging a new border (digging is certainly not my favourite job in the garden) I feel better. The north side of the house which overlooks the "Kitchen Garden". The inverted commas are because all the rubble and rubbish make it as far from a kitchen garden as possible. There is a lot of work to be done here! So... my plans for 2022... I have two projects I want to concentrate on, but there will be many more jobs that I'm ...

Photo by  Diego Madrigal  from  Pexels We're away on holiday this week (although we've decided to leave early because we're missing home!) and I have been spending most of my time planning the garden and pricing things up. There is a slight problem... things always seem more expensive than I had initially thought! But, looking on the bright side, finding cheaper alternatives can sometimes lead to an example that would work even better! We have an area of the garden which we ear-marked as a water garden as soon as we saw it, and I have a plan to keep a fish pond there, as we have plans to create a wildlife pond elsewhere in the garden. My hope is to have a Japanese style water garden, with ornamental miniature trees, and plenty of cool grasses. But my hopes of a raised pond were proving to be a bit difficult. I decided to look into getting a raised bed, which I could attach a pond liner to, but I don't know if it would be strong enough to hold water. And, besides, for a ...

While we were exploring the wind farm a few weeks ago, we found a healthy patch of brambles next to a pathway up the hill. We had left the wind farm behind us, and had joined a small footpath that we hoped (and we weren't disappointed) was a shortcut. After that, we have been going back every week to check on the brambles. Every week, we came back empty handed. Perhaps we were being a bit optimistic that they would follow the same seasons as the plants in Lincolnshire, but it wasn't until today that we finally got a harvest of plump blackberries. Taking Orlando for a walk along the wind farm is one of the highlights of my week. My job in Wick means that I'm not the one who walks him from Monday to Friday but weekends are a joy! Today, we decided to be hopeful again and take a few plastic boxes which, as we were wandering along the track through the windfarm, we were imagining filling with those fruity treasures. Of course, when we got to the bushes, our hearts sank. While t...