Gardening from scratch

Planting autumn leeks

2008-06-21T12:51:00.002+01:00

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

2008-06-16T19:19:00.000+01:00

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

2008-06-15T20:11:00.001+01:00

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.

This month we will mainly be eating spinach

2008-05-22T21:40:00.000+01:00

This has got to be one of the best vegetables known to man. Great in salads or cooked, easy to grow, quick to crop, cut and come again and the seeds are nice and big for planting. The variety I have been growing is Fiorano which is supposed to be mildew resistant and it grows like the clappers. Maybe I should turn over the flowerbeds to spinach production.

This entry was brought to you by the spinach fanatics consotium.

The tumbling compost bin

2008-05-18T18:10:00.000+01:00

Finally the tumbling compost bin has arrived ordered through an offer in the BBC Gardeners World magazine. Collecting up a large amount of material for a big first load and then I’ll just have to see if it works. As well as playing with an empty compost bin I’ve also planted out my broad beans. They are The Sutton, a dwarf variety, and seem to be quite happy in their new home.

It’s not just vegetables

2008-05-15T21:36:00.000+01:00

There is a garden outside the veg beds and it is making slow progress. A skip is booked to get rid of the waste soil/rumble that has accumulated on the “lawn area”. In the meantime I put up the two 6ft square trellis panels to make some space in the garage. Going to plant climbers in pots to go up it as a backdrop to the patio area. Now all that is left is remove the waste rubble, dig out the old “2-flag patio”, dig over and plant the other flower bed, dig over the lawn area, lay the lawn…………. Think I’ll just thin out some carrots instead.

Into the big bad world

2008-05-08T21:29:00.001+01:00

The cabbages and climbing French beans are getting to big for the growhouses and needed to go out. The cabbages are a pointed summer variety called Hispi grown in modules and I’ve put cabbage collard on to keep out the root fly. I’m gowing the beans in a large wooden trough full of rich organic material. The beans are called Cobra and have black beans inside a green pod. It will be interesting to see if the cane construction will stand up to the wind.

All systems go for the brassicas in the growhouses

2008-04-20T18:31:00.000+01:00

The brassicas I’ve grown from seed are doing really well in the growhouses. In the modules are Cavalo Nero in the front and behind them Tenderstem broccoli (Both from D.T. Browns). In the pots are purple sprouting broccoli which is going to have to get hardened off and go outside soon. The courgettes are also loving it and starting to get there proper leaves – although there are a couple of slugs in here somewhere and when I track them down…..

New plant labels

2008-04-10T19:24:00.000+01:00

I got fed up of the white plastic labels. They stood out too much when you looked at the veg beds because they were so bright. I found a supplier of wood ones online (Alitags.com) and they have arrived. They look great and are there if you need them without being in your face. I’ve started putting them everywhere in the garden and re-using the plastic ones in the growhouses. I’ve also removed the fleece from the salad bed and planted some lettuce that was in modules. I’ve had to put a net around the bed to try and keep the local cat out. Also put out my summer cabbages (a variety called Hispi) which are from D.T. Browns and were started off in modules to hopefully avoid the slugs.

The end of winter?

2008-04-06T18:40:00.000+01:00

Just when things were starting to warm up the weather changed again and it snowed. Wasn’t particularly heavy (a few centimetres at most) but pretty cold. Had to stay in so I made some cane tops following the instructions in BBC Gardeners World Magazine. Used Fimo classic I bought online and made a bunch of different coloured and shaped toppers. Quick bake in the oven and some gloss lacquer and they are done and very nice too.

And they're off……….

2008-03-31T14:52:00.001+01:00

Things are really starting to kick in to life now. After the false start at Easter where the temperature dropped loads and it snowed, the weather has warmed up a little. I’ve moved seedlings from inside in to the two growhouses. In the photos below there are two varieties of sweetpeas, a summer cabbage (Hispi), a selection of squashes/courgettes (Black Beauty, Golden and Yellow Scallop). Outside the growhouses the garlic is still going strong and the blueberry bush is also coming into flower after its first winter. Off to plant my free seeds from BBC Gardeners World Magazine.

