Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated

This is my first post in months – I think 2025 has been pretty much a lost year for my growing, and here’s why.

Our New Heat Pump

Back at the start of the year, I decided it was time to change our primary heating system away from the existing Calor Gas (LPG). The price is horrendous, and the customer service has become awful since the pandemic. I know of two other people they left without heating or hot water in our area when the tank ran out, so that’s always a worry.

Our Heating Options

We can’t get mains gas so that’s out. Oil, well we’ve seen how volatile the oil price can be, which rules that out. That leaves electricity, which really means a heat pump. Heat pumps are basically heating the house and hot water by taking heat from the outside, concentrating it and using it to heat the house. A refrigerator in reverse.

The benefit of a heat pump is that each unit of power it uses delivers between 3 and 5 units of heat into the house. There are all sorts of variables, not least the weather, so calculating the running cost and comparing with what we were paying involved lots of calculations and assumptions. The bottom line is that I reckon we will save around £1500 a year on our heating and hot water costs.

So far so good, but how much would it cost to make the change? I made some enquiries, and it looked like the system would cost around £15,000, but the government is giving all sorts of grants so we’d get that down to £7,500! But it gets better still…

ECO4 Scheme

There’s a scheme called ECO4 whereby the energy companies — ECO4 stands for Energy Companies Obligation 4 – will provide energy improvements such as insulation, solar panels and new boilers / heat pumps for free. You can qualify on various income grounds or, as we have, because a member of the household has a qualifying health condition.

So free installation makes it all a no-brainer.

Then it went wrong

It started really well, cavity wall and additional loft insulation went smoothly, it was the heating system installation that was so disruptive. I’ll write up the saga as it may be helpful for others, but the short version is that it was a lot more disruption than we expected.

As the job neared the end, they filled the system, forgetting they’d not connected some pipes. The waterfall down the lounge wall was not a success. Carpets soaked in the lounge and office had to be replaced, and the water stains on the wall forced redecoration. Rooms had to be emptied, which meant moving my books out for the work.

I’ve been an avid reader of science fiction for 60 years now. I don’t know exactly how many books I have, but it must be well over 2,000. Then there’s the reference books for my writing. They’re in the hundreds. All to be boxed up and taken out for the duration.

Once the decorating was done, new carpets laid and furniture put back, loads of boxes of books came back to be unpacked.

And now for something completely different!

We’re near sorted now, The books are mainly back on the shelves. Getting them back into alphabetical order is a job that will wait for winter. There’s still quite a few things to do, but nothing desperate.

So today the builders arrived to put in a new bathroom. That’s a job we planned on doing 10 years ago, but it wasn’t urgent, so kept getting put off. However, these guys seem to be a different kettle of fish. Efficient, organised and fast.

It’s a turnkey job – they do the lot, even a lick of paint, so we can just leave them to it and get on with things. I hope!

Mulched Border in Greenhouse

Gardening

I really lost control of the plots. They say the best fertiliser is the gardener’s eye, meaning attention to things. Well, if I’d noticed the rip in the brassica cage cover or checked them for butterfly eggs as I normally do, we’d have some brassicas. The caterpillar covered skeletons went into the chicken run, so not a total loss. I suppose.

I did manage to get some quality time outside — if only for the sake of my sanity! The greenhouses don’t take much looking after, just watering, feeding and side shooting the tomatoes and cucumbers. The border in the Vitavia greenhouse is mulched with wool insulation sheets, which help suppress the weeds, further reducing the work necessary.

In the polytunnel and across the plot, the best I can say is that the weeds did really well! Having said that, we’ve had more than enough potatoes to last us and buckets full of French and runner beans. Not much sweet corn, though.

Hopefully my next post won’t be too long in coming!