TBI Potato Day a Huge Success!

On Saturday, DiGGers helped out at the "Potato Day" organised by the TBI (Transition Black Isle Group). It was held at the North Kessock Village Hall.

Setting out potatoes to get ready.

I've never seen so many different varieties of potato in one room! There were many intriguing and wonderful names ranging from Orchestra and Melody to Witchhill and Daisy! We had to buy some called Catriona and Charlotte of course (couldn't find any called Danielle or Lewis!)

We don't have the official figures yet but there were a lot of people (hundreds - Danielle started on the door with Mr MacFarlane giving out information leaflets and they ran out after 200. More were copied for them). Above, you can see Catriona and Danielle taking money on the Fruit and Veg stall.
Miss Swallow helped on the seed swap table - DiGGers were given some seeds for the school garden too - Red Russian Kale, some herbs, wild flowers and broad beans.

We came away with many potato varieties - Earlies for a Summer Garden Party in June (we have invited primary schools to attend) and Maincrop to harvest in September and October. Also, we selected Blue Belle again this year as we enjoyed them last year and they grow well in bags. We are going to run another Charity Fund-raising competition this year, to see which potato grows the greatest amount in weight. So watch this space!

DiGGers actually DiGGing!

This week, we got stuck in and used our DiGGing skills! We were planting trees - Scots Pine trees. We moved them from in front of the shed, to another the other side of the football field. We didn't want them getting too big and cut off the light in the garden.
They should in time form a good area of woodland. It was a windy day, though mild.
The ground here looks muddy but was actually very stony and hard, difficult to dig. We now need to cordon off the area to stop pupils running across it in their football boots!

Fat Balls for the Birds

Winter is still here, so this week we melted some lard...
...and mixed in porridge oats and bird seed...
...to make fat balls for the birds. We cut the string on Wednesday and got the yoghurt pots ready, then completed the task on Thursday.

Stirring Compost

This week was very cold in the garden - about minus 3 degrees centigrade, but beautifully sunny! It was just Danielle and Miss Swallow on Wednesday, so we chatted whilst stirring the big compost bin. A whole bag of shredded paper from the office had been added along with more canteen waste.
This is the "after" picture - lots for the worms to get into!
On Thursday, the ground was just too hard for digging despite us thinking we might start levelling a spot in readiness for another greenhouse that we have been offered (someone wants to get rid of theirs and is willing to give it to us - that's too good an offer to refuse!)
Instead we finished tidying the garden by collecting sticks from everywhere.
We added them to our "hedgehog pile" by the fence (no creatures spotted yet, but we live in hope!)

Tidying Sticks and Windfall

We finished working on our Potato Day posters on Wednesday this week. On Thursday, we just wanted to be in the garden! Lewis and Catriona potted on some winter pansies in the shed whilst Danielle and Grigor started to clear winter debris from the raised beds and surrounding area. We have had a lot of gales that have strewn the garden with branches and twigs!
The Walking Stick Cabbages looked a lot neater once we cleared the debris. Some were a little lopsided too, so we pushed the support sticks deeper into the ground.
Here you can see a solitary wasp nest in the greenhouse. Not sure if it will still contain an egg that will emerge as a wasp in Spring, or if the hole means one already emerged at the end of last summer?? I have read that a solitary wasp will build a nest, lay an egg and bring a paralysed insect into it for the lava to eat when it hatches. It will then seal it, so seeing as there's a hole in this one I think it must now be empty. Any entomologists that could confirm this - please add a comment!

Potato Day Planning

Welcome back after the Christmas Break! Not much happening this week in the garden - it's pretty wintry so we've been indoors creating posters to advertise the "Transition Black Isle's Potato Day" that we are going to help out with.

The idea is to have over 50 varieties of seed potato for people to buy at a reasonable price (10p each) and in any quantity. It should be an interesting event, with lots of varieties to talk about and try. We'll be buying our own for the garden this year, and also hope to take orders from staff to encourage them to "grow their own".

A home-grown Christmas Dinner

On Thursday this week, we ate our Chrismas Dinner. All the ingredients (except bacon, walnuts and gravy) had been grown by us!

We had potato carrot and parsnip mash served with a fried up dish of bacon, walnuts, garlic, onions, curly kale, brussel sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli and even a walking stick cabbage leaf!

Grigor's mother also very kindly cooked us a delicious carrot cake for our dessert - thank you!

On Wednesday, Miss Swallow was out on a school trip. Catriona Charlotte Danielle Annie and Lewis did a sterling job decorating the shed.

A little outdoor touch to spread the festivities!