A day of rest? Says who?

Don't really know where today has gone, Great Little Nanny Mero came over today, we collected her at around noon. The curtain lady arrived and fitted our lounge curtains, and we did some shopping in Brandon. What's the relevance of all that I hear you ask, and a good question it is too.

Now, if you're expecting a profound and sage like answer, then prepare to be disappointed because I don't know.

I am sure though, that if young Coco could talk she would say that every visit with Great Little Nanny Mero is an experience, yep, have to agree with that, seeing hailstones for the first time was exciting too, mmm another agreeable statement although didn't think much of the one that went down my back brrrrrr, building compost castles in the potting shed with Mummy and I, another first, even for me.

Maybe I am looking at this whole life thing through the wrong set of eyes, if I look at everything as if I have only just seen it for the first time then it brings up a whole new exciting and forgiving world, every day!  Coco doesn't bear a grudge today because the Rich Tea biscuits ran out yesterday, (she has one for supper with warm milk) because someone ate them all.  No names but, Nanny Southwellski and Nicky Perkins you know who you are!!!!

Nope, no blame from Coco just excitement because she had something else.  In fact she had a fortune cookie, I know call me a bad Grandpa but she really enjoyed it and she had not long eaten a huge portion of Nanny Southwellski's Toad in the hole, minus toad!

Anyway to get to the chase, the fortune cookie had its little piece of paper in it and it read 'If you love and are loved back its like the sun shining on you from both sides'.

I look at my family, and realise that the sun is not only shining on me from both sides, but front, back, top, bottom and inside as well. How rich am I?

Anyway, we finished digging the first plot today and sowed our sunflower seeds, morning glory and sweetpeas in the potting shed as well, and a few minutes ago when I went over to turn the heater on in the potting shed I looked up at the stars and stood in wonder at how small and unimportant we really are.

Sky blue linen posts? oh and Forest Gardens.

That was what I thought when I opened the packages for the new linen posts, not new really, we've had them for about 5 months now.  Nanny Southwellski just couldn't settle on a final position for them.

Now when I say Sky Blue I mean SKY BLUE!! The same sort of blue you see in the sky over a Greek Island!

I had some concrete left over from the new path around the dog run and managed to get a decision from Nanny Southwellski and before you could say 'its a good drying day' the holes were dug, the post were in, uprighted and concreted!  Job done!

I only managed to get about half an hour on the garden today before it rained, bit of tidying up was all I achieved.  Coco had her friend Calypso over for a visit this afternoon so I had to do the work on my own.

I've been reading about Forest Gardens just lately in a book (Left) that Nanny Southwellski bought me, and the idea of having a productive woodland bit really appeals. When I say productive, I mean more than just fruit trees.

The basic idea, as I understand, it is to set up a stacking system where each layer of plants compliments and protects the layer below, so you have tall fruit trees over fruit bushes and dwarf varieties.  These in turn shelter herbs and veggies and finally root crops underneath all of them. By covering the soil with plants, it is protected and water loss and erosion are reduced.

Obviously there are certain plants which need plenty of light and these can be grown in clearings or as we are planning, in the veggie patch. We have decided that some of our plants such as the runner beans and strawberries will be split between the Forest Garden and the veggie patch.

We already have the woodland with well established fruit trees and a few soft fruit bushes dotted here and there which will be moved in due course to make it flow.

I particularly like the idea of nature taking a lead role in what happens and when for example as one plant finishes and dies back it feeds the next one coming through.  It being low maintenance also appeals, Nanny Southwellski will tell you I'm not brilliant at time management which is why all my posts are late in the evening.

A lovely day to be outside

It rained all day yesterday so we didn't actually manage to get outside, so Nanny Southwellski found us jobs to do indoors. Today was a completely different story with blue skies and sunshine although we didn't really get started until late in the day. You see Coco has new curtains and didn't wake up until 8.30 this morning, then there was breakfast, playtime, toast at 11.00 and then chores to do before lunch and then outside. 

Can I have a go too?

While Coco had her afternoon nap I prepared the new path around the dog run ready for concreting and put a hammock up near the apple tree.  When she woke up, Coco and I gave it a test run along with Blossom, one of our four terriers, she wasn't invited by the way. 

Mr Bumble, our Norwich Terrier just couldn't quite get onto the hammock with us.

