Bavarian & Bonn holiday

Ok, it's taken me about 6 weeks, but I've finally got around to sorting through the rest of my over 600 photos from our holiday in Bavaria and Bonn back in September. I briefly posted back in early October, but here is a fuller photo story of our holiday...

View from our cabin in Bayerisch Eisenstein. It was so beautiful and the air was so fresh I almost felt like I was on a high!

Wandering in Bayer's streets.

Bayer is in the Bavarian Forest, right on the boarder with the Czech Republic. In fact, the train station is half in Germany and half in Czech, as I demonstrate here!

Us on the top of Grosser Arber.

A day trip out of the forest to the beautiful Bavarian city of Regensburg. It was a bit grey and cloudy that day, but I can assure you the city is very beautiful.

Julieanne in front of another part of the Roman wall. Notice how they built the 'newer' buildings into the old wall.

The elusive Lynx. It's blurry (it's been cropped), but it was very rainy and being a cat, it did not like being out in the rain much, so it hid deep into the trees. At Falkenstein Naturpark, Bavarian Forest. And yes, there are still some Lynx in the wild in the Bavarian Forest too.

And now the Wild Cat. Though hard to tell in a photo, these cats are much larger than your usual moggie. At Nationalpark Lusen.

Tree-top walk at Nationalpark Lusen.

A riot of colour at the Bundesgartenschau in Koblenz. Was enjoyable to visit, but Chelsea, it's not!

Playing on the chairs at the Bundesgartenschau in Koblenz

The Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, other side of the Rhine in Koblenz. Another part of the Bundesgartenschau also held here.

Colourful Cauli's (Bundesgartenschau).

Cycling in the Ahr valley (part of Rhine region) with our friends from Bonn. This is all of us (well, minus me) in the town of Mayschoss. L-R: Alexander, Kate, Simon, Sam & Kevin.

Fantastic use of permaculture 'edge'. Grape vines, Mayschoss. The tunnel to the left is the bicycle tunnel, and to the right, the train tunnel. I love the Germans, they are so organised.

Julieanne, Kate & Simon. Between Dernau and Ahrweiler in the Ahr Valley.

Sam & Kevin. Who's the cutest?! In Ahrweiler.

New glass chicken from the Regensburg Glas-haus graces the lottie.

It was a really relaxing  holiday in the Bavarian Forest and we had a great time visiting Kate, Simon and the boys in Bonn, and came back refreshed and relaxed. Somehow though, it already seems an ice-age away...

For the extra keen, I've posted more photos from the holiday on my web album.

Container gardening with legs

I saw this when on holiday in Germany, as we were cycling into Dernau, in the Ahr valley (near Rhine) with friends. Gives container gardening legs, don't you think?!

Block the bill - NHS block the bridge

Ok, I realise it has been yonks since I've last blogged. I promise I'll catch up soon and will supply you with pics and stories from our holiday in the Bavarian Forest and visiting friends in Bonn. In the meantime, today I was at the NHS Block the Bill action in London.

There is a lot of hope that the House of Lords will hold up the bill by referring it to a committee, effecting stopping it. Ironic that it might be a bunch of unelected predominately rich white men, that may help save the NHS. However, not counting chooks yet...

Jenny & I on #blockthebridge

More pics here and here.

DIY trellis

Since undertaking the Permaculture Design Course last year, my confidence in trying to make my own objects for the garden has increased. I've also got better at noticing how I can increase the use of the different resources that I come by.

A couple of months ago I pruned the Phyllostachys Nigra, the black stemmed bamboo, above. It was planted quite close to the fence we share with our lovely neighbours Fung & Simon. Whilst they like the bamboo well enough, it was trying to get a bit too close and was pushing out the fence in a funny angle and making it a bit unstable. Furthermore, on our side, it was starting to take up lots of space and block out some light, so pruning was in order.

If you know Phyllostachys Nigra, you will know that the black stems are a lovely shiny black. Bamboo is also quite strong, hence the large number of imports from China to garden centres throughout the UK. In general, I don't buy bamboo canes for staking, I either get hold of some hazel branches, or keep any branches that are relatively long/straight from pruning trees in my own garden. When Kevin and I pruned the Prunus (prune Prunus - ha ha) I collected a large number of stakes that I have been using for anything from growing my French climbing beans to staking Brussels sprouts at the lottie. Hence, rather than cutting up and throwing away the pruned branches, I saw them as potentially useful objects for the garden. Even the smaller stems are drying out and will be used for kindling. So when pruning the bamboo a couple of months ago, with it's lovely long black stems, I knew I would find some use for them and so put them aside to dry out.

