Tatnam Organic Patch

As is customary it seems these days, I wasn’t able to make the whole workday, but I did pop down twice, to a hive of activity.

Theresas Permaculture Raised Beds come to life

In particular, Kat and Ken were busy creating the high raised beds as designed by Theresa, and according to some of the principles that Sepp Holzer has been practicing in the Alps over decades. This involves burying logs under the soil, and in our case some of the straw was delivered as left over from the Lush Strawbale coolstore, to act as a slow release fertiliser. The roots of a variety of plants interspersed and cropped individually hold the sides together. Or that is the theory. To make them more alpine, Brendan the man mountain joined them, shovelling dirt profusely, but not always where Gary chose.

Gary grafting three varieties of apples

Gary and Mark were practicing the art of grafting, especially on the Cox’s Pippin tree by the gate. This was grown from seed, and is a large tree. On 3 different adjacent boughs, they grafted different scions. Gary had  a nifty tool that took a u shaped nick out of one end, and a matching protruberance from the other. The ideal is for the layer just below the bark to be touching.

They then went on to graft black mulberry (are you sure this time Mark) onto the white mulberry tree which was planted in error. The black are better eaters, and the white are good for silkworms. King James got there before us, the other way about, as he was after planting a wood to feed silkworms, but had the wrong tree too.

History of mulberries, and a recipie for Mulberry Wine can be found at http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mulcom62.html

Dante inspecting the frogspawn in the stream

In the stream, a month ago, Mark laid a few simple rows of stones. The intention was to slow the stream and to create pools. When it rains, these streams become a bit of a torrent, and we have no intention of holding the water back as it drains much of Oakdale (or Stanley Green at least). The rewards are swift. There were two large lumps of frogspawn, where clearly the frogs were impressed with his handiwork. Not sure they’re clear on this photo, but one mound either side, level with the vertical stick on the bank.

Peggy worked around site, looking at the trees, and adding identifying tags to them.

Harriet and Marcos planting seed

Harriet and Marcos took the fleece off the bed to the north of the greenhouse, which had looked something like a roman’s reclining dining chair all winter, and re-packed this material around the edge of the bed to reduce wash-off. New seedlings were distributed across the top. Definately signs of spring.

A fortnight ago, I restored a pane of glass behind the fig in the corner of the greenhouse, that had slipped to create an unexpected ventilation hole. An extra slither of glass, and a rearrangement of the rocks below may have sorted it, but I desparately need more greenhouse clips. I even went to B&Q to buy some, but they only had expensive mixed packs  with other stuff we didn’t need.

And I looked at all the watertanks. A couple, after over 10 years of service are dribbling a bit at the junctions. Not suprising really, but over a dry summer, they will run out sooner than needed. So I emptied the 60 gallon tank at the end of the chain into a spare so I could fix the connector. A debate ensued about whether the location of the tank is now right (perenniel crops at that end because of overshadowing from the Oak trees). No conclusion, so haven’t yet relocated it. Mind you, I haven’t fixed it either. There’s always tomorrow.

First crop of forced rhubarb

Oh, and not forgetting the rhubarb. First crop of the season, the picture is Marcos picking the last of the long stems,  we use a plastibig plastic barrel sawn in half to cover a couple of the heads each year (do we remember to pick different ones ? Probably not!) This is such an excellent and longstanding crop in the garden, right through from now to October. Marcos said that he had never seen this plant in Spain, but then they have Oranges, a much sweeter crop !

Andy

We built a number of thermal stores into the greenhouse at tatnam patch from the start. Borrowing an Infrared camera from Dorset Energy Advice Centre (DEAC) to study our home insulation was a good opportunity to see how they were working, so I nipped down after dark, about 10pm. The metal baths, and flagstones  positively glow, transferring heat from day to night, and several degrees ‘hotter’ in infrared radiation than the surroundings.

I also disturbed a load of pigeons roosting in the oak trees

High storage in the greenhouse – black painted toilet cisterns

Following a delivery to Tatnam Patch of the offcuts from the LUSH Straw Bale Coldstore, Harriet, Ken, Marcos and Fliss dodged the rain on Sunday to shift the straw mountain by the gate to be stored in the old leafmould bins at the other end of the site. We have already used some on a few of the beds.

Ken and Marcos shifting straw

Check out Lush’s straw bale design at https://www.lush.co.uk/our-values/the-green-hub

Gary and Andy arrived quite late, and excavated the overflow pipe from the greenhouse to the pond. Gary found a new hole in one of the two pipes, and we later found that a fork had pierced right through the other one. Andy cycled home for glue and a short bit of downpipe to patch the pipes, and reinforce the join, and we were back in business. A large root of the willow by the pond had heaved that end upwards, so water was no longer being delivered efficiently. Darkness overtook us before we could lay stones along the length to reduce the chance of over-enthusiastic weeding repeating the breaks. A job for next time, along with overflowing the final bath in the greenhouse to see whether it actually reaches the pond.