Veg, Eggs and the Mediterranean Corner

 The Youth Project on the farm where I work have been busy making bird boxes as a fund-raising exercise. Nest boxes, I mean, not boxes for keeping birds in because that would be both unkind and unethical. Anyway, the boxes are very nice and of a decent size. And they are £10 each which I regard to be good value for money, so I’ve placed an order for three which I shall collect next week. Probably a bit late for nesting birds this year, but you never know. I shall, regardless, attach them to suitable trees immediately.

The nest box on the aspen tree at the top of the garden contains these:

I think they are great tit eggs. Earlier in the year there had been sparrows loitering around the box, but the entrance hole is too small for sparrows. Our neighbours have a tit box attached to the back of their house and were forced to climb a ladder in order to rescue a sparrow that had tried to gain access and got itself stuck, like Winnie the Pooh in Rabbit’s doorway after partaking of too much honey. 

This nest has been used by blackbirds for the past two years; it is situated under the tree house in the goat willow half way up the garden:

Five eggs this year. Aren’t they beautiful? I love it when the baby blackbirds fledge because their father brings them down to the courtyard to oversee playtime and it entertains me no end to watch them scooting about in the flower bed whilst Papa keeps a watchful eye and shows them how to bash snails into submission.

And the swallows? Well, their nest is looking very nest-like now…

I reckon it’s about two thirds of the way to being fully constructed. 

I’ve been planting baby veg into the new no dig bed this week…

Runner beans to the left, peas and dwarf french beans under the netted hoops, tomatoes to the front and courgettes to the back. I’m thinking of going rogue and planting my multi-sown module beetroot amongst the tomatoes. I know - how daring it THAT??!! The one remaining raised bed has been sown with parsnips, carrots (two types - orange and rainbow), mixed salad leaves and beetroot. They’ve all started to make an appearance, although one can never be too sure with parsnips which masquerade as common weeds for a little while before taking on their distinctive parsnip-shaped and coloured leaves. I’ve got to find space for more dwarf beans, the leeks and some kale. There are another 20 tomato and 10 cucumber plants making an overall control bid for the greenhouse, and don’t even get me started on the 107 pansies! But they can move outside now that frosts have passed by. Pansy extravaganza, here we come! Ditto cosmos, marigolds and nigella. 

Meanwhile, in ‘Mediterranean Corner’…

…both hops are way taller than me and almost at the top of the gazebo. We are pondering if we can persuade them to take a right/left hand turn at the top and work their way towards each other. The grape vine has almost covered the side of the shed, and the first signs of baby grape bunches are emerging. And the fig tree? Well, although you can’t see it very well it IS there and has started to grow some baby leaves and looking less like a mere stick in the ground. I’m not holding my breath for a fig harvest this year. 

Working my way through Charles Dowding’s second no dig book, the one that concentrates on growing skills. One day, I may have a veg garden as well organised and productive as his.