Vegetables Investments set to grow...

We ordered a climbing rose "Alexander Girault" from Peter Beale's about 2 months ago and the bare root plant turned up yesterday. After my first wedding dress fitting (very exciting) I bundled a slightly hungover fiancée into the car and we zoomed up to the garden centre to get "a pot" and "some compost".

Over an hour later we left with a car full of very useful things and a substantially lighter purse, (we did get a deal on the compost as we needed lots). We are going to try and grow our potatoes in trugs and large potato sacks. In total we got a thin deep pot for the rose (which is what we went for!), two long narrow containers to grow the onions and atlas carrots in and a ceramic frog to scare the snails and slugs (i did put all my christmas vouchers into the cash till, so felt this was an ok purchase!). In addition I got some sweet peas (as they really need to go in) some charlotte and rooster seed potatoes, some onion and shallot sets, some red hot pokers for 'him' and a garden thermometer (still want a soil thermometer).

Was really amazed at teh people who were buying seeds today, I try not to stereotype people who garden, but some of the people i saw getting veg seed today surprised me! And I really loved how children were getting involved, listening to one little one choose cat grass because he wanted to grow a cat was a highlight!

Then I came home and ordered the rest of the required veg from Marshells. If I can then I'm going to string the veg patch tomorrow - seems so long until i can really get started!

Swish

Nothing to do with gardening but Ice Skating was fantastic - so much fun and i met up with a friend who I hadn't seen in months and months, hopefully going to make it a fortnightly occasion with various people joining in when they can.

So - in the words of Frank Turner - "Get up, Get Down and Get out there" - pick an activity you have always wanted to try and find a friend or two and just go and do it - I've waited 25 years to try Ice Skating. It doesn't matter if you fall over as I did or if you find you don't like it - just try it and they you will know. (Here endeth the lesson lol)

Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday has rolled around again - this year I decided that with me wanting time off in the summer I would go to work - hmm, that wasn't fun! I am going ice skating tonight and over the weekend I intend to spend my birthday vouchers on timber for a greenhouse, which I can then start to build. I have some ground preparation to do first which won't take me long at all.

Have been bought some fabulous books, one called the Victorian garden, another self sufficiency book which is very good and a green website book for the wedding and life in general. I don't get my other presents until the weekend but I think one of my vouchers sent from relatives north of the border might be spent on a soil thermometer as I think that could prove to be very useful. I need to repair the net around the veg patch as well as I found a cat on it yesterday morning trying to get to the soil and when I shouted it ripped another hole.

Last of the cake

Well the Christmas cake is finished! It doesn't seem to last long but it is lovely to have a slice for afternoon tea or as an evening snack. This year I used the apple and ginger jam that we made in October to stick the marzipan to the cake and I think it added an extra bit of spice. Mum has such a glut of apples every year that I bought my sister (who is very seriously into wholesome food) a book called "The apple source book" which has lots of fab apple recipes and storage ideas.

I bought the first packet of seeds today - Broad Beans - which I am going to plant out just as soon as this cold snap lifts a bit and I can dig a bean trench. I'm going to keep a close eye on how much I spend on seeds this year and work out how much money we save. I stopped at two garden centres on the way home and found some greenhouse material options for construction at the weekend - just going to raid the salvage yard first.

Snow!

I haven't seen a weather forecast for a few days, and my next door neighbour looked over the wall yesterday afternoon as i was oiling my bike and casually mentioned that it was forecast to snow - i confess i checked the veg patch was covered and then forgot the warning. Apparently its important for the soil not to get too cold.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I got up to cycle to work in time to unlock at 8 to find a reasonable covering of snow on the ground. I checked I had enough grip and proceeded on my way up the hill - oh it was cold. Halfway to work a snow storm descended and by the time I got to work I had snowdrifts in my elbows and looked like the abominable snowman. It took hours for me to warm up!

Just three days and it'll be my birthday, now if i could have some snow on my birthday I'd be very happy!

Headstart

I decided that after almost crippling myself digging the veg patch that i should get on with planning what to grow this year. Having spent hours thinking about which vegetables will be best suited to which area of the ground based on light, shelter and trying to stick to the companion planting guidelines and surfing various seed sites I have a few ideas. So - in no particular order I've looked at what we had too many of (courgettes and beans) and not enough of (potatoes, onions, shallots, tomatoes and carrots and come up with these varieties.

Potatoes
- Early Crop - Charlotte's
- Main Crop - Rooster
Peas
- Kelvedon Wonder
Beans
- Runner - Celebration
- Broad - Masterpiece
Sweetcorn
- Sunrise
Onions
- Marco
Shallots
- Jermor
Carrots
- Atlas
- Chantenay
Leeks
- Edison
Courgettes
- Black Forest - a small compact bush!
- Midnight - Tub based climber
Butternut Squash - in a pot this year!
Tomatoes
- Growbag & Greenhouse - Gardeners Delight
- Hanging Baskets - Garden Pearl
Cucumber
- MarketMore
Lettuces
- Cos & Salad Mix
Spring Onions
- Guardsman
Peppers
- variety tbc depending on greenhouse

To help bring in the hoverflies and bees I'm also going to be planting chives, honesty (Lunaria), Limnanthes (Egg Plant) and Marigolds.

Took me all day that did. It also made me realise that seed companies are missing a trick, its all very well having 2kg bags of seed potatoes to sow up 35m stretches but I don't have that much room in my plot! I wish they sold smaller amounts of chitted potatoes and onion sets - rocket gardens have the right idea but the combination of plants isn't quite right for what we will use. Here is the plan for my lean to greenhouse -

Lest I forget

I saw so many birds today, the chirping was constant the whole time I was outside, nice to know the cats haven't got them all!

First day of the new year

and I spent it in the garden, absolute bliss, after waking up with a mini headache I started to clear away the sunflowers from last year which I had left out for the birds. I dug, I weeded, I planned my planting and I repaired my net fence which had suffered badly from cats and uncoordinated boyfriend. This year I'm planning to replace the hastily erected net fence with some timber and wire panels, light enough to lift but robust enough to keep out the cats. I left plenty of sheeting over my well dug soil, but I bet that won't keep those damn cats out.

I came across the concept of square foot gardening today on another blog "A Kitchen Garden in the Suburbs" - sounded brilliant and I think I'll adapt it slightly for my plot. Worked out my plot is 12m squared so a nice size, will probably try and plant in metre plots rather than rows this year. Also found a use for the huge concrete slab which we dug out of the garden, I'm going to build a simple cold frame onto it - insulated of course - but that will allow the first plants needing protection to grow while I take my time finding materials for the greenhouse. I'm trying to decide whether I use polycarbonate double wall stuff, or glass, or corrugated plastic for the hinged roof - much to think about. I might go off to the salvage yard and see what I can find for inspiration.

Planted the rest of the daffodil bulbs today, a few had started to sprout so I don't know how well they will take given that its been a month since I put the first batch in. There was a note on the back of the snowdrops packet saying that they can take a full year to establish so be patient, that would explain why none of the ones I planted at the front came up last year.

Happy New Year!