Writing Achievements – W/e 31st January 2021

As expected January has been a long month, made especially so under a national lockdown with no end in sight.  But, this month has also been very productive.  I was slightly worried when I decided to purposefully cut down on my daily step count that would give me more time to spend being creative.  When I saw my weekly miles fall a small part of me felt competitive and wanted to get outside to get more steps in.  But, then I had to remember, I was writing.  I couldn’t do both, there just isn’t enough time in the day.  And now, looking back on this month, I can see just how productive I’ve been.  Instead of a big weekly step count, I now have a massive word count for the end of the month. 15,682 words and counting.  Get in!  

Just allowing myself to use that time to spend on writing has been great, not always easy but well worth it.  Sometimes I still feel guilty and it’s showing in more of my novel endeavours as I have struggled to work on this the most.  But again, it’s only been four weeks.  It’s a mindset change I am undergoing, it will take time.  

Having the time to show up and write and to think more about writing has been lovely.  And ideas – they are flowing all over the place, sometimes I forget to capture them but they are about everywhere.

Reading has been a bit more of a challenge.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading when I actually make myself sit down long enough without either my phone or tablet enticing me with social media.  And they both do – constantly.  I have tried to consciously push myself out of the habit.  When I’m bored or have nothing to do my thoughts and hands instinctively head towards either my phone or tablet (whatever is closest), even though there is no reason to use either.  But once I do I always just aimlessly scroll through news or social media sites.  Once I realise what I’m doing then I tell myself that if I’ve got enough time to waste on here then I’ve got enough time to read or write.  And usually, this is enough to get me moving in the right direction.  Given all that’s happened these past 12 months and the fact that for most of these months I had three novels all in varying stages of being finished left about the house, I’m just really pleased I’ve finished a full novel.  

So my writing muscles have increased for sure and my productivity has gone from zero to 100.  I’m also looking forward to reading the next novel on my reading pile – Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey”. 

And most of all, I am enjoying myself.  Enjoying being a writer.

Thank you for reading.

Big Garden Birdwatch

Just in case you’ve not heard – it’s the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend.  

And why am I blogging about this?  Well, if the pandemic has taught us anything it’s that nature is pretty darn wonderful – and precious.  Also, most of us have discovered we quite like to do community stuff sitting from our armchairs – because we can’t really do much else.  This weekend’s birdwatch ticks all those boxes, and more.  

Jokes aside there is a serious point for taking part in this as well.

67 species of birds are now on a red list called the Birds of Concern Conservation list, using established ornithological criteria and assessed as ongoing work out in the field to gather qualitative data to create a detailed report of findings.

The 67 include well-known birds such as skylarks, puffins – event house sparrows.  Imagine a world without sparrows!

The birdwatch this weekend is like having eyes on the ground.  By counting the birds we see in places that we know really well, like our garden or local park, we can help create a picture of how well or not our more urban and suburban-based birds are doing.  

The birdwatching hour also has another important role.  It gives us an opportunity to just stop, sit down for a while and take in the view in front of us.  To perhaps engage with family over some binoculars instead of electronic equipment, or just observe on our own.  Maybe even participate in an online group birdwatch?  However it’s done we get a chance to enjoy watching nature play out in front of us.  And it’s always pretty impressive. 

Watching the birds busying themselves to find food and water, or joining in social groups on the ground to feast on some seed that’s been scattered.  To watch as they flit about, always on the lookout for predators.  Or as they take a bath, splashing water over the side of a dish or pond, carefully cleaning and preening afterwards.

And just to be able to listen to that beautiful bird song.  They are as excited spring is coming as we are, you just listen.  The calls and shrills they make determine whether they are happy or worried, annoyed or pleased and they communicate to each other in this way from the time they get flying in the morning to the time the sun goes down. 

Colour is another wonderful thing to discover with birds – so much colour.  Reds, yellows, blues and everything in between.  Nothing beats the iridescent feathers of starlings.  

The world of birds is just as magical as it is educational.  And the more you watch the more you’ll see.

You’ll see!

If you get a chance this weekend.  Have a go.  For you and for the birds.  Because no one wants a world without birds.

Thank you for reading.

