Step 2 completed and planting list

Before the glorious morning turned rather surprisingly into a soggy afternoon I managed to complete the second part of the edging for my new borders/vegetable patch (excuse the blurry pic, I was rushing to not get soaked). Unfortunately I wasn't able to move the irises and some of the bigger things like I hoped to. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next weekend; I am running far behind schedule and some things actually have to go in soon.


In the meantime, my potatoes are chitting on the windowsill in the kitchen and I added some garlic cloves in the hope that they sprout. I also had a seed swap with Karesansui-san where I steadfastly refused brassicas (I remember trying to grow them before in this garden, absolute failure, probably clubroot) and tomato seed (vowed to get plants to avoid leggy windowsill-babies). Suffice to say that a quick dip into the local garden center ruined the second promise - spotted a delightful tomato seed collection out of the corner of my eye which I wasn't able to resist. Along with my other seeds from realseeds.co.uk my planting list is starting to look impressive (and marginally unachievable in the space I have):

• Serrano Peppers
• Potato 'Mimi'
• Potato 'Harlequin'
• Mange Tout 'Golden Sweet'
• White Beetroot
• Aubergine 'Fairy Tale F1'
• Tomato 'Orange Berry'
• Tomato 'San Marzano 2'
• Tomato 'Costuluto Fiorentino'
• Tomato 'Red Pear'
• Tomato 'Ildi'
• Tomato 'Tigerella'
• Onion 'Helens Welsh Siberian'
• Radish
• Cucumber 'Wautoma'
• Endive 'Bianca Riccia da Taglio'
• Climbing French Beans 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'
• Courgette Dwarf 'Verde di Milano'
• Patty-Pan Squash 'Pattison Orange'
• Winter Squash 'Butternut'

Not to mention that I am still waiting for the delivery of some raspberry canes and I snaffled some very cheap blueberry and gooseberry bushes from Lidl. It's going to be a tight squeeze...

Stage 1 of 34 complete

I spent a couple of hours today in the garden, outlining vegetable and flower beds in the top half. Progress was quite good but I don't want to wear myself out doing everything in one go (I am learning from past mistakes finally). Also, the spring bulbs are going to flower soon and I would like to enjoy the blooms, instead of moving everything around right now. The dwarf pear tree and the greengage are budding. Spring is definitely in the air.

I narrowed the graveled area to a path that winds itself to the compost bin, hidden behind a large cordyline. This gives me larger beds either side, which means that on the left I can grow vegetables (that side doesn't need as much watering as the right and the soil is slightly better) while I can transplant the irises to the right (they won't mind that it is drier there).


As I was clearing out the vegetable patch, I discovered chives popping through and some oregano. I also saw plenty of mint in the garden. Lots of self-seeded crocuses and cyclamen around; I tried to save as many of them as possible. I also moved a shrub of unknown identity over to the right to fill in some gap at the back of the border. After a quick digging over, I found that the soil is ok where I grew vegetables previously but is awful elsewhere - there is gravel in the soil and some sharp sand. I see a lot of sifting and compost in my future. Or maybe I can recruit toxicfingers...

Maybe next weekend I have some more time to tackle the rest of the garden, at least edging the new path. I cut in a groove where I roughly want it to be to judge the effect. I already cut back the overgrown shrubs and I can see where things would fit in nicely. I'll almost have a completely new garden when I have finished with this.

good fences make good neighbours

As I was doing my usual bit of pottering around yesterday in the garden, a woman passing by informed me that she got the plot next to me and is getting someone to roto-till it for her soon. She also asked me to turn on the seeper hoses for her since it "needed a good soaking". Er, right. pre-installed seeper hoses coming right up... Since the initial weeding effort on that plot had already resulted in the compost pile nearly ending up on my cherry tomatoes (close to the boundary but still on my side) I thought it best to construct the wood-chipped garden pathway that the community garden requires between plots.

There are so many plants flowering right now and it is easy to just brush them off as just some also-rans compared to the vegetables. I took some pictures of the nasturtiums (munched on one while watering - very peppery!), potatoes, borage (only tried the leaves so far which have a lovely cucumbery taste) and, of course, the rocket/arugula.

The cucumbers are doing well. "Orient Express" is sporting quite a few fruits which put on several inches almost overnight and "Lemon" finally is producing little globe-shaped cucumbers (even though you have to hunt for them in the foliage at the moment). The last cucumber "Bog-standard" has flowers but I have great hopes for it.

In the overview picture, the zucchini seem to dominate the entire garden. Which is true - I am faced with the first glut of the season.

I managed to harvest good-sized bunches of mustard greens, collards and rainbow chard, plus four not-quite-baby/not-quite-war-clubs zucchinis. Considering that I still have half a zucchini in the fridge and more on the way tomorrow, I am shopping around for friends to take them off my hands (haven't stooped to leaving them on doorsteps yet...)