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

Compost from the sky!!

A miracle!! The people next door are having their roof pressure washed!!!  The process has produced many wheelbarrow loads of moss and soil (as well as using huge quantities of water!!).  Of course I wasted no time in asking for the spoil.  Must be as good as peat as a garden ingredient?  The guy asked us to allow him to use our water supply as the flow from next door wasn't fast enough - I reluctantly agreed (all our water saving habits wiped out for a month or two!)  They are going to spray the roof with something to inhibit the growth if new moss - something I am also uneasy about and will keep our fungus growing logs covered for the day in case of over spray.