A Life More Ordinary

Well, finally it seems that Winter has arrived in England. However my first earlies keep plugging along and growing nicely inside the conservatory where they have been living for the last few weeks now. Some of them have graduated from seedlings to little plants and will need some propping up soon. I made the decision to prep the greenhouse for a transplant, and then I will cross my fingers that they will survive.

Step 1: A Quick Survey of the Soil

Since we don’t have a lot of spare income to do any kind of soil testing or purchasing of cloches etc,  I hadn’t really spent much time in the Greenhouse. Late in the autumn I took a pile of leaves Henry and I swept up and placed them in the Greenhouse and worked in some compost from our compost pile. When I went up last week, it had decomposed a little but not much.

Yeah, lots of leaves still. However, it’s what we got and I’m all about working with what I have. Time to cover those old leaves up with something a bit richer.

Step 2: Check on the Compost

Off to the compost pile, around the corner.

Here’s our three stall compost area. Right now we have workable soil in the lowest bin, half used and the top 1/4 inch frozen with rich earth underneath. The middle section is accepting kitchen scraps and yard waste. We usually have a black tarp over it when it’s cold out but after I put a big bag of leaves on the top of the food, I thought letting it be exposed would help the decomposition. The top bin is one we finished up and covered around September of last year.

Right now there is a lot of “wood” sitting at the top, however if one peeks below a little bit, one can see a bit of earth. I have a feeling with a turn in the early spring and a good soaking and more decomposition it will be workable soil by May. This is just a estimate. I don’t know too much how composts work, however they seem pretty simple. I would like to understand the specifics of composting but honestly I can’t be asked at the moment. I’m finding dump food scraps from kitchen / throw in yard waste / repeat until stall is full cover and simmer.

Step 3: Replace the soil

I gathered the earth up and placed it over the leaves. I would say I put about 4 inches or so on top of the leaves and gave it a good dunking of water.

That looks better.

Step 4: Put on a Blanket

The soil is still chilly, and when I put in the Douce Provence the soil needs to be around 5C to keep the roots happy. Since I don’t have any plastic, cloches, or other ways to warm up the soil, I had a peek around and found some hay from last summer. When I pulled it out the the bag, the interior was actually kind of cosy. It came out in a big roll, so instead of breaking it up and creating a mess, I unrolled it over one side of the earth in hopes of making the dirt cozier over the next couple of weeks.

So we’ll see how that works over the next week or so. I hope to find some kind of thermometer to  see if that straw has done the trick. If so, I’ll move it over to the other side and do it again.

So, there you go folks, a wintery garden update. Just for you.