We're back!!!

The day after we left for London it got warmer, and guess what!?! Three billion small slimey things came out to play and frolic on our crops!!! By sea-weed slug-dyke didn't quite cut the mustard...

Starting to think that the ecology of the greenhouse and surrounding plot could do with some predatory balance. Besides me that is... We need Ducks and Frogs! The Frog Squad need a pond HQ at one end of the Marquee and a Duck Base pond at the other.

Earth like rock

This week has been absolutely freezing, so much that the ground outside is completely solid. However, we have Arctic Slugs. They don't give up, stop, desist or relax. Every day I pick more, maybe not as many as earlier in the week but still they keep on keepin on.
Tomorrow we leave for London for a Christmas week with my folks... ... ... Merry Xmas little molluscs... ... ...

cold weather

It has been sunny but super cold.(temperature didn't go higher than 1-2℃ even daytime) Looks like even slugs stop activities under this coldness. Crops are all right although they grow very slowly.

Guests

It was nice, sunny day. Chloe and Sniff(her dog) came to the garden to help us. We dug out couch grass to make another bed. Good work! We went to the Ynyslas beach in the afternoon. Sniff loved running on the beach and I collected more seaweed for compost.

fight against slug

Junka
21 slugs were caught dead in cups of beer this morning and we placed more traps. We cleared the plastic sheets and carpets in the Marquee to get rid of rooms for slugs. Obviously, there is no perfect solution but hopefully the mixture of different methods will work to reduce the damage.
I put seaweeds on the bed which we collected to put in compost from beach, just to see as an experiment.

frost

Junka
Today was sunny but freezing. The field was all frosted and puddles were frozen.I mulched outside garlic with straw after giving fertiliser.(I should have done weeks ago!)

Janet gave me comfrey plants from Linne's garden. These are good stuff as fertiliser, green manure and compost activator.I planted them on the border of the Marquee for now, probably transplant them outside in spring.

Slug slayer

Chris
Tonight I went slugging in the dark, head lamp on, freezing fingers clutching old pate pot. 2 hours later i had collected 500. Yes, i counted them. It was a slug sensus. I am not totally mad, honest.

Wind and Slug

A strong wind blew the black ground sheet off again, ripping it in places and messing up the garlic. So we've taken it off and folded it up for now...
A hundred slugs found hiding in the flowers along the marquee borders. The poor flowers look pretty wrecked. I gave fertilizer(OSMO chase organic, all purpose fertilizer) to them to cheer them up!

Plants need sunlight

I finished thinning today and gave them liquid comfrey fertilizer.
Some slugs were found under ground. They were eating roots. What little monsters!
I took off the plastic cover because they were so tall and thin and it was getting moldy.

Thinning

It has been very windy in the past couple days (about 20 mph).
All the outside black sheets were blown off and another window of the marquee was blown out, but not broken.

While Chris was mending them, I thinned the mizuna & fuyuna and transplanted them into empty rows. It took a long time as they have grown so much and should have been thinned earlier. I stroked them gently because I read that it makes them grow shorter and sturdier.

Chris found dozens of slugs around the pots and containaers when it was getting dark. He collected and put them in the compost with some fresh old-leaf spinach to chomp on. Maybe we'll have to do a night-time slug search sometime...

unsettled weather

Today's weather was strange.
We drove to the garden as wind was too strong to ride a bicycle, then found a window of the Marquee came off.
When Chris was reparing the window, it started raining.
After a while, hailstones were really coming down and clattering heavily on the roof of the Marquee.
After having fixed the window, the sky was clear and sunny!

Crops looked all right. Spinatch and shirona have been nibbled, though, others were glowing well.
Bubble plastic cover seemed to work well to warm them (and slugs as well)

Some are growing, some are not

Junka
I'm back after a week in London and pleased to see crops growing well.
Slug damage was not as bad as I was anxcious but I found that spinatch and shirona were nibbled.
I killed about 30 slugs today (sorry!)

Mizuna, yukina and fuyuna are growing very well and need thinning soon.
Coan salad looks like a slow starter.
Ufortunetaly shungiku and lettuce disappeared.
I can't tell if they were taken by slug or dead in cold, though.

Growing up!

In spite of the icy air (7℃ outside, rising to 10℃ inside, peaking at around noon) sprouts were growing up. Fuyuna and Syungiku also started coming out.

We built mini-tunnels using bubble plastic sheet, which took long time because the beds are strange shapes and sizes!
Besides giving a careful slug check, we took out used materials and debris so not to give them hiding places inside the Marquee.

Junka planted more garlic outside after all Japanese salad was cleared away.

