Veg beds are go!

I'm sat here on my sofa watching a Bond film feeling a bit achy and a bit hung over (unrelated ) but feeling a bit smug because this weekend I finished my veg beds. April was really busy, people coming over and us going away, so I didn't have a lot of time to spend in the garden. One weekend I managed to build the beds, last weekend I finally got them filled (and boy, I hurt after that). 

And that is a beautifully trimmed hedge, if I do say so myself.

We've got a lot of cats living around us and they are frequent visitors to the garden, and last year the only bed I had was routinely disturbed by they cats and very little has the chance to grow. I knew I needed some cages/nets if my poor little plants were going to survive so that's what I've done. And what a massive pain in the arse it was too. I thought I'd got it sussed, trying to keep the netting tight meant the bamboo canes were contorted in all sorts of directions, and there was so much spare over the top the cages had a roof but there was also a lot of excess. And when I made sure that there was enough netting by pinning it out around the base, when I pulled it up to cover the sides, lo! It didn't meet at the sides :( I think the cages flair slightly so although it all meets at the bottom it can't meet further up. I managed to fix this by only having the netting cover the sides, leaving the top open, if a cat climbs a 2m high net just to shit in the veg patch then I'd be impressed enough to let it happen. One bed still isn't completely sealed, but the sides that wouldn't meet are now closed about half way up which should be deterrent enough.

Might be wonky but working well.

The pop up green house has been looking a bit over run as the plants have got bigger, so against Monty Don's advice I've planted out my various squashes. We're not the most dedicated of viewers, but sometimes on a Friday evening there just isn't much else on. Dear old Monty was saying it was too cold to plant out the courgettes yet, but the veg beds are in a very sheltered area, and the last couple of frosts we've had haven't touched the ground there so I think they'll be ok.

In addition to the courgettes, patty pans and buffy ball squashes, I also planted out the Egyptian Walking Onions which I'm really looking forward to see mature and move about the beds in the future. I got mine from The Real Seed Co, the site says they like to send 4 bulbs to guarantee one germination, but I think I got about six and all of mine germinated, although some are still very small. To save you googling, the EWOs, also known as topsetting onions, look a bit like chives in spring, become more spring oniony towards summer and eventually produce a set of tiny onions at the top of a stem which you can harvest. The bubils can bend the stem with their weight and plant themselves and grow in a slightly different place from the original bunch, hence the walking. Seemed like a bit of fun anyway. Each bed also got a couple of nasturtium plants, for a splash of colour, a bit of pest protection and as a salad crop.

I've also sown some seed tapes I got last year from Suttons for veg that'll be ready later in the year; fennel, celeriac and chiogga beetroot. Seed tapes are designed so that you don't need to thin seedlings as the seeds are impregnated onto what looks like loo roll at the optimum spacing, so really easy to plant out. I didn't have much luck with them last year, but that was mostly because the cats disturbed them, but when I cleared the bed from last year of weeds I found lots of little beetroots and colourful chard that managed to survive.

The green house is looking a bit clearer now, the tomatillos are doing well, but not quite big enough to go out, good thing too as I don't have anywhere for them yet. Melons are still going too, I think the recent cooler weather has slowed them down a bit but I'm positive they'll pick up when the weather does. I've got two types, musk melon and a cantaloupe that is meant to be good for the UK (I've had a few people give me funny looks when I said I was growing melons). 

The before. More space in here now I've emptied two trays.

I've managed to fight through my achy head to plant some container potatoes and garlic this afternoon, so now I'm happy. Nearly everything I wanted to do this weekend I have done, I didn't sow any more tomatoes (I've had really low germination from the last batch I put in), but it might still be a bit early for them, and waiting another week won't hurt if I don't get out one evening.

Progress report.

Lots of things have been happening in my garden and not all of it is happening without my in put. That awful mint green fence has been painted over with a more sensible brown colour. I'd foolishly hoped that if I painted over the reddish panels they'd also end up roughly the same colour in the end, but no such luck (and I've still got one of them unpainted because the Forsythia is in front of it) but brown and red-brown look a hell of a lot better than green and burgundy. At some point I might have to give the shed a going over but I don't mind that being green as much as I did the fence, mint green just doesn't feel like a proper fence colour. 

After! Looks like a real fence now.

The Before. I know you've seen this picture already.

The seeds I planted a few weeks a go have started coming through. The melons have all germinated which is very exciting, and I'm already thinking about melon based drinks/desserts for the summer. If they do all grow and fruit I may have weirdest glut of all the growers I know! Courgettes are a little a head of everything else and practically bursting from their pots (plan for this afternoon is to pot them on) which is good because I thought they'd dried out and died the other day.

Tiny leaves!

As you can see not everything has shown tiny leaves yet, but I'm feeling hopeful that it's only been a few weeks and they're just going at their own pace. I think I remember the Inca berries (Physalis) taking quite a while the last time I grew them . On the other side, I picked up some Sweetcorn seeds last weekend and they're starting to appear already.

The flower bed I'm planning is pootling along, now the fence is painted I can think about this a bit more. I've had a delivery of dirt for this bed and the veg beds (that I still need to put together) so once I've put down some plastic to stop the dirt running off into next doors garden and rotting the fence it's just lots of heavy work carrying mud about. The apple tree I discovered hiding is responding really well to being free and has produced loads of blossoms, minus the two clumps I accidentally knocked off trying to paint the fence behind it.

Just a teenage dirtbag.

