A bit of progress in the garden

That’s one an a half raised beds down and just another five and a half to go!

Yesterday dawned bright and extremely spring like and I was determined to make the most of it and get at least something done in the garden. So I donned my tatty old jeans and an even tattier old top and after the requisite mug of coffee (or two), I headed outside. Determined though I was to make an impression on the neglected mess that is my vegetable patch, I knew I had to be realistic in terms of my capabilities at the moment and so I chose a couple of jobs to do and set about slowly but surely, getting them done.

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Onion Sturon

My beautifully neat onion sets.

I have never had much luck when it comes to growing onions whether this be by seed or by sets but I am determined to keep on trying because we go through an awful lot of onions in Mudville and whilst I won’t pretend to be able to grow anything like our entire requirement in our patch, I should be able to provide a significant number for consumption. This year I am revamping the veg patch and throwing my existing rotation plan out of the window. It has been in use for about 5 years and is quite restrictive, allowing for only a three year rotation at best. I hope that by rejigging where I grow certain crops, I will be able to see how successful (or not) they are in their new locations and, with luck, find myself in a position to instigate a much better 4 or 5 year rotation system. Only time will tell but on Saturday (March 7th) I made a start and planted the first of my onion sets in one of the raised beds.

Done digging

Literally! Finished! All done and dusted. The beds have been cleared, weeded and dug. The strawberry plants have been tidied up, their runners caught up and put to one side ready for planting in a more appropriate spot and whilst the ongoing war against the constantly shedding Birch trees, may not have been won, at least the beds are, for now, free of their unsightly blanket of twiggy branches.

…. tasty treasure.

An unexpected bonus: the last Harvest from the 2014 season.

By late morning yesterday (Sunday) it had warmed up sufficiently for me to venture back out to my garden and continue with bed preparation. It was much colder than Saturday and I felt that it wouldn’t be long before the temperature began to drop again and the wintery weather promised in the forecast arrived.

Digging it……

With the weather forecast predicting colder temperatures and even the possibility of snow in the next week or so, I decided to take advantage of the bright if luke warm sun yesterday and made a start on getting my beds ready for this years growing season. My garden has been woefully neglected this last few months and looked very bedraggled and over run when I surveyed it first thing, as you can see from the ‘ before’ pictures in this post.

The Garden Share Collective: July 2014

The summer is marching along at a staggering pace and with the end of the school year within touching distance, comes the monthly gentle reminder from Lizzie, for the next Garden Share Collective post. Lots has been happening this last month and we’ve even had our first harvests of the year, albeit small ones, so here is the July update for Gardening Club and the school garden.

Beans, peas, squash and sweet corn

Sweet corn and winter squash plants in front: cucumber and Hunter Butternut to climb the fence.

I love the process of filling my empty brown spaces with greenery from the greenhouses and yesterday (Friday) was a bumper day. Careful monitoring of the temperatures over the last week and studying of the predicted temperatures for the week to come, led me to feel that the danger of a hard frost had, for the most part, gone and so I could begin hardening off my plants, ready for planting out.

Roots, no shoots, some salad and a lot of weeds

New netting protects my carrots, beetroots and lettuces

Today was Mothers Day in the UK and as such, I was freed from the challenge of cooking the roast dinner. No that particular ….. errr …… ummm ,,,,,, pleasure (?) fell to Mud and I was able to nip out into my garden and do some serious garden therapy. Blissfully unaware of the culinary dramas unfolding in the kitchen (a too big leg of British Lamb which didn’t fit even our largest roasting tray and a clock everybody had forgotten to put forward 1 hour, so Muds’ timings were all skewed) I was able to spend an enjoyable couple of hours sowing seeds and generally messing about in the vegetable patch.

Gardening Club: A new toy to play with

A new toy for Gardening Club

Every year Morrisons supermarket runs the “Let’s grow” voucher scheme, whereby for every £10 spent in store, a voucher is handed over to the shopper which can then be handed over to a school. So up and down the length and breadth of the country, for a few weeks each summer, mums, dads, aunts, uncles, nannas and grandpas are adding to the total number of vouchers for a particular school.

Wigwams, beans and manure

Cleared of all bar a few leaves and a handful of parsnips

With the grow houses planted up, I turned my attention to the rest of the garden, rolled up my sleeves (figuratively speaking – it wasn’t that warm) and started ripping out, composting and dismantling.