New Year, new plans.

Happy new year to all my reader.

Not much happening at the moment because the weather's foul and I'm leaving the digging until it's drier.  Being clay soil it's bad to dig it in the winter and you should either do it in autumn (preferable) or spring.  Or no-dig it of course - pull out perennial weeds, mulch and then cover up until needed.  We can't do this yet because we don't have enough compost.  I didn't adapt what I had read about compost in the Humanure Handbook to the wet conditions we have here and ended up with a slimy mess.  So on christmas day K and I layered what we had with straw into one big pile and covered it with the ubiquitous black placcy.  We now need to get a few tons of municipal compost from somewhere (only stuff you can get here in big bags) and hopefully our stuff will be ready by summer and we can mulch everything with it.  Live and learn.
I have been pleased with the Piacenza savoys - big crunchy tasty heads with no slugs!  Same with the leeks.  The winter-sown broad beans look a bit battered from the frost and wind but they'll come back.  Next year I'll cover with straw and net to keep them healthier.  Same with the spring cabbages.  The chard is coming back from the brink after the hard frosts, there's a few wee romanesco peeping out of the foliage and the purple sprouting is looking good.  More to be planted next year.  Kale is poor - too small.  Brussels have been a bit disappointing as well.  I need to stake both of them firmly and give them more muck.  A surprise has been the winter radishes - I thought they were woody and bitter at first tasting but after the hard frosts they turned crisp and sweet, with just a hint of pepper.  Delicious!

Soft fruit has been netted against birds eating the buds and is looking ok - lots of big healthy buds, etc.  We're going to plant more soon.  Fruit trees look ok apart from the Belchard apple so I want a couple of dwarfs to make up the deficit.  Polytunnel crops are ok - got enough salad bits for the two of us but I think we could do with planting them out earlier next time so they grow a bit more before the cold weather hits.

Chickens are fine out in the cold wet windy muck!  Still getting one or two eggs a day.  Obediah the cock has ripped out all the feathers on his favourite lady's back when he's been -ahem- busy and it's looking very raw. Next spring when the new chicken areas a la Balfour Method are done I'm introducing two new chooks so that should enable him to spread his joy about and the poor bugger will recover.  Obediah's got to have his scratchin's.*

Gite is coming along slowly.  I'm re-drawing the stair plan to take into account the planed wood is 1cm smaller than what I was told it was.  Got to wait for the cement to set on the floor where the old stair base was so no problem.  Kitchen's being wired as I type this, stove is all clean and nice, and there's only a few more wee jobs to do before we decorate and get all the crap out of our spare room and back into the gite where it came from.  I feel like we've broke the back (and bank!) on it at last.  Apart from the stairs, but I've got someone showing me what to do so it should be ok.  Should be done and dusted by spring, thank God!

Roll on spring.

*see Sharpe's Rifles series for clarification.  Thought Sgt. Obediah Hakeswill and the cockerel had similar personalities!

Self-sufficiency = simplicity and freedom? Sort of...

Ah yes, the simple country life.  No mortgage, no boss (almost!), no "nine to five", no twitching curtains, no sitting in traffic, no stress, no money worries, etc, etc.

Reading list includes "On Walden Pond", "How to be Free", "Hovel in the Hills", etc, to give you an idea of how it could all be, which are read on the bus to work.

Then you bite the bullet, put her money where your mouth is and get a field and a house and start digging.

Then it gets head-burstingly complicated and staggeringly easy at the same time.  I'm not including K's work here, which ain't easy by a long shot.  I'm just waffling on about self-sufficiency.  Again.