Flower bed number 1

2008-03-30T17:44:00.000+01:00

After a lot of digging (with a big help from my mum) and adding manure and topsoil the first flower bed is now ready for planting. We’ve also put up some trellis to screen the row of wheelie bins (the sweet peas will screen them completely) and also some wing trellis to divide off the bed from the veg area. The only plants in the bed so far are three of the roses (Rosemoor), four foxgloves (Albino) and an evergreen clematis (a present from my mum). This side of the garden has really progressed now – fortunately you can’t see the mess behind me!

One small step for our garden….

2008-03-23T17:13:00.000Z

Well maybe not a giant leap for vegkind but quite a bit of progress. There are actually plants in the soil!. The garlic which was started off in modules in the winter have been moved in to the raised beds. The variety is Lautrec Wight from Thompson and Morgan. I’ve also got two growhouses from Homebase (tied to the wall to stop them blowing away in the wind – a lesson learned which is why one is smaller than the other). In the bags along the fence on the right are chitted potatoes, also from Thompson and Morgan (a mix of 6 different earlies in these grow bag/pot things). And in the pots strewn all over the place are bare root perennials bought back in the winter (when nobody was after plants and they were cheap) ready to go in the flower beds – I’ll tell you about the varieties when I plant them. Oh and I should add the soil/manure to finish filling the beds came from somebody I found off the internet (Dow’s Garden Supplies) and it is probably the best you can get. Definitely recommended and very friendly (and I’m not on commission!).

It’s above zero!

2008-01-20T20:54:00.000Z

On a balmy January day (well forecast to be about 6-7C today and overnight) I laid the patio in a day. It’s Chancery from Marshall’s and was laid on a membrane on top of the sublayer using a dry mix. It went down pretty easy with just a couple of breakages. The stones around it are holding the membrane down and there is a tarp at the bag to cover it up to keep off the worst of the weather. Just to the right of the photo are the bare root roses from David Austin. They are Crocus rose, Queen of Sweden and Rosemoor all recommended for a seaside location (we are only a mile from the sea and it gets pretty windy here). Unfortunately we are not ready to put them in the ground so I put them in large pots to keep them going.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T18:05:00.001Z

Had a couple of day off work and made some good progress on the veg beds. Managed to dig down a good foot below ground level and with the height of the raised beds this should be ideal for the veg. Three beds, a salad bed and a seed bed all filled with topsoil and manure. Found a boulder just under the surface which took me a good few hours to remove but worth it in the end. Just not sure how to get rid of it - I can only roll it. Any takers?

Slow progress

2007-11-24T17:28:00.001Z

The weather has been awful which has really slowed us down. Only being able to get in the garden at weekends and incessant rain has been really frustrating. Here’s a photo anyway of a little bit more edging and a bit more hardcore. Enjoy!

And then it rained…..

2007-11-18T21:23:00.000Z

After a few weeks of pretty dry weather the rain came and turned the back garden in to a replica of Glastonbury. While trying to avoid trench foot we’ve started putting in the log roll edging to define the paths and also levelled off the patio area. All the paths and patio are getting a good covering of hardcore which is currently piled high on the drive. Once the hardcore is in place I got to work on it as the human whacker using my hand tamping tool (yellow stick with big metal plate on the base) in the photo – you don’t need a gym with one of these!

No turning back

2007-11-09T20:00:00.000Z

Well we have made a start and after two full days of digging we have finished digging out the paths. It's not that deep, about 15cm, but the soil/clay was very hard and full of builders rubble. It has helped to define the shape and make it easier to see where everything is going to go. Now we need a skip to get rid of the stuff we've dug out and a big delivery of materials from Jewsons. Still a lot of hard work to go but its a start.

The first post

2007-11-03T21:20:00.000Z

Hi,

This is our blog about our garden makeover. When we moved in to our new house the back garden was just bare "soil" with a healthy covering of weeds! The first six months we have been working on the inside of the house and hiding from the horrendous summer weather. Now we are ready to get going on the back garden. Sarah came up with the plan which has now been pegged and marked out on the soil. It has a patio area at the back (which gets the sun for most of the day), veg beds in the other corner, flower beds on either side and a lawn in the middle. Now we dig....