Planting plans for 2012

I've picked up a cracking little book from the local Oxfam bookshop called Vegetables in a Small Garden by Jo Whittingham, part of the RHS Simple Steps to Success. It's proved very handy with lots inspiration for next year. Here's what I've got planned so far...

In the Greenhouse

Spring

• Very early first potatoes, not sure which variety yet.
• Lettuce, Lollo Rosso - reminds me of my chef days.
• Beetroot, Pablo - small and very sweet, ideal 'baby beet'.
• Spring onion, Lisbon.

Summer

• Tomato, Super Marmande - never tried growing beefsteak toms before but love them. Very expensive in the shops.
• Butternut squash Hawk - picked up some 'Jamie Oliver' seeds cheap. Lovely roasted.
• Cucumber, Beth Alpha - cute dwarf cucumbers with the same name as my daughter Beth.

Autumn

• err... not sure yet.

In the Garden

Spring

• Potatoes, Red Duke of York - first earlies this time. Should be out by late May.

Summer

• French bean, Blue Lake - great climber and freezer.
• Celery, Utah - bit of a challenge this one, notoriously fussy and slug friendly. We'll see.
• Beetroot, Pablo.
• Carrot, Autumn King - grew this one 2 years ago and it was great, bigger and better than the fancy thin ones I tried this year. A man's carrot if ever there was one.

Winter

• Parsnip, Tender and True - I might grow this in drain-pipes against the wall. Can be a monster but tastes great.
• Swede
• Sprouts - still looking for a good variety. My other daughter's favourite veg. Disgusting IMHO...

In planters

• Squash, Red Kuri
• Courgette
• Tumbling Tom

Well, that's the plan...

First trellis up!

Weather forecast was quite bad for today so was bracing myself for a wet Sunday indoors. But when I got up it was still dry, so I got out quick and knocked up the trellises on the pergolas. Didn't get time to paint them before the rain came down...

During a break in the rain I had time to add a second lower shelf to the greenhouse staging...

The camping stove is doubling up as a greenhouse heater. Sweet peas on the top shelf to the right are enjoying the mild weather indoors!

Landsc(r)aping by

Despite winter taking its time to kick in, it's the lack of daylight that gets annoying. The clocks have gone back so there's not much to do in the evening but plan for next year. There's a patch of lawn by the fish pond that's mostly shaded so the lawn is suffering, so I'm thinking a nice Victorian themed garden, with small cottage garden beds, gravel paths and a rambling rose along the north-facing fence.

With the wonga being tight I've taken to setting up some Ebay searches for local, cheap landscaping materials, as well as the usual scans of Freecycle and Gumtree. They've all come up trumps in the past few weeks...

From Gumtree, a tonne of free gravel! Thankfully the previous owner had already bagged it up for me. 26 bags in 3 trips in the car was a nice way to spend a wet Saturday afternoon. Shame my old bulk bag split though.

From Ebay, a tonne of timber off-cuts for £3.27 from a local joiner. He makes furniture out of reclaimed scaffolding planks. There was so much of the stuff I had to leave half of it there. Should come in handy for making planters and trellis for the fences and pergola. Here's a first attempt...

I'll try growing some butternut squashes in this one. I grew one this summer, but they take up a lot of room if left to trail on the ground. If you can't go across, go up! Made a pair of saw horses to, which I made with my Xmas present to myself - a Circular Saw from Argos for £28. Fantastic. Don't know how I ever managed without one.

From Freecycle, 70 Victorian terracotta floor tiles. Needed a little cleaning up, but should serve as edging for the flower beds. From Ebay, 100 Staffordshire Blue Brick pavers for £6.00. Dirt cheap.

Again from Ebay, 12 bags of well-rotted manure for £8.00.

Oh, and a tonne of free top-soil from a local fella building an extension. The poor old Fiesta is resembling a skip-on-wheels, but the bad-boy low suspension is holding up well.

Now where did I put that seed catalogue... 

Spring is around the corner

It's been a lovely October, one of the hottest on record, but we all know winter is coming. Still, thoughts move on to spring. Time to plant some spring flowering Anemones in the woody patch at the bottom of the garden.

Most of the high street shops have stopped stocking bulbs now in favour of Christmas decorations. Poundstretcher are still holding out though. I got 30 bulbs for £3. Not bad.

