Sunday 26 February 2012

A fantastic day in the garden!

It was a beautiful spring day today, perfect weather for gardening. I have been quite busy today, I know it is probably a little early but as usual I could not wait, I sowed out my swift potatoes that are an early variety. The shoots on them were quite large and they have been planted in my potato bags which are quite sheltered and being in the Southeast, we can plant out a little earlier than some places in the UK. I also sowed some more Mussellberg leeks, and some early purple sprouting broccoli. The little plastic greenhouse and the summerhouse are fast filling up with seed trays as are the window sills indoors. I'll be glad of the extra space when the new greenhouse is up and running.
I have finally managed to finish digging the vegetable plot, as the weather has been dry it was perfect. I put on loads of compost out of the compost bins and covered it with cardboard and then covered it all with a weed suppressant membrane. Over winter it had all broken down and I have now dug it all in. My soil structure has greatly improved since I first started out on the vegetable plot. The weeds were taking over, the soil was very poor and slightly sandy. Now since I have been working the soil I have a rich dark crumbly soil, all the hard work is starting to pay off as each year my crops get better and better. I sowed some parsnips today, I'm hoping these will grow as they are new seeds and last year the ones I sowed never showed up at all. I did not realize that parsnips are one of the seeds that do not last more than a season, and I was sowing seeds that I had left over from the previous year. As they say you live and learn. Everyday in the world of growing your own or gardening of any kind there is always new things to learn, it is all one big learning curve.
The blueberries I planted a few weeks ago seem to have taken well, there is plenty of new growth. They are still sitting in the summerhouse at the moment. In a couple of weeks I will put them outside for a few hours a day so they get used to the temperature change, they are in quite large clay pots, so one of the boys will be doing that for me! I watered all the seedlings and the sweet peas are shooting through and low and behold as I had sown some more leeks as I had given up hope of the ones I sowed several weeks ago ever appearing, they are now coming through too, so I will have plenty of leeks to keep me going through the winter. The girls have had a great day today, I emptied out a bag of soil that I had carrots growing in last year into their run, they have been busily pecking and scratching away in it happily all day. It is the quietest they have been when I have been pottering in the garden.
And finally.... I hope my blog has inspired some of you to grow your own vegetables or even consider becoming a keeper of hens If you don't have the room in the garden to have a vegetable plot why not consider a raised bed garden or even container gardening to try and grow your own vegetables. There is nothing better than picking fresh produce from the garden and they taste even better for it.

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