Today I made use of those bamboo canes, making my own trellis. I needed a trellis for a new evergreen Honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica 'Hall's Prolific'*, that I am going to grow up the front wall of the Lemony.

laying out the vertical canes

First I put the container I was going to plant the honeysuckle in on its side, then placed the 5 bamboo canes inside to the bottom. I arranged them into a fan, with the tallest in the middle. I then cut a smaller cane to go across (horizontal) the long canes. Because I wanted to get the trellis to fit in a small space, I used this cane to measure up next to the wall. Good thing, because I had arrange the fan to be too wide. I cut the horizontal cane to side, then arrange the long vertical stems accordingly, starting from the bottom end of the trellis and working up..

adding the lowest horizontal cane

Next I tied the lowest horizontal can to each vertical cane, as above. I then moved up to the top of the 'trellis' and tied in the top horizontal cane, below. I did this to help make the overall framework a bit more steady, to make it easier to add in all the middle horizontal canes.

adding the top horizontal cane

I used string to tied all the horizontals to the verticals and then added a bit of super glue to each knot. The glue was because I don't think I had the strongest string on the planet and I wanted to make sure the knots held!

voila! the completed trellis

Moving the planter and new trellis upright, I attached a couple of canes on each side to nails coming out of the wall. This is because this area is quite windy and I wanted to make sure it was steady and the whole thing won't come crashing down.

planting up**

Next was the planting up! Along with the honeysuckle, I added in some spare daffodil bulbs I had drying out from Spring, and some early flowering crocuses, Crocus tommasinianus 'Whitewell Purple', one of my favourites. Then to add some further interest for later in the year (since the daffs and crocuses will be for early Spring), I planted up a couple of Pennisetum Red Buttons, a grass seed I picked up from the Knoll Gardens stand when I was at Chelsea this year and have successfully grown into lovely new plants.

ta da!

And here is the completed planting with my DIY trellis. At a later stage we will add a couple of rows of wire across the top and over the door so that I can train the honeysuckle along the rest of the front of the Lemony. I should add that I wanted a fragrant evergreen in this place for two reasons. One, a kitchen window looks out directly onto this space, so I wanted something green all year round. Adding the bulbs was to help lighten the spirits with their colour, when it is desperately needed, at the end of each winter. Two, Kevin and I go in and out of the Lemony door all the time, as it is the end when we place our bicycles, so when it flowers next year and in future, we will be able to regularly enjoy the fragrance. This is also next to the entrance to our back door and garden, so visitors will also get to enjoy the fragrance since we use the back door, rather than the front, as our main entrance to the house.

I admit the trellis is no great work of art. But I made it from home-grown resources and it does the job, and I feel rather pleased with it. Hopefully as the honeysuckle grows up the trellis, it will take on some 'rustic charm', the string will be hidden and the fragrance will delight all who passes by.

*This was Kevin's choice and he even paid for it. He now owns a total of 2 plants in our garden!
**That's my other neighbour, Richard's garden behind me. He's not a gardener...

More harvesting, and green manure

I must say thank you to the weather, for hearing my plea and making the weekend predominantly sunny, or at least,  not very rainy, as it did rain for 1 hour on Sat. My lottie was ever so pleased to see me today.

Thankfully I got there just in time before some of the courgettes started becoming marrows. This particular courgette, verde di Italia, has yielded quite well, though I do have to be quick about getting to them before they become marrows. They taste much better when smaller. As usual, another good variety I got from Real Seeds.

Courgette verde di Italia

I only had to dig up a couple of beetroot to get enough to make some brownies...

One of them was quite large compared to the others (see right side in the picture below). This was a variety called Devoy, which rather than giving you round beetroot, gives you longer more carrot-like beetroot. This one was quiet chunky. Mmmm, brownies....

The St Valery carrots were also doing well and taste really sweet, like sunshine in your mouth.

The green manure I sowed a couple of weeks ago is coming along wonderfully. First is the Tares, (with the errant pumpkin elbowing in for some space) which over-winter without any problems from frost damage. I planted the tares after pulling up the garlic. Tares are from the legume family, and fixes nitrogen into the soil as well as improving soil fertility.

The following bed is a mix of winter salads and pak choi to the left, and Hungarian Grazing Rye to the right.

I will be putting a cloche over the salads and pak choi, so carefully marked out the space it will need for when I have to put it on. This will be just before the first frosts, probably in October. Well, hopefully in October and not late September when I'm on holiday in Bavaria!

Because the rye is a cereal it can fit anywhere in a rotation. I thought I'd try it because it is supposed to stop nutrients from leaching, for example, from heavy rains or flooding. Apparently it can really take off and put in deep roots in Spring, so I need to remember to dig it in, in early Spring. Ok braincell, remember that...

You dig in green manure in Spring, at least 4-6 weeks before you want to sow seeds. The freshly dug in green manure can inhibit germination, which is why you need to wait a few weeks to let them break down and release their manurey-goodness before spring sowing can commence. My plan in general, is to have some kind of green manure growing through winter in any bed that I don't have veg over-wintering, such as my Brassicas, Spinach/Chard and the winter lettuces.

Whilst I was busy harvesting, weeding, and sowing more Spinach, Chard and an overwintering cabbage, Wintergreen, Kevin was working on digging out weeds and preparing another raised bed.

Our great aim(!) is that for a change, next year all the beds for the potatoes will be ready when it is potato planting time (traditionally Good Friday), rather than the desperate rush in mid-late May as has been the case in the last two years! Oddly, the late sowing of the potatoes doesn't seem to effect the yields, but still, it would be nice to not have rush in May for a change.

My final photograph is of a poppy that has self-seeded in my spinach/chard bed. Seems a bit late for a poppy to be flowering, but hey, not complaining. I mean - pretty! Ok, perhaps it is flamboyant, but still, pretty...