Veg Patch

To read the story of my Veg/Flower Patch in chronological order use the links in the Blog Archive

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Now all I have to do is wait!

And for those of you that know me well, you will be aware that patience is definitely not one of my virtues ( if I have any at all.) 


The reason for my wait? Well yesterday I planted the final seedling from the greenhouse into the beds outside. The beds are well and truly full now, so its no longer up to me what happens, now I am relying on Mother Nature. 


After my last post, it was time to give the leaning tower of Barton a bit of company, so with my newly acquired tower building skill I set too. The last experience showed that 4 stakes were not enough to keep it upright, and using gardening wire just pulled it out of shape. So this time, five bamboo canes and string, it was certainly much easier and quicker. In no time at all there were three cane towers in the bed. 



The Peas were soon in and next was the Rocket.



Next on the list - Spinach


Closely followed by Tomato's 


A nice green hairnet, to save the Spinach from the Pidgeon's 


A random planting of Kos Lettuce


A couple more hairnets, 


and it was done. My project started in the depths of winter is now established. My first ever fully planted Vegetable Garden! Cue trumpet Fanfare!!!! 


What a difference to the header picture on this blog. No longer a clean tidy sterile garden, now a living, growing thing. Once it gets a bit more established I shall change that picture. 

Don't think that's the end though, Oh no, I have lots of other things to bore you with. Of course, I have to share the first pick of everything with you, and on that note, I have had more success. The first 6 strawberries were wonderful, and we have had quite a few more since then, but now it was the turn of the Italian salad leaves. 


By Saturday, they were of sufficient size and quantity to make the ultimate sacrifice. A quick snip with the scissors and they were in a bowl on the way the the kitchen. 


A very vigorous wash, to ensure there was no lurking protein in the form of slug, snail, ant, etc and then a quick spin 


They looked lovely, so an hour or so in the fridge whilst I did other things .


and then onto the plate for Dinner.


Delicious. Shame the tomato's in the greenhouse aren't ready yet, but we have them to look forward to.


On to the Animals. Margot is continuing in her efforts to escape on a daily basis. I have given up now. If she wants to be out then I let her, its usually not long before she is trying to get back in with Bab's and Geri and as all the plants are now established, she can't do too much damage. Because of her frequent escape attempts, I am considering renaming her after Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape. He was called "Hilts"" but was known as "The Cooler King" I think if I start calling her that instead, she may begin to think she will be joining her pre packed relatives, that I get from tesco, in the freezer. That may cause her to think a little before she heads off down the garden!


And then the Puppy. I know he is growing but he is still a baby. This has been his first experience of warm weather and he has found it a bit hot. So the other day when I was watering the plants (No we don't have a hosepipe ban) he decided to cool off a bit and have a nice cold drink.


 

And finally we had a day out on Monday and went to Exbury Gardens . The gardens are in full  bloom at the moment and it was a beautiful sight, here are some of my highlights. 









Hope you enjoyed the blooms as much as I did. Oh well time to do some inside jobs, Banana loaf in the oven and washing ready to go outside. Enjoy your week and don't work too hard!

9 comments:

  1. Isn't it fun to eat what you planted? I know how thoroughly you will enjoy the fruits of your labours all summer long. And what a beautiful garden - such stunning ornamental trees!

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  2. Lorraine, good luck with your garden! I'm just getting a small garden planted now. Liked your video of Puppy enjoyed the cool water (and trying to grab the water from the hose)! Beautiful flowers and trees!

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  3. Lovely videos - Gibson is shooting up and looks to love water. 'Our dog' would run a mile if we did that to her. So did Gibson shake all over you afterwards. (To explain the quotation marks really my sister's dog - but she thinks of our house as a second home!)

    I've heard of Exbury azaleas do they breed varieties there.

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    1. I did get a bit wet, hence the shriek at the end of the second video.. Itw was very cold water. I did have a a quick look in the Plant Centre at Exbury, they had most of the varieties that were in the garden, but I don't know if they breed their own varieties. There is an American garden which only contains Azaleas breed in the USA. I must admit my favourite was in that section, the beautiful pink one.

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  4. Your vegetable garden is so neat and organized. I laughed out loud at your puppy with the water hose. The Exbury Gardens are very nice, too. Flowers are my absolute favorite things to grow.

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  5. You just show the benefit of having a garden in the backyard! I love the gardening.

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  6. I just love your grow boxes. The garden is very nice and I bet you love to stroll through it in the evening. I love to check out my garden when the nights are cool.

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  7. I am so glad I came across your blog! My boyfriend and I are newbies at gardening and we are taking our second shot at it this year. Last year we only ended up with cucumbers and watermelon, but this year we are hoping to get more vegetables so that I can prepare some garden fresh meals like you posted. Also, thank you for showing pictures of your towers for vine plants because I have been questioning what I should do for my beans. With limited space, I am trying to have any vine plants grow vertically and climb. Do you have any suggestions for growing watermelon and cucumbers vertically since they are large and become heavy? I look forward to seeing and learning more as your garden continues to grow!

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  8. Gordon Bennett Tone, how big's the garden? (said in a cockney accent) Hens an all with pup in tow?

    It is really nice to know that you planted all these seeds and can see where your food is coming from. I don't have a garden so do you mind sending me a few seeds, with good soil so I can grow it in my 2ft x 2ft flat, please ?Yes, I'm in England, space costs big money.

    That salad looks great, and I'm sure those eggs taste good too.

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