Lots of small steps, helped by the light evenings and the lovely weather. I've had to open the greenhouse top flap today because I was worried about it getting too warm, and put out my first load of washing on the line this year. Next weekend I have two sets of parents up for Easter Sunday and I'm hoping if the weather is nice that the garden will be in a state to sit out in – best get cracking!

The seasons, they are a turnin'.

It’s been pretty undeniable that spring has been coming, and as daffodils are now about, they trumpet it’s arrival like tiny yellow heralds. During the week I spent a lot of one particularly sunny day at work thinking how much better it would be if I could just be at home, hanging out washing and enjoying the actual nice weather by being in the garden rather than waiting for whatever dubious weather was being forecast for the weekend at the time. 

A few weekends a go I managed to make a start on the border in the back garden, a full wheelie bin and a whole heap of scratches later and I’d cleared about half of it, and discovered two rose bushes (one had a tag still attached so I know what to expect) and some daffodils ready to flower. I’ve also had a man in to drastically cut back the giant buddleia that have been over shadowing the entire garden (and the bloody things keep popping up all over the place).  

Yeah, that fence needs repainting.

A couple of weeks later, and importantly a green bin collection later, and I’ve managed to finish clearing the massive tangle of bramble and honeysuckle that was growing. Another surprise rosebush was hiding underneath, and even better, an apple tree! Not the biggest tree, but hopefully if I can keep the climbers under control it’ll have a bit more room to grow and produce more than the single apple that I found rotting underneath it.

An actual apple tree was completely covered in honeysuckle and brambles.

Next step is to buy some border edging and a giant bag of topsoil, and I’ll be a happy bunny. The lawn needs a mow and some holes need seeding as it has gone a bit bare where it didn’t get a lot of sun light, but it’s all feeling manageable again, which it didn’t during the week.

For Christmas I got the Otter Farm “The New Kitchen Garden” book, and although I’d had a look through at the different plants I hadn’t read the introduction. Mark Diacono, the author, talks about making your garden work for you, to grow things that actually get you excited, that you want to eat, and only require the time you have spare to give them. I’d been feeling a bit down before I read it, but afterwards I felt better about the garden. I’ve decided to grow some weird and wonderfuls this year, I may still grow carrots (although rainbow ones, obviously) and peas, but I don’t need to grow these as they also come from shops, and I'm not aiming for self sufficiency . Odd squashes, tomatillos, and unusual herbs don’t come from the shops how ever, and they’ll have a space in the veg beds. Also going a bit out there and trying melons. Not really what you expect to find in the fens, and maybe they won’t work, but then what if they do… ?

Not much now, but will soon be brimming with more small black trays.

I also received at Christmas what the box describes as a “pop up cloche” but when I set it up this morning it’s a mini green house (I knew it was 1mx1m when I asked for it, but the size is still surprising). And now it’s got a handful of seed trays in it, a few herbs and veg that I had seeds for from last year, and flowers I never even opened as I did nothing with the garden last year. My plan to have a D&D garden may not be realised, I have some Black Knights and Goblins but other than Snap dragons I’m running out of suitably named plants, but I will have plenty of flowers for the butterflies now I’ve put a serious dent in the buddleias.

Yellow!

 

New year, old me

New year, when there are loads of articles about how to make a shiny new you for the next 12 months. But I don't want a shiny new me, I want the old me back. This time last year I was in hospital, after a serious belly ache and a trip to A&E I was eventually diagnosed with appendicitis. "You'll be out tomorrow, we do these all the time" the surgical consult said. Little did she know that the offending vestigial organ was totally gross and going to perforate. This ended up with a nearly week long hospital stay, two weeks signed off sick at home and a year I feel didn't go to plan. We'd bought a house autumn 2015 and I was looking forward to finally have a garden where stuff didn't just blow away, that could actually be sat in, and where plants might survive. The problem with appendicitis is that to get it out you have to go through a lot of muscle which is also in a really difficult place to heal, so although I tried to do garden stuff, it was very tiring and/or painful.

So for a whole year I didn't eat anything I'd grown (except a couple of berries from the blackberry hedge I never got around to cutting back). My poor garden was more or less ignored, after having cleared loads of weeds I didn’t have the energy to keep on top of it. Luckily I’d put black sheeting down on the worst part, but bindweed finds away.  I didn’t brew anything, had no fruit bobbing around in jars of alcohol, bake, or even looked after my little house plants that well.

These are the saddest chillis.

This was really brought home to me when I was cleaning the kitchen after Christmas. I'd brought some flour to make mince pies with (but never got around to it) so was going to put it in the storage container when I discovered some of my flours had flour mites in them! I had to bin four different flours. I’d been thinking about making a summer berry wine using frozen fruits after finding them in the shop, luckily I checked what brewing stuff I had before starting because all my yeasts, nutrients and other stuff was out of date. It took a really long time to find my hydrometer as well before start because it was still in a random box in the shed. For over a year.

Lots of tiny yeast farts.

 So that's why this year I want to go back to the me before. The brewer, the baker, yes, even the candlestick maker. I know I need to be better at getting off my arse and actually do things. I’ve got a self imposed knitting ban for the weekends, it’s so easy to sit and knit and do nothing else, so now it’s an evening only activity. I’m hoping that’ll allow me to do some of the hobbies I’ve put to one side. Already I’ve tried to do more this year, I did start my wine eventually, and started growing some mushrooms a friend gave me for Christmas. I even got one of my spindles out again which felt good (but trying to spin and watch a tv show that has subtitles really doesn’t work).

Mushroom. Mushroom.

And I’m hoping to keep up with this again, share progress on the garden and other projects.