Summer is here

What a lovely day it has been. I was out watering the veggies this morning. My brocolli is going very well and the artichoke has gone bonkers. Last years 'mad' borage has started to appear again. I will move them to Jake's wildflower garden as they threatened to take over last year.

Elsewhere in the raised bed the potatoes are doing well. I have started to raise up the earth either side to encourage more shoots.

It's now 10pm and I have just come back from a slug clearing session. I picked off several of the beasties that were feasting on my potatoes, courgette, spinach and brocolli.

Courgettes and Spinach

I have been busy planting my spinach and courgette seedlings under the cloche. That was two days ago. Luckily the slugs have only had a little nibble of one of the primary leaves on one of the Spinach plants.

I was amazed by how much space one has to give the courgette. It's taken up almost the entire length of the cloche.

Elsewhere in the garden we have Swiss Chard and White Sprouting Brocolli. A gift from my neighbour :-).

Orkney seaweed and other things

I have been on a spending spree recently. I've bought a giant poly-tunnel, some Orkney seaweed fertilizer and some large bell cloches. The cloches come in very handy protecting young seedlings from slugs.

Most of the seedlings are now outside in a specially prepared 'nursery' area. I've planted six of my seed potatoes. I didn't realise that potatoes took up so much room! I have placed them in one half of the big raised bed. The rest of the bed contains purple sprouting brocolli and a lone artichoke.

Yesterday I planted some lettuce, spinach and coriander seeds. Today I potted six runner bean seeds. I thought I would plant these again as they were a great success last year.

My next job is to weed the carrot plot and double-dig the marked-out plot for the poly-tunnel. Once I have done this I can plant the aubergines. I might also get some courgettes in under there where they will be nice a toasty warm!

Good news on the onion front. There are numerous shoots appearing!

I was thinking about how best to attract beneficial insects into the garden. Jake's wildflower garden should help a great deal. Maybe I should plant some more nasturtiums this year. I remember last year they were covered in caterpillars that would surely have been chomping away on my veg.

Wildflower garden

I have started planting my seedlings into three inch pots. So far I have three each of basil, sweet corn and tomato. I popped into the garden centre and bought some manure, potting compost and some rather snazzy large bell cloches. The latter are for protecting my purple sprouting brocolli, which I'm glad to say is going great guns!

Jake helped me prepare a bed for his wildflower area. This should encourage beneficial insects into the garden. There is still plenty to do . I've marked a plot for my growing tunnel and now it needs double-digging.

I have planted some Cayenne chili seeds.

Spring is here

We have had a couple of lovely Spring days so I lost no time in getting out into the garden and mucking about. I have now planted the raspberry canes. I went a bit mad and not only double-dug the plot but also knocked up a small raised bed for the raspberries.


The seedlings are going well. Jake's corn and tomatoes and carrots have germinated although in a haphazard fashion! I will have to make a separate little plot for his produce :-).

I ordered a giant eco-green growing tunnel with a fine green tinted mesh to keep out the nasties and have marked out a new plot. I also want to order the same tunnel but with a polythene cover to grow the aubergines as they need plenty of warmth.

The slugs are back and made a nice meal out of the brocolli. I've bought some bell cloches to protected them while they are small and a slug trap. I will also order some nematodes and treat all the raised beds and plots.

Looking at my little plot now I can see it is slowly filling up and it is only a matter of time before I run out of space! I would like to get a couple of chickens too. A friend told me I needed 1 sq metre per chicken so I'm not sure where I would put them. This is the problem when you don't design your plot beforehand. In my case it has grown organically as and when I've decided to grow more.

Time to start thinking about what to grow

Greetings to 2009!

I found this excellent article about what to grow in February. I will get an early start as last year I left things a little late. Definites for February are:
Broad beans(Trudi has given me some seeds. Thanks!)
Potatoes(I didn't grow these last year)
Garlic(grown in my 'trough' or maybe a large pot)

My raised bed is currently home to a number of purple sprouting brocolli plants that I planted last year. Some of these little fellas have suffered trampling damage by those annoying foxes, who have by now become completely immune to the sonic fox scarer. I am hoping that one or two plants will survive. Fingers-crossed on that one.

In the next few weeks I need to start preparing the growing beds.