leaves and bin bags

How do you fill bin bags with leaves easily when there is no one to hold the bag open?

Here’s how....

find a cardboard box that fits inside the bag whilst in the shape of a box

pop out the bottom of the box, flatten and fold the box to get it inside the bag, then reform the box
fold the top of the bag over to keep the box open and in shape

fill the bag with the help of 'big hands' pieces of scrap wood that are used as large tongs to lift
large quantities of leaves at a time.
Fill the bag, allowing enough spare to tie off, remove cardboard box and start
all over again

one tidy village.  Thanks for the leafmould Vieuzos

raised beds and clearing

For the most part, the weather has been incredibly kind here for outdoor work.  The evenings stay lighter that the UK too, so the days are longer.  I can easily be outside till six now, before the light is too poor to carry on.

I attacked the large mound of soil that was left after the drive earthworks.  The guys left far more soil than I had anticipated and some is rather poor compared to the rest.  The poorer part I have started to spread about to flatten the ground off a bit and just to loose it.  The better soil is lovely, the raised beds have had a good fill, along with more leaves and leafmound, gathered from around the village, before a blanket of straw to keep them snug for the winter.

mounded topsoil for new raised bed

the piles of earth are getting smaller

clearing the ruin.  This is where my new house is going to be

raised bed complete with salvaged wood sides and leafmould mulch

As I start to clear the ruin, there is plenty more wood, old beams and the like, which are put directly to work retaining more raised beds.  It’d be a shame not to use the good topsoil for another year and I’m going to need plenty of space for sowing seeds if the new seed catalogues have anything to do with it this winter. Long dark evenings are ideal for increasing the workload later in the season, it’s what gardeners dreams are made of.  The difficulty is in limiting the varieties that need to be bought, so they all have to be useful in some way.  Either for me, or the birds, bees or insects or a combination of all the above.

panoramicos fantasticos

from overhead

Annoyingly, most of the video footage we took is too long (large) to upload onto blogger and I don't have the software to edit it down.  So here are a selection of arial photos that show most of what we saw.

from the west, the dots are fruit trees that I planted in November, including some within the huge bramble
patch, the paths really stand out.  Over the road, the new drive, veggie plot with raised beds to the right of the drive.
Huge oak tree still with bronze leaf cover and the village of Vieuzos off to the left in the distance.

from the east

from the south east

right overhead, that's Me and Tom on the left by the chalet, my new wooden panel pathway and a
big store of lovely clay under the tarp.

there you/we are

tom's drone

A friend of Heathers, Tom, enthused about his recent new toy, a drone equipped with a camera, one afternoon whilst we were indulging in tea and cake.  It sounded fascinating.  

It's a little, remote controlled, battery powered helicopter with a range of several hundred metres and a top speed of around 30kmph with a still and video camera mounted on the undercarriage.  He didn’t take much encouraging and the following day returned with it and we spent a fascinating hour or so looking down on my plot from above.  Hopefully the videos upload and work as well as they do on my computer.  Here goes.

a slow start to 2015

Where does the time go?

Partly to dealing with some sort of virus for a while, the rest of the time on the land, continuing, for the most part with brilliant weather, with various projects of which I still have to photograph.  

The virus was a special one, nothing particularly drastic, it just sapped me of energy for a good ten days, starting on New Years Eve.  I went to bed as 8:45 and woke up the following year!

I pottered about, thankfully at Heathers, doing a bit of research on line, various drawings for construction reference, reading reference books on lime plastering, electricity instillations, solar power and a fascinating architectural book on design considerations, though nothing specific or taxing as my mind wasn’t that keen on functioning much.

Heather’s hip operation was a success and she was home, recuperating, with frequent visitors popping in, I am always included when there is tea on offer and have increased the number of people I have met in the neighbourhood considerably.

