Planting plan

Amy has claimed Beds 1 and 4 as "hers" so these are likely to have strawberries, sweetcorn (lots!), potatoes, runner beans and the broad beans she planted at school.

Bed 2: Cabbage, Lupin, Sprout (but no Dumbledore ;-)
Bed 3: Beetroot, Parsnip, Carrot
Bed 5: Courgette, Onion, Lettuce, Spinach
Bed 6: Potato

I came up with this plan after consulting websites such as http://www.allotment.org.uk/ and the book "Reader's Digest - Food from you Garden" which I inherited from my maternal grandparents, published in 1977. I've used this book many, many times since I've had it as it has excellent, old-fashioned tips and recipes for cooking and preserving fruit and veg. I recently saw a reprint of it (available here) and would thoroughly recommend it to any would-be gardener or cook.

First seedlings

The first seedlings are just beginning to poke their heads through the compost!

Salad leaves

Cabbages

Amy's broad beans, planted at school. Now nicknamed "Biggy" and "Littley"!

Free seeds

 Those lovely people at Innocent are giving away free seeds with their lunch-box smoothies at the moment. We got our first set today - tomatoes!

Gravel, Part 2

Down with the weed-proof membrane...

 Then the gravel...

 But there wasn't quite enough :-(

Gravel

Another spot the difference.

Last weekend I raked up all the moss and the remainder of the grass from between the beds, with the intention of laying down weed-proof membrane. However, I'd underestimated the length I had leftover from a previous project and then the weather got the better of me with first rain, and then snow!

Today's job? Finish laying the membrane (now I've bought some more) and top off with gravel.

Under cover planting

This is another inheritance from Joe - a home-made multi-dibber, made by attaching dowels to a piece of plywood. The propagators were Joe's too.

Cabbages, Brussel sprouts, Red onions and Salad leaves are next to sow. These all seemed to suggest that you could sow them straight outside, but may benefit from a bit of early protection. I have a 4 tier, plastic covered greenhouse on the patio which should do nicely. I'm not sure I'd trust it with very tender seedlings, but for these it should be fine.


I used my Lakeland oven-rack soaking tray as a container for potting up (as suggested by my good friend Sara!). In the end I plumped for using cell inserts for the seed tray, which didn't quite match Joe's dibber, but a pencil worked fine.  After filling 2 inserts with potting compost I gave them a good watering and popped 2 seeds into each cell. Well, most cells got 2 - some got more I think! A final covering of compost and into the greenhouse they go, complete with propagator lids for good measure.

Planting time!

I finally got to do some planting this week! I have bought/acquired various seeds and seeing how I'm a novice at most of these veg I'm going by the recommendations on the packets.

Straight into one raised bed, I've put a row of carrots, parsnips (on a tape) and beetroot.

 It rained (and snowed) alot on Sunday so when I did this on Monday, the ground was still wet and I didn't bother watering before I put the seeds in. All these packets said to make a drill approx 1" deep and cover with a thin layer of compost, so that's what I did. Having the excess topsoil came in handy, along with the garden sieve I inherited from my grandfather, Joe.


Joe was a very keen gardener and always had masses of fruit and veg growing - I hope he'd be proud of my attempts.

What to grow?

Now the raised beds are in, I can start to think about what to grow. I've read magazines, asked the family and listened to friends to come up with the following list (so far!):

• Sweetcorn (a must for Amy)
• Potatoes (how hard can they be?)
• Carrots (so much tastier than anything you buy)
• Parsnips (Joel's favourite)
• Beetroot (my choice, but I'm hoping to convert the rest of the family)
• Brussels sprouts (hopefully for Christmas dinner)
• Runner beans (fond childhood memories of pinching Grandad's fresh from the plant)
• Courgettes (Grandad's always ended up as marrows)
• Tomatoes (again, so much more flavour than shop bought)
• Chillies
• Peppers
• Spinach
• Cabbages
• Red onions
• Spring onions
• Garlic
• Salad leaves
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Rhubarb

I've been given some lupin seeds as they're apparently good to grow with slow growers like cabbages and sprouts to enrich the soil. I know they can be poisonous, but I think my lot are old enough and sensible enough not to eat strange flowers and seeds! I might try some marigolds to keep away the pests, although in the past they've always become slug magnets in my experience - maybe I should see them as sacrificial plants? I think I've heard that coriander is a good pest deterrent as well, so that may be added to the list.


