Tag Archives: gardening

Mar 22 2020
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

The garden must go on

Sunday 22nd March 2020, 2.10pm (day 3,132)

Planting potatoes, 22/3/20

The Greatest Media Panic of All Time does not change the turn of the seasons, at least, not yet. it was time for the little potato people to get into the ground today, where (if past experience is any guide) they will stay in a kind of stasis until this time next year, when we will hopefully dig up about the same number and volume of potatoes to eat. If we get to the other side of this rupture, anyway. Here, Clare and Joe do the work, while I laze in the sun and document it.

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Mar 17 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

I see little potato people

Tuesday 17th March 2020, 2.30pm (day 3,127)

Little potato people, 17/3/20

So, it’s happened then. Britain is in a state of lockdown. Except maybe it isn’t, maybe it’s all voluntary, because with this government, remember that they don’t really have a clue about anything very much.

Either way I suspect I will be seeing a lot more of Hebden Bridge and home in the next few weeks. Or possibly months. For now I will do my best to keep this blog going, why should it become another victim of this pandemic? But how long I will sustain any creative juices in a world with greatly reduced horizons, I don’t know.

I must already be going slightly crazy, anyway. In these sprouting potatoes (for life, and the garden, must go on) I see little people, sitting in their boxes having a pre-planting natter. Or in the case of the couple to bottom right, a gentle cuddle.

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Mar 18 2019
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Emerging into the world

Monday 18th March 2019, 3.10pm (day 2,762)

Baby leeks, 18/3/19

This year’s crop of baby leeks emerges from the soil in the seed tray on our window sill. I like this shot because though they each started out as the same configuration — a seed — they have all grown up in slightly different ways, each an individual. They all liked the burst of sunshine that came around 3pm  but I hope they drank it in well, because about five minutes of sun was all we got today. The JPG file you are looking at has loaded properly, by the way. The bottom strip is the tray.

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Oct 21 2018
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Daily Post, Interior

Autumn produce

Sunday 21st October 2018, 12.30pm (day 2,614)

Apples and rhubarb, 21/10/18

Having eulogised the plums and blackberries already this year — and for good reason — let us also add the glorious amount, and richness, of 2018’s apples as well — not to mention a second good crop of rhubarb. In this aspect, no one can complain about the year.

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Sep 11 2018
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Plums, plums, plums

Monday 10th September 2018, 9.00am (day 2,573)

Buckets of plums, 10/9/18

Plums. We are drowning in them. Possibly not as many as the all-time Bumper Plum Year that was 2015, but after a final harvest this morning, the now-empty tree has given up at least 30 lbs this year (14 kg). Want plums? We have them.

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Aug 03 2018
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Womanual labour

Thursday 2nd August 2018, 4.45pm (day 2,534)

Clare does hedge, 2/8/18

Clare proves she is the person around the house to ask when anything resembling manual labour is required. Cooking? That’s usually me.

Quite like the focus and depth of field on this shot, better than usual but achieved by doing nothing more than having a camera with a better lens, as of Tuesday morning. This is the first shot where there is a noticeable difference.

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Jul 16 2018
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Loganberries

Sunday 15th July 2018, 7.40pm (day 2,516)

Loganberries, 15/7/18

The plants in the allotment are starved for water (as we will all be, if this weather pattern carries on a great deal longer), but this doesn’t seem to have affected the loganberry plant that went in last year and has fruited merrily this summer for the first time. This shot was taken with a long zoom into the heart of the plant, lit by the evening sun. Not quite sure what is going on with the strangely-shaped fruit in the centre but it might have been where one was not picked very well. Either way I like the effect.

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Jun 02 2018
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

This year’s plum crop

Saturday 2nd June 2018, 3.15pm (day 2,473)

Baby plums, 2/6/18

In both 2013 and 2015 our plum tree fruited in ludicrous profusion. In 2015 we were taking bags of fresh plums down to the pub and giving them away, we had too many to use: the tree produced about 45 pounds of fruit (20kg) that year. Not so much in the last couple of years — but looking at it right now, it’ll be a bumper harvest in 2018. As long as the branches can bear the weight.

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Sep 03 2017
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Garden success

Saturday 2nd September 2017, 3.45pm (day 2,200)

Monster leeks, 2/9/17

Our leeks in the garden have attained considerable girth. What we did this year that has proved so successful I have no idea, they usually grow but have never been particularly big in the past. I’m not complaining though…

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Nov 13 2016
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Leeks in the garden

Saturday 12th November 2016, 10.45am (day 1,906)

Leek leaves, 12/11/16

The leeks have grown way better this year than in any previous year. We could say it’s the good weather — and it continues to be mild and pleasant, Wednesday’s sprinkling of snow notwithstanding — but actually I reckon it’s the discovery of ‘Baby Bio’ fertiliser. Which probably means these no longer count as ‘organic’, but what the hell, the one we ate this evening was very tasty. Not that you eat these bits of the plant, however.

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