In praise of tomato ring culture

I have started using rings (often made of plywood !) to grow my indoor tomatoes.  The advantages are that I can put fresh 'good' soil mixture in the rings each year without changing the whole of the soil in the poly tunnel/greenhouse.  The plants use the lower soil for a water source and the upper roots feed from the manure etc in the ring mixture (my mixture is about equal parts leaf mold, well rotted compost, good soil, and  a little wood ash)  I grow other things in the bed around the rings (salad, climbing beans etc)

Transition Town Wivenhoe (TTW): Home-brew Seed Compost

 Useful receipe and description for making your own compost. 
Transition Town Wivenhoe (TTW): Home-brew Seed Compost

Happy Equinox

Spring is springing out all over!!  We had a nice meal round the fire yesterday in the wood to celebrate equinox and the coming of spring. My favorite time of the year - i was watching dozens of frogs having an orgy in our pond today making a tropical din with their croaking!   Sweet almond and apricot blossom is out (I am always a bit nervous about frost when its blossom time but this week looks OK

Bed of nails or what!!

I spotted this dove on Clacton station. She had braved the (anti pigeon!) spikes to create a nest warmed by the monitor and protected by the spikes (re-incarnated from a fakir I reckon!)

The past comes back to haunt us (again)

Daily Mail headline :
Attack of the flying saucers! How six 'UFOs' sparked a nationwide panic when they landed in Britain in 1967
see
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363151/UFO-fever-gripped-Great-Britain-late-Sixties--handful-students-perptrated-big-hoax.html

Planting Sweet Chestnut Trees with Jim and Zero (the dog!)

 Digging out the bracken (bad for the tree roots) and planting bargain (£1 each) chestnut trees from Beechwood Nurseries in N. Ireland