Vegetable Plot - gardening for beginners

I think summer may have arrived

2007-08-03T11:26:00.000+01:00

It hasn't rained for several days now and the sun is shining this morning as if it is summer.

I suspect that the weather is now about to get a bit too hot for us hardy types who have been braving the weather over the last few months by wandering around in short sleeve shirts! So it may now become too hot to work in the garden and I will have to resign myself to sitting amongst the weeds sipping something cool.

My poor old vegetable plot, having been dug and looked quite presentable, is now covered in weeds again. I have decided, even if the weather permits, that there is no point digging it again until I have fenced it off. The three Boxer dogs think I have specially created this area as their personal loo!

Some progress has been made towards doing the fencing. There are now five bags of instant (just add water) concrete sitting in our hallway . . . well, you have to keep it dry don't you! And there are posts keeping dry in the garden shed.

As I work for myself (you must have seen my main web site www.hub-uk.com) I seem to have had too much to do lately to have any time to get into the garden . . . the grass will be up to our knees soon! Perhaps I will take some time out this weekend (now it is going to be really hot) and get the fencing done and, if time permits, make a gate to fit in the fencing so that we can get in and out of the vegetable plot.

Watch this space for further imminent developments.

Wouldn't you just know it!

2007-06-27T23:21:00.000+01:00

I'd been watching the weather all day and there had been no rain. As I was preparing the evening meal about 6.00 pm I was contemplating being able to do some more of the first dig which would break the back of the digging.

Guess what . . . a cloud burst! Fifteen minutes of heavy rain and that was the end of digging for another day. And the forecast isn't good!

Mind you what can you expect . . . it is Wimbledon fortnight!

It's not as if I can get on with putting fence posts in either as rain like we are getting would wash all the concrete out of the post holes before it has time to set.

It started raining . . .

2007-06-23T20:52:00.000+01:00

It started raining so that meant the end to digging for the day. Looking at it this evening it looks like it might be to wet to dig tomorrow as well. In fact, the weather report for the next few days is not good.

(That was taken in daylight not at night!)

Mind you I am under no pressure as I have given myself the whole of this summer to get it all ready for planting next Spring so there is plenty of time yet. Might be nice to get some salad stuff in if possible. Will have to wait and see.

So what do you do in the garden when it's wet? Well you can always head for the DIY stores like me to look at what is available for fencing and how much it is all going to cost.

Why do I need fencing for a plot in my own garden? You might ask. Garden pests that's what! Three of them who love to trample over everything and dig up anything that looks interesting.

I will have to get everything measured, work out how many posts I need and then get started. Concreting the posts in their holes is the biggest nuisance as I don't want to be mixing concrete. There are bags of ready mix available which you just add water to when it is in the hole. The cost is fine for doing one post but when you need six or seven posts . . . Will just have to see as I go along.

Having only a small car I might have to wait until I can persuade my wife to use her car to transport everything. Shame to make a mess of mine anyway. So perhpas I will keep out of the garden tomorrow.

Starting to make progress

2007-06-23T17:23:00.000+01:00

I didn’t decide to set up the Blog until a few days ago so what I am now showing hasn’t just happened over night!

I have pegged out the area roughly and you can see where I have started digging at the top end. The root system from the briers, the ivy and other creepers, not to mention a holly tree and other shrubs is a nightmare. Having said that the soil is very light and breaks up easily.

You will also notice that the Silver Birch and the Weeping Willow have grown since I originally planted them to screen the old garden shed. When I first moved into the property the garden shed was a real eye sore as it was falling down and looked fairly disgusting. I repaired the roof and the front of it a couple of years ago and then gave it a lick of timber coating which made it look a bit more respectable. Unfortunately during one of last winter's storms part of the roofing felt was ripped off so I will have to get that repaired by the Autumn. It is also in need of another coat of timber treatment although we have done the vegetable plot side which you can see in the next photograph.

If you are wondering what happened to the old apple tree, it has gone. It was blown down in the winter so I had to hire a chainsaw last Spring to get it cleared. What a mess! It hadn't done the grass any favours as it was like putting a mulch over it. This is all that remains:

There is nothing worse when clearing a new piece of ground than the green grass clumps so I decided to put my new "organic" weed killer to work. Just look how it has cleared the top growth:

If you are wondering what it is then I will tell you. It's a flame thrower. The gardening tool for all pyromaniacs.

I bought it in the Spring as the garden had become rather overgrown. I had used one many years ago when I helped my father in the garden. That must have been in the late Sixties and the amazing thing is that it is still exactly the same piece of equipment. Obviously they created the perfect design all those years ago. I have never seen one in a shop and got mine via the internet. (Can't remember where at the moment otherwise I would have posted a link - if you really need to know then email me).

One of the problems we are having this year is the regular rainfall. You start digging and it starts raining so you have to wait for everything to dry out.

Making it easier to see what is what!

2007-06-21T14:34:00.000+01:00

The picture I added to my first post does not exactly make clear what you are looking at unless like me you have seen the actual ground. So here are a couple more photographs with labels and red lines to mark out what you are supposed to be looking at:

On the next one there are a couple of trees labelled. The significance of these will become apparent as things develop:

How it started

2007-06-20T23:56:00.001+01:00

I've had the idea for some time. The idea of turning part of the garden into a vegetable plot.

My family home had over an acre of vegetable garden so looking after that with my grandfather meant I learnt quite a lot about how to prepare the soil and grow my own vegetables. Even after I married and left home I grew my own veg for many years. Nothing quite like the taste of vegetables you have grown yourself . . . freshly picked broad beans, some just dug new potatoes and plenty of bacon, with butter melting over the top! Mmmmm! Makes you hungry just thinking about it.

All this self sufficiency came to an end back in 1984 when I moved to work in London. The high powered life and the long working hours meant there was no time for gardening. Now twenty-three years later I have finally come full circle and decided to try growing my own again.

Growing my own veg seemed sort of appropriate as I run one of the leading cooking and recipe sites (www.hub-uk.com). Growing my own veg goes with the concept of eating good food.

And why the Blog? Well gardening is not something I want to feature on Hub-UK but I thought it would be fun to see how I get on clearing a bit of garden that has been neglected over the years. By keeping a record, by means of a Blog, I get to show what I am up to and to hopefully pick up some tips and hints along the way.

My idea is to keep the Blog as a diary of my vegetable plot and post whenever I do something, or possibly even when I fail to do something just because I feel plain lazy. I think this year will be taken up with preparing it for planting next year and when you see the photograph of what it was like you might understand why.