Rest Following Loss

Life has a way of creating forks in the road, but mother nature continues.

Vegi Trugs Raised Beds

Given the increasing problems of gardening with both Back problems and MS i found the raised beds from https://www.vegtrug.com/ brilliant. Husband found them easy enough to build and whilst yes i am sure if your handy you could probably make your own i dont have those skills or the time.

I purchased 4 from the local garden centre, this was before the additional top bits were available so you will see in mine i have a different solution.

I ordered 2 tons of "Fen Black" soil which is a local screened black soil based on peat and 1/2 a ton of mushroom compost. This was mixed with 2 large bags of pearlite and a bag of vermiculite. The beds were left to settle for a few weeks and any weed seedlings were extracted and then i went a little mad and filled them all with lots and lots :)

No potatoes though :)

I found garlic was a complete flop and leeks did not bulk out but i think this was more to so with weather, watering and when i sowed the seeds.

Huge learning curve and am still trying to work out the best way to deal with the trugs as i want to use them. At the end of the first year i found that they needed a top up of soil as the soil had compacted so all the beds at the end of the first year got a bag of top soil and seived soil from the pots i planted the potatoes in last year (these had been bagged up and left in sealed containers from Aug to March and any volunteer potatoes removed).


Beds from Greenhouse to Garage are as follows and the beds have been cut into 4 to allow block planting so less the square foot planting method more rectangle method :)


One

Year One - PSB
Year Two - 


Two

Year One - 
Year Two - Courgettes, Runner Beans


Three

Year One - 
Year Two - Squash, Golden Mangetout


Year One - Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, PSB, Fennel (not bulbing), Celery, Leeks, Turnip, Spinach.
Year Two - 


Four

Year One Carrots, Garlic, PSB, Caulflower.
Year Two Shallots interplanted with parsnips, Pac Choi, Carrots, Garlic, 

You blink and Life has passed you by..

 Well lots of things have happened including changing Jobs, Covid and life....

However the garden is still my anchor in the storm and i do what i can when i can.

So last update was april 2019 and with just under a year till we were locked down i had high hopes for getting lots done HOWEVER we had some issues with the pond which drastically slowed us down.

Firstly in the storms that year the pond flooded and the water spilled over the preformed liner and as the ground was frozen it lifted the pond up and poured the water into the electical box buried beside it. After a few months we got the pond reset and the electrical box fixed and all was well but it did not look as good.

The electrics blew twice more and we had a herron get into the pond (our original 6 fish were more like 45 now) and the bird drowned in the pond having gorged itself on a high number of the fish we had 8 left and sadly we lost 2 more over the following weeks due to shock and injury. After the second lock down we had someone come out and replace the pond with a brick suround to lift the pond from the grass level as we had weeds (wild strawberry) growing from under the previous pond into the grass. And to replace the wood planters we had with brick and a new higher electric box. And the electrics were done for the 4th time :) and its looking fab. Still cant put plants in the pond as they will either eat them or spill them out causing a mess!

We also had some issues with the 4 apple trees we put in the garden in 2015-16 in that we got no fruit at all from the Pixie or the Kidds. We had to move the bramley in 2019 as that was being affected by another tree in the garden and only now in 2022/23 season is it doing better. Bountiful is very heavy croping of yummy apples for pie.

• Bountiful (https://www.kenmuir.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=219_221&product_id=485) (Pollination Group B)
• Pixie - Ken Muir apple no longer stocked (Pollination Group B)
• Kidds Orange Red (https://www.kenmuir.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=35_36_37&product_id=886) (Pollination Group B)
• Bramley (https://www.kenmuir.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=171_339_221&product_id=1007) (Pollination Group B)

All the trees have been treated with winter washes but had pretty much every problem you can imagine haha

New Year New Start

Had not realised how long it had been since i had updated the blog but will make a determined effort to update it from now on.

Big changes to the garden as its much more lived in now :) Will upload photos soon !!

Greenhouse had been producing really well had kilos of tomatos, chillis and peppers. Currently its full of seedlings and i still have a large row of carrots growing.

Aubergines did not do well but will try again as i suspect pollonation was the issue.

Now have 4 large veggie trugs all full of plants in different rates or growth.

Well after a week of having the landscapers i now have my perfect (almost) garden and not only does garage and greenhouse has power but also the pond has power :)

Cant walk on the grass for a while and there is extra slate to cover over the electrics when there plumbed in :)

Jobs outstanding

• Remove rubbish from garden that is for us to sort out.
• finish paining fence (forest oak) and Trellis needs to be painted (Autumn gold)
• There will be some lengths of wood put on the bottom of the fence (see the second photo) and this will raise the planting level against the fence and make it easier to manage.
• What you cant see in photos is the path from front of house to the garden and this has had the gravel removed and nothing put back so were going to get more blue slate and complete the job
• The other part you cant see if behind the greenhouse there is some sunken slabs this allows for maintenance and we will need to add more slate there this will hide the slabs and make the garden look uniform. 

Sewing by Candle Light

Currently the greenhouse has got no power and no lights but thats not stopping me.

Harriet came out and joined me cleaning up all the pots from the garden and then having taken receipt of a "Surprise Box" for £20 from Sutton Seeds we decided to plant out the large bag of bulbs we received and 2 massive garlic bulbs (solient white).

Everything was potted up into individual fibre pots as much as possible with the idea that they will be planted in the herb bed by the apple trees when the landscapers pull away the woodchips and before they pop down the slate.

Today we visited the Skylark Garden center and my daughter Harriet and her friend made wooden bird boxes (5 year olds and hammers are not to be recommended) but it was fun. We had a great lunch and then hit the shops. I picked up 2 lily bulbs (i think) and 10 hyacinths (pink, yellow and deep red) and 10 Tulips (non standard looking petals) and one amaryllis all for £2.50. Given how cold its getting i though best plan was to get these potted up but that was after 5 pm so i lit a candle into the potting tray and carefully planted everything up. The Amaryllis was sweating in the box it was in and starting to rot so i potted this in dry John Innis (number 2) in the hope that it would soak up some of the liquid. The bulb was still hard so fingers crossed!!

 

Hard Landscaping Part 2

Due to start in Feb

• Complete the concrete pad
• relay the slabs and repoint
• remove and relay grass with edging stones which also needs to be repoint
• dig out and install pond
• Add door to back of garage and facilitate power into the garden.
• remove woodchips on 2 beds which are now large cat litter tray and replace the hard aggregate.
• Add trellis to fence
• Add steps to patio doors and garden door so allow me to get out with ease when legs are not working well.