BridT's Journal

Progress

Stuck up some photos of how everything is growing.   We've loads of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the tunnel and beans, peas, mangetout and sweetcorn outside.   The spuds have flown up too.  Have tried a few different types of things this year to see which we prefer and then I can concentrate on these varieties next year.  

We got another 4 hens a few weeks ago too giving us 8 in total.  There was a bit of argy bargy to start with but all have settled in nicely now.  Red thinks she's a dog I think.  She comes over to you and will eat out of your hand and tries to come in with the dogs.   Beaky is named after her deformed beak, but it doesn't stop her eating - she's one of the biggest.

Now, back to work - I hear the hose calling me...

What a day!

Today we managed to get all the spuds in - thank God.   Me back is broke from digging.   Still all part of the fun eh.  Everything is coming along nicely.  A bit more digging tomorrow to get the ground ready for the beans and sweetcorn.   Tried growing them in used toilet rolls in the hope that they would grow a strong root and when you transplant them if you water them well beforehand then the cardboard will rot down so the root is not disturbed.  We'll see if it works.

Now time to relax and get ready for round two tomorrow.

Busy Busy Busy

Wow Only realised now it's been absolutely ages since I put in anything in my journal.   I've been up to my eyes in sowing seeds and now I have lots of seedlings that need a place to go.  Unfortunately our ground has been very wet so hard to work on, but I've taken the day off today and as it looks to be a smashing few days I'm going to get out digging.  

We managed to sow some early spuds but last week they were doing the backstroke with all that rain.   Still some have managed to keep their heads above water. so hopefully they will be okay.  Need to get the rest of the spuds in today and to prepare the ground for all the other things I want to grow. 

Vegetables:  Sweetcorn (extra tender sweet) Cucumber (Zeina & Burpless Tasty Green) Tomatoes (Suncherry, Harlequin, Sungold, Tumbling Toms Red & Yellow, IIdi, Ferline) Peppers (Tasty Grill Red & Yellow, Gourmet) Aubergine (Black Enorma) Beans (Climbing Cobra) Peas (Ronda) Mangetout (Oregon Sugar Snap)  Melon (Galia), Leeks (Musselburgh)

 Flowers : Stocks (Dwarf Ten Week Mixed, Tudor Tapestry) Lavendual Augustifolia (Ellagance Sky Blue) Nictotinia (Fragrant Cloud) Chocolate Daisy, Poppy (Coral Pink)

I bought a small propogator for myself to try get the melon and some other seeds started quickly which has worked and then my hubby came home with a large one that can hold 2 trays.  Apparently it was slightly damaged on the top bit so it couldn't be sold, so we got it - yippee (I suppose the fact that my dad owns a Garden centre doesn't hurt eh?? lol)

So now - off to work - will put up pics later of everything

Happy Gardening All

B:-)

The agri-student!

The Agri Students Work

I came home today to find that my husband had been a busy little bee in the tunnel.   We had a damp spot that held water in the tunnel and i thought it would be better paved to put pots on rather than plant stuff in the ground.   So when i came home he had that area paved and had planted all our lettuce and spinach for the winter.

I've added the pics to my photos under the tunnel journal.   It's a standing joke in my family to call my husband the agri-student as he has no background or knowledge of gardening, but his is learning and helps out with all the digging and heavy lifting etc..  He's looking forward to reaping the rewards of his efforts today.  Me too!

Green Side up he says!

Looking to Spring

What fantastic weather!  Been out today weeding sections of the beds and planting daffs, narcissus, crocus and snowdrops.   Cant' wait for them to come up in spring.   Still more to do tomorrow, will have to see how far the bulbs will stretch cause they ain't cheap!   Will have to take some photos when they are up just so I can complete the bed with the same idea in mind.

Transplanted some Hollyhock seedlings into bigger pots today too so there will be a load of digging to do next year.   Best get my back in shape!

Here's hoping we get another few days of glorious sunshine!

Raised Beds

I included photos of my raised beds made from old pallets and the pages from the magazine where I got the inspiration from.   In the magazine they just use the one pallet to create a raised bed, but for me, who hasn't a great lower back, I thought I would make them to a height that whenI was kneeling I could comfortably turn it over or remove weeds.   They are handy for sitting on for a rest too!

So with this in mind, I nailed 3 pallets on top of each other, having removed the middle sections of wood.   I stained mine with wood preserver and lined them with weed suppressent material.   The weed suppressent was on special offer from Aldi and although it's not very tough, it serves the purpose of keeping the compost in for now anyway.   In one of the beds, we put a frame on top to grow peas.   We put the pea and bean net support over it and they grew happily there.

I'd like to have another few raised beds but it'll be a job for the spring I think.   They are the best idea for me as we have very heavy clay soil, which is great in terms of minerals, but it is very hard to work with.   I put a mix of compost, manure and clay into the beds and it seems to have worked well.

If anyone has any other ideas for raised beds, especially ones made from recycling materials, I'd love to hear about them and maybe see a photo of them.

September 09

Well it's been a busy summer!   This year we got our tunnel up - hurray!   Finally a space to grow stuff.   I used to grow some tomatoes and peppers in my little porch which used to get taken over with the tomato plants, so we decided that it was time for something bigger.   We managed to get some old hoops for nothing so all we had to buy was the plastic.   It was hard work I can tell you!  Although my husband, Colin, did most of the digging and heavy work.

We built a nice work bench for it too.   We had 3 different tomatoes, 2 peppers and a cucumber in the tunnel and we are still getting produce from them.   There's nothing like your own fruit and veg.   We've started digging over the ground in there now, just on one side, and we're getting it ready to put in some lettuce and spinach to eat over winter.

We also built 2 raised beds (which can be seen in my photos) from old pallets and lined with some weed suppressent.   They are very handy.   We grew carrots and peas in one and kept the other filled with lettuce and radishes.   Once they were done we sowed some spring cabbage in one and some late carrots in the other, although the carrots haven't made a lot of progress yet so I'm hoping they will come on soon.

I sowed some Hollyhocks and some other plants for next year (in my photos) and some of the seedlings are up already.  I'll soon have to plant them on into bigger pots but they will fill in a lot of gaps in our big garden.