Here's the woody patch under the tree at the bottom of the garden. Just planted the bulbs under the wood chippings. Should give a nice flush of colour come March time.

Also spent some time pottering around doing a few other jobs. The good people of my home town have been doing a sterling job bagging up leaves for me. Knocked together a leaf-compost bin out of some unused chicken wire. Must have collected about 20 bags of leaves now. There's more stored since the piccy was taken. Free compost. Yeah!!!

The bulbs in the summer planters are over now - the Gladioli actually flowered quite late into October. When I took the bulbs out to dry and store them there were lots of small bulblets. Collected them together and planted them in pots. Let's see what happens...

Still no joy with the mushroom spores I planted a few months ago. Bugger. Maybe it was too hot in October...

While I was in the local garden centre a piece of bamboo 'fell off' into my hands ;) Gave it a head start with some rooting powder. Let's see how that goes too...

Biggus Ficus

It's my birthday this week, so mother-in-law treated me to a trip to the garden centre. Thought about getting an apple tree to grow as an espalier against the garden fence, but too many variables to think about after sunday lunch (root stocks, pollination groups, triploids...) so settled for a Fig, 'Brown Turkey'.

Plant itself cost £12.00 and was very pot-bound and dry. After giving it a good soaking potted it up into something bigger. Years ago I remember Monty Don making a 'concrete coffin' for his Fig out of slabs. Figs need to have their roots restricted to maintain vigour and fruiting. I've got some slabs left from a project last year, so will do that one weekend in the near future. For the time being she'll enjoy some autumn sun in the greenhouse...

Jasmine into skip-raid planter

A few weeks ago I made a skip-raid planter but didn't get round to planting the Jasmine. Now I've stocked up on B&Q's cheap peat-free compost it's time to finish the job...

There she goes. I've got some Pansies grown from seed from a planter outside daughter's school. Will put them around the base of the Jasmine when they are big enough...

Tomato harvest time

Time to harvest the tomatoes in the greenhouse. Tried Cherry tomatoes this year. Good crop of 'poppets' as Aunty Ede used to call them, but too small for slicing for sandwiches. Might try some bigger ones next year.

I sowed some Early Nantes carrots under the carrots this year. Not a bad crop, not problem with Carrot Root Fly either.

Some of the Tomatoe trusses still had a lot of green fruit on them. Decided to hang them up to ripen.

With room spare in the bed, decided to try burying some pots of delicate cuttings. Hopefully the soil will give them some insulation throughout the winter.

Mushroom treatment

I've tried to grow mushrooms from packet several times but with no success. Can't work out what went wrong. Picked up a packet for 50p from Poundstretcher a few weeks ago and decided to try again.

Mixed the spores in well wrotted compost and left in a tray in a bag for 2 weeks on a shelf in the shed.

Spores had begun to spread into the compost. Time to get a move on...

B&Q are doing 70 litre bags of peat-free compost for £3.00! Bargain. So, covered the tray with a layer of the good stuff - faint whiff of horse poo? - watered, then back into the shed. Should have some mushrooms in a couple of weeks. Watch this space!

Fish pond in Autumn

A colleague at work mentioned the new house he's moved into has an abandoned pond he's aiming to bring back to life. Thought these pictures would give him some ideas. Enjoy!

 

Fine pea netting has kept the Heron away. It was the Heron that caused the leaks in the pond liner last year while 'fishing'. They must have sharp beaks...

Pond sides are buried 2 x 2 slabs topped off with decking to make a shelf for pots, which also hold down the netting. Logs and stones from over the river bank do the same job at the back of the pond.

There are only two Lily plants in here, but they have gone ballistic this year. Over 55 leaves at the last count.

Marsh Marigolds and Yellow Flags don't seem to have had much trouble growing through the netting. Have had to cut a few holes for larger stems.

The pond liner was too small to cover the whole ares, so compromised and created a bog area at the rear. There's a Sedge in there on the bottom right rescued from the river bank when the council's JCB cleared way for a riverside path. Rudbeckia in the foreground were rescued from Homebase last year - 50p IIRC - and have very long lasting flowers. Bird bath was a fiver off Ebay. Slab on bottom left of image has had a corner cut off by an angle grinder to allow for overflow. Completely neglected to think about this when planning the pond!
Can you spot the chicken?

