Restoration garden

Our new old restoration home comes with a large restoration garden. Completely overgrown, full of debris, crumbling walls and hidden treasures. It all needs to be dug out, sifted, fixed, and made into something resembling a much loved and useful garden. It’s a very long term project.

summer heat is here at PumpjackPiddlewick

The summer heat has arrived. After a prolonged spring, of which the garden is profoundly grateful, we have seemingly overnight transitioned from cool nights and warm days to just warm. Well, hot. It’s impact is felt not only in temperatures. Okay, mainly in temperatures, but also in what I doRead More →

having fun mulching with cats at PumpjackPiddlewick

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I love to mulch. But I particularly love mulching with cats. And ducks. I also love to prune, though not as much as mulching. Pruning takes more thought, more muscle and no cats. Or ducks. As sometimes branches are on theRead More →

Attempting Hügelkultur at Pumpjack & Piddlewick

When the going gets tough, the tough go gardening. And this should definitely include Hügelkultur. But let me digress a little. Raised beds are always on my veg garden agenda. Part save the knees and back, part stop the animals ‘playing’ amongst the veg (more the latter really, but weRead More →

How to build a duck home at PumpjackPiddlewick

Our duck enclosure has and always will be a work in progress. We learned a lot from the previous enclosure we made, where we lived before our new home. Now it was time to improve on our duck home. The three biggest learnt factors High walls of chicken wire giveRead More →