Front garden design complete

I'm a bit behind with the blogging. We actually finished the front garden 2 weekends ago, but have been so busy with other things that I didn't have a chance to show you the final result. Firstly, the 'before' photo, from March 2009.

The front garden previously had no structure, ie. no paths so walk anyway meant standing on something growing, very random planting, some nice plants, some I wasn't so keen on. As it is south facing, I knew it had the potential to be more productive and attractive, and hence the redesign.

And here is the final layout of the new design.

Clearly I haven't done a lot of planting yet! I kept things like the rosemary and sage bushes, and dug out a lot of bulbs which I put temporarily in pots; I'll replant them in autumn. There is a bed all around the edge, ie. with the Frances & Simon, our neighbours front garden, and along the sidewalk. The trellis is for the pear trees that you can barely see as they are only one year old maidens. I will be growing these as espalliers so the trellis is for training them as they grow.

The middle bed has broad beans, towards the house, and some lettuce at the front end. I've scattered some eschscholtzia californica 'mikado' (californian poppies), calendula (basic marigold) and cornflower 'black ball'.  In the middle of the obelisk is Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty' which flowers after the poppies and cornflowers.  I'm hoping ths will be a warm contrast of yellowy-oranges and dark auberginey-blacks over a few months.

I'm finishing with a arty picture I took of the Prunus early evening yesterday, looking up through the beautiful flowers and reddish-green leaves. Just so pretty.

A busy Easter in the garden

Despite the weather at the beginning of Easter being utterly crap for most of us in the UK, it slowly improved and in the end Kevin and I got a lot done in the garden.

Firstly, the back garden. Though tradition dictates that you plant your potatoes on Good Friday, that wasn't going to happen this year for too reasons. One, none of the beds either in the garden or at the lottie were ready. And it was bucketing down with rain all day, probably to the disgust of my friends in drought-stricken Melbourne.

However, the skies improved and we got a few hours of the magical sun shining upon us. Honestly, living in England has taught me why ancient peoples used to worship the sun. It also explained why when I first lived in London in 1992-4, I found the moment the sun came out English people would rush outside, and in many cases, strip down to 35 degree clothing when it was only 15 degrees. I get it now. Hey, I'm one of them. Well, I rush outside, I'm still not sure about the stripping down though. I think English people are tougher than ex-Aussies.

So, the taties. Here is a cheery photo of me preparing a bed, and then Merlyn coming along to inspect the work. I've only planted the 1st earlies so far, Red Duke of York, Pentland Javelin, Linzer Delikatess , plus Will, which is an unknown.

As usual when digging in the back garden, I was visited by my very friendly robin who gets incredibly close, like only a foot away from me at times. I'm assuming it is the same one as they are territorial. I guess it knows that when I'm in the back garden, I make it easy for the robin to get some quick treats. Isn't it a cutie patootie!

The major work of the weekend was in the front garden. which I am redesigning. And I must make it clear, much of the really hard work was done by Kevin.

Even though he is incredibly busy getting lots of Green Party stuff sorted for the upcoming local elections, ie. fielding phone calls mid-digging,  he also found time to do some serious raised bed building. Am I lucky or what? I'm lucky. And here is the partially finished result.

It's only about half done so far, but a pretty impressive half done if you ask me. See my lovely obelisk in the middle? It will look even better when I have french beans growing up it. I got the woodchips from a local tree surgeon, Dan, who did some work in the garden for me last year. He mentioned he often had lots of woodchips to get rid of, so with a £15 donation to Helen House, I got a massive pile of woodchips delivered which are now paths between the beds. Bargain!

Still got the beds around the edges to do. I ran out of the wood stainer for the last planks, so they will need to be done in another couple of weeks. However, I do have a bed all ready for planting. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, in will go some broad beans and lettuce.

So at the end of Easter Sunday, here is a very happy Gwenhwyfar.

Merlyn's belly

Merlyn not impressed I took a picture half-way through his daily belly clean. tee hee.

Cycling the Avon & Kennet Canal

As mentioned in my last post, I'm keeping to my promise and telling you about Kevin's and my cycle trip along the Kennet & Avon canal in Wiltshire. Be warned, it's a tale of woe...

The idea of the trip was to be a gentle cycle ride in the early spring sun over a couple of days. We were to do the trip in two stages: Hungerford to Devizes, then Devizes to Bath. It didn't quite work out that way. It helps to know that Kevin, my dearest love, is a keen and regular cyclist. He cycles 23 miles daily to/from work, and thinks nothing of a 90 mile day trip. His idea of fun is cycling from Oxford to Edinburgh, via Wales (he did this in 2005 for the Make Poverty History cycle ride). I, on the other hand, pootle about in Oxford on my lovely lecky bike (electric bicycle), if I'm lucky doing 23 miles in two weeks. Therefore, the suggested route, about 35 miles per day, seemed quite reasonable to Kevin. I was concerned whether I could really do it and suggested we stick to about 20 miles per day. But Kevin had no doubts. Bless.

What we got was almost constant rain from Hungerford to Devizes, getting heavier as the day went on. Ok, it wasn't all bad. Here I am on my smart lecky bike, cycling alongside the canal at Little Bedwyn in a moment when the rain held it's breath for a few seconds.

Ok, more than a few seconds. Here is a lovely picture of Little Bedwyn 5 minutes later (below).

What I like about this picture, is that it has the medieval church, the late 18th century canal, and the 19th century train line, within its borders. Clearly the cycling about wasn't all bad. However, the rain got heavier, I got tireder, and then bugger and blast, 3 miles outside Devizes my battery died. ugh. I wasn't a happy bunny. I was having an Anne of Green Gable's depths of despair moment. After much grumbling and the using up of the last remnants of my pitiful strength (woe!), we got to our B&B, Rockley House and was welcomed by the friendly owners, who didn't bat an eye at us coming inside soaked and dripping. Amazing how getting dry and a warm cuppa makes things seem so much better.

