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

Onions and bags of tatties

Not withstanding the dreaded man flu I got a bit of gardening done yesterday. 

With the "help" of the kids we sowed 4 rows of white onions and two rows of red onions.  I always sow sets since I've had little success in the past with seeds but hey give seeds a go if you fancy.  The sets are just the standard ones you see in decent garden centres but I resist buying the pre-packed ones and just bag up as many as I need into the paperbags provided.  That way you can pick your own lovely firm fat sets.

As a rule I try and buy onion sets that have been "heat treated".  This helps to prevent "bolting".  Basically, in really hot summers the onion gives up trying to swell and forces up a pretty flower spike with a globe flower on the top.  Looks lovely but you don't get any onion.  By heat treating I understand this can be prevented.  I don't know if its right or not but I always have more trouble with red onions bolting in my garden.  You can try shading them and stuff but I think if they are going to do it then they will do it anyway.

We also sowed a short row of spring or salad onions. (these were seeds).  I notice these are now sometimes  being called scallions on TV cooking shows.   I imagine they charge more for scallions.  Mrs M's Grandad calls them green-tails but then he is a very literal Father Jack type character.  He probably calls sprouts "Green balls" like Eilidh does! I sowed short rows of these because I'll sow some more in about 2/3 weeks.  This is called successional sowing and basically means I won't end up with too many spring onions all at once.  The reason for sowing these now is that there is nothing finer with new potatos and as you'll read below I stuck some of those in yesterday too.

Despite having plenty of space I grow my new tatties in bags.  This leaves more room for other crops (including maincrop potatoes), which, because I can plant up bags all over the place in turn allows me more of the delicous new baby spuds when they are at their most expensive in the shops AND I think they are so delicate and fine skinned that they genuinely perform better in bags.  Great news if you have limited space!  My sister grows them on her patio, my youngests nursery has them in their garden.  It really is a simple and lovely way to grow what is a hugely expensive early season crop.   If you've ever seen the tiny bags of first Jersey Royals hitting the supermarket shelves you'll know how expensive they are.  Well these are cheap as chips AND taste miles better! 

Tattie sacks ready for action

Get your strong waste bags, shopping bags, bin bags, specialist tattie bags, pots etc and lob about 20 or so cm of multipurpose compost into them.  Then, as below, stick 4 seed tatties in each bag - eyes pointing upwards.  (The bags need a couple of drainage holes btw)

Awww, look at them all full of life and ready to FEED ME!

Cover these bad boys with about 20/25 cm of multipurpose and water well.  By water well I mean until the water literally pours out the bottom.  Spuds like water!

Dinnae skimp on this bit!

And now we just wait.  In time the potatoes will poke their little shoots up looking for light.  Once these have grown to 10cm above the compost lob some more compost in and cover them up.  Water them regularily and keep covering the shoots up as and when they grow.  Eventually they will reach the top of your bag and then just fil lit right to the top with compost and let them grow on.  Remember to keep watering though, even when its pouring down not much rain will run down into your bag so water well.  Got that?  Water!  Then, for new tatties, a few days after they flower cut the shaws (tops) off and go explore.  Have a poke around in your bag (oooh matron) and feel the little beauties or be impatient and do as I do and tip the bloody lot out!!  You'll be surprised how many potatoes you have and they will be lovely little things untouched by worms, rocks or slugs. Awwww, gorgeous. 
We have a long standing tradition in our family.  The first tatties of the season are taken within minutes of being discovered to the garden tap, washed and flung in a pan of water on a camping stove to be eaten on their own, al fresco in the garden with some real butter and maybe some freshly picked and chopped spring onions and perhaps home made bread.  This for me, is luxury food at its best!  Makes me happy just thinking about it.

So go on then.  Get some seed tatties and some compost.  Chuck them in a bag and I guarantee they will be the best tatties you'll have tasted.  Eat them al fresco straight from the bag and a little bit of heaven shall be yours!

Just don't skip the watering eh?!?

Happy gardening.

Davie

xx