The Ultimate Staycation

I had a few days off in July and rather than go to a busy camp site full of litter and noise, I just pitched my tent in my own back garden! My reasoning was:“ Why would I drive for hours to go to a camping where there are cars idling, drunk people shouting and children running around screaming, when I have a very isolated and quiet location right on my back doorstep?!” Other benefits included: not having to share our toilet and shower (can’t tell you how good that felt!), we could cook in our own kitchen and if we wanted, we could ‘upgrade’ and sleep in our own bed. I must say I did enjoy sleeping in the tent for a few nights - there is just nothing like sleeping outdoors, under the stars. And as an extra bonus the Glendevon road was closed (only open to residents) which meant that for a few weeks it was very quiet and peaceful in the garden.

On the first night we camped out I heard some scuffling outside the tent and was convinced it was a hedgehog, but getting out of your sleeping bag takes a lot longer than you might think, so when I finally emerged from the tent whatever it was had vanished

The only signs that a hedgehog had visited our garden were the droppings it had left behind.

On the second night we set up a ‘night vision’ camera in the hope we might be lucky enough to capture it on film. When I ventured out during the night, I once again heard something, shone my torch in the direction the sound came from, but couldn’t see a thing. Nothing! The next morning there were more droppings - this time close to where the camera was set up, so I was pretty sure that I had caught the little fella on camera. And you know what? I hadn’t! I couldn’t believe it!!

Somehow it must have managed to do its business next to the camera before going about its usual nightly business. Forget about otters being elusive (I’ve seen them 3 times in the wild), this hedgehog was proving impossible to track down!

But I didn’t give up, I set the camera up again and lo and behold, we did capture on film for the next two nights! Proof positive we do have a hedgehog in the garden and I hadn’t just imagined the whole thing.

The only downside to camping in your own back garden at this time of year is that you will have to pick the ripe fruit or it will rot. So, that’s how my husband and I spent our ‘holiday’; picking lots of red currants and black currants and masses of strawberries, cleaning them, then freezing them until I have some free time to make jam from them.

So, harvest wise, we have been eating (well, more like stuffing our faces with) punnet after punnet of delicious, sweet home grown strawberries. And do you know what? I’m nowhere near sick of them... yet. That could be because I know I can’t eat them for the rest of the year. Mind you, after having harvested a whopping 20 kg of strawberries it won’t be too long before I start getting tired of eating them!

It’s been a bit of a mixed year with vegetables to be honest; all leafy vegetables seem to be doing really well, the cabbages are growing fast, the chard is also growing well and the foliage of the potato plants is the highest I’ve ever seen it.

But other things have just been a downright disaster this year:  of the 15 runner bean plants I planted; only 4 are now beginning to slowly crawl up the canes. The rest have been eaten by slugs and what they haven’t finished, the pigeons have. I have sown some late French beans in their place, but it needs to stay warm if they are to produce anything at all.

My sweet pepper plants are also a disaster this year; they were doing really well, some even produced peppers, but then red spider mite took hold and destroyed them:

I have asked an allotment group on Facebook for some advice and they suggested chilli/garlic spray, which I have now been using, so only time will tell if my poor plants will recover or not. The problem is that a greenhouse is an enclosed, unnatural environment: the air is more or less stagnant, there is no natural water and natural predators can’t find the plants. But it isn’t all bad news, though. My tomatoes are looking really good!

Sigh. Organic gardening is not always easy...