That night I got little sleep. My legs were killing me. Woe was me. 35 miles?! Kevin was starting to feel a little concerned that maybe 35 miles was a bit much for me. 35 MILES! Ok, now Kevin realised 35 miles in one day, in the rain, was definitely too much for me. Thank you dear.

On Saturday we wandered around Devizes dodging bursts of rain. I'd really wanted to go to Devizes to visit one of the key strongholds of Queen Matilda. Matilda should have been queen of England after Henry I died in 1135, but that evil Stephen nicked her crown. Bloody men. She had an amazing life, including an incredible escape from Oxford Castle whilst surrounded by Stephen and his army in 1142, in the middle of winter, and walking straight through his army and on to safety in Wallingford to fight again. I think she is pretty damn wonderful. So I was chuffed to be in Devizes, walking Matilda's steps, even if I couldn't visit the castle as it is now a private residence (when the revolution comes it will be returned to the people and then I'll be able to visit), and the fact my legs were achingly painful, AND the rain just wouldn't bloody stop. If all else fails and I'm not in a garden, nothing like English history to keep my spirits (woe) up.

There is a positive turn to this pathetic tale of woe. Sunday we woke to blue skies! Wow, blue skies, remember those?! Ok, my legs were still aching, but my lecky bike battery was charged up and I was ready to cycle Devizes to Bath. Well, that was the idea.

Just outside of Devizes is the Caen Hill Locks, 16 canal locks in a row going down, or up, a steep-ish hill. Apparently it can take a canal boat between 3 to 5 hours to get through all 16 locks. You would have to have patience and lots of spare time. My picture doesn't really do them justice. Not just because they are working on them at the moment, but also coz, well, I couldn't really do them justice and you cannot see the full effect. Suffice to say we were impressed, and of course it was down hill all the way. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee. See how happy I am in this pic. Blue sky, going down hill, let's pretend the legs are not aching...

Kevin had fun playing with the locks. As a canal boat was going through one, he just had to have a go at opening and closing the lock gate. The boat owner was rather pleased and Kevin got his moment of canal glory.

 
cycling by the 'Barge Inn', near Trowbridge

But it wasn't all blue skies and fun. By the time we got to Bradford-on-Avon, I realised that me cycling from Devizes to Bath by the canal was a cycle-dream. For another day. So we changed our plans and decided to lunch in Bradford, wander around, then catch a leisurely train on to Bath, and from there, home.

Bradford-on-Avon is a lovely town and has some good history that kept my mind occupied. For example, the lovely Saxon church that the town managed to 'lose' for several centuries. As you do. And the enormous 14th century Tithe Barn. To get an idea of scale, on the right is a little Kevin in the middle of the big barn.

We made it to Bath and then home. Our fluff-ball (Merlyn) welcomed us. Well, I suppose he was wanting dinner, but we decided he must have missed us. The time of woe was over. And Kevin agreed that cycling 20 miles a day in future would be quite enough for this Gwenfar.

Jobs and courses

I realise that I've been rather silent the last couple of weeks. That's because I've gone from being an unemployed bum 2 weeks ago, to be a full-time worker with 2 part-time jobs, and a new course starting, in the the same few days...! Hence, that's why you haven't heard from me for a little while.

Firstly, and rather excitedly, I have got a freelance job working for a local community garden, Barracks Lane Community Garden. It is 60 hrs per month (for 3 years) between March and November, then 20 hours per month between December and February, when the season is quieter and the garden not open that much. My role is a mix of admin, coordination and organising events - all around gardening and local food. The garden is located just over behind Cowley Road, near the Oxford Community School (if you know the area). Local residents turned a space full of concrete and burnt out garages, used by drug users (and even one death), into a beautiful community space used by all, from local children's groups, to Asian women's groups and the local permaculture group. It's brilliant - someone is paying me to organise gardening and local food related events etc - FAB!

So that takes up about 2 days a week. My other role is 3 days a week as Faculty Administrative Officer at the University's History Faculty. This is a maternity cover job, so will be between 6-12 months. I started last Thursday with an induction with Louise who is going on maternity leave, downloading as much info as I could in her last couple of days. So very busy but engaging, and the staff all seem very friendly. One of the first historian's I met was Felicity Heal, who I referenced/footnoted when I was studying history (early modern England) at University. So in a funny way, my two favourite things, gardening and history, have come together. This is basically senior admin management role, managing a couple of staff and many processes involved in the History Faculty's undergraduate programme. The job is job-share, hence me working 3 days. It complements my freelance hours well, and gives me really good experience working at a senior admin level in the University, using all my project management and organisation skills until the cows come home.

And finally, I started the Permaculture Design Course on the weekend. The first day was great, lots of interesting and engaging people and fascinating ideas to put into practice. However, I was so exhausted by the end of Saturday that I couldn't attend the course on Sunday, and instead slept the day away. I could barely stay awake at all - I guess my body was telling me something. Rather annoying, as I wanted to be there, but I think the starting of two jobs and trying to do a course all in the space of less than two weeks, caught up with me. So I'll need to catch up on what I missed on Sunday. The course is over 7 weekends throughout the year, so I've only missed a tiny bit of it (I hope!).

So that's why I've been absent from my blog for a couple of weeks. I've got to write up a recent long-weekend trip cycling the Avon & Kennet canal in Wiltshire, which I plan to do soon, along with pictures. And need to get back to the lottie. The poor negelected lottie rather ended up low down the 'things to do' list in the last few weeks. I guess for good a reason, but really, I need to get back to it - those potatoes need planting!