Coming out!

Mizuna and Yukina sprouted exactly a week after sowing. Lettuce and corn salad also started coming out. They are so cute!
We are now making double-bubble treble-trouble mini-tunnels using plastic sheet, bubble plastic and fleece to protect the babies from frost.

We have decided against building a warm room within the marquee. For it to work well we would need to put in so much insulation that cost and time are prohibitive.

The lesson learnt here is to plan furthur ahead and be prepared for winter weather by planting seedlings for spring cropping well in advance.

Trance Plant

Junka :
I transplanted all surviving mizuna from outside bed into the Marquee. The crops were planted surrounded with a thick sprinkling of crushed egg shells to deter slugs.

Chris began making an insulation curtain around the new beds - a warm room - in the Marquee but found it too difficult to seal it completely. Without proper insulation and sealing it will have little effect on the temperature fluctuation.

Four sheep escaped from Doctor Oscar's field next door. We had to keep ushering them back onto the low grass field to stop them chomping food crops.

Stop the wind!

There were two small quarterlight windows left unfinished in the rear wall which have now been glazed to furthur cut down wind penetration into the marquee. The doors need to be sealed and some other gaps need plugging.
However, as long as the outer skin is loose there will always be violent air movement inside when the outside air is moving.
Also, unless the skin is bubble insulated, the inside will always cool down to outside temperature once the sun has dropped - the heat simply rises through the ceiling. I have been taking readings throughout the day since prior to blocking the last vacant windows and they show that the inside air temp drops to match the outside temp by the time the sun has set.
My hope is that the polyskin will at least ward of severe frost, but my worry is that when the temp drops below zero, the extra moisture inside the marquee will cause an even worse frost!

Vegetation insulation

Junka :
As it's been so cold in the morning and night since sowing seeds, I re-built the mini-tunnels inside ,for the time being, to hopefully protect germination from frost.
We are going to make insulating curtains and insulate windows of the Marquee.

I also dug out and composted a new bed.

Hot & Cold

Chris :
Big temperature variations in the Marquee:
Time .....IN .......OUT ( degs/cel)
12:00 ... 15 ..... 8.5
12:27 ... 18.5 ... 9
12:38 ... 19 ..... 9
13:00 ... 20 ..... 9
14:30 ... 23 ..... 9
15:15 ... 16 ..... 9
16:00 .... 9 ..... 9

As soon as the sun drops, so does the indoor temperature. We need to look at ways of retaining heat to be slow released overnight, or at least to buffer the wild temperature differences.

A beautiful day nonetheless: blue sky, calm wind and very peaceful. I dug out the front path, using the removed soil to build up the trenches along the marquee. Got so hot i ended up stripped to the waste and sweating profusely.Then we had lunch outside.
Later we began laying the new black groundcover to suppress the couche grass.
I want to start digging out ponds at the front soon too.Fantastic sunset beach ride home - with coffee and donuts!!

Power flowers

Junka :
Today was cold - only 8-9℃ inside. There is probably a need for some protection for the crops to germinate.
I planted out herbs and flowers into the border.
Chives, Thyme, Sage, Wallflowers (Cheiranthus) and ornament cabbage, hoping that the colour would give the space a warmer atmosphere!

Diet of Worms

This is Luther, our resident Robin.

Sowing in the Marquee

Junka:
I sowed seeds: lettuce, corn salad, fuyuna, shirona, shungiku 春菊 (crown daisy or garland chrysanthemum) and spinach, mizuna, yukina for return match.

The seeds were soaked over night and sown directly onto beds in a radial pattern. The beds look funky.
I sprinkled crushed egg shell between the rows and around the edge to hopefully keep slugs off, then covered beds with fleece.

Support for mizuna

Junka
Today was chilly but lovely day.
Although temperature went down to 3℃ in the morning, inside was very warm(19-20℃）. I was perspiring in T-shirt when I was planting spring flower bulbs in pots in the marquee.
Outside Mizuna has been wrecked.
I fed comfrey liquid fertilizer to the poor Mizuna.
I also transplanted sprouted garlic from another bed as I heard that mice don't like garlic smell.

Ready Beds

Every day we smash the beds down and re-build them. This gradually weakens the weed growth and properly mixes in the mushroom compost and lime.
The first quarter of the marquee is now almost ready to plant out with winter veg.

