Grow, grow grow!!

OK, lots happening in the garden at the moment (as you'd expect in spring).

Carrots, lettuce, cabbage, one cucumber, one runner bean and 2 onions have started to sprout out from the soil, yay! I had also planted some runner beans in a few jars indoors (as we used to do at school in the old days) and they have come up fantastically well (wish i'd done them all the same way). I have planted the 5 of them into pots and a couple already have leaves.

I went to Aldi yesterday and I bought 2 Honeysuckle plants. My mum had a lovely one in the garden when we were kids and I remember the gorgeous smell when it was in flower. I've planted them at the side of the new fence, hoping it will spread up and along the fence eventually so we get an extra bit of privacy from next door (will give us an excuse to put some trellis along the top of the fence at a later date).

Anyway, back to the veggies. The plants growing in the seed trays still look too delicate to put into the ground at the moment, so we're going to the 99p shop tomorrow to get some large troughs to put them in before finally putting them in the ground.

The cabbages that i thought wouldn't grow have started to get established and i've noticed new leaves on them which is brilliant and i've also noticed new growth on the one pepper plant and the strawberry plants I got from the garden centre.

Graham has suggested we plant the stone from a mango I bought yesterday - i'll give it a go, you never know!!! Lol.

xxx

Everything's coming up cabbages!!!

LETTUCES!!! & CABBAGES!!!

Well, I was very excited to go out Friday morning and discover my cabbage seeds had started popping through and then this morning my lettuces popped up too!! Yay!!

Over the weekend gave the rest of the garden a good dig and planted my spuds. Noticed the cabbage plants I put straight into the ground have been nibbled by something - got plenty of slug/snail pellets around them so it cant be them, obviously some other nasty beasty.

When we put the runner beans in the trays we had a few left over which we decided to grow in doors in the old school way i.e. in a jar with wet tissue paper, and they've started sprouting so will try and get them into pots over the next few days.

xxx

Some pics!

This is a piccy of my new greenhouse (small) and in it are my trays of planted seeds - just waitng patiently for them to start peeping through the soil (sooo exciting). Since this pic was taken i have also planted some strawberry plants and one pepper plant in some toughs that are now stood in the bottom.

OK, now I know this pic looks the same as the other garden shots, but believe me, it is totally different!! It is different because although you cant see them, underneith the soil are lots of red and white onion bulbs waiting to grow and burst out of the ground in a few months!! And since this pic was taken I have planted some cabbage plants - not sure how they will do though cos they were being sold cheap as they were starting to go yellow, but even if they grow a bit they will be fine for the piggies!!!

Not got much else to do outside at the moment except keep it watered and weeded and wait for my seeds to start growing. Shouldn't take too long - I hope!

xxxx

We got busy!!!

Had a busy, busy day out in the garden today and am thoroughly cream-crackered!!!

We (me and G that is) dug 2 bags of compost into the garden, got out the last of the dead roots and small weeds and watered like crazy.

Then later we planted the red and white onions and put the seed potatoes in a tray to start 'chitting' (sprouting) and once they have some nice big sprouts on them we can put them too into the ground.

We put the cutivator together and with my 3 little helpers we put some seeds in some trays (lettuce, carrots, peppers and cucumbers) and we put them in it. We wanted to also plant some pumpkin seeds but needed bigger sized trays so went to B&Q and bought some this afternoon - will do them in the morning.

We also took a load of rubbish to the dump, so the garden is looking generally tidyer.

Also at B&Q we bought some more strawberry plants, some cabbage plants (and seeds), 2 troughs and another large bag of compost.

Will hopefully get out in the garden tomorrow to plant the rest of the seeds in the trays and put some plants in my troughs.

Photos to follow tomorrow!!!

Am getting so excited about the prospect of having our own salad and veggies!!!

Digging done!

Got out in the garden for a bit this afternoon with my 'helpers' and managed to clear the rest of my patch!!

Sooo, next job is this weekend to get some compost dug in, then keep it cleared of weeds/plant material over the following week and also to give it a good water so it's nice and moist for when I start planting!

We are also going to rid the garden of rubbish, get the spare hutch collected by our friends and then we'll have room to put the cultavator up and get some seeds potted into the trays this weekend.

I watched 'edible garden' on BBC2 last night (couldnt stand the presenter woman 'Alys' - wanna-be hippy stuck in the 1960's even though she was born well after that era), BUT I did pick up a few tips. One which I will be following is a plastic netting contraption she made to keep cucumbers off the floor (stops them rotting) and another tip she came up with is to only grow and plant what you need i.e. no point in planting 40 lettuces that are all going to be ready to eat at the same time (which is logical but I hadn't thought of it, lol).

She was also of the mind that you dont have to be a complete expert to grow veg, take a chance with things and just see what happens. If some things dont grow, try another type or just forget about it altogether and grow something else.

Also, popped into Aldi this morning and their Sunday 'specials' this week are all gardening bits!! Yay!!

Not bored of this project yet!

Lazy day!

Not actually been out in the garden today cos a) got a cold and woke up tired and achy and b) bloomin cold outside, so instead went shopping for stuff!

Got some seeds: carrots, 2 types of lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins (Milly's idea) and runner beans. Also bought white and red onion sets and some seed potatos (maris piper).

Also bought some potting compost, some seed trays, gloves, trowel/hand fork set, slug pellets and then had a massive stroke of luck when I visited the olds on the way home - they have a brand new, in the box, 3 shelf cultivator/greenhouse type structure with plastic cover which they have given me!! (photos to follow in a few days).

So the next plan is to hopefully get back outside and finish the digging and then start sifting through the earth to remove the really big stones and any lingering roots/weeds and make enough room to put up my greenhouse.

Then if I get enough time I might get round to potting some seeds.

At the weekend i'm going to get Graham (muscles) to get some big bags of compost to dig into the soil and give it a good watering (if we dont hava any rain that is), so that next week once i'm happy with the state of the soil and am sure there's nothing else to rake out of it, I will get round to planting my spuds and onions!! Yay!

(BTW, I know i'm probably using all the wrong gardening terminology, but I am excited and I dont care)

Nuff said x

Can you dig it?

OK, day 1, back breaking digging for 1 1/2 hours to clear all the weeds/roots/rubbish out of the strip of ground i'm going to use for my veggie patch.

Managed to do about 2/3rds before I physically couldn't do anymore, will try and get out there again today to clear the other third.

Am going to give it about a week, clearing bits every day until I actually put anything in the ground. I think I probably need to 'dig-in' a bag or two of fertiliser into the ground as nothing but weeds have been grown there since we moved into the house, 14 years ago!!

Mum has offered me a brand new cold-frame to use to start off some seedlings, so because I am impatient but cant actually put anything in the ground yet, I am going to drag the girls off to the DIY store today to get some seeds, trays, compost, slug pellets and anything else I think we might need.

I think the plot will have to have a small fence put around it or I can see the girls trampling all over it with their wellies or even worse, sootering/biking through it when they're out the back playing. I'm already waiting for the cat to start using the freshly dug earth as a toilet - not sure what I can do to keep her off (in a humane way).

Have spoken to the girls to see what they think we should grow and Milly decided 'chocolate' was a good crop!! Lol!!

But I have decided (even though it sounds a bit adventurous for a first timer) to try the following:

Potatos, Runner Beans, Onions, Carrots, Peppers, Lettuce, Cucumbers and i might get a large tub to grow some strawberries in too.

So for today, that's all.