There's no need to be afraid....... (in the shed)

Thats right, its officially Christmas time and indeed, there is no need to be afraid - well, maybe a little.
 
I really really love Christmas, it had lost its charm a bit until Skye was born.  Then Eilidh came along and now with the girls at 6 and 5 there is no escaping the joy of it all.  It is true, it is for the kids.
 
Sometimes I find it all a little overwhelming though.  There is just so much to be getting on with and so much to spend on and so little time.  We have a big family Christmas at our house being "The people with the kids" and it is lovely but now and again I dissapear quietly.
 
Mrs M knows.  The kids know.  Even old Wullie next doors knows.  Davie is in the shed!

So what do you need for the ideal garden shed.  I'm not talking a store room to dump your rubbish in but a real shed to "work" in.

As a basic it has to be watertight and have a door that closes fully from the inside.

Ideally it should be near an electric supply or perhaps have an extention cable running to it.

Clearly as cover it must have a potting bench, sundry pots and gardening equipment.

Now the important stuff......

An armchair.  Thats right, your shed should really have an armchair.  Don't be bothering DFS for this (there is a sale on you know!).  Have a rake round any old junk shops, 2nd hand furniture shops or jumble sales.  I have a rather ancient but lovely Parker Knoll with wing sides which I paid the grand sum of £2.50 for.  It has a lovely old blanket over it which when required can be taken indoors and washed. It is soooooo comfy. I also have an alarm clock - thats how comfy it is!! 

A radio - get a fancy DAB if you want but again, I got my rather cool Pye radio  from a jumble sale.  50p well spent.  Shed rules.  No loud banging tunes.  There is a time and a place and the time in the shed is neither!  Please.  Radio 4 is fine - gardeners question time.  Radio Scotland is fine - Beechgrove potting shed.  Radio 5 live or general chat and sport programmes fine. 

A kettle or some means of heating water for a brew.  I have recently got a Kelly Kettle which is a great thing but the previous gas stove and whistling kettle is a versatile tool.  I also have a pan in the shed for boiling up the first new potatoes of the year - an old tradition - the first shaw  picked, boiled and eaten outside as nature intended with a generous serving of butter.  I also have a tea pot and a couple of mugs in case of guests - normally just old Wullie.

Sensible reading material.  Gardening magazines are of course great cover but I find the shed a great place for novel reading generally and a particularily great place for a long read of a Sunday paper.

So if you are ever at Martin Towers and I dissapear for an hour come down the bottom of the garden, thats where I'll be.  Enjoying a little solitude in this noisy happy house of ours!  Maybe you should get one!

 

A Truly wonderful shed* (and garden in fact)

*not mine!

 

 



 My great Kelly Kettle boiling away during the summer

Go on then, lets talk gardening!!

I've been a right grumpy old bugger lately. (Sorry about that).  In fact the only thing that has made me truly happy recently is the kids and pottering in the garden. Last night a few good and trusted twitter friends suggested I write about gardening - so here we go.

Before I start writing all about it I'll tell you a bit about our plot. 

Luckily for a house in the town we have just under 1/4 of an acre of south facing garden which believe me is plenty.  It has the usual lawn and borders with some really lovely touches.  It is what estate agents refer to as mature established gardens.  In no way can I claim the credit for building this garden.  It was what contributed to selling us this house 5 years ago and I am thankful to the last 100 or so years of owners who have looked after it so well.  I hope I leave it as nice when I get carried out many years from now in my box! 

So, the garden!!  Heres the highlights.  It has an area we have christened "The secret Garden" which is a hidden away area with some lovely herbacious borders, a nice little pond, an old sundial and a lovely old sandstone patio.  This is our child-free part of the garden where us grown ups can sit, enjoy the fire in the chiminea and a glass of wine while the sun sets. 

The main part is mainly lawn with borders and some really beautiful trees and shrubs.  Its great for playing football on, for learning to ride bikes, for having a paddling pool in and for lazing on a summers day (remember them?). As well as a couple of massive fir trees, a pretty birch and a rowan we have a full size cherry, a plumb tree and a really old but productive big apple tree which much to the dissapointment of the kids produces masses of fantastic cooking apples.

Great for playing on.  An arse to cut!

Then we come to the part that I will mostly write about, my domain - the kitchen garden. 

Our permanent fruit bushes are: blackcurrants, red currants, white currants, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries (red and gold), rhubarb and a strawberry patch.

Also within the kitchen garden of course is the veg patch.  What is in this varies depending on the fads of the time. We also grow some of our veg in bags or pots.  As standard however every year we always grow - potatoes (main crop and early), carrots, onions (red and white), garlic (yes, in Scotland!!), lettuce (various varieties), spring onions, peas, beans, leeks, brussel sprouts, squash and normally a pumpkin for halloween.  Apart from that we do whatever takes our fancy.  This year that means purple sprouting broccolli - so delicious but so expensive to buy and maybe cauliflowers if I can find a way to keep the caterpillars off!

Then there is the greenhouse.  This is used to start my veg and Mrs M's flower seeds nice and early (miles, miles cheaper than buying plants), over wintering some pots, growing some really early potatoes in, growing new potatoes for Christmas (yes you can do that) and of course in the summer growing our hot crops - Cucumbers, peppers, chillies, aubergine and of course Tomatoes.  I LOVE tomatoes.  Not the crappy tasteless, chilled to death supermarket ones.  Wait until you have grown your own italians or cherry tomatoes or lovely old UK varieties.  Honestly, there is nothing finer!!

Ready for the big sowing, nice spring day.

I'll be blogging over the next few weeks and months with some tips to get you started, the story of how we are getting on, our successes and failures with some hopefully nice photographs and fun tales from our garden.

As I get going if you have any questions please just fire in and ask on here or on twitter (@daviemartin).  Now I've started I'm excited about writing this.

To those of you who suggested I do this thanks for the tip.  It has already really fired me up.

Thanks for reading.  Watch this space!!!

Best to just drink coffee on days like this

Hello, its me!

Well here we are then.  Finally typing a blog post.  At the moment I have no idea what to write. 

I don't think I'm very witty, clever OR interesting but I suppose I could make an effort. 

I hope my blog is going to be about my family life, the garden, random stuff and maybe a bit about work if anything interesting EVER happens!!  I fear it may turn into a diary and if it does then well, I'm sorry!

Just so you know, these are the ladies in my life.......

From left to right - Eilidh Martin, 5 in July 2012, tiny small and cute but with a big attitude and a very fiesty side!  In't middle.  Lesley Martin, my wife.  Married for 16 years this June.  Ups and downs, trouble and strife but I guess I'm still here!  On the right, Skye Martin, 6 in April, a thinker and a clever girl.  Needs to slow down and also calm down from time to time!

Right, that'll do for now.  I plan to update this every week at least if I can......time will tell!!

TTFN.