Gardening 2011

Our vegetable garden for 2011 is well under way.
We don't have a big garden, but we still manage to squeeze a lot in there.  We have a raised bed, hanging baskets and various pots and other containers.

Let me take you on a tour of what we have so far:

As you step out of the back door, this is right in front of you.

In the left hand container there are peas.

In the middle container there are herbs.  Coriander (Cilantro), Marjoram, Thyme, Parsley, Purple Sage and Chives.  The containers are on an old veg rack we no longer use in the house, which also enables me to move them around if I wish to, really easily.

The right hand container has runner beans and one broad bean (fava bean I think).

Just behind those are2 more pots.  Last year's strawberry plant which need bringing out into other containers and splitting up and a rosemary plant which I had been searching everywhere for and finally picked up yesterday.

Just to your right in that first photo, to the side of the back door are the potato sacks.  We have 3 different varieties again this year but have got them in much sooner.  Pentland Javelin, good for boiling and salads.  King Edward, good for chips (fries), roast potatoes and baked potatoes.  Finally we have a variety called Rocket.  That one is new to me but is a very good new potato.

You can see that we are growing them in bags, which is the same method as growing them in containers, and we already have one growing, even though they only went in this week.

Up on the wall, above the potato sacks we have two hanging baskets with tomatoes in.  We've chosen the variety tumbler, which is a cherry tomato that gives plenty of small tomatoes with no need for staking, making it ideal for containers, hanging baskets or growing upside down.  We haven't quite gone the full upside down route, but these baskets should work out well.  Last year we tried to put 3 in each basket, but it was too much and they didn't thrive, so this year we just have two in each.

On the table to the left of the potato sacks and tomato baskets, there are a few pots.  Eventually these will go over by the rosemary, but for now I want to give them a chance to get established without the slugs interfering.  2 varieties of mint in one pot and two varieties of lavender in the other two pots.

Finally, the raised bed.  We use a square foot method and so far we have some plants that I bought as seedlings from the local garden centre, 2 squares of kurly kale and 4 squares of carrots, tiny round carrots that are cute as well as tasty.

I do all watering by hand (no need for a hose in a garden this size), and when I finish the morning watering I fill the cans back up and leave them out in the sun so that the water used for evening watering has warmed up a little.

Back inside there are some seed trays. I've already moved some of the plants outside, but still in the trays we have some peas, perpetual spinach, French Beans, Rainbow Chard, Pak Choi and various herbs, Beetroot, Chantenay carrots (red cored ones), Little Gem lettuce and Tom Thumb Lettuce.

I have to go through my seed packets later and see if there is anything I want to sow direct into the raised bed today!

Read More

Feed the Birds

No, not the Mary Poppins song, but feeding them for real. Do you do that? We make a bit of an effort, but with our whole garden (yard) being quite small, we don't have as much opportunity as some people might.

The other day I noticed some way in which we have been helping the birds by accident.
Last year we lined out hanging baskets with liners made from Coir (Coconut fibre). My husband had emptied the hanging baskets at the end of last summer but not got around to dealing with the liners. The other day as I was standing facing our back door doing a lot of pressing for the sewing projects I was working on, I watched as a female blackbird went backwards and forwards to and from where that Coir liner was, and each time she ha a beak full of the fibres. So while we may have fallen behind a bit on the feeding of the birds, apparently we ARE helping them to build their nests.

She was back again this morning. Maybe I'll try and get a photo or two of her later in the week.

Read More

What I learned this week . .

 
Sadly this week’s post is a little bereft because I don’t have a photo of the actual animal concerned to show you, it just never occurred to me at the time to get my camera.
This week I learned, that right here in the middle of a town we do have hedgehogs, because there was one in my garden.
We had just come home from church and youngest (14) went out into the garden and the next thing I hear is him shouting “hedgehog”.  I had to double check what he had said and then went out to investigate.
Sure enough, hiding behind our compost bin was a fairly decent sized hedgehog.  I was a bit concerned about it being out and about in the middle of the day, especially such a hot day.  We decided that since it was in the shade and such a large specimen we would leave it alone and see what happened.
Pretty soon it had disappeared.
Later, on searching the net, I discovered the following:

• Any hedgehog seen out in daylight will need URGENT help
• Hedgehogs do NOT lie out sunbathing
• Any cut or wound is urgent
• Any hedgehog with flies on it or maggots crawling on it needs VERY Urgent help
• Any Hedgehog limping or walking strangely needs help
• Anything that looks very thin or wobbly or has bald patches or missing spines
• If you see a baby hedgehog or any small hedgehog weighing less than about 500 grams, that is about the size of a large orange or small grapefruit, at ANY time, whether day or night, that is out on its own, pick it up, pop it into a box with food and water and contact us or your local rescue centre for help and advice.

However, none of the other websites I looked at said that about ANY hedgehog seen in daylight, and this one was definitely not underweight or injured, and so I am not going to worry too much. He’s disappeared now, and we only have a tiny garden (yard) with nowhere for it to hide.  My guess is it’s nesting somewhere near by and had been disturbed.
I also think the hedgehog may well have been the mystery intruder into our raised bed for the veggies, rather than one of the neighbours cats.  hmmm, in the absence of a night vision camera, I guess we’ll never know for sure.

Read More

Veggie Growing

Last week I talked about how I am starting to grow veggies.

My TACKLE for last week was to tidy that area of the garden (yard) and get going with the raised bed.
For tackle it Tuesday I showed the before photos, but never showed the afters, well, here is further progress after that.

Over the weekend we got the protective cover (neighbourhood cats) put together and began planting!
First I laid out the thick cord to mark out square foot beds, since we are using the square foot method of gardening.

Then we had a first attempt at the protective cover, which you can see was sagging dramatically in the middle.

