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As some of you know well, I’m a big fan of radishes. So I chuck in a row whenever we’re planting any other type of seeds. But Bec’s not that keen on them at all. Which is a bit of a problem when we’re faced with a whole row that needs eatin’ in a hurry.

So today I thought I’d give frying them up a go to see what they’re like prepared that way. And to see if Bec could manage a couple that way too.

Quartered, fried gently in olive oil until almost soft, then sprinkled with Maldon salt. Beautiful. All the bitterness and most of the heat had been fried out, leaving something that tasted kind of, but completely unlike, a turnip.

So did Bec like them? Let’s say I had trouble getting the bowl and fork back off her. So yes, I think she did. I think we’ll be making a few more bowls of them for snacks. A good reason to keep planting more rows!

Next up on the radish culinary trail – roast radishes cooked with the roast chicken…

As we finally finished up the parsnips and broccoli that has been doing us proud up in the top garden it seemed it was about time that we moved the raised plots from the “old” garden up by the tank to the “new” garden by the house. So now there’s only 2 square boxes left up there, not 4. It looks a bit weird.

But once the leeks, shallots and broad beans get either eaten (in the case of the leeks), dried (in the case of the shallots) or eaten and thrown up (in the case of the broad beans), the remaining beds can come down too.

We’ve used some pavers to try to squash the weeds between them. Hopefully it works, at least a bit! They’re already filled with beans and pea seeds. Crossing fingers they like it in there.

It would appear that we can’t grow tuplips. Well not this batch anyway!

We knew they weren’t in a particularly brilliant spot in a “hospital bed” by the side of the house, but we didn’t think that would turn them into something that would look right at home in a scene from the Little Shop of Horrors!

I guess we’ll let them do their stuff, try to salvage the bulbs, and let’s see what happens next year…

OK, so it’s been a while since I bothered to post anything as I’ve been doing interesting things like jetting around the world for a bit. But that’s all pretty much only interesting for me and nothing really worth keeping you informed about. But I figured if I didn’t get this particular post done now it might be another post series that slowly dies a death. So here it is, the “wildflower” of the month for October.

This one I’m sure is a weed. A really prolific weed that’s managed to colonise just about every space that has been disturbed at the moment, leaving carpets of (fairly pretty) small pinky purpley flowers. They’re very similar to the blue flowers of August’s “wildflower of the month”, but a very different plant they’re attached to.

Today we finally have our first actual blossom on the fruit trees. Yippee!

It’s a apricot, I think, if I can read our little orchard map correctly. Not sure if we’re meant to get any fruit off it this year or not. Probably better we let them get a bit more established this year and worry about fruit later.

How do I know it happened today? Because they weren’t there on yesterday’s orchard walk, but they were there today!

That’s right! The wildflower of the month would have to be the dandelions (or more officially, Taraxacum)that have seemingly invaded the far reaches of the short grass this month.

I do actually quite like them as flowers, and the way they hide when the sun’s not out is really cool. But I really don’t want them in my lawn! Just about time to go chop all their heads off with the push mower before they go to seed.

Although it does seem that they are also completely edible, so as we’re short of dinner material maybe I’ll make a dandelion salad. Bec’s always saying she wants salad for tea. I’m sure she’ll love it!

It was just under a year ago that we put up the pump shed. My, doesn’t time fly! And what better way to celebrate an (almost) anniversary of that than to undertake more erection action.

This time the project was to get a poly-tunnel kit-set up before it got too windy and we lost the cover over the neighbours fence or something.

Having been told of a trick to help get the stabilisation stakes in the stony ground we tried it out today. And it worked a treat! Bang in a crowbar first, then the stake will follow. Genius. Although it still took some muscle power to drive them all in. That and big hammers.

With the help of many that participated in the shed building, and a few more welcome extras we got it up with relative ease, and quite quickly too. Much more quickly and easily than the shed, anyway. Thanks to all involved!

We even had time to install some of the gravel that we’d painstakingly shovelled out of the grass from various building activities. Pity we’ve only enough for one end, but another small trailer load and we’ll be sorted.

So now all the seedlings that have been cluttering up the table can start to wander outside to the hot house. I’ll just have to remember to be careful with the temperature. It can get damn hot in there, as we found out. Especially before any vents had been cut in the covering!

“Box” seems to have been the order of the day. At the same time I was planting a line of English box across the front of the house, Bec was busy putting the last coat of stuff on the crate that contained our old TV when it was shipped from the UK.

The painter that was here sorting out a few remedial issues gave us the idea, suggesting a bit of work might make it something that might add a bit of colour and interest to the place. So a coat of stain and a couple of varnish later we’ve got something that will sit in a corner quite nicely for a bit. At least until something better comes to mind!

As for the front boxing, I think I managed to get it almost straight with the help of my trusty builders string. Any excuse and I’m likely to bring out my roll of string to much derision from Bec, but it’s worth it. I figure any small deviations will be able to be sorted out with a bit of pruning. Assuming it all grows! We’ve still got a spare plant or two if some of them don’t like their new homes.

As it’s the dark side of the house hopefully it won’t grow too fast. Twice yearly clipping sounds like enough work to me!

After a very early start for me shovelling some of the AP20 into the entrance path while Tony levelled out the last of the drive, I finally got to sit back and watch the lawn area start to be more defined as he then started to rip it all up. The noticeable boundary between the old ground and the newly dumped dirt faded away into a freshly ploughed field.

He was done by lunchtime and tootled off. We won’t see him again for five weeks, while the soil all relaxes again, and all the weed seeds that have been disturbed have a good old sprout. Mind you, there are currently a huge number of birds out there having a good old munch on something or other that’s been dragged up. Hopefully it’s all the weed seeds. Or maybe grass grubs. But it seems like it’s definitely an early Christmas for them!

My job over the five week hiatus is to collect up all the stones that are over a fist size so the stone-burier can do its job and push the others down. It’s actually not as bad as I feared. Some areas are pretty clear already. Even Tony was surprised by how few boulders appeared.

We still need to finish off the entrance too (just a bit short of the AP20 in the end), but at least now there’s a path leading to the door that isn’t made of mud.

So all you visitors, park on the drive and come to the front door now.

And stay the hell off my lawn!

I guess I’ll have to find something else to keep you lot entertained now…

Ok, so technically there wasn’t actually anything to do with the new lawn area today, but we’ve reached a bit of a milestone. As of now there are no piles of anything around the place. We’re back to a flat(ish) base again! In fact we’re better then we’ve ever been, as with all the driveway and lawn levelling, along with the holes that the extra shingle filled in down the back, we’re now flatter than we’ve ever been, with even more usable land. (Now we just have to work out what to use it for…)

It’s a bit odd to walk around the house and not see anything sticking up and spoiling the views. But I’m sure we’ll get used to it!

And with perfect timing, as soon as Tony had finished dealing with the piles the AP20 arrived to go on the top of the drive which he could then level out. What’s AP20, I hear you ask? Apparently it stands for “All Passing 20mm”. I.e. a gravel and sand and clay type mix, but with nothing over 20mm long. I’m learning all sorts of stuff lately!

So he had a good ¾ of an hour to shove all that around to level it out. We’re still a few cubic meters short, but that should arrive tomorrow morning. Assuming it’s not raining Tony can then shove it all around, then we just have to get the roller back to give it a bit of a settling down. But the rain that’s currently persisting down will be helping with that. (By the by, why is it that it only rains here after I’ve got desperate and watered the most thirsty plants by hand?!)

The driveway’s a nice sideshow, but next on the lawn progress if for the whole lot to be ripped up then cultivated. Crossing fingers for that progress tomorrow!