How my garden grows… 5 July, 2008
A big hello from OPSP. It seems like ages since I last wrote about our veg adventure. I have been busy looking at all my fellow plotters and I must say I am very jealous of all those delicious looking crops and all those lovely large allotments!
Since a last wrote I have added a few more plants to our very small garden (not sure where I find the room!). This includes several courgette plants in various containers and some lovely Italian beans which will hopefully produce something yummy. Unfortunately with space in such short supply I haven’t been able to plants any new seed of salad crops, so I will have to wait until all the rest is eaten, but I think we have enough to keep us going for some time.
A couple of weeks ago I harvested my early potatoes. You might remember that these have been grown in two large potato bags on the path, well what a success they have been. In total I harvested nearly 2 kilos of salad potatoes from just 4 plants. I’m not sure if this is a good crop or not, but they were definitely the most tasty potatoes I have ever eaten. I can’t wait to have a go again next year.
Along with the potatoes I have harvested the two garlic plants. I’m not sure which variety they are but they have grown pretty well and are drying out nicely.
Of course these haven’t been the only harvests, I’ve had endless supplies of lettuce and spring onions as well as a bountiful supply of peas which has kept us going for the past few weeks. The trial cabbages and the broccoli are almost ready for an early harvest, just in time for Sunday lunch!
The only negative so far has been the poor weather. The bad wind and rain we had a few weeks ago managed to pull off my netting and almost battered to death half of my baby leeks. Luckily I managed to rescue the netting and hopefully with some sunshine the rest will be OK. The wet weather has also claimed one of my onions, causing onion rot, so that one went in the bin. But apart from that and the gigantic broccoli taking over the bed, everything seems to be growing well. For someone who has never grown a vegetable before I am amazed at what has been acheived. I know that there are plenty of other people desperate to grow their own, and I hope this garden shows that even in the smallest plot anything is possible. So you have no excuse - get in and get your hands dirty!!!
Just a quick thank you to Chez Ceridwen who gave me a lovely mention on forums @ moneysaving expert.com
News from up north 7 April, 2008
Well the wonderful British weather has struck again. Who would have predicted snow in April, I’m beginning to think that this year might not have been the best to start our veg garden. But never being one to be put off by a bit of bad weather I managed to put in a mad couple of hours on Thursday morning while little Emma was sleeping and with a little help from Grandma, I managed to fill the beds with compost and get them covered again before the snow hit. And yesterday I finally got round to planting the potatoes, a early variety, Vale Emerald, which should be ready to harvest come June/July. Nice salad potatoes for the summer, yum yum!!
My onion sets finally arrived from Marshalls this week and instead of getting them straight into the beds as intended, they’re sitting in a box waiting for some dry weather. I just hope next weekend is ok so I can get on with some much delayed planting. In the meantime, my precious seedlings have gone on holiday to my dads to enjoy the benefit of his cold frame. That is until Pete makes ours!!
A couple of pics from our lovely stay last weekend in Buxton with Aunt Julie, Beccy, Livvy and Bailey the dog xxx
Easter weekend 24 March, 2008
Our unexpected new additions to the veg plot arrived yesterday, courtesy of Pete’s brother. A ‘grow in a bag’ potato set and a couple of garlic cloves. As you can see from the pics both are well under way, the potatoes have sprouted so much that they had grown through the net bag they were in and the garlic is definitely ready to go outside.
Such a shame that the bad weather this weekend has slowed progress on the beds to a standstill. However, indoors the seedlings are doing very well. I managed to plant some more french marigolds and some cabbage seeds (a trial batch from Marshall’s – more on these later). The only no show at the moment is my squash seeds, which are yet to germinate.
The constant snow, rain and hail this Easter has meant that little has got done. The beds are still only half full and the weed fabric and bark chips need to go down. Looks like its going to be a very busy week before our hols next weekend!
Dig, dig, dig 20 March, 2008
In preparation for the incoming snow and rain I decided to get out there and get the beds dug over. So I was up nice and early and after sending Emma off to Grandmas, I was out in my winter gear digging over the beds, listening to the birds and enjoying the early morning sunshine. But I can say for certain that digging a previously unused plot of land is not fun, I lost count of the number of stones, roots and rubbish that I found. Although I did come across lots of worms which is a good sign.
I managed to add three big bags of compost but this hasn’t done anything to fill the beds, so its off to the garden centre for more. I hadn’t realised it would take so many to fill them, but I’m sure it will be worth it in the end. I even found time to test the pH which seems to be around 6 to 6.5, which after checking seems to be OK, so good news all round.
The beds are now covered in plastic again to protect them from the snow and rain, I just hope that the weather improves before next week so I can finish them off. We’ll see…
