FEBRUARY WORK PARTY IN THE COMMUNITY ORCHARD A beautiful late morning down The Donkey Field. Jon, Kate, Tom and I cleared grass and weeds from the bases of all our trees, then hacked back vegetation from our line of Dorset varieties along the top path. Tom enjoyed rides in the wheelbarrow to and fro the compost [...]
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Posts Tagged ‘hazel’
13 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SHOOTERS LANE IN SNOW, RARE DELIGHT
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010SHOOTERS LANE IN SNOW Half-way betwixt the High Street and Leyton Lane. All you can hear is the gurgle of water in some underground drain, tweets and scolds of blackbird and great tit, and the pitter-patter of falling snow: not flakes, but fresh-fall melts in mini avalanches from the tunnel of twigs and branches. Stand [...]
Read More »28 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SOUNDS
Monday, December 28th, 2009SOUNDS 16.09: I don’t like the sounds of those sirens up in town. Their unnatural wailing sounds manic, urgent, like something serious is afoot. At my feet, the warming crackle and spit of golden flames. They seem to follow me wherever I stand and envelop this winter gardener in an aromatic shroud of billowing smoke. [...]
Read More »27 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman HUMPING FAGGOTS
Sunday, December 27th, 2009HUMPING FAGGOTS I planned to stroll out to the Foyle Hill Rabbit Warren and watch the sun go down. As it was, I turned short of the footpath stile and into the sunken world of Breech Lane. The top-side hedge has been managed for many years by the same man, a Shastonian and elder statesman [...]
Read More »21 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman THE IRON GRIP OF WINTER
Monday, December 21st, 2009THE IRON GRIP OF WINTER Ground is like iron out on the plot. We’ll not be lifting roots for a while yet, save pot-grown carrots which are in the greenhouse to keep off the worst of the frost. I walked down the allotment field to the tinker-chime of feeding goldfinches in charming flocks. They love [...]
Read More »6 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman FORGETTING TO BE CAREFUL
Sunday, December 6th, 2009FORGETTING TO BE CAREFUL Another night of constant rain. Fields are sodden, roadside drains and ditches overflowing with dirty water-splash. But this morning t’aint so cold as was. The air smells clean as a whistle and sky is clear as a bell. We have our morning stroll round the garden. I’m on my second cup, [...]
Read More »29 November 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman OBSERVATIONS FROM THE A34…, HEDGEROW TREES UP FRINGFORD WAY, MILTON KEYNES CENTRAL
Sunday, November 29th, 2009OBSERVATIONS FROM THE A34 NEWBURY BY-PASS HEADING NORTH A MILE SOUTH OF CHIEVELEY SERVICES Hawthorn and hazel in a lay-by on the A34 Newbury by-pass are doing well. They bulge within their corrugated degradeable plastic tubes and make a fine, shrubby hedge behind the steel crash barrier and line of four evenly-spaced rubbish bins. These [...]
Read More »16 June 2009: DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman MOISTURE RETAINING GEL: MAGIC OR NOT?, THE INEVITABLE TRUTH
Tuesday, June 16th, 200916 June 2009 MOISTURE RETAINING GEL: MAGIC OR NOT? Down at Orchard Park, in the Gillingham clay, I didn’t manage to prepare any bare earth in time for getting runner beans in the ground. I wasn’t too concerned though. Lots of folk have no soil for growing so I thought this was a good chance [...]
Read More »26 May 2009: DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman RUNNER BEAN TRIALS
Tuesday, May 26th, 200926 May 2009 RUNNER BEAN TRIALS The runner beans are in position at Orchard Park. Back along I lashed together a scaffold of hazel poles for them to twist, curl and scramble over. The clayey ground was so unworkable that I plunged them in to crowbar-made holes and reckon they’ll snap in the wind before [...]
Read More »12 March 2009: DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SHOW GARDENS AT ORCHARD PARK, JACKDAWS IN THE ONIONS
Thursday, March 12th, 200912 March 2009 SHOW GARDENS AT ORCHARD PARK There has been a very exciting development: I’m going to team up with staff at a local garden centre, Orchard Park in Gillingham, to create a working show vegetable garden. Is been an idea in the offing following tentative discussions between the Managing Director Richard Cummings and [...]
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