To eat a good variety of food, you have to grow a good variety of plants and rear a good variety of animals.  Each one is different and you have to know everything about each one, like why the sprouts have blown even though the soil's compact, and why brandling worms are living in them and what to do about it.  On the Island, with it's mere handful of fruit bushes, a few wee trees, a veg plot and 4 chickens, that amounts to fifty things to keep in my head all the time, and this is winter when everything's slow and bare.  Then there are the buildings and what is within them: the house, the gite, the hangar.  All with their own problems, structures, daily tasks.  Then there are the things you need to do now for the following year, like fencing, which occupies another slice of my brain and is a lot more complicated than it looks (have a look at the BTCV handbooks on-line - no, sorry, they've had the funding taken away and now sell them).  Then there are the things to do now for the following 17 years, like setting out a hedge and tree nursery round the back of the polytunnel, to be planted in their final positions in 2 year's time and pollarded and laid in 15 year's time.

It's a bit like a game of 3-D chess with a hundred pieces played out over the next two generations.  You're on one side of the board and slugs are on the other.

It is complex beyond anyone's reckoning.  I think the reason the stereotypical country yokel is depicted as talking slowly and looking a bit glazed is because there is so much brain power being used up just keeping everything he/she needs to do in focus, there are no cells left for communication with Gore-Texed townies.

Where's the easy bit, then, you northern gobshite?  Well, all you have to do is walk around with a spade, hammer, or paintbrush and use them where they're needed.  Water what needs water, feed what needs food.  Dig what needs digging.  Repair what needs repairing.  Wise Sifu say "when you start learning a martial art, a kick is a kick and a punch is a punch.  Then you progress and learn the hundred variations of kicking and punching.  Then when you become a master you realise that a kick is just a kick and a punch is just a punch."  Tao of Jeet Kune Do: a good gardening book, surprisingly.

It's anything but simple and anything but hard.

I'm off to fix something.

More gite progress

 Gable end wall lime and hemp plastered.  Looks just like tuna mayo!

 It makes the place look a lot brighter - couldn't get any darker though!

 New ceiling framed out in the kitchen.  Is to be plasterboarded and insulated as soon as the electrician's sciatic nerve heals up and he can finish!

...and a ladle I carved during my coffee breaks.

Late autumn veg plot piccies.

Got a good frost this morning, with ice on the chicken houses.  I'd better get on and mulch the beds with compost, then I can forget about the beds until double digging time in the spring.

 The view from the pond to the chemin looks great now there are fewer leaves and more depth.

 View of the veg plot with leeks lazing about in the sun.

 Winter broad beans in on top of a trench full of compost.  Spring beans to go in on the left, and brussels down the centre next summer.

 Garlic waiting to go in.

 Savoys looking good (well, these two are).

 Romanesco looking too pretty to eat.

 New Chook looking a lot better.  Just need to give her some more room, somehow.

Winter salads all done in the polytunnel.

Very busy indeed.

Autumn's finally here properly with gale force winds, rain and cold.  The non-textbook chickens are carrying on like it's summer, laying 2-3 eggs a day and not even blinking at the dismal weather, but the cock is getting a bit aggressive in the mornings which might be his age, or the fact that he's not getting breakfast at 7am any more (too dark!).  The veggies are all leaning at 45 degrees from the high winds, but look fine.  What I am amazed at is the polytunnel - it bears the brunt of any weather as it's at the top of the field and I expected it to do a Wizard of Oz impression the other week -after all, it's just a big placcy bag- but didn't budge.

We have both been run off our feet these past few weeks - K had websites, reports, talks and travel to sort out, and has been joining me filling and sanding plasterboard in the gite.  I have been making plenty of mess with tile backs in the gite kitchen, filling in endless holes where there shouldn't be any (the previous owner needed a drainpipe to go from the washing machine to the outside world so just knocked a foot square hole in the wall), watching rising damp in action, and the usual round of chopping wood, getting some winter salads going, etc.  We were getting a bit depressed with it all, and the endless damp and mould problems from a house that had been closed up for 10 winters, but some friends came over for lunch this weekend and their very kind comments have cheered us right up.  They were last here at the beginning of the year and were impressed with the amount of work we had done, which was a real uplifter: when you work at something constantly it's often hard to stand back and see the difference you've made, and I think it often takes an outsider to see what we're too close to see ourselves.  So thankyou P & P for reminding us that we live in a wonderful place and our dream is coming true - albeit slowly at times!

