Hi Folks,

Well, even though the ground was wet today, I managed to get out and do some more clearing.

Today I focused on one of the raised beds at the back of the garden.

I have a small 2.3m x 2.1m raised brick bed and a larger raised bed. Today I concentrated on the small raised bed.

If you rememeber from one of my earlier posts, the pictures showed a huge bush tree, virtually covering the raised bed.

This had to be chopped down and the area cleared

So now I can finally start digging!!!

This patch will hopefully be a Fruit patch, it gets the sun most of the day and the soil is slightly acidic. I am hoping to grow a blueberry bush, a blackcurrant bush and a blackberry bush here as well as strawberries and Rhubarb.

Fingers crossed

Greenhouses and compost bins

Morning all,

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I have not really had anything to report. The weather has been poor so I have been trying to plan the veg, herbs and fruit I would like to grow next year. My ultimate goal would be to have a full self sustainable garden were I had some food all year round. However, I realise I will not achieve this overnight, I need to be patient and take one step at a time.

So this time of year is all about preparation and the two things I definitely need is a greenhouse and compost bins. I would like to make both, ideally out of wood and even more ideally out of reclaimed wood. This is better for the environment and lower costs. The compost bins should be easy, I can use reclaimed pallets, however the greenhouse will be harder. This weekend I will see what I can do and report my progress. Hopefully I will take some pictures as well.

Wish me good luck!!!

Digging and Weeding

Hi Folks,

Well today I continued work on Section 6 of the garden.

From past experience, I know that when clearing a border and starting from scratch again, you have to be very thorough; in order to make sure no weed roots survive and come back to haunt you.

So when digging I firstly dug to a spade depth, completing a row at a time. I would then turn the soil over and break the weeds up and remove them from the soil. Once I had completed a meter squared section of the garden, I then raked the area; once again removing any weed roots as I went. Finally, I forked the area and turned the soil once again, picking all the remaining weed roots I could find. I then raked the area again and placed black building material over the whole area. This prevents anymore weeds growing again whilst I work on the next square meter area.

Oncce the section is complete I will take some more pictures.

Also as I have been digging I have been removing the fence panels, as they have rotted away and need replacing.

Tool Shed

Hi Folks,

Well today, the rain put pay to carrying out much garden work. Therefore, I decided to turn my attention to one of my outhouses. The small outhouse was a coal shed previously; I thought it would be good to turn the outhouse into a garden tool shed.

Over the years the outhouse had become a rubbish dumping ground. So firstly the shed had to be cleared, and several trips to the tip were in order.

Once the outhouse was empty, a serious amount of sweeping and cleaning was required. After that, I used an old wooden shelf to store various hand tools and gloves. I placed nails into the wooden batons along the side walls, so I could hang various hand tools such as spades, forks and rakes. I also hung my lawnmower and strimmer.

It is looking good and now I can find my tools easily for the hard work over the coming months.

BEFORE

AFTER

 

The Final section, the start of work and tools

Hi folks,

The final section, which is the first section I have started work on is section 6; which will be the sitting area. I am hoping to construct a decking area here, or maybe a patio.

As you can see, a lot of work needs to be done. The area needs clearing first; then a new fence needs putting in as this one is rotting away. Then finally a decking area or patio needs putting in.

So what tools do I have to start my work. Well I have a lot of old tools in the outhouses from years ago when I use to grow veg. The only new tool I have bought, was a strimmer.

So today I started clearing the area; firstly striming and then raking and then I started digging and clearing the roots from the grown.

So overall I am pleased with my start, hopefully the rest of journey will go well!!!!

And More

Section 4:- The Gravel/Chinese Garden

Hopefully

Section 5:- Raised beds

This will be another section with raised beds in for growing vegs

More of the plan

Section 2:-The Outhouses.

These are very old and are in desperate need of repair and TLC.

Section 3:- The Lawn (I know it sounds unreal, but hopefully this will be a lawn!!)

The plan

Well for my second post I thought I would attach some pictures of my overgrown garden and my plans for each section.

Section 1:- The raised beds (Back of the garden)

Right, so this section, believe it or not contains raised brick beds. Now in this section I plan to grow veg and hopefully have a greenhouse.

The Start!!!!

Hi Folks,

This is my new blog into the wild world of gardening!!!
As I write my first post, the olympics have just finished; it has been truly inspiring and has shown me, what deep down, I already knew. That with hard work and dedication, anything is possible.

Well, with my garden I certaintly need, anything is possible!!!!

So,why am I starting this blog?

I guess I need a bit of motivation. Most people reading this will know me from MSE; and they will know that having somewhere to write and record your plans, goals and aims helps dramatically with achieving.

So here I am, ready to start a lot of back breaking work. I don't know were it will take me but it will be fun.

I have taken some pictures; each area will have a plan. So my next post will break down each area.