Snails have been at the beetroot

After a year the slugs and snails seem to have found the door into the greenhouse. Taking their toll on the beetroot.

Decided to take off the outer leaves and give them a good watering - should help them swell. Put down an extra layer of slug pellets too. Snails, be gone!

Viticulture, well, almost

The vines on the pergola are in their second year. Hit very hard by the frost last year. Seemed to have recovered well this summer, putting on lots of growth. Leaves beginning to turn now...

While there are no grapes on the white vine, there are some on the black. Not enough for a glass of wine though...

This winter I may give them some protection by wrapping them in fleece. Fingers crossed for a milder winter!

Strawberry patch-up

Good crop of strawberries this year, but they are a 'flash in the pan' - over in a few weeks. Still worth it though, IMHO.

Thought they needed a bit of TLC tonight as the patch was getting very crowded. These plants are in their second year, and will give poorer yields from now on, so they will need replacing. Many of the runners had taken root from the original 8 plants, so removed them and potted them on for next year.

Strawberries are very hardy - the current stock survived several weeks of -18C this winter! - so let's see how they do next year. I might even try a few hanging strawberry baskets...

French beans out, Leeks in

French beans in the raised bed were ready to pick.

 After harvesting cut off the tops, leaving the roots in the ground. Beans are nitrogen fixing, so help improve the soil. I actually lifted the roots and buried them slightly deeper in a trench so I could fork and rake the topsoil.

Had some of the beans for Sunday dinner. Lovely. Rest went into the freezer. The savoy cabbage had been hammered by the caterpillars so dug them out and sent to compost bin. Leaving room for the leeks that were growing in the nursery bed in the greenhouse. This year I'll try growing them in sets of three, rather than individually. Some people say it works well...

Also sowed a row of Swedes. Probably too late, but the soil is very warm and they may establish before the winter sets in. Also bought 6 Foxgloves from the bootsale for a £1. Getting too big for the tray they were in, so will give them some time in the raised bed to establish before going out into the garden.

Skip-raid planter

Found some timber in a skip the other day, luckily all the same length 8x2 offcuts. What to do with them though? How about a planter!

Simply drilled pilot holes and screwed four together to make a case...

Repeat for the second layer, then use a few old scraps of offcuts to make the base...

Gave the base and bottom layer a coat of creocote to aid preservation. Timber was already tanalised, but as planter will be full of soil wanted to be sure it wouldn't rot too quickly.

Both layers pinned together with a few more scraps of wooden batons, top finished off with some spare decking.

Job done! Will fill the planter with soil when I get round to it. Jasmine has found a new home...

Spring starts here... In August!

I've been meaning to keep a record of the gardening year, but the garden has kept a firm grasp on my time and efforts. After moving in four years ago with a completely blank slate, much of the landscaping has been done: greenhouse, raised bed, fish pond, patio, lawn... No major projects this year, just sitting back and enjoying the fruit of my labours.

However, with the late summer lull the time has come to dive in and make a start on this blog. The Spring bulbs are now on sale, summer cuttings are taking root, harvesting the veg is well under way, and the biennial seedlings planted this year are looking forward to their winter hibernation before bursting into life again in the Spring. So,  thoughts have turned to lessons learnt and plans for next year.

Compost bin and water butts

First of all, let me take you on a tour of the garden...

As a gardener on a water meter you can't have too much free water! The water butts are old soya oil containers I picked up from a local horse stable via Ebay. Angle grinded the tops off, fitted taps and raised on slabs. Pipes collect the water from the greenhouse. Free compost is worth its weight in gold too. Unfortunately I only had room for a single-box compost bin, and it is quite slow. I just keep loading it throughout the year, turning every six weeks, and by Spring it's all rotted down.

Potting bench and compost box

The side of the house is south-west facing and gets full sun and very warm. Great place for sowing and potting up. The compost box is home-made, and originally planned as a planter, but it has come in very handy next to the potting bench. The plants on the bench are monster Echiums. Bought the seeds off Ebay last year but lost them. They turned up in a coat pocket in the spring so got them sown and away they went. Hopefully they will give a great firework effect next summer.