You will remember the little bird we rescued, well he left us today and headed straight to the nearby hedge.  He wasn't flying as well as we would have liked but he found a gap and off he went so we reckon he thought he was ready.  We finally identified him as a Dunnock.

See, what you do Grandpa is......

We planted the rest of the privet hedging and started to prepare the beds for the strawberries, here you can see Coco giving them a very close examination in the potting shed.

If it stays dry tomorrow we should get the path concreted and the beds finished.

Great 'Little' Nanny Mero bought us a very special packet of seeds which we are going to plant in our 'Forest Garden'.  They are 'Forget-Me-Nots', to help remind us of Great 'Little' Nanny although everyone who knows her will tell you she will never ever be forgotten!  We all love you 'Little Nanny'.

Just look at our runner beans! Coco and I say good morning to them every morning and we wish them a goodnight too.  Works wonders, and I am sure they smile and grow that little bit taller when Coco speaks to them.

Wet and Cold

Its wet and cold and grey here in Grandpa Southwellski's Garden today. Too cold for Coco to venture outside but we will see what tomorrow brings.  I did manage to pot up some short stemmed lillies this afternoon in the potting shed and have a look at our little feathered friend who whilst in good spirits and very noisy isn't flying any further today than the stool.  It came and sat on my hand on the floor so I sat very still until it hopped off.

My christmas prezzie arrived from Nanny Southwellski a couple of days ago, its a grow your own miseltoe kit and we have a very old and large Bramley apple tree which will make the perfect home for it, especially now that Coco's little friend Calypso's daddy Harvey came and trimmed it for us.

Coco and I really need to get out and do some serious digging in the next few days so that we are ready for the planting out to begin.  Watch this space because we are taking the camera with us next time out.

Grandpa Southwellski

New for the garden

Coco, Nanny Southwellski and I had a bit of a spend up today. We wanted some plants that Coco and I could grow and some herbs for the kitchen so a trip into Brandon saw us return with a load of seed packets, including Radishes, Lettuce, Beetroot, Sweet Peas, Nasturtiums and other bits and bobs.

Tomorrow, Saturday, well its today really because I am up very late (Coco is fast asleep) is going to be a busy day outside.  Nanny Southwellski and I are going to have a tidy up in the orchard before Coco and I start preparing the beds in the garden.

You will remember we found a 'treasure', well we contacted the Norfolk finds liaison officer, Erica, who said it could be a livery badge of some sort dating back to the late 1800's to early 1900's.  A friend of our, Mark the mechanic said there were Prisoner of War camps nearby and it could be a badge from a foreign uniform so we are going to investigate that too.

We must remember to take before and after pictures of the garden today so everyone can see what we are doing.

Coco and I forgot to mention that last week we saw a small bird get hit by a car and land on the road in front of us. It was still alive when we stopped and picked it up. We put it in a box with some warm bedding and some food and water because it couldn't fly. It has been living in our potting shed and can now fly up to the stool we use to sit on but that's as far as it can go so we are feeding it lots of good food and fresh water and we think it will be able to go soon. Watch this space.

Treasure me hearties!

We had a little treasure find in Grandpa Southwellski's Garden today, not sure what it is but Coco and I like it anyway.  We were clearing the strip where we wanted to plant our Privet Hedge when we saw a small square shaped oblect lying on the soil we had moved. Its about 32 mm square and has a Ram on it standing on a branch, we took a picture or rather Nanny Southwellski did with her very complicated camera.  We don't know what is is or what it was used for but maybe you know!

Day one!

Welcome to Grandpa Southwellski's Garden.  We, Coco my Grandaughter and I hope you enjoy your visits with us and see how our garden is growing.  We're new to this so don't delete those gardening websites from your favourites just yet.

We have a potting shed, two wheelbarrows, you can see Coco in one here, two spades, a fork and a load of compost.

We planted the privet hedge around the garden today, 50 sticks that looked rather unhealthy to Coco and I, but we followed the instructions, measured each one and used a string line to keep them straight.

We chose privet for two reasons one because we want the birds and insects to have somewhere safe to hide, and secondly Great Great Grandpa Southwellski had very tall privet hedges around his bungalow which was called, yep, High Hedges!

Our runner beans are sown, our potatoes are chitting (Robin our farmer friend told us that's what they do) all we have to do now is dig up all of that grass.

We think its been a great first day in the garden so keep watching because its going to be interesting, educational, and most of all good muddy fun!