Hell, this is the view from our front door!  Nothing to be grumpy about.

Harvesting and massive teas.

"Dinner" is what posh people eat instead of tea.

Dinner = things with "dash of", "foam of", etc, in the description.  You have everything set on the table, with a "serviette" or something, nibbled, with chit-chat.
Tea = lumps of meat with some small vegetables quivering in awe of it, with cutlery banged down by plate, red and brown sauce on standby, shovelled in, in silence.

Went to Strasbourg and ate a massive tea.
The black lump is more meat!















Plot update:

Polytunnel green manured and some winter salads sown up the top.

 Cat on a hot tin roof!  Walnuts and beans drying under the roof.

"We come in peace, Earthlings."
 Squashes harvested.  All 40 of 'em.

 Carrots in before the first frost.  Bit on the chunky side, like.  Deep bed worked, then!

Turkey for christmas? Nope, just the biggest chicken in France - he's about 10lbs, and a right cock.

Autumn Veg Report

We're one less chicken thanks to the farmer's dog who got into the chicken run, but he did replace it so apart from having to get her into lay there's no harm done, but I think his son-in-law who was walking them has now taken a dislike to me because I threatened him with the muck fork.  Good job I wasn't laying hedges at the time because I might have had something else to hand...  Just waiting on a hospital bill for my tetanus shot now...  Country life, eh?

Anyway, here's a veggie report and some pictures - which is what all this is about, really.  Also an insect found in the polytunnel.  No idea what it is!