One fine day I cut back the shrubs that I had planted last month and prepared several hundred cuttings.  It’s not the ideal time of year as I have no way of keeping them frost free, but better to try and have a few take, than not bother at all.  The soft friable soil on the floor of the ancient stable is ideal for rooting cuttings and as there is no longer a roof, they get well watered every time it rains.  Not that we have seen much rain at all this year.  So far the weather has tended to be mild, sunny and fairly calm, though we have had some decent overnight frosts.

work station for cuttings, with my great new rug that I sit on as it's so warm and snug

Elaeaguns x ebbingei cuttings,  I have my fingers crossed for these as it's the wrong time of year,
they won't get any warmth and will be outside through the worst of the winter. Good Luck.

a selection of seeds and cuttings ready to go into the plant nursery

crisp christmas weather

Winter solstice, and the weather is beautiful.  Cold and crisp but warm enough to work in a T shirt in the sunshine, especially if there is something energetic to be getting on with.

It’s been raining loads, so the ground is rather wet to work unnecessarily, so I have been tempted to start clearing part of the ruin where my new house is going to be.  It’s the first time I’ve done any work on this area, as my priority has been the productive garden areas of the plot until now.  

I decided early on that it would be best to get a lot of long term planting done as soon as possible so that whilst building work is continuing, all the trees and shrubs can get on with growing.  Once the house is complete they will already be a decent size and hopefully the orchard will start to be productive.  All my fruit trees are happily settling in, along with thirty or so evergreen shrubs that I purchased to replace or bulk up the hedge to the windward side of the property.  The sooner there is a decent windbreak there the better.  I still have hedges to plant, but am waiting to clarify the boundaries with the neighbouring farmer before I go ahead and order the plants as I don’t want to get them in the wrong place.  Hopefully they’ll go in this season, if not next year will have to do.

newly planted fruit trees 

new raised beds (under construction)

the new drive, complete with planting, in the winter sun

no point clearing all the brambles!!!

they should grow well with this view I would have thought

So I started clearing the ruin, the safer part where the walls have already fallen.  The brambles went in a couple of hours but the next stage is going to take somewhat longer.  It’s fine, as I can’t get on with much else, there isn’t a rush to start building as the final permissions will be another three or four months in the processing and it’s great to have the opportunity to salvage as much as possible.

There are loads of whole roof tiles which I’ll add to the earlier collection.  Plenty of broken ones too which will make excellent sub base around the site when the time comes.  Hefty, solid timbers, ideal for garden structures or raised bed construction, more rotten bits for experimental projects (check out Hugelcultur, a method of vegetable cultivation that mounds soil over rotten timbers, the rotting wood releases nutrients, retains moisture and yet allows for a free draining soil.  With free materials on site, I thought I might make a couple of beds to see how it works).  Then there are all the unknown bits and pieces underneath the rubble.  Who knows what may be lurking below and by taking a bit of time, I’ll be more likely to find things in tact than if a bulldozer gets anywhere near the site.  Going on a treasure hunt.

It’s great to be working now, during the shortest days, to see how the light works its way round the plot and where the sunny and shaded areas are.  The sun is at it’s lowest in the sky and, whilst it’s strength is weak, it is of the most benefit for passively heating the inside of buildings during the cold winter months.  I checked this out and am very pleased to see that my kitchen and bathroom windows get sunshine all afternoon and till just after five in the evening, almost to sunset, maximising the effect of those warming rays.  The house won’t roast in summer because the windows become shaded by a balcony when the sun is higher in the sky.  If that isn’t enough, some climbing plants will soon be planted to give a little extra shade.

this bit of old wall is where my new kitchen window will be, it's 15:55 on 21/12/14  sunny till the end

exploring in the remains of a barn

Percy in the evening light with new 'keep clean' walkway to the chalet

just a little clearing to do

I’ll post some sketches and plans of the house right soon, so that you can all have a good look, ask questions, make suggestions and generally give it a good going over to see that it all makes sense.  I’ve been living imaginarily inside it for some time, yet still find details that don’t work and improvements that can be easily added at this stage of the proceedings.  Hopefully my next post, I just need to get some paperwork from on site.

it's caught on here too!!

to you all

So, that’s it for now.  A slightly belated Christmas to you all, I write on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) and with the sun shining am heading right back out there to carry on.  Best wishes and much love.  xxxxx