In order to keep me focused whilst I create my self-proficient garden, I’m going to start doing some monthly garden diaries to help me track my progress. The month of June has been pretty bare to be honest. I had lots of grand plans: to make some garden beds, to clean the algae off the fence and repaint it, and to sort out our sheds. I have ticked off one and a half of those goals.
The fence
Although it has to be said we have a very pretty fence (the idyllic picket fence in fact that I used to draw for my farm as a 7 year old), it really is a bugger to clean and paint. We jet-washed and repainted the fence last year, only to find that extensive amounts of algae returned over the wet autumn and winter months. If it was simply a visual thing, I don’t think I would be bothered enough to go to the painstaking effort of scrubbing the algae off of every exposed side of each fence panel. However, when I looked into it, the algae can cause the fence to retain moisture and rot. It is possible that this is a scam created by gardening companies given other sources told me it does not damage the fence but is a part of the garden ecosystem. As a compromise, I figured I would give it a go once.
As a part of self-proficiency, the goal is the look after things so that they last as long as possible. However, as well as being sustainable for our earth, this goal also needs to be sustainable for our time. We lead busy lives and working full time is not often conducive to the projects that I try to undertake. Therefore, I decided I would try to undertake this massive job just once; if it failed to keep the algae at bay over this winter, I would give up and defer wisdom to the alternative source that says garden algae does not damage the fence’s structural integrity. Very committed I know, but this is a carefully measured decision based on the cost of a new fence in many years time, and the time I have available as a full time working lady. Time is more valuable than money, and this was not a job I particularly looked forward to, but I figured it was worth the effort just once.
Naturally, I wanted to do this without using nasty chemicals, like bleach, that would no doubt rid me of the algae but that would also kill other important creatures of the garden ecosystem. Scouring mums-net and other blogs online, I found that a mix of vinegar and warm water does this job nicely. You still have to scrub a lot, but my hope is that it will keep the algae at bay for a couple of winters.
You may think I’m sad, but I’ve genuinely been examining the different fences in my local area to assess which I would choose if I was designing our garden from scratch. This has genuinely gotten me considering which fence would be the most appropriate, environmentally friendly, and easy to maintain for the future. Watch this space for a dull post about different fence types for a home garden soon!
Garden beds
I am slightly ashamed of my lack of progress in creating some garden beds. Only slightly mind – did I mention that I have a full time job and I’m tired in the evenings? I have done little more but think about where I want these beds to be. There has been no measuring, and not even a small attempt to practice some woodworking skills.
Then what have I done you ask? I have planned. At times, I really am one of life’s planners rather than someone who takes action. This is specifically when it comes to trying something new because change and taking a leap is scary. I have planned where the beds will go. I have planned materials and the sourcing of these. I have planned construction. I have done lots of thinking. Have I actually done anything? Nope. In all seriousness, planning is important, but I am the first to admit that my planning has been more a method of procrastination because action is real, scary, and also effort; planning is still conceptual.
I decided first where I would source my wood rather than what kind of wood I would use. Perhaps this is a strange order to do things. Having done a couple of beginning woodworking courses at Leeds Wood Recycling Centre, I felt that would be a good place to source the wood for my project. The centre is a social enterprise which diverts old wood from landfill by collecting, sorting, and repurposing wood that is no longer suitable for its original purpose. This is mainly through their shop where they sell wood direct to consumer, and sell items that they have built from this repurposed wood.
I also like to think that I have done fairly extensive research on how to best construct my beds. I have scoured multiple sources in order to come up with my construction plan for beds that will have a long and fruitful life. I recently brought Huw Richards’ gardening book, Veg in One Bed, which has some nice instructions on building a raised bed using recycled plastic decking boards. However, I was really keen on using wood from Leeds Wood Recycling Centre because the organisation holds the essence of self-proficiency. Homesteading and Chill have a very detailed guide on building your own raised beds, including what kind of wood to select, where to place the beds, how to space beds, and a further blog on how to significantly increase the life of a wooden raised bed. Using this blog, I decided that I will be making my beds out of old scaffold boards as these are in plentiful supply and are made from the very strong and durable European Whitewood.
The Sheds
I have little to say about this other than I did it! We replaced our old kitchen worktops last year that my husband insisted on keeping “just in case”. He was pleased, I’m sure, to have proved me wrong when I insisted that they were just taking up space and we would “just end up taking them to the tip in a years time anyway”. I purchased a bunch of wall mounted hooks and attachments to organise everything neatly and make all my tools and other crap easily accessible. Behold below the shed transformation journey!
Slugs, slugs, slugs!
One thing that is a constant in any vegetable garden is the growing of vegetables and caring for your crops … except not in my garden. Savage slugs have been treating my first attempt to successfully grow my own food as their own private banquet. Let’s all take a minute to imagine slugs in mini tuxedos sat around a tiny banquet table, knives and forks poised for action. These little buggers, or sluggers, took full advantage of the particularly sunless summer that the UK are experiencing this year to come out and feast upon the delicate seedlings that I so lovingly planted, with no intent but to destroy! Big bullies!
The slugs basically decimated my french beans and peas. I’ve spent a lot of time looking into and asking people how they manage to make sure the slugs are aware that they are not welcome to my garden buffet; I’m happy to share land with them, but I’m not willing to tolerate that annoying housemate at uni, or stoned hostel kitchen-mate, who steals lunch for the next day in the early hours of the morning whilst you were innocently asleep and they had returned home drunk or high. The 3 constants seem to be coffee, egg shells, and cinnamon. I don’t drink coffee or eat eggs, so that leaves me with cinnamon. I brought a big tub of cinnamon to sprinkle on the leaves to deter my unwelcome dinner guests. To be honest, I’m not sure if this has worked because the damage was done by the time I got round to actually using this deterrent. I’ll have to wait and see whether it works next year.
Into July
Perhaps I should learn from my mistakes and make some more realistic goals for July. Or perhaps I’ll keep the same goals of making my raised beds and cleaning the fence. I’ve made a start on both after all.