Getting ready for Winter and a Good Nosh

This week has seen us trying to get the garden and also the polytunnel into something like good order for the Winter. We have to admit, it's not the best organised poly ever. Partly our problems stem from not yet having a covered space big enough for a class, so we keep the middle of the tunnel empty, which means we waste the middle bit of crop-growing space. (Still, the good news is that we are fundraising for a shed and have just got some of the funding we need.)

Alex gets ready to tackle the weeding

We also got a gift of some tulips, so Mark and Mia helped us to plant them in big pots to cheer up the entrance in the Spring.

Mia helps dad Mark with bulb planting

Anyway - back to the polytunnel - excuses over! We spent a lot of the sessions clearing out the beds and putting up the internal plastic which is supposed to fit on a roller-system to create ventilation. Then we found that some of the parts we need don't seem to be in the kit, and that we didn't understand the manual! (Tracey has now spoken to a very nice man called Mick at First Tunnels, and is hopeful that she understands how to fit the stuff - watch this space to see if she's right!)

We welcomed another new recruit - Mhairi, who we're certain will fit right in because she got stuck into work straight away and, as she's a Scot, she should know all the Scots words that Tracey keeps using that no-one else understands!

New volunteer Mhairi 

Pete and Mhairi get on with clearing the polytunnel beds

We also did some work at the entrance. Hopefully getting through the gate without being grabbed by the dog-rose should be easier from now on, thanks to Sybil, who also got her first experience of pruning and was undetered by it constantly grabbing her hat! She did a great job, and picked us loads of rosehips too, so we'll have a go at making rosehip syrup shortly. An added bonus is that the prunings have made a great addition to the barbed wire along the fence line by the gate - ouch!

Sybil gets to grips with the dog rose.

Chris brought along some chicken, rice and and a few other things, so we used it to create a rather good lunch with onions, parsnips, herbs and spices we'd grown on site. Cooking what we grow is definitely the best bit! Next week will have a lot of cooking too, as Gateway to Nature will be coming to help us harvest and cook our sweet potatoes, and also we're hoping to teach them how to make chutney, if our green tomatoes last that long. Finger's crossed...