Greenhouse and raised bed

When we moved in the neighbours thankfully cut down a huge willow tree that was shading the side of the house. For a few years I had a basic veg plot, but last year I treated myself to a 10 x 8 aluminium greenhouse. Again, £100 for the frame and concrete base off Ebay from a local guy. Spent nearly £600 on twin-wall polycarbonate to make it child-friendly (I have kids). Slabbed off the rest of the area around it, widened the path with free pavers from a neighbour, and made a raised bed with the remaining top soil. The greenhouse beds go down into the top soil too.

Raised bed inside greenhouse

It's the second year I've had a greenhouse. I've always wanted one and it's made the world of difference. Still trying to work out what works best. Tomatoes are fantastic, and last year cucumbers did well (Beth, dwarf variety.) In the past I've never had the courage to cut off the top of the tomatoes, but took the plung this year at about 5 ft. The plants reacted by fruiting like crazy! This year tried Moneymaker and Gardeners' Delight. Here you can also see 'patio' peppers, and a white grape vine, which might be a bit of a beast in the greenhouse, but should be worth it. My mother has one in her conservatory, and I have two at the bottom of the garden, but they haven't done too well. More on those later... There are some carrots in there too (early Nantes) but they haven't done so well. Grew Autumn King outside last year and they were fantastic.

Say, 'Hello Theo!'

As you can probably tell, I rarely pay for anything that you can't raid from a skip, find on Freecycle, or cadge off a neighbour. (What's the best time to take cuttings? When nobody's looking!) Here the staging is recycled timber and sits on top of the raised beds, so that it can be switched around. This year it's on the right, ideal for giving seedlings some light, pot raised cherry tomatoes and chillies thrive, house plants get a shot of UV, while underneath I'm growing short veg - beetroot and cabbage. The cabbage whites haven't made it inside, so the Savoys are doing very well. It acts as a great nursery bed too -  there are some leeks in there out of shot, should be ready to go out into the raised bed in the autumn.

OK, back outside. There's an old allotment site over the road that was closed for re-development, but nothing has happened yet. While walking the dog there I found some old rasberry canes. One dark evening I liberated them, and after rinsing off the couch grass and mare's tails from the roots, they have taken really well and gave me a fantastic crop this year. When I realised they fruit off the previous year's stems I haven't looked back. Stored rasberries in the freezer. Scrumped some apples with daughter yesterday and made some apple and rasbery crumble. Yum!

 More water butts. One collecting from the roof, with the second slightly lower acting as an overflow. that's almost 900 litres of capacity. Now all we need is some rain. Tip: when daughter asks if she can have the swimming pool out, never say no. Remaining water can go into the water butts for a dry week. I've also put some pond weed into one of them, and a few weeks later found a few goldfish fry swimming about. Mother-in-law was chuffed to have some baby fish for her pond.

Lawn left... alone

The garden backs onto a river, quite small in the summer, but in full spate during winter gets hairily close to the fence. So, the lawn slopes away slightly. Terrible trouble with moss last year, and dandelions, so this year took care to hammer them hard, and raised the blades on the lawn mower to give the grass a chance. Planter in foreground contains Heuchera and Phlox, which was given the 'Chelsea Chop' in early summer, hence late summer flowering. Bed to the left is East facing. Trying some Virginia Creeper to cover the fence up, and a Japanese Wisteria is growing from seed in the greenhouse. Might treat myself to a Fig for birthday to cover the rest.

Pond and Pergola

Pergola was built 2009 - Freddie Flintoff was winning the Ashes while I was painting it. Trying my hand at viticulture - black and white grape vines got hit hard by the cold this winter, but survived. Unlike the fish in the pond. The local Heron punctured the pond liner while catching all my goldfish, so this year have netted the pond - haven't lost one since. Pond has attracted all sorts wildlife - newts, toads, dragonflies etc. Have filled it with lots of plants from local Freecyclers - Lilies, Marsh Marigold, Reeds, Flag Iris, Water Mint.

Strawberry patch

I love strawberries, so when I finished building the low dry-stone wall - with Cotswold stone off Freecycle - I put in a little bed for strawberries. Topped off the wall with turf, but the hot weather in the spring did for it.

Finally, at the end of the path is the Japanese garden. It's under a tree, so gets plenty of shade. The bamboo has taken off well this year, and I treated myself to a lovely Jasmine. Also Sweet Peas and Honeysuckle on the fence. Perfect place to sit at sunset and take in all the scents.

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