Surviving the Onslaught

Phew - survived

It looks as though the garden has just about survived the recent onslaught from the approach of autumn.

Everything looks a little worse for wear and most things are a little windburnt but nothing has been destroyed. Despite the onslaught the courgette plants have of course continued to supply us with a steady stream of vegetables!

Maybe the shelter we’ve been gradually adding is working as there are still various plants in flower and nothing got snapped off even though the winds blew all day long on Tuesday at about 40 knots.

Time for a tidy up

I do have a bit of work to do out there though as the grass has grown well with all the rain and warmth and there are leaves and pine needles everywhere. In fact, everything is beginning to look a little tired out there as if the garden knows that autumn is pretty much here and winter is just around the corner. What a cheery thought!

The bees seem to have survived as well. The hive remained upright which is a start and there are still some bees coming and going although the activity levels are quite a bit lower than they have been. I’m hoping that all is well within the colony and that some sunshine will have them out and about over the weekend.

Our new garden water feature has worked a treat.

Not only does it look and sound good but part of the intention was to provide some water for garden wildlife. Whilst sat out in the sunshine late on Sunday afternoon we saw first a Willow Warbler take a bath in it followed by a Great Tit having a drink.

It’s great when these things work out just the way you wanted them to.

Bees Coming and Going

The bees that we have on loan seem to be happy. I’ve taken a look at the hive and there always seems to be a bit of activity around it and there are certainly more bees in the garden. The field behind us is full of clover at the moment too so hopefully they are finding plenty of food there as well.

The idea of having them on loan for 6 weeks is to see how they get on out here and how we get on with them in the garden. Anyone who reads this weblog will know that we like to keep the garden looking nice. We are also trying to create a wildlife friendly garden and grow some fruit, veg and herbs too. There can be some conflicts between things such as growing garden produce or keeping bees and having a nice garden for sitting and entertaining in. Often gorgeous show gardens and productive gardens don’t go hand in hand but we’re going to try to do both.

We aren’t going to extremes with either of the approaches so hopefully we’ll be able to find a perfect compromise and still have a nice looking garden that we can sit in and enjoy whilst also growing some veg and keeping bees.

Of course, the bees won’t like things such as mowers and strimmers so we may well have to keep part of the garden a little more unkempt and wild looking.  If that is the case I already have a plan to separate that area of the garden off with a fence. This will not only compartmentlise the garden more (which I like) but will help keep me sane when it comes to garden maintenance and will provide yet more shelter for us and the bees.

Hive Entrance

So far our time with the bees has been fine. The hive doesn’t look out of place at the bottom of the garden, and we barely notice the bees. I’ve yet to mow or strim mind you  so we’ll see how that goes soon and of course the area around the beehive has yet to get out of hand or overgrown so only time will tell if I can live with that!

We don’t know how the bees are doing yet either but they seem happy enough and hopefully in a month or so they will have a hive full of honey ready for harvesting and plenty of stores to get them through the winter.

Not MORE courgettes!!!

Courgette Glut

‘Plan Bee’ is going well.

On Sunday evening under the cover of darkness an estate car pulled up at the house containing two people, two beagles a cat in a box and a mysterious cargo in the boot. With hushed voices so as not to wake the neighbours and donning head-torches we unloaded some carpet, carried it to the bottom of the garden and arranged it on the grass. Next came a wooden stand and finally a large square wooden box tightly bound with yellow straps.

We placed the stand on the carpet and then arranged the box on top of it. We delicately unfastened the straps made sure all was secure and then carefully removed a piece of foam that was blocking the entrance to the box and made a hasty retreat.

Hooray – We have bees at the bottom of the garden!

Beehive in the garden

Yep, the box was actually a beehive complete with a large, healthy colony of bees. It isn’t ours, we just have them on loan for about 6 weeks which is a perfect start for us on our adventures in beekeeping. They actually belong to Ann who wanted to place some hives closer to some heather to get heather honey. We aren’t that close to the heather but there is a chance that the bees will get to it. However, it is an ideal opportunity for us to see how we get on living with bees in the garden.

We’re hoping to start properly with hives of our own next year but this will let us see how it feels.

We don’t know how well the bees will do here yet, but hopefully these six weeks with Ann’s hive will give us an idea of how much they find to forage on and how they cope with the winds. It will also give us an idea of how we manage to live alongside them and share the garden with around 50,000 new inhabitants.

I checked on them in the morning and all seemed fine. There were a few bees out flying around the hive, orientating themselves and heading off on exploratory flights. The field behind us has plenty of clover in it at the moment and there was also evidence of honey bees on some of the plants in the garden. They were checking out the Innulas, Marguerites and the Hebe.

Lets hope the like it here and we like having them.

Just some flowers from the garden. The Agapanthus have started flowering, and a stand of sunflowers have appeared from nowhere. We didn’t plant them so we can only assume that the seeds came either from the compost bin or the bird feeders. They seem to be doing well though and are now in flower.

Sunflower

Hot on the heels of our success with the Courgette Cake recipe, but still with a glut of courgettes, last night we baked some chocolate courgette cakes. They were once a gain a success, although not much good for aiding my weight loss!

Here’s the recipe.

250g plain flour
375g caster sugar
65g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons bicarb of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
4 eggs
350ml vegetable oil
340g grated courgette
90g walnuts (optional)

We just mixed it altogether in a bowl and then divided it between 3 loaf tins before whacking it in an oven at 180ºC for 40-45 minutes and the result was delicious! OK, it’s more of a chocolate cake with courgette in it than a courgette cake with chocolate in it but no-one will complain about that!

Incidently, the Courgette Cake recipe post has become one of the most popular posts on this site this week – we can’t be the only people with a glut of courgettes!

