The tree has been vanquished!!!!!

I do love the snow in the garden; it can make even the most boring garden very pretty. The shapes that are formed, the layers that cover the benches, the trees, the ground and the fences. However, snow and preparing the garden for my vegatable year does not go hand in hand. Never the less, I braved the sub zero temperatures today and the snow to try and make some more progress in the garden, and in particular the huge tree that covered my raised beds at the back of the garden. I have been steadily chopping the tree back over the last several months; but today, once and for all, it was vanquished. I also managed to clear some of the rasied beds as well. Here are the pictures before.

And here are the pictures afterwards

So pleased with my work and the tree has finally been vanquished.
Things are coming along nicely.My two heated propagtors arrived yesterday, and most of my seeds have arrived now as well. I am just awaiting my lean-2-greenhouse and then I am ready to rock n roll. The next step once the snow has cleared is to put up some willow screening, which I have bought, along the back fence. Then I need to build the raised beds and hopefully I can grow some vegatables.

Wish me good luck!!!

2nd January 2013

Well I have finally decided what fruit and vegetables to grow in the garden, and where they will go.  At this time of year, with the weather so poor and not enough hours of light in the day to do much work, I find myself imagining what the garden will look like. I must confess, I get carried away; and the thoughts of growing so many lovely fruits and vegetables make me as giddy as a school kid. Now I know my plan will not come to fruition overnight, and I know I need to be patient, but I just can’t help myself.

So I have two raised beds at the back of the garden. One is a smallish bed, 2.3m by 2.1m. In this bed I will grow some fruit. I will have several strawberry plants and some rhubarb in the middle. You can’t beat British strawberries in the height of summer, especially with cream. Rhubarb crumble is also a classic dessert that I want to be able to cook, it reminds of my childhood, when my mum baked apple and rhubarb crumble, lavished generously with warm custard.

Around the edges of the bed against the fences, I will have a blackcurrant tree, a blueberry bush and a blackberry bush. Due to lack of space, I will most probably look for dwarf varieties. Hopefully, with these lovely fruits I can try my hand at some refreshing jams.

The second raised bed is 5.7m by 2.1m. This long raised bed will be divided into sections. I will grow, or should I say try to grow, carrots, garlic, leeks, onions, cauliflowers, cabbages, runner beans, peas calabrese and lettuce. I know, it’s a lot, but I suppose you have to aim high!!!!

I will also have a greenhouse for growing Tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and peppers. Hopefully the greenhouse will have enough room for a lemon tree too.  Finally scattered around the rest of the garden I will hopefully have enough room for potatoes in pots, herbs and a couple of apple trees and raspberry bushes. I know it will be a lot of hard work, but it’s just something that feels right, and something I want to do. I can picture myself on a sunny summer afternoon walking around the garden picking tomatoes and lettuce and cucumber for a lovely salad lunch; then having strawberries and cream for dessert. Seasonal food, to love and cherish at exactly the right time of the year.

It will take a couple of years before the garden is complete, although I suppose a garden is never complete; there is always something to do, things are always changing and evolving. This year I will start with the raised beds and pots; growing a few of the basic’s, learning the tricks of the trade. I will also plant some fruit trees, as these need time grow before yielding delicious fruits.

So I think it is safe to say that my New Year’s resolution for the garden is PATIENCE!!!

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!!!!