Thursday 15 March 2012

The Zed Shed

Yes thank you, I'm rather more steady today.  But I've a feeling I'm in for another wakeful night, because nighttime is when one worries.  Daytime is when you get it all into perspective.  Pah.  Really.

The family next door is still unwell.  Pugsley made it to school yesterday - I'm not sure if he had to come home at some point during the day but anyway, he wasn't well enough today.  Everyone has a hacking cough, a raised temperature and feels generally rotten, apart from Squiffany, who is fine.  The Sage and I are also fine.  Squiff came through for a while this afternoon, having a family who doesn't want to do anything much with her and just lies on the sofa coughing isn't the most fun for a lass.

Yet more paving is being done in the garden, this time in the kitchen garden.  It's part of a job that's now in its third year.  Those of you who have been here - it's between the greenhouse and the right-hand end of the wall, it all needs to be levelled, pathed and a shed erected.  There's so much to do before I go away, I don't know how it'll be done.  To make things more difficult, the soil is already drying out and a hosepipe ban will be brought in in April.  And there's me wanting to put in a lot of new plants.  It's going to be a bugger, lugging watering cans about - but it's been very dry for ages, one can hardly complain.  Anglian Water have got a good record for managing water supplies and not having a ban, especially considering this is the driest area of the country.

The reason the job is taking so long is that this is about the only time we get around to it.  My kitchen garden was originally 6 beds, each about 35 feet long and 4 feet wide with concrete paths in between.  The reason for this was to make it manageable, not to have to walk on the beds because you can reach from both sides to the middle, and not to have to dig or manure areas where you were going to end up walking.  It's always worked very well, with the additional bonus that rain doesn't soak into where plants aren't going to grow, and the unexpected benefit that the concrete heats up in the sun and this helps to warm the soil.

As time went by, we kept increasing the area and I had a large section that I used for various things, mostly Jerusalem artichokes in the end (I've got rid of them for the time being, they spread too much.  I like Jerusalem artichokes, but they are very tall and quite invasive).  Then, when we were planning to build the Wall, I extended it further again towards the drive, rather than have an expanse of grass between the wall and the drive that the Sage would be unable to resist using for storing wood or something.  We've been dividing this area into beds, but kept getting too busy or the weather was too hot or something - anyway, I hope we'll be able to finish it this time, though I'm quite doubtful.  The other thing is, of course, that the veg garden is now far too big for us.  Still, the other advantage of the beds is that one can cover over those that aren't in use and the job of bringing them back into use another year isn't too massive.

Oh, and I'm not going to let the Sage put anything into the shed.  It'll be my shed and he's not going to fill it up with a load of stuff.


10 comments:

Blue Witch said...

A comment box appeared, at last! Must have been the spell I did as I passed the end of your road yesterday. Sorry, didn't have time to call in, and knew you were split too many ways already anyway.

A shed of one's own. Lovely :)

And have you rung BT about your connectivity problems? The reason they say 10 days after major upgrades is so they're not deluged with calls, while their engineers fine-tune. After that, unless you tell them, they don't know there's a problem. The more people who ring, the faster the problem will be solved...

Roses said...

Ugh. Hose pipe bans. I agree, I hate lugging watering cans about. Ah well. I'll have to pack my hose away then, otherwise I'll forget.

That's going to change the way I garden this summer. Bugger.

Sorry to hear of your sleepless nights. Must be something in the air. I'm also having trouble getting my brain to shut down at the end of the day. I'm too excited. The trouble with that is that it interferes with my energy levels so I'm less able the next day. Humpf.

Hope everything settles down with you soon. And so sorry to hear of next door's continuing lurgy.

Z said...

Seeing you would always be a pleasure, BW, whatever else I was doing. I was rather hoping that other people would contact BT and I wouldn't have to, but I suppose I'm going to have to sooner or later.

I can usually sleep for an hour, Roses, but after that I wake regularly - well, if I sleep again. But last night wasn't too bad.

Unknown said...

And I thought a shed was a mans' last bastion!

Z said...

He can go in there, but he's not allowed to put anything in there unless he took it out earlier. The shed where garden tools are kept is so crammed full that you can't get in the door and you have to grab a handle and hope the tool you want is on the other end. Not that he's exactly brilliant at putting anything useful back. He's got whole workshops of his own, don't begrudge me one little shed!

LẌ said...

Since the clock jumped ahead last weekend, my sleep has been disturbed. I have been waking at about 01:00 and staying awake for a couple or three hours. This happens to me every time the time changes. Uggh.

Z said...

Oh, I hate it when the clock changes. I just want to stay with British Summer Time all year round and lay Greenwich Mean Time lovingly to rest, unless Scotland decides to hang on to it.

luckyzmom said...

I agree, down with time changes. The purpose for which they were intended was not beneficial so why don't they (whoever they were) drop it?

lom said...

If you pull the last one off I will be amazed, I can no long get into my shed for hubby’s rubbish, I mean stuff, and I caught him trying to put stuff from the caravan into the greenhouse a few weeks ago!

mig said...

Oh good for you with the shed. Every woman should have one.
We already have a ban I think and I'm eyeing last years' new planting anxiously. Probably I need to get lots and lots of compost. And sunshades?