As you may remember, on our Anniversary day out in Welshpool, Anna and I spent more money than we had planned and came back with a water feature for the garden. We bought it from Derwen Garden Centre which was where we spent most of our day. They were all very helpful and we’re planning a trip there again sometime soon.

Water Feature

The water feature itself is a ‘twisted column’ of rock and it was supposed to stand on top of a grill covering a sump. The sump contains a reservoir of water and a pump which pumps water up through a hole in the middle of the column where it bubbles out of the top and flows down all fours sides of the column back into the sump. We complicated things a little as we wanted a standing pool of water as well as the water running down the column. The idea was to make sure that there was water available for the bird, bees and other garden wildlife at all times and so that we had a pool of water in the garden even if the pump was switched off.

The plan therefore was to also buy a large shallow pot in which we could stand the column of rock. The water then flows down the column of rock, into the bowl and then over the sides of the bowl into the sump. Perfect.

Hole for Sump

As soon as we got back with all of the bits and pieces I set to work setting it up. The first job was to dig a hole for the sump to sit in. Our garden soil is sand, not sandy soil, just sand like on the beach so this was easy and within 5 minutes I had the hole ready for the sump.

I also had to dig a trench to lay the cable for the pump. This had to go inside some armoured piping and we just happened to have something suitable on the other side of the garden that wasn’t being used so I had to dig that up first.

The first problem we encountered was that the 10m cable on the pump  was a couple of metres too short, so I headed of to the shop and bought an extension and a water proof junction box. Threading the cable through the armoured piping took a little longer than expected, but we soon had the pump plugged in and the cable buried out of sight under the garden.

Installing the sump

The sump was lowered into its hole and levelled up, the pumped was installed and the grill put on top of sump.

Next I had to prepare the bowl. We needed to drill a hole in the bottom of it for the pipe to go through and then seal the pipe into it so that it was water tight. This was all fairly straight forward and after leaving it to dry overnight we tested the water tightness of the bowl and started planning the installation of the column of rock.

Preparing the bowl

We placed some sand in the bottom of the bowl to stand the rock on and then with some help (as the rock is surprisingly heavy) man-handled the rock into position whilst feeding the pipe up through the hole in the middle. We placed a number of rubber bands around the top of the pipe which helped to seal it into the central hole in the rock.

Once it was all in place, we switched on the pump to test it, and it soon became apparent that the rock wasn’t exactly stable. I guess that is kind of obvious really, a metre tall column of rock that is only 8 inches square is never going to be that secure just stood up on its own. We didn’t want it to blow over or worse still get knocked over by a child so a new plan was hatched – We would concrete it into the bowl. The concrete would fix it to the bowl and provide a large, heavy stable base.

It took us a while to find a break in the weather and suitable man-power to help lift the stone but we finally got around to it this weekend.

Getting it level

The main worry was that everything had to be completely level. In order for the water to flow out of the bowl all the way around it, the top of the bowl had to be totally level when sat on the grill. In addition the column of rock had to also be completely level so that the water would flow out across the flat top and down all four sides equally. Trouble is, once you’ve set it in concrete it is pretty much ‘set in stone’ and there can be no final tweaks and adjustments once the water is switched on. We couldn’t turn the water on though until the concrete had set so we had to make sure it was all level and hope for the best.

We got the bowl completely level, man-handled the column into place whilst threading the tube into its hole once again and then fiddled around getting the column completely level. After a final check on the levels of both the bowl and the column we mixed up some concrete and half filled the bowl with it. Another quick check on the levels as it set and that was that.

We left it to dry overnight and then came the moment of truth, turning on the pump. Was it level, had we crushed the pipe, would it all work properly?

The answer was, yes, yes and yes, everything was just perfect. The water bubbled out the top at just the right power, flowed across the top of the column and down all four sides perfectly. The bowl filled with water and didn’t leak and then the water flowed out all the way around the bowl and into the sump. The column felt secure and stable and all looked good.

We then placed a few plants around the base of the bowl along with some bits of slate to tie in with the rock of the columns, sat back and enjoyed the sight and sound of running water in the garden.

Water Feature

The Big Butterfly Count starts today.

It’s a nationwide survey aimed at helping to assess the health of our environment. in much the same way as the Big Garden Bird Watch organised by the RSPB, Butterfly Conservation in conjunction with M&S have orgainsed the Big Butterfly Count to run between July 24th and August 1st 2010 and you can join in.

All you have to do is spend 15 minutes in a suitable location – which could be your garden or a local park – noting down all of the butterflies and moths that you see and then report back with your findings. They have a handy butterfly ID chart of the most likely species that you will see and a website explaining all about the Big Butterfly Count.

Hopefully we’ll get some nice sunny days this week in which case Morgan and I will do a count in the garden and a count in the dunes. Le us know what you find in your garden.

Our vegetables have been growing well in the garden. So much so that despite giving as many away as possible we still have a glut of courgettes. There are only so many courgettes a man can eat. That is until Anna turns them into courgette cake of course.

From whence there was a healthy, organically grown green vegetable comes a not so healthy but much more tempting cake.

Mmm Mmm.

Here’s the recipe

250g courgettes (about 2 courgettes, coursely grated – no need to peel)
150g sugar
225g self raising flour
125ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
half teaspoon bicarb of soda (optional)
half a teaspoon baking power
1 teaspoon mixed spice (optional)

Roughly grate the courgettes and mix everything together. I only do cakes where I can throw everything in a bowl and mix so no need to be fancy.

Divide mixture between 2 loaf tins and cook at 180 degrees C (170 for a fan oven) for 30-35 minutes.

This was our first attempt using a made up recipe from a number of sources. It is basically a carrot cake recipe with corgettes instead of carrots but was really tasty. Morgan enjoyed several slices and it didn’t last long. It would probably be nice with walnuts added as well and I might try this next time.