Sprouts for Christmas Dinner For the first time in years I have been able to pick sprouts straight from the garden for our Christmas dinner. There isn’t much left this year but we have plenty of sprouts, leeks and cabages all ready for eating.
Ready for the winter
It is cold and frosty here in the Forest of Dean and today we had a large load of logs delivered. We used Ian again from http://www.woodlandenergyfirewood.co.uk/ Moving and stacking them was very hard work, but we now have plenty of wood for the winter. Ian also used his chainsaw tosaw up the remains from the ghastly pine tree we had …
Testing compost activator
Trying out compost activator in my bins As this is a brand new garden, compost is particularly important. I am using 2 slatted wooden bins to create and store the compost. Today I have turned the heap from 1 bin to another and every layer was sprinkled with the compost activator from Soilfixer. It will be interesting to see how …
First year in retirement in the Forest of Dean
Well, today marks a full 12 months since I retired. It has been very eventful. We have sold our house in Churchdown, bought this little cottage in the Royal Forest of Dean, installed a wood burning stove and created a brand new garden. Cinderford has turned out to be a delightful little town full of small local business with lots …
Planning for the spring garden
We have done pretty well this year all things considered but I’m determined that next year will be even better. This weekend I’ll be turning the compost heap and getting ready to fork over the beds and enrich them with the compost and some local rotted horse manure. Our deep beds will all have sweet peas growing on the sides …
Enjoying local produce
Over the weekend we had some wonderful local food. Friday night we had a T bone steak from our local butcher with potatoes and beans from the garden. Naturally as always a bottle of wine was enjoyed with it. On Saturday the lovely Vanda cooed a Mousaka using aubergines and tomatoes from the garden and minced lamb, again from our …
Autumn is here
We are now getting cold and foggy weather, but we are still getting beans, courgettes and sweet corn from the garden. Cauliflowers are nearly ready and the sprouts are doing well. Really looking forward to eating them I now also have a new morning routine chopping kindling and splitting logs for the wood burner.