... why curves? ...

A neighbour asked me, "Why circles and curves?" and I was stuck for an answer.

They just suggested themselves and feel right (sheesh!). Why does the world have to be constructed around straight lines, lines of least resistance, lines of greatest efficiency? Maybe curves are inefficient, wasteful even, but they do something to me something "Mother Earthy". Maybe they are reminders of the pre-Classical influence in Britian, bronze-age potato plots. Maybe it's something to do with the cyclical nature of nature, of times and seasons, of orbits, of rhythm of day and night, life and death. I could arty-fartify these plots of ground, but I won't, they just sort of look good.

johnty7@hotmail.com

... crop circle No 4 ... bark chippings and a blob ...

What a baeautiful day. Bright and frosty start, perfectly still, blue skies and damp ground. Started digging the biggest circle to date - 6 paces in diameter - at 10am and completed it by 12pm. Then used the bark chippings from the felled black poplars to create pathways between the beds. By 1:30pm the paths were complete and I was ready for a meal with the fry-up boys, Matty & Olly.

Handy conversation with Frank who was tidying up the chrchyard nextdoor. He remembers this land when it was farmland and has useful hints on what we can reasonably expect.

By 3:30pm the sun was below the roof-top skyline and frost was re-setting itself. By then I had outlined and dug the first turf layer of a blobby shaped bed - it just seemed to suggest itself!

Finished the day by using spare turf to fill in a dip in the ground that fills with water when it rains.

Next will be a bed near to the kitchen for herbs.

Total cost to date £0. Bring on more days like this.

johnty7@hotmail.com

... another crop circle ...

2 hours of turf stripping and turf laying and we have another crop circle - this one the biggest yet at about 6m in diameter (actually it's 6 paces - they are easier to do than fiddle about with a tape measure).

So we have 3 circles awaiting digging and manuring and de-rooting. The ground was, until recently, in the shadow of a very large black poplar and its roots are a spider's web beneath the turf layer. Mercifully they have begun to shrink and are easily snapped and disposed of.

The plan for the rest of the year is to focus our energies on 4 celebrations a year, the solstices and equinoxes. On 21st December we will be getting as many friends together as possible to bless, dig and manure our plot.

johnty7@hotmail.com

... circular beds ...

Of course it sounds silly, after all the world has used straight lines and right angles since the Romans became obsessed with them ... but ... we thought curvy things look better ... and anyhow they are easier to mark out and measure.

Eventually we aim to have about 10 of these. The entrance is 2 logs from some black poplars that were on their last legs ... wide enough for a wheelbarrow - comfy enough for a bum and a cup of tea.

After Vegetable Heaven (aka Flummery) suggested that our circles reminded her of Lesotho key-hole gardens I did some research ... click the pic for more.

johnty7@hotmail.com

.. here we go again ...

Having been buoyed up by gardening success at the school I work at, and Hull City's amazing rise up the Premier League, my spirit's are high and we (Liz, Fiona, Andy, Ella, Johnty & Olly) are about to embark upon another plot from a first scratch.

This time it's a huge space. A section of a lawned garden big enough for 4 tennis courts (there used to be one in one corner) - that's lawn over boulder clay though. Still it responds well to a spade and a fork. Have decided with other housemates to dig a series of circular beds (no particular reason). Stripped turf on Sunday last and made turf walls around the beds. Looks really cool. Have Community Service type restorative-justice help coming this week! The pic shows about half the space.

The garden is part of a vicarage on the Bransolme Estate in Hull. Vicarage has been empty for a long while and the church agreed to allow us in and look after the place and do our community thing. Since we've been here only 1 break-in. The property doesn't have a gate so security could be an issue!

The plan for this year is tons of spuds to encourage virgin gardeners to keep at it by providing them with a mountain of Inca gold to fry into chips.

Really great pics to follow soon (I'm tending to go to work in the dark and return in the dark at the mo).

johnty7@hotmail.com