June 21, 2025

We’re back in London for the next few months so getting set up again. I tended to my garden as first priority when I got back. The tomatoes had grown somewhat in the two weeks away, but I hadn’t give any tomato feed yet, so that was first thing I did. I have one good courgette plant, one disappeared and two that survived after almost being eaten at the start. I’ve finally realised that I should put netting over these young plants when they get transplanted or they get desimated by bugs and slugs. I’ve even seen flies eat all my indoor seedlings. Each time I plant basil outside, it disappears in a few weeks. Netting is the answer. Especially if I ever have a vegetable patch out in the field.

first potato harvest

I visited the field, but didn’t do that much… I layed down a bit more cardboard and woodchip. There’s still many many paths to make, but the woodchip is the limiting factor. Over the weekend I came to the conclusion that I’d like to migrate most of my vegetable growing to the field instead of my back garden. Then I could convert the garden into a perennial herb garden, which would like much prettier all year round. Decided.

latest harvest

Over the week I made this panels out of spare plywood to make a water trough to soak willow sticks. But I’m still struggling to see the full logistical vision; how is it going to hold it together and strong enough to house a few hundreds of litres of water… Initially I wanted to do a dug trough instead of above ground in a wooden structure. Dug out is probably still the better idea… It’s just that the ground is so hard to dig right now. Who knows if these panels will function at all… This might be a case of being a bit too hopeful and experimental.

I did lots of spinning this week and made about 90g of spun yarn. That should give me a good start on the final sleeve. I need to relearn the pattern a little, since it’s been so long. The Belgian sheep is actually my favourite wool to spin; since its so long and coarse it spins really easily. Other smoother, shorter, more slippery yarns are more difficult. The 90g took about 5 hours to spin. 

Finally, I’ve made a bit of progress on the bags that I prepped in France. I bought some different types of wadding to see what works best to give the bag structure. I’ve implemented the first one, thick and spongey. Works great in keeping a strict shape to the bag. I like it a lot. I’ll try out the second wadding next week, which feels a lot thinner, not sure if it’ll do anything for the structure. My third solution, which I’m most excited about, is melting / fusing plastic bags together with an iron to create a thicker more sturdy plastic and using that as wadding. It’s my preferred option since it finds a use for all that plastic packaging. I ironed outside to disappate any fumes as quickly as possible, but I think its relatively safe. I’ve been collecting plastic / not throwing it away, for about 5 years. Each time I create a pouffe, which crochet cover on the outside. Each pouffe can take probably 6-12 months work of plastic as stuffing. Over the years I’ve made 5-6 pouffes, and while it’s a great use for the plastic, I don’t need more pouffes! I’ve been trying to thinking of other things I could use the plastic for, and never found something decent. So I’m really hoping this could work.

plastic wadding

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