Growing Food Guides – Garlic

The really simple guide:

Buy some garlic from a reputable supplier,

Prepare a growing area in your garden that receives a lot of sun March to July.  Make sure the ground is weed-free, top up the area with good (peat free) compost and add some fertilizer.

In either early December or Early March pull the garlic bulbs into separate cloves (sets)

Plant each set into the soil – leaving about 15cm between each sowing and each line.

Water sparingly and leave to grow. Harvest in either June or end of July.

The Detailed Guide:

Garlic is one of the easiest crops you can grow in your garden.  Depending on your space you can grow a year’s worth of garlic in a relatively small area, making it ideal for small garden spaces.  Plus some varieties store really well-meaning you really get a lot for little time invested in growing it.

However, as I came to discover just recently garlic is only easy if you know a little bit about when best to plant – and where – for optimum crop harvests in the summer.

Last year I had an appalling harvest.  Barely managing to pull three decent bulbs up in the summer.  It made sense really because ever since spring that same year the plants began to whither back to almost nothing.  No lush green foliage growing, just yellowing leaves that soon dried up and fell off.  At the time I put it down to the fact that maybe I’d watered them too much.  But it wasn’t me that had overwatered the plants, it was instead the weather, and I hadn’t noticed.

Let me begin at the beginning.

I had planted my garlic sets into a raised bed in the middle of December the previous year and added (as I usually did) straw to protect them from frost.  This then set them off to start growing again as soon as the weather warmed up.  The problem was we got a lot of rain last winter.  The garden flooded a couple of times.  But, being raised beds, I thought there was nothing to worry about.  That was until recently when I noticed exactly the same thing has happened again this year.

I planted the sets out (omitted the straw this time) mid-December and everything was going okay until the weather changed from frost to rain, and rain and more rain.  And as water collected on the ground it really had one of two places to go – run off or sit there being soaked up by the compost in the raised beds.  The beds got hammered top and bottom and while a raised bed is great for draining away water, it can only do it so much and so quickly in the time it has between yet more rain.  The garlic has, unfortunately, got caught in-between.  This is what I didn’t see happening last year, by the time I saw the effects it was already too late.

My garlic, while off to a great start is now starting to feel the effects of all the recent winter weather.  And every time I check on the poor things they look pretty upset.  The compost is perpetually wet.  A little bit too wet because the ground underneath the beds is still draining away.

Is there a solution to this?

Yes, there is.  When it comes to gardening there are a few options for growing good garlic.

The first option is to raise the beds.  This is the first thing I need to get cracking on as part of the ongoing garden developments – make deeper beds.  At the moment they are a mere 15cm high.  While using no-dig methods this would usually be high enough.  However, on a solid clay garden that takes longer than average to drain (because clay holds incredible amounts of water), it means 15cm just isn’t going to cut it.  Instead, it needs to be doubled to 30cm (11inches).  That will ensure more compost and better draining.  A raised bed can have sides as high as you want, there is no “best height” to have but in the case of garlic 30cm will make a huge difference to any crops I grow while the worms continue to pull the compost into the clay soil below the bed.

The second option, which can be used with the first option, or as a standalone is to grow the garlic sets in potting/seed trays.  Or a host of mini pots could be used.  Whatever you have to hand.  They don’t have to be deep, just deep enough to cover the sets lightly and allow some room for roots to flourish on the bottom.  And leave those trays under cover – away from the rain until March when they can then be planted into their final position in the garden.  As a bit of an experiment, in December last year I held a few garlic sets back, mostly because they just looked too small to use but neither could I bring myself to just chuck them away.  So I thought I’d give them a chance in the polytunnel.  Low and behold, they are doing really well and may well end up to be the only garlic sets I have this year (all 6 of them).

It’s also good to set garlic growing this way if you want to leave mulch on your beds over winter.

The third option is to hold off growing garlic sets until March when hopefully the weather is a little bit kinder.  But there is a downside to doing this, you’re going to need patience because the garlic won’t be ready to harvest for another 15 months!  That’s because garlic needs a cold spell to thrive.  I’ve had mixed results trying to grow garlic in this way.  If you get a cold spell in March then you could possibly harvest later in the summer but it doesn’t always happen and if doesn’t get cold enough it means a crop is sat in your garden taking up space for far too long.  So if space is a premium don’t chance it.