Wind Power

There's been a very blustery NW wind for the last few days which has played havoc with the new skin on the Marquee. We've now begun strapping the Marquee down with 80mm wide double thickness plastic strips stretching over the top placed close to the frame spans, of which there are 7 along the whole length. The straps will be concentrated in the middle of the Marquee where the skin is loosest and most flexible.
The problem arises from the skin having not been put on with enough due care. We rushed the job having nearly killed ourselves digging the 50 metres of ditches out prior to putting the plastic sheeting on. By the time we came to tightening down and in-filling the ditches with the plastic in place we were very tired, it was getting dark and the temperature was dropping. The sheet contracts when it cools.
Ideally the skinning should be done on a hot sunny day. The plastic should be suspended above the ditch, using the weight of the in-fill soil to give the required tautness.
So it's a little frustrating have to spend time making and fitting the straps as a workaround for making the skin secure.

Slug problem

Junka:
After Yukina was taken by mice, Mizuna seems to have been nibbled by slugs.
I put brambles around the bed to deter them.
Maybe the mini-tunnel attracts pests, acting as a shelter for them in cold weather?

Fixing the glass

Junka:
The bed in the Marquee was shaped today. I gave mushroom-compost and lime onto the bed.
They look nice and cozy.
Chris :
Finished fixing the glass for the front face of the Marquee, including the door. The front end is now as sealed as I can get it except for a latch bolt to secure the door against the wind.Next up is to cut one very small piece and one very large piece for the back face. This will complete all the current glass work. Then there are 3 framed plastic panels required to completely seal the Marquee. And that's it: One cozy greenhouse!

Make Bed , Cut Glass

Junka :
I made beds in the Marquee, digging out couche grass, which gave me a terrible backache.
Chris :
Today I cut the apex glass for the Marquee front wall - the largest piece I've cut so far and also the most complex. Here's a wee step-by-step to show the process.A couple more pieces and all the glass for the Marquee will be complete. The remaining 4 or 5 missing panels will be wood-frame & plastic designed to be removed or hinged for ventilation.

Plot plan

Here is a layout for our gardens. At the moment we have begun laying out the beds in the top half of the outside plot. We are also working on the design for the interior of our greenhouse - the Marquee - which is in fact a polytunnel.

Suffer from Mice

Junka:
Mice never got caught and kept attacking crops.
Yukina was devastated.

Design meeting

We had a meeting inviting some friends who are keen on gardening and other sustainable issues.

The aim of the meeting is to:

a) receive advice and information in order to plan our garden.
b) make a network to share each experience.
c) make friends and have a fun through growing and eating food.
Eight people joined the meeting and we had a Japanese dinner afterwards.

Spinatch didn't germinate

Junka
Spinach(Japanese) didn't germinate. It was probably too cold?
I planted garlic(cristo) instead in the bed.

Chocolate Mice

We tried to catch the mice in the mini-tunnel using chocolate on mousetraps. They ate the chocolate without setting the traps off. Then they ate the plants.

Am gonna get some sticky pads.

we hate meeces to pieces...

Mice problem

We dug out couch grass in the Marquee and put it into a water barrel to drown.

In the outside bed, Yukina has been nibbled badly since we built a mini-tunnel.
Looks like it is mice who took the crops, enjoying the warm and cozy restaurant.

Surfers at Borth in October

Mini Tunnels

Building MiniTunnels from old sheep fence and scrap plastic.

Mizuna sprouting!

Marquee renovation

Fixing the ends of the new Marquee skin.
The skin is not tight enough and may need to be re-dug in at a later stage.

Skinning the Marquee

Digging the old plastic out of the ditches ready for the new skin.
Joel can be seen digging out the other side. Not that it's a race or anything...The skinning of the Marquee: An all-day job, 50 metre ditch dig 'n' fill. Hard work. Joel, Lynne, Peter, Janet, Junka & Chris. Job done.

Composting

Junka:
I put mushroom compost in bed B-1
I also made a compost trench in bed-A1 and buried kitchen waste from our house.

Sowing Seeds!

Spinach, Mizuna, Yukina, Garlic, Onions

Lime

Limed beds F1, C1 - 300g/sqm

Six beds and a sunset ride

The first six outdoor beds complete (C1, 2, 3 & F1, 2, 3)

Ride home on a sunset beach.

Met Lynne & Helen walking.

Collecting materials

Today we went to C.A.T. to pick up some used mushroom compost.

New beds

We have begun to build new beds outside
[PLAN]
[PHOTOS]

Junka returns from Japan!

Having arrived back in London on the 18th Junka is now back in Wales!

Sunny growth

The full bloom of summer.This is a week and a half later. The couche grass has gone crazy. Notice the Marquee on the right, full of head-height weeds and devoid of skin.

First photo

Here is our patch when I first spotted it and considered the possibility of taking it on.
Joel's spinach was in full growth and so was the couche grass!