Update

Yesterday April 25: Planted Chinese cabbage and pak choi and kohl rabi in top bed. Planted french beans and put up bean stakes. Planted chamomile, carrots, some beetroot in big bed 2. Weeded small bed 2, put in a little manure and bone meal, planted spinach and some coriander and parsley. Anna, Sue and Deidre came.

Today April 26th: Put all courgettes and squash and tomato into separate pots and put on new shelf in greenhouse. Planted some more peas. Watered tomatoes and courgettes with tomato fertilizer.

Recent Photos

Here are some recent picts - we had a warm spell a few weekends ago and it has been very very dry. It's still pretty dry but turned cold again. Hopefully this weekend will bring warmer weather again!


The temperature dropped and the hats came out again...
The grass is garlic and onions - in the front are the peas - purple podded ones at that!

Lavender and chocolate mint - dug in two really old asparagus crowns bought from Lidl last October..dug in some manure and watered well...we'll see if they're still alive..
Raspberry plants sprouting like mad! Planted out the giant sunflowers under bottles to keep warm for the time being. Herbs in the front doing well. The bulbs we planted were eaten or dried out or something...
We planted out millions of rocket and oriental salads and some Pak Choi (?) in the "Oriental Salad Bed"
Tomatoes planted out under cloches - this is where the greenhouses/polytunnels will be.
Peas tied to stakes
Well watered garlics and onions. Garlics a bit yellow. Hope that's not bad.


The construction..

Tuesday

We weeded the top two beds. We planted out about 40 rocket seedlings and some oriental salad seedlings today. It was cold outside. Planted about 60 red onions in big bed #1 and red flower mix on top. Planted 20 red onions in big bed #2, square foot style. Planted the two asparagus crowns in small bed #4 along with the mint in the pot and the lavender. Tomatoes and peas look fine.

Small update

We planted out 6 gardener's delight and 6 cherry tomatoes today - under plastic bottles and watered with 1/10 nettle tea solution. Poop. Planted out about 20 purple pea plants. The garlics are about 1ft tall and the onions are about 5 inches tall. We cut the plastic for the poly tunnels, drilled the holes for the batons and took it all down. We planted 6, 6 inch high sunflowers in the bottom bed. the raspberries have leaves on the top of the canes and on the bottom. Pictures to follow.

The first planting - garlic, onion and nettle tea

On November 28th, we planted 100 garlic cloves (5 varieties) and about 60 onion bulbs into our bed number 2. Angela came down for the occasion and gave us a hand (thanks!). On the 29th we cut a bunch of nettles and put them in a bin, filled it with water, and covered it. In a few weeks time, we'll have potent nettle tea to feed our plants with.





We've decided to try the square foot method, which will allow us to plant densely, keep out the weeds, and surround the bulbs with their companions. Every other square is an allium and in between will be plants such as beetroot, carrots, lettuce, purple sprouting broccoli, and chamomile.





More pictures of the beds..






12 bags of rotted manure from the homestead...



Kelsey came by to give us a hand digging

Pictures from the past few months

The Shed - with our little stove - cuppa tea?

In the beginning: strimmed land and one big dig

Removing all that top soil. Dumping it on our neighbor's plot...

Cleared!

Laying out the paths and getting covered in muck

Starting the big build!

That's right, smile through your fear!

Rawr!

Work day!

Michal cutting stakes

Thank you Sam and your power drill.

The finished product! Now what to do about all that top soil...