Month: January 2012

I went to the woodyard today and picked up some wood for making more raised beds. I got enough for 4 large and 2 small beds, and my brain was all ‘this’ll be super quick to do with my awesome mitre saw, I should be able to get them all done this afternoon’. My body was less co-operative and decided 2 was more than enough work and that I must then immediately rest. Oh well.

So pretty!

This is the bit at the side of the house that spent the last year being ignored, then weedkillered, then covered in a tarp all winter to stop more weeds. There’s enough space there for 2 large beds and a smaller one (which I didn’t make yet) between them. I just need to borrow a strong man to get the digging done. Stupid getting-tired-all-the-time body.

I now need to keep an eye on it and see just how much sun it gets. I know it gets less than the main veggie patch, but the front of the house is often sunny in the morning, so I am hoping it might get more than I think. This area and the greenhouse will more than double my growing space compared to last year.

I also joined a seed of the month club. It’s soooo cheap compared to seed prices over here, it’s cheap even with international postage, and the seeds are all heirloom varieties. And I love the idea of getting random surprise seeds in the mail every month!

We’ve had a really mild winter this year, I’m not sure if it’s saving all the snow and ice and ickiness until February, or whether it’s just going to carry on being a bit rainy and windy and dreary until spring. I have my fingers crossed for the latter.

As it’s not been too horrible, we’ve been able to start on sorting out the garden a little bit…boring chores like turning compost heaps and cutting back the huge climbing rose, and general other tidying tasks. AND! moving the greenhouse!!! I love it in its new location, it’s actually on soil now so I can plant in it, and it gets the sun pretty much all day long.

I did some sawing and drilling and put a couple of beds in, but will need the assistance of awesome boyfriend to help dig in some sand and compost before it’s plantable in, though given the short work he made of digging over the plot and the trench for the base, I’m sure it’ll only take him 10 minutes or so.

I really want to plant EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW, but I’m resisting as it’s just too early for the majority of things. I contented myself with making a spreadsheet listing all the seeds we have and when they need planting and planning which heirloom varieties I want to try this year. So far I think my list is hugely tall climbing peas, some sort of climbing french beans, various tomatoes, and watermelon. Everything else will be leftovers from previous years, or from super cheap packs we got at the garden centre. I do like the idea of collecting seeds year on year and never having to buy them ever again, but I want to start off with easy stuff that isn’t hard to collect and doesn’t need hand pollinating or separating from everything else to prevent crazy inedible cross-breeds.

After entering the insane amount of seeds into my spreadsheet, I noted that there were a couple of things that were okay to plant in january, so I did! My dining room windowsill is now sporting trays of aubergines, early tomatoes for the greenhouse, onions, and various herbs. We planted autumn onion sets here and at J’s plot, so hopefully with the seeds I planted today, and more seeds planted directly into the ground in a couple of months, we’ll have a good crop of onions that lasts us all autumn and winter.

I also planted some sunflowers a week or so ago, we are going to have a giant sunflower growing competition, which we will both win, as we’ll end up with lots of yummy sunflower seeds to eat.