So, the next job should be a planting plan...

Adding compost

I've had 2 compost bins for a quite a while, which have been filled with the usual grass cuttings and kitchen waste. I discovered a couple of years ago that guinea pig waste makes an excellent compost accelerator!

In the past, the fresh compost has gone around the bedding plants as mulch/soil improver, but now it comes into it's own. I've dug out the bottom of both bins - basically everything that looked like compost rather than peelings and guinea pig waste. So now the beds are looking a bit more full. Clearly we're not there yet - time to order some topsoil.

Hampshire Garden Supplies have a very helpful man (called John I think!) who advised me that their 2nd grade topsoil would do the job. Apparently, this has more stones than the better stuff, so is good for drainage - and it's cheaper too! After some quick calculations I reckoned it would take 2x0.7m bags to fill the beds, but then I've already part filled them with compost...

 To be on the safe side I ordered a bag and half, along with a bag of 20mm shingle to make the paths. So on Thursday morning, the truck turned up (at 7:30 so it's done before I have to leave for work!). This is gonna take some work to transfer...

...but with a bit of help from Joel and a beautifully sunny afternoon, the beds are looking ready to plant!

The only question remaining? What to do with the 3/4 bag of topsoil I've not used?!

More space

Before...

Spot the difference? There was an obvious gap in the plan, so back to Hambrooks to purchase a 0.9m x 0.9m bed! I think the layout looks really good now.

After...

Installing the raised beds

Time to install the beds. We bought the flat packs from Hambrooks in Titchfield and hubby and son assembled them - with hardly any swearing! The layout was based on the main paths being 70cm wide and parallel to the house.


Next comes the digging...


 Seeing as this bit of garden has been lawn for so long I thought it best to dig it over before adding new soil. I never thought I'd double dig, but it turns out it's not so bad after all. I even managed to persuade Joel (my 12 year old) to help on his inset day. And of course we were soon joined by a friendly robin and his friends.

The end of a  hard day digging, but then the idea of raised beds is that this should be once only event!

Where to start?

I've wanted to grow my own vegetables for many years and made mediocre attempts in pots and grow bags on the patio. Our back garden doesn't lend itself easily to cultivation, being like a bog for quite a lot of the year and full of big cracks in the clay during the summer.


Some time last year I was looking with despair at the poor state of the grass in front of the house when the idea struck me - I could dig up the grass and put in some raised beds to make my longed for veg plot! And hey, if it turns out I'm rubbish at veg, I can easily lay some turf and still end up with a better looking garden than before.


So, last Autumn I started work with the intention of getting some raised beds in place so that the Winter weather could do all the hard work of breaking down the soil. Best laid plans eh? Having invested in some fairly heavy duty weed-killer I successfully killed the grass and weeds, leaving a brown mess to be colonised by moss. Inevitably, other things got in the way (my son's birthday, Christmas etc) and it wasn't until February that I got my act together.


Having spent a long time trying to source cheap scaffold boards (I'm told they make excellent raised beds) we realised they wouldn't fit in the car and plumped for flat pack kits. This has actually worked out just as cheap, although a bit shallower than I'd originally planned. I spent far too long playing with alternative layouts on Sketch-Up but eventually came up with a plan that I'm really pleased with. I'll post some photos when I've worked out how to!


That's the background. It seems that all the best gardeners make copious notes about what they planted, where and when. And that's where I'm hoping this blog will take me...