Tomatoes
Gardener's Delight - small and very tasty but susceptible to botrytis.
Lily of the Valley - prolific but tasteless in my opinion.  Like little plum toms.
Yellow Pear - very prolific and grows like a magic beanstalk but not much taste.
Tamina - outdoor variety which went apeshit in the tunnel and made a joke-amount of tomatoes!
Red Alert - an very early outdoor variety which did nothing in the tunnel - too hot maybe.
Gigante Liscio - lovely sweet semi-beefsteak tomato which took a while to get going but worth it.
Peppers
California Wonder - the only wonder is why it took so long to make nice peppers.  Could have walked to California in less time.
Antohi Romanian - too thin and tough.
Golden Bell - sweet and fleshy yellow one.  Started slow but went on to make loads.
Early Jalapeno - early for what?!  Took forever but is now a nice sturdy bush which made a few warmish chillies.
Cucumber
White Wonder - crap.
Cornichon de Paris - made one cornichon and then surrendered to the mould.
Melon
Petit Gris de Rennes - 'cking belters melons.  Delicious and hardy.
Cucurbits
All your dandy courgettes are not worth bothering with.  Get a green one and grow it.  We tried yellow ones, white ones, and patty pans and they all taste like... courgettes.
Spaghetti Squash - take ages to ripen but are delicious roasted.
Burgess Buttercup - floury, lots of flesh, taste quite nice but not as good as butternut.
Becky F1 pumpkin - see photo.
Ghostrider pumpkin - cool wee pumpkins which taste like pumpkins.
Sweet Dumpling - tiny single-serving squashes still maturing so no idea of the taste.
Butternut - I thought this was a goner but made a late recovery and we now have about 8 fruits going yellow in the sun-rain-sun-wind.
Radish
French Breakfast - I thought a French breakfast would be a cup of microwaved coffee and a tab, but apparently "they" eat these wee prolific crunchy things...
Hilds Blauder Herbst und Winter!  You have to shout the name to get it right.  Big purple winter radish still growing.  I can guess what they taste like...
Brussels Sprouts
Dakmar 2 - purple leaf veins which look quite pretty, and lots of nice sprouts coming along.  Bit of a slow grower.
Bedford Fillbasket - bigger than above, but lots of blown sprouts for some reason.  Can't be loose soil - it's like concrete!
Turnip
Purple Top Milan - worked in the UK, crap here.  Flea beetle ate the lot.
Khol Rabi
Azur Star - cool purple ones that you peel to get green normal uncool ones.  Worked quite well if you like yet another cabbagy crunchy thing...
Modrava F1 - as above.  Yawn.
Cabbage
Rouge Tete Noir - Very successful for once!  Huge tight purple heads, easy to grow, taste great.
Nantais Hatif - winter cabbage looking perfect in autumn.  Smaller than I thought though, so might add more manure next year.
Piachenza Savoy - just starting to heart up after being almost murdered by caterpillars, so will get a crap yield.  Lucky I planted out some Emergency Cabbages a few weeks ago so might be alright.  Always good to have a reserve force...
Wintergreen - just went in the ground for next spring.  Should be ok...
Minicole F1- nice wee inbred.
Kale
Nero di Toscana - nice black kale, seems to be holding up well against the insect onslaught.  Grows well.
Broccoli
Fiesta F1 - was tasty and very early but got ravaged by you-know-whats.  A good sacrificial plant to keep bugs from the rest of the brassicas!
Purple Sprouting Early - growing away nicely, and getting huge.
Autumn Spear - was also nice but got destroyed.
Claret - as with P.S.B. - growing huge so looking promising for spring.
Peas
Cavalier - grew ok but needed more water.  Nice biggish pods full of sweet peas.
Annonay - small and prolific but peas were also a bit small.  Not as good as Cavalier.
Champion of England (!) - big tasty peas off a massive plant.  Needed more water though...
Bijou Mange Tout - huge tasty pods but a bit wobbly in the heat.  Died early.
Beans
Aiguillon - worked well, taste good but a pain to harvest being a dwarf.
Slendrette - as above.
Minidor - as above, but yellow pods.  Bit less taste.
Cosse Violette - a cracking climbing bean that makes purple pods.  Delicious as pods and beans, and seems to be drying well.
Scarlet Emperor Runner - huge long pods, the record being a foot long, with lots of nice beans to eat if you let them grow on.
Desiree Runner - white beans, like the above.
Express Broad - grew well, tasted ok.
Bunyard's Exhibition Broad - ditto.
Masterpiece Green Longpod - a winter variety just poking through in the seed plugs.
Super Aquadulce Broad - ditto.  Better bloody work!
Onions
Long Red Florence - like a giant spring onion with a red bulb.  Worked well for salads but doesn't store.
Giant Zittau - needed more muck and water so crop was poor.
Alisa Craig - same as Zittau.
Roscoff Rose - we'll plant these as sets next year for our main crop as next door swear by them.  Planted late  but worked ok considering drought and poor soil.
Leek
Pandora - looking good.
Long de Meziers - also looking good.
Beets
Rainbow Chard - grows faster than I can eat it!  My favourite leaf for the winter.
Burpee's Golden Beetroot - Very slow to grow, but tasty.
Bolivar Beetroot - ditto.
Aubergine
Thai Long Green - nice but small.  Will go for muckle purple ones next year.
Potatoes
Charlotte Early - crap due to crap method and no watering.
Desiree Main - Marvellous!  Got a decent crop bearing in mind the rock-hard, infertile, dry soil.
Maize
Thought I'd have some token maize in the field to try and fit in around here.  Bi-colour open pollinated organic seed though, so came to nowt.  Should have sown that one with the systemic insecticides in like the farmers around these parts, and killed all next door's bees...

Things that went badly were either eaten by bugs, not watered, planted out at the wrong time or the soil was too poor for them.

Next year:
Water more: water butts at the ends of the beds connected to hosepipes so there's no excuse.
Trenches lined with paper and filled with muck for peas and beans.
Brassicas interplanted with legumes.
Lazy beds for spuds.
More muck on "greedies."
Sow beetroot in May and parsnip in March under cloches.

Each of these is as big as a beach ball, and there are only the two of us to eat them!

The deep bed works wonders for Long Lisse de Meiux carrots.

Rouge Tete Noir cabbages looking like real cabbages!

Nice leeks, but I think we're going to run out pretty quickly due to the lack of onions.

Saw this guy asleep in the polytunnel and thought it best not to wake him up.  It's as big as my thumb!