Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 26 Entries. Monday, January 11 View Page Happy new year.... Monday, January 11 View Page Still freeeeeezing in the midlands... minus 11 the other morning with a good covering of snow everywhere... Monday, January 11 View Page Check out how much snow!!! Nearly 100% coverage, where is all of this global warming???? Wednesday, January 13 View Page 10 inches of snow in the patch....and its still snowing. Wednesday, January 13 View Page Bags of leaves ready to be dug in... well as soon as it thaws out... Wednesday, January 13 View Page Here is our snow lady.... Sunday, January 17 View Page Snowy Solihull Sunday, January 17 View Page More snowy solihull... Sunday, January 17 View Page Stu looking 'Cool' at the park Sunday, January 17 View Page Ewan looking 'Cool' at the park. Sunday, January 17 View Page Snow nearly all gone, more forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday. Patch was still solid below 2 inches. More like perma frost in the tundra. Hope it kills all the nasty bugs whilst leaving the worms alone.... Sunday, January 17 View Page Here is our snow lady.... Saturday, January 23 View Page Started the patch onslaught today... Covered the winter wheat and vetch with the contents of my garden compost. About 1m^3 was spread over the patch along with about 10 bags of oak and beech leaves. I also distributed calcified seaweed and a fair amount of bone meal. Going to dig it all in tomorrow :( followed by a hot bath! Taken a great time lapse video of it all. I hope to carry the video on all year which should prove entertaining in October. Sunday, January 24 View Page Here is the patch after adding compost and a few additives. I will try my rotorvator next week to mince it all up a bit. I have managed to find a source of horsey muck, well rotted and at a great price... Will grab a few trailer loads over the next few weeks. Monday, February 22 View Page We had another dump of snow in Solihull... More forecast this week. 5 inches last Thursday then another 3 on Sunday.. Ice-age?? Monday, February 22 View Page Ewan having a snow cone!! Monday, March 8 View Page Here is beta patch,,, a lot of hard work and the removal of my old alloy green house reveals a nice patch. It is about 16ft wide and 18ft long, so a tight challenge but hopefully will be able to get something off it. The soil is lovely, about 2ft deep before hitting clay. My house was built on an old farm in 1928 where my garden ison top of an old dairy pasture. So a few hundred years of cow dung must have done something good. Still, ill freshen it up with calcium, seaweed and the usual oodles of manure..... 1 month till planting :) Friday, March 19 View Page Well tired now, distributed about 850kg of manure over the 'alpha' patch... Going to put on another 300kg or so then about 300kg on the 'beta' patch.. warmed up here now, frogs are in the pond... Sunday is rotorvate day :) Friday, April 2 View Page only a few days to planting:))) Monday, April 26 View Page Fabulous rainbow from my backgarden. Pumpkins going well, goint to plant then out in the garden this weekend. My Hulme squash never germinated :( Saturday, May 29 View Page My Paton 1457 going well, had one set of double leaves at a node, but all that have grown since are good.. will leave the other one in the ground for a while as i struggle for male flowers and hope i can grab one of the other plant.... Sunday, June 13 View Page Pollinated this 5 lobe one a few days ago, may have taken. its about 10ft out, would prefer the next one i think.... still going to go for all fruit this year with last years disaster.... Sunday, June 13 View Page check out the time lapse video of my two paton 1457's ... very cool : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH72NAhxtGE There are a few more videos if you search on ivabiguntoo in you tube.. I home to get a complete timelapse of the whole season this year, including hopefully a boat! Monday, September 20 View Page Here we are for this year, 3 nice ones that have made it throught the season.. The two orange ones have finished, the one at the front is a late runner and still going for it. The two orange onesa are 1457patons and the yellow one is an 1188paton, all around 300lbs ish but the 1188 may pop the 400 mark hopefully... Friday, December 3 View Page This years pumpkin video, ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ8VKc7tnpA Monday, December 27 View Page Lots of white stuff on the patch with a few trays of ash on the top.. Hope everyone had a good christmas..