So now you know – garlic is easy to grow as long as you just get the planting done correctly.  Preferably in Dec.  Plant sets in trays/pots and keep them outside but undercover and then plant them out the following spring.  The garlic will love you for it.

As for my garlic?   Well, it certainly taught me some big growing lessons this year.  I did think about moving the garlic growing in the beds but I don’t want to disturb the roots too much while the weather is still so cold.  Instead, I’ll just have to see what survives once spring arrives.  And if nothing else, I’ve still got my trusty six plants waiting patiently in the polytunnel for me.

Thank you for reading.

Always Opportunity

I’ve not written in a couple of days – in any capacity.  It’s weird, I did a bit of writing on my novel at the weekend, and after that felt a little deflated.  it’s not so much that the story itself deflated me, it’s trying to get the words to create the story.  I keep hitting snags with it.  Writing here is a lot easier because I’m writing from my own experience but with a novel, I’m trying to express another’s as yet unknown experience.  It takes a lot of brainpower!

But, I’m here. Still here.  Still writing.  The novel is still over there.  And this is another week.

In the meantime, a couple of bright and inspirational pockets have appeared in my sphere over the last couple of weeks.  All these years I’ve been trying to find opportunities for the “bucket list” areas of my life to no avail.  Now, it looks like things are opening up.  

Out of the blue last week I got asked if I’d like to do the Three peaks challenge with a work colleague.  Something I’ve wanted to do in a long time.  A very long time.  And while it may or may not come to fruition (because life gets in the way and a pandemic rages on), just knowing someone else wants to do it is enough motivation for me to both plan the possibility of climbing the peaks and having a dedicated fitness plan to do it.  Further to that it then gets me out more, and that is something I’m very keen on doing this year.  Also planning means spreadsheets, and I do love to use spreadsheets!

This week I’ve discovered a community farm has been set up less than 3 miles from where I live.  I reached out on a local FB sharing about community tree planting (or lack thereof), and low and behold the charity owner responded to me, explaining what planting plans they have in the pipeline at the farm.  The community farm is in the process of being set up.  It’s all early days, which gives me the opportunity to help from the get-go.  Well, as soon as the lockdown finishes that is.

So all in all, January, while dark and grey some days isn’t fairing too badly at all.

Thanks for reading.

Planning Stages

I’ve been messing about with garden plans tonight.  It started on paper – graph paper.  And it has now progressed to an online plan.  I’m using a free planner called – My Vegetable Garden.  If it works then I’ll write about it on my other blog for a future feature.  So far it’s too early to tell.  I always find online design apps rather cumbersome to use.  They aren’t always easy to use although this one seems better than most, it’s just rather slow.  Not the programme itself just the time it takes to get the necessary design set up.  

I’ve got this wonderful and detailed idea in my head of what I’d like the garden to look like.  a colourful mixture of raised beds, fruit trees, low maintenance paths and a big wildlife area, but I can’t quite relay it onto paper.  There are far too many straight lines at the moment.  The beds are straight, the compost bins are straight – it’s all very uniformed.  Not beautiful as it looks in my head.  Although an online plan can’t recreate the beauty of the plants themselves.

I’m trying to pack in as much as possible.  A self-sufficient garden, with large areas for growing crops, combined with seating areas, fruit areas and the most important part, the wildlife area so it becomes a self-supporting habitat that encourages wildlife that will keep the pests and diseases away from my crops.  it needs to pleasing to spend time in but laid out in such a way that makes it easy to work in the garden as well.  Some seriously tall areas which is why the planning is taking so long.

At the moment the garden has plenty of space that isn’t being utilised.  It’s just mostly lawn which would be fine in itself but my growing area isn’t big enough.  If I want to become more self-sufficient then it’s critical to get more beds in.  And the more beds you have the more space you need around them so the best thing to do, in this case, would be for me to keep them long and narrow.  Which is why there are so many straight lines at the moment.

But, I shall endeavour to keep going on these plans.  I’m hoping the more plans I make the more the final images in my head will reveal themselves.  Well, that’s the hope anyway.

Thank you for reading.