So my husband added another curve of plastic pipe in the middle, and put pipe clips inside the box at the 4 corners, to support it and it looked much better. Round the edge are just ordinary drawing pins (thumb tacks), which the net hooks over. At other points it is tied on with ordinary twist ties.

So then it came time to sew some seeds and even get some plants in. The following chart shows what is now in, in green, and what is still to get planted at some point this month in black.
Got a good deal on the marigolds. In the garden centre they were £3.99 for 12, and we didn't want to spend that much so we left them. On the same car park there is a farm shop, and sometimes they ahve plants at the farm shop. They had 12 marigolds for just £1.50. OK so they were slightly less mature plants, but not by much!

We also planted some french bean plants that were a bargain at the DIY store into a planter that we already had.



And transplanted 2 strawberry plants that were in 2 separate smaller versions of this pot, into the larger version.



Finally we picked up some tomato seedlings at another garden centre, and planted those into hanging baskets, but I don't have pictures of those. They are a variety bred specifically for growing in containers or hanging baskets, you don't have to do any pinching out of the tips, you just let the plant get on with it.

This post is being entered to Talk about it Tuesday and tackle it Tuesday. Go check out both of those sites by clicking on their images at the top of this post.

Hopefully at some point this week my hubby is going to build me a frame for the left hand end of the bed, for growing the vertical crops, such as peas, beans and cucumbers.

Read More

Thursday 13 - 13 varieties I would like to include in my veggie garden

I am so happy that 3 Moms decided to take on the Thursday 13 challenge.

This week my theme fits in with their theme.

Here are 13 varieties of veggies that I would like to grow in my veggie garden.

1. Beetroot Solo Seeds
The most popular home grown vegetable just got even better!

Reduce the need for fiddly thinning out with this monogerm variety which, unlike other beetroot, only produces one seedling per seed.
Since I am growing my veg by the square foot method, which requires, precisely that situation of sowing carefully so you just put one seed in each place you want a plant, this is perfect!

2.Broad Bean Red Epicure Seeds
I love these purely based on the colour. If you lightly steam them rather than boiling them they retain some of that red colour on cooking. Gorgeous!

3. Carrot Nandor seeds
We are growing our veg in a raised bed, which means the longer varieities of carrots jsut won't have enough space to grow. This variety is ideal, being shorter AND resistant to carrot fly.

4. Cucumber Mini Munch seeds
We don't consume huge amounts of cucumber in our house, these would be ideal. It gives many cucumbers a week, but smaller ones, so we can eat a few and give a few away.

5. Lettuce Dazzle seeds
Nice red coloured lettuce that grows small but also quite loosely so is great for pulling a few outer leaves off and leaving the rest to grow.

6. Lettuce Lobjoits Green Cos Seeds
because I love Caesar salad of course!

7. Pea Delikata (Mangetout) Seeds
Because I love how easy mangetout are to cook!

8. Radish Mixed Globe Seed Varieties
I love the mix of different varieties, the surprise of not knowing which you will get when you pull one up!

9. Spring Onion Guardsman Seeds
I'm not always very good at checking the veg plot EVERY day and bringing stuff in, these can stand a long time without bulbing and becoming strong. I like that!

10. Swiss Chard Bright Lights Seeds
How could you NOT enjoy watching that grow in your garden? Beautiful! And it's tasty and good for you too.

11. Tomato Garden Pearl Plants
Specially bred for conatiners this is perfect because we will be growing our tomatoes this year in hanging baskets! Well, it solves the slug problem! Have to be more vigilant about watering though!

12. Chilli Plant Collection
For my youngest son (14), who loves chillis.

13. Last, but by no means least is Pak Choi Summer Breeze Seeds
I love using pak choi in stir fries and it's not commonly grown in veg gardens around here but appears to be hardy to do so.

So, if you have a Thursday 13 to share, or you want to read some otehrs, head on over to 3 Moms by clicking on the image at the top of this post and check them out.

Read More

Tackle It Tuesday

This is the state of my raised bed in my garden (back yard) at the start of today.


Hopefully by the end of today it will look a little different.
I am going to move the big green box along a bit, further away from that fence, put the mini greenhouse up in the corner there, and section the raised bed into squares fro square foot gardening purposes.
I MIGHT get some seeds planted today but any plants will have to wait a few days until I can get them home from the garden centre.

If you wish to see other tackles, or take part yourself, head on over to Tackle It Tuesday by clicking on the image at the top of this post.

Read More

Talk About it Tuesday

I am starting a garden.
Well actually I already have a garden. You see, to all my American readers, what you call a yard, we call a garden.
What I am going to be doing is growing some veggies.
My husband has been wonderful and built me a raised bed. He built it out of the wood from our old bed frame. I am going to section it into 12 inch squares and we are going to plant based on the square foot gardening method.

In the square foot gardening book he recommends you don't use string for sectioning off, but right now it really is all we can afford to do, something more permanent will have to come later.

Then I am going to be growing some veggies.

From seed we will grow:

• carrots
• radishes
• onions
• spring onions
• lettuce
• spinach
• broccoli
• beetroot
• runner beans
• broad beans
• cucumbers if I am feeling particularly brave
  

From started plants we will grow:

• marigolds
• nasturtiums
  
• If I can get them in straight away (or it will be too late) peas.
  

In hanging baskets we will grow cherry tomatoes, from started plants, and in containers we will have herbs.

Well, that's the plan anyway. I've never had particularly green fingers, but we're going to at least try.
I need to get a frame built for the climbing plants at the back of the raised bed, and I need to come up with something to keep the birds off the bed as well as the neighbours cats.

If you want to read more Talk About it Tuesday posts, or even take part yourself, click on the image at the top of this post and it will take you right there.

Read More