Planting autumn leeks

The leek seedlings had grown nicely from seed (they are a variety called Longbow) in the seed bed and so on Saturday they were transplanted into their final resting place. With the seed bed empty I decided to make it twice the height to match the other seed beds and hopefully keep the pesky cats at bay. The leeks went into the other veg beds as well as planting some in the ex seed bed. Topped and tailed them and put them in a nice deep hole. Next to the new leek bed is the blueberry bush which is covered in blueberries. Hopefully they wont be too long in ripening.

Veg update

The raised veg beds are doing really well. We have been well stocked for salad for the last few weeks and now the summer pointed cabbages are ready to start harvesting. They are looking great and the next sowing are also starting to grow well. In the other bed the broad beans are flowering and the peas are climbing up their supports so hopefully they won’t be too long either.

The end of construction

After almost nine months of hard labour the last of the big jobs has now been finished. The first delivery of turf was damaged and although I hoped it would recover almost all of it had to be replaced – which I did in the dark on Friday night (the darker green bits are the few remaining strips from the original turf. As light relief, the next day I set to work laying the gravel. This is Cotswold buff from Jewsons and there is a total of 5 tons on the paths and round the patio (the patio is darker than normal in the photos as it has just rained when I took the photos). It’s a bit dusty at the moment so will only look like it is supposed to after some rain has washed it. I also built a planter out of 50 x 50 lengths of timber which looks pretty smart even if I do say so myself. I put some sweet peas in (Arthur Hellyer) which were desperate to be planted out. I am going to build another one for my Borlotti beans to grow up the other trellis.