The Sanctuary Garden

It was tipped at 4:30, and while waiting, I managed to make a few beds using the aptly named ‘Grunters’. Although very heavy, I only need a few to make a bad. I’ll need more cardboard for the potato and the inside beds. IKEA packaging is great; no tape to remove.

By promising a dozen biscuits to the supplier of the mushroom compost, I’ve had a response and the tipper should be here today. Not knowing what time he’s going to arrive, I’ve made them when I got up at 6.

Choc chip cookies, a firm favourite and Sara’s stamp of approval

Ray has an interesting way of planting tomatoes. He buys cherry tomatoes, not just your average tasteless tomatoes but the delicious and often not just red.

After cutting them in half places them face down on compost and waits until they germinate.

They need thinning and I was surprised how many plants came from one little cell. The plan is to pot them on, let them grow and then sell them to help fund more projects.

The tipper load of compost is due tomorrow!

A classic second early French variety which has been prized for over 70 years for its tasty tubers with a distinctive chestnut flavour. Potato ‘Ratte’ produces long, smooth skinned tubers with white skins and yellow, waxy flesh which does not disintegrate during cooking. Delicious steamed in their skins and eaten hot or cold. Height and spread: 60cm (24″).

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Lynda, our neighbour found an advert for tomatoes and arrange for a collection this morning. I was greeted by Ray an avid tomato grower. He’s given me a couple of trays of tomatoes he grows from bought cherry tomatoes. Just the delicious ones of course, I love luck dips.

He’s helped me with advice on growing them and recommended the plastic watering collars my folks gave to me this week. I’ve asked my mother to order 6 more as he’s assured me they are not a gimmick, they keep the water away from the main stem and stop rot as well as making watering a doddle.

Bryan, a friend who is also a carer and diagnosed with MND, came over today. He’s my idea’s man and we are able to bounce ideas off each other and have done since we first met.

He walks with the aid of two sticks and can’t stand for long so is limited to what he can do. BUT, he can plant seeds, having had a garden that outshone the neighbourhood. Today he planted four trays of seed; Two of the Brunswick Cabbage a monster variety that can be bottled as sauerkraut for the food bank. The the other two are parsnip seeds, Bryan was given when he bought his greenhouse from an old dear.

I built more beds and did some of the legwork all the while was gentle banter or ideas on the next phase of the project. When he left to go home, he was buoyed up. “I felt like I’ve done something useful today” “good day” to record a few sound bytes. It’s not just me that feels good after working in the garden.

A lovely couple in Kinglassie had some blocks going free. “I’m here for the exercise” I said “you’re at the right place” and I was. These blocks are called grunters, they are twice the thickness of a normal breeze block and feel about four times as heavy. They are perfect for a raised bed. The Kia, not really designed to take huge loads, managed 10 blocks before I thought it was a bit low on the suspension. It took three loads. On the final load, driving through a nearby village, I noticed a wall had been knocked down, and I was told I can have as many of the bricks as I can carry.

Good news, the mushroom compost man is alive and may send me a date of when he can deliver, I was getting nervous.

Two generous families have donated turf to the project. It took two loads in the Sportage loaded to the gunnels. Incorporating some horse manure and covering it up in black plastic to bake for six months will turn it into delicious soil to grow vegetables.

If you know anyone who is about to start a project removing grass, I’ll supply large plastic bags for them to load it into and I’ll take the sod away. Just send me a note. It’s a win-win.

When I was about 10, I learned to drive a half tonne Mazda pickup that had a steering shift. We called open pickups ‘bakkies’ and with my accent it’s pronounced “buck-ies” which probably has a different meaning here with an association to buckfast, a fortified drink. I’ve yet to try but have several bottles dumped at the road end.

Building beds with blocks is quicker and easier. I need about twelve block per bed or nearly seventy bricks.

In Zimbabwe, some of the white farmers were affectionately dubbed ama-pointer. With an outstretched finger “you do this, you do that.” The dining room chairs saved from landfill are for the ama-pointer members to sit and do their thing.

In the corner of the poly tunnel, Rory built a pallet compost pit and both he and I filled it with a cube of horse manure. Rain water was added. A week later I was interested to see if the temperature inside the middle of the pile had started to climb. The probe was pushed into the middle of the pile.

The ambient temperature is 23.5C / 74f with a humidity of 58% The manure is cooking at 55.3C / 131.5f
When I finished this evening, the ambient temperature had dropped to 15C and the manure was unchanged at 55C. It will be interesting to see if it climbs any higher