Ride On

Our lawn is so rough it feels like a battle has been fought on it. I tried pushing my big old Honda up and down but decided this was something I wasn't going to persuade myself to do very often. And short of making hay on the garden (which I have considered) I needed something to make my life a little easier.

Luckily my dad always knows someone selling what I want, within three days I was the proud owner of a secondhand ride on lawn mower, and for 300 quid I think it's a bit of a bargain. It handles the lawn nicely (after I strimmed it) and it can squeeze up the side of the house to do the little front lawn as well. Well it could get up there after I attacked the hedge with my little hedge trimmer and large chainsaw.

Not sure if my little girl enjoyed this or not!

Slowly I'm starting to get on top of things! I've got to learn to try and take these things on steadily or they can get on top of you and every job can suddenly look like a major one. Like the veg garden. But I'll depress you all with that another day...

I Beg Your Pardon,

I never promised you a herb garden!

Bargain Herbs

I've been looking out at car boot sales for lots of herbs so I can plant up a herb garden at the front of our house, but we found them just as cheap at a garden centre today. They were buy one get one free, which worked out at 75p for a good sized plant.

We went mad and bought 6 rosemary plants, 4 different thymes, Lemon Verben, a Curry plant, a gold veined sage and a pot of chives. Not bad for just over £10.

Now I need to sort out the area I'm going to plant them in, the trouble is this means digging up some large roots from an old rose bush and other shrubs so lot of work involved. It should make a nice herb boarder when it's done and make the front of the house look nicer.

First Egg

Although I've kept plenty of chickens in the past it's always great when you get your first egg off your new chickens, and we did on sunday.

Chicken Entertainment Centre

One of our daughters silkie bantams laid the little white egg and although I dont think they will ever earn their keep, at least they're trying!

First egg, a little small though...

Mind you the bantams are worth their weight in gold when they keep our little girl entertained, even if it's for just long enough for my wife to peg out the washing. We call it our Chicken Entertainment Centre and I might try and patent it! Only use if you want your child to turn into a bumpkin though!

Making Sea Salt

It was our wedding anniversary this week so I decided to surprise my wife by arranging to have the day off and take her and our daughter to the seaside for the day.

Dip your toe in!

We had a cracking day at Barry Island (with plenty of Gavin and Stacy quotes and sight seeing) but you always have to take something from the beach home with you. I did, in the form of 7 litres of sea water!

Not what everyone brings back from the beach!

This meant I had to walk all the way to the sea and fill loads of bottles with sea water, I happened to choose low tide when I decided to do this with a big pink bag but don't worry, I'm used to funny looks!

Not a dirty protest but sea water strained through muslin

when we got back I strained it through 4 layers of muslin to remove any sand, before putting five litres in a large pot and boiling it.

5 litres of sea water

 When it got close to boiling dry I turned off the hob and left it to cool. Then today we left it in the sun to evaporate more (free energy) before finishing it off in the oven to drive out the last bit of moisture.

Salt!

Quite a bit collected

I was quite impressed with the amount of salt it produced, but on purely economical terms this little experiment isn't viable, as the electric hob probably used more electric than the salt is worth. But if you had a wood stove heating the house all day then this would be a way to get free salt and another step towards self sufficiency (but only if you live near the sea - which we don't)!

Looking at this post I still not sure why my wife puts up with me!

Bay Trees

There's not many things I miss about living at our old house but I do miss my herbs. When we moved not all of our herbs survived or the ones that did are still recovering from being dug up and having 4 months of rain chucked at them! There were also a few which were a little too big to move as well.

The garden at our old house. The bay tree was the large green tree on the left

Our old house used to have a huge bush of rosemary and a massive bay tree. This was until the harsh winter we had in 2010/2011 where temperature dropped to -20 degrees and killed them both. It was a shame as I'd never really seen a bay tree get so big in this country, many people keep them in pots and take them in when the winter weather comes, but the protected south facing garden was perfect. We used to use bay all the time, and lately we've been missing the flavour it adds to our meals. So when I was at my first car boot sale in what seems like ages and I saw these two 4ft trees I knew I had to have them. At £28 for the pair they were good(ish) value and will look good in some big pots outside the front door.

Two "new" Bay trees, I've got to change the pots!

We've rabbit for tea one night this week so I'm sure that will be the first use of this aromatic herb in a slow cooked stew.

I'm really keen to build a herb garden at the front of our house (as it faces south) with big bushes of strongly scented rosemary and lavender, with other herbs dotted around, I just need to find some plants the right size and the right money.

We've things like fennel, sweet Cicily, angelica, sage, thyme, lemon balm, mint, etc at the moment, any herbs away from the norm that anyone recommends?