Planted my garlic and sowed parsnip today on my 33 year old raised beds. No wooden edges, just raised using the soil where the paths are and adding compost year after year and never treading on the beds. The beds are about 1.2m wide so that I can reach into the middle from the paths. Note the diagonal planting which allows you to plant rows closer and increase yield!
Red-back in the garden? Well, it has a red back but it’s Enoplognatha ovata (Candystripe spider / rødstripet kule-edderkopp) and it’s not at all dangerous!!
It seems it’s the first time this species has been registered in my county!
In early April 2016, on my study tour to Japan, I was invited to the mountain home of Ken Takewaki (and Masama) for a short visit. I wrote about Ken’s home and the shock of waking to new snow after 20C the day before in the lowlands back in April (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=6357)! Despite the snow, Ken took us on a trip around the local area (Sugadaira in Nagano) and we had a walk around a local wetland nature reserve, before Ken took us on a long walk up through the forest where he had recently taken over a piece of land in a clearing to grow vegetables. All the signs were in Japanese, so I don’t know the names of many of the plants we saw, but here’s the pictures:
A pleasant visit today from Angelina Hjelm from a little place called Lillpite (pop. 429 in 2010!) in Norrland in Sweden and a friend, traveller from Brisbane in Australia!
My very first garden in Balerno, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, probably 1978-1979! I was renting a flat and living in with the landlady. She didn’t use the garden, so I asked whether I could :) Organic of course! I had become a member of HDRA, the foremost organic gardening organisation in the UK and their leader/president Lawrence Hills was a great inspiration. I remember, on his encouragement, asking the council if I could gather leaves in the park to make compost!
The girls made this wonderful sugar free rhubarb pie for our last meal!!! Not as sour as I’d imagined!After the snow showers had passed, it was a beautiful evening here last night with this colourful view and reflection..
Snow showers all day, laying in the hills but not down here, leading to this picture taken from the house :)
