The Garden - 2009

A few months back we made some big changes to the garden. Gone are the majority of the pots from last year and in are raised beds made from recycled pallets, of which was Hubby's idea. Initially I was a bit anti getting rid of all the pots we had spent ages sourcing, but with a bit of shuffling and ridding of pots that had cracked, Hubby got down to making the raised beds. He picked up the pallets for free from work. His resourcefulness shows no ends, though at the moment he has put a stop at the idea of making a shed from old pallets...though if we had a garden big enough I'm sure he'd give it a good go.

With the lessons we learnt last year we've planted a slightly different selection of veg this year and have improved our gung-ho method for vegetable growing thanks to a mini greenhouse from Ikea and the ingenious Paper Potter.



Planted so far this year we have strawberries, radishes, spinach, beetroots, carrots, mixed salad, artichokes, rhubarb, broad beans, garlic, peas, kale, sweetcorn, brussel sprouts, leeks and the grape vine has sprung back into life, but there is yet any fruit on it. We also have some Purple Sprouting Broccoli ready to be planted. In addition to all this we also have the odd mushroom thanks to some free mushroom compost that had been given to us.



I also now have a dedicate area for my herb garden currently we have mint, thyme, rosemary & sage. Once the garlic has been harvested I can use their pot for a second herb garden containing chives, coriander, basil & another herb I haven't decided on yet. Due to limited space in the garden we now have a general rule - it can only be planted if it has culinary uses. Hence the Butterfly Lavender, not only does it look good, smell good, keeps flies away but can also be used in the kitchen.

The one little problem we've had this year was the salad we grew. We sowed too much of it at once, couldn't eat it fast enough and it bolted. The radishes have been deliciously spicy and it won't be long before the strawberries have ripened. I'm looking forward to trying everything else once it has been harvested. Nothing beats vegetables fresh from the ground.

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