The French Garden

Warren hens

2009-02-16T13:17:00.007+00:00

Back in the UK I am certainly missing my egg laying birds. Bought some eggs from the supermarket first week back and although they claimed to be free range they really were quite horrid. It good to have hens in the garden too the noise they make I find quite relaxing.

It is a shame you are not allowed to keep hens on allotments. It would be a good idea to have specially fenced allotments just for laying hens. The take up off allotments near me is quite low and many of them stand un-used and neglected.

Things that go Bump in the night

2009-02-09T10:19:00.007+00:00

Well its all excitement in our street. Whilst watching some puerile nonsense on TV last-night there was a skidding screeching sound from the street outside followed by very loud bump.

Just about everybody in the street looked out to see a car had hit two parked cars and no sign of the occupants. The police turned up within minutes and had the unenviable task of standing in the snow looking on while the tow truck arrived.
I think I have solved the identity of the culprits this morning,I think the 'Boy's in blue' will be grateful for my investigative skills. Take a look at the picture of the path outside our house.

Yes its 'Feral children'

I have suspected they exist in Leeds for some time. As soon as the banks start lending money again I'm gonna hire me a posse.

Recycle and Re-use

2009-02-07T12:31:00.017+00:00

Just been looking at Flickr group making all sorts of interesting things like jewelry from scrap.

Got me thinking my own effort with recycling furniture might be worth a DIY blog.

So enough words here are the pictures of my recycled cupboards, how they started out and how they ended up.
I think the French call this a 'Buffet'. The doors are oak but the overall impression in a room is gloomy and monstrous, so I painted the doors to check they would look OK as kitchen cupboard doors, then started chopping away!

It inspired me to do something about the chimney breast as the room never had a feature. This can be a problem with home decor, a room has to have a focal point.

I coated the dull crappy wood fire surround with masonry paint and flicked sand on it till it looked like stone, then using old hand made bricks cut in half with my angle grinder, made a diamond pattern back for the Rayburn. This can't be seen that well in the photo but its there honest!

Its all part of having a mind set of sustainability. The paint was going spare from another project, and it really doesn't matter that it is not real stone.Its the same with the kitchen units, except they will last longer than chipboard kitchen doors, being oak.

Just got those cupboard doors on the right of the photo to hang now.

YES! they are old shutters.

No sense in wasting them as that has been my philosophy from the start when it came to decorating in our French home. We were always going to be 'time rich' and 'cash poor'.

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Blank canvas in the Organic home garden

2009-02-06T09:59:00.001+00:00

Its that time of year again, the ground covered in snow hiding the remains of last years successes and follies. Its a blank canvas to start imagining the layout of next years vegetable rows and the scheme for 2009.

We have of course bought seeds well in advance with all the prudence of complete novices, and the out come will be rather like holiday planning where you have lived the holiday ten times over before the day has even arrived. Its the taste of home grown food from the organic garden that motivates this seasonal madness. I surprised myself last year with a new found enthusiasm for home grown vegetables which I would never even buy from the supermarket in the past.

It is a great disappointment to us this year that we have to return from France to the UK to find work as it is too scarce in France. To soften the blow we have taken on an allotment nearby. One thing will not be the same, however as we cannot keep Warren hens for eggs on our allotment.

It is the hens which start out our early planning for the coming season, because we like to place them on future vegetable rows to help clear the soil of seeds and grubs, before we sow.

Its a good way of organically treating the soil, both for removell of insect pest's and soil improvement due to their manure. The eggs are fantastic in sponge's too if you like baking.

The eggy-ness of the sponge reminded me of baked sponge from my childhood and it is obvious there is something not quite right about supermarket eggs these days.

2009-02-02T16:56:00.000+00:00

Its driving us mad .

This weather what with snow and frost is stopping us from getting on with the digging on the allotment. It has been said that you should not dig over clay soils when they are wet. I dont know why if any one know's why or if its rubbish advice let me know. The French garden is the same so we are not missing anything bieng back in Blighty but we are mighty bored.

Winter in the French Garden

2009-01-30T14:41:00.000+00:00

Well our organic home garden is a sad sight with everything flattened and frosted over. I took a tip from a neighbour and as a consequence have no paths between the vegetable rows now.
What was happening was the slugs were hiding under the planks or bricks as a refuge from the mid-day sun, and then coming out and feeding on an evening. Trying to be organic we don't do anything radical to remove them, we just pick them off.

I observed that my neighbours tamped earth paths had no such refuge for slugs. The problem is when the plants have died down and the vegetables are just a fond culinary memory all you have left, look,s as structured as the Somme in the middle of battle. Which is why I have a hankering for low box hedging around sections of the vegetable plot.

Yes I know its not likely to be practical, but its my fancy so.... ner!