Garden Project Update

 

Just an update really . . .

Here we have the finished shed - doors and fascias in place!

A new raised bed - using the old roofing from the Folly - and the piles of compost being dug out of the old compost bins as part of another project (more later!).

The positioning of the paving slabs has been decided upon, and that job is finished too.

Just a little more work to do on the ex-polytunnel / new fruit cage.

It now has an almost stone-filled plastic grid base in place - but we probably won't bother with netting it over this year (since there is no fruit yet to protect!).

Really pleased with how it is all coming along . . . and kudos again to Martin for all his hard work.

Project Fruit Cage - Stage One

Back in 2009 we laid out the fruit cage, and planted it up with raspberry canes (among other things) - we had a few years of good crops, but the canes have got much weaker with time, and have become increasingly unproductive.

It doesn't help either that over the years the ground has become ever more weed-ridden (despite an annual weeding exercise) - to the point where we now had more violets than strawberries!

So it was time to dig it all out properly (starting the side where the old canes were situated) - and today we planted it up with 15 new Glen Ample canes, which should hopefully take good hold for harvesting next year.

Stage Two will involve a full weeding out of the other side of the cage (still in progress), feeding the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes, and probably replanting throughout with strawberries.  Watch this space . . .

Water Works

The latest garden 'civil engineering' project involved getting a water supply to the bottom section of the garden by the fruit cage.

Martin dug out a channel from the tap at the back of the garage and laid some barrier pipe, with further protection from various bits of scrap metal piping / trunking we had lying about the place.  

All of which led down the garden, through the hedge, and to a new standpoint and tap by the fruit cage.

So we now have a ready water supply when needed without dragging a hose all round the garden.  

Although - of course - the weather has now changed, and it's been raining a fair bit so we haven't really had to use it yet!

 

Summer Berries

Fruits of the fruit cage . . .  strawberries, blackcurrants, and finally the redcurrant bush has got large enough to actually produce some redcurrants!

No raspberries - but have planted some new canes so hopefully they'll take for 2019. 

There'll be no blueberry harvest this year either - it's in a pot, and mea culpa it probably didn't get enough water in this hot weather - lots of very shrivelled blueberries!  At least the bush seems to have survived now we've started watering it properly.

Up the Fruit Cage Path

For a while now I'd been pondering the path in the fruit cage which, made up of large stones and broken concrete tile, was not very stable underfoot.


So having spotted some stone chippings on offer in the local supermarket  ...

... and with thanks to Martin for hauling all the bags to the end of the garden ...

... we now have a very nice pebbly path, which is much safer for weeding and harvesting from.

It all looks much nicer as well.



(I suppose I'd better confess that this photo was taken a good bit after April 2017 - yes, I'm retrospectively blogging again!).

Into the Fruit Cage

Final garden task of the autumn was to bring the fruit cage back under control - forgot to take a 'before' photo of the jungle of weeds - but the 'after 'looked something like this (but with slightly more flourishing strawberry plants as again I forgot to take a photo, so this is a retrospective taken nearer Christmas*).

So - what did we do?

• Weeded throughout (which took a lot of doing!);
• moved the strawberry plants to allow the impacted ground to be dug over, before replanting them again; 
• dug up the two gooseberry bushes, one of which was definitely dead after repeated saw-fly attacks, the other of which is now in a pot, and; 
• replanted some raspberry suckers which may or may not take (might need to get a new batch of raspberry plants in 2017).

Along the way had to relocate one frog and one toad who had taken up residence.

Will see how it all looks in the Spring - just have to remember to weed more often in the future!

* Yes I've been a bad blogger again, and am blogging October in December!

Keeping Out the Mice!

Someone had the bright idea today of using some of the waste slates from the roof to mouse-proof the fruit cage - it was hard work bashing them all in, but he got there in the end:

Now we'll just have to wait and see if the strawberry nibblage rate goes down . . .

Taming the Fruit Cage

Finally started on the garden this weekend - first task, the fruit cage:

This was a bit of a mess to be honest - one of the raspberry supports had collapsed one windy day, and we hadn't yet cut back the old raspberry canes.

The strawberries were choked up with dead leaves, and there were old weeds that had died back and new weeds coming up.



Anyway it all looks much tidier now - pruned, weeded, etc. etc. - and hopefully there'll be less places for mices to hide out when it comes to the strawberries bearing fruit!  Still pondering ways of keeping the little blighters out . . .

Update
Subsequently we've also dug up the blueberry bush, which was barely holding its own against the strawberries, and transplanted it into a large pot, filled with ericaceous compost - hopefully it will like that better!

Green Stuff

Time for a garden update  . . .

We've rotovated the main veg plot now, and planted out the courgettes and butternut squash - waiting for the green beans to come on a bit before they go out.  Potatoes have gone in both the veg plot and some pots.

The tomatoes aren't too far off being ready for planting on as well - the peppers and aubergines are still at an early stage though - sorting out the greenhouses has to be one of the next tasks on the list.






The fruit cage pretty much takes care of itself - the raspberries and strawberries are promising a bumper harvest anyway.



Still considering potential approaches to keeping the mice out mind you - there are plenty of strawberries to go round if only they finished one before starting another!

The biggest success story thus far is probably the broad beans - although Martin's Dad did the initial work of bringing these on - that said they seem to be doing very nicely thank you in one of the raise beds, safely tucked away from the bunnies behind a chicken-wire fence!

Raspberries Galore!

 

The fruit cage has definitely come into its own this year.  We do have a mouse problem which we need to look at for next year - they are burrowing under the base boards and appear to be living on a diet of strawberries, although there are always plenty left for us!  Indeed, we're still picking a good bowl of strawberries every couple of days or so, and the raspberry harvest is now well underway, and well out of reach of small furry creatures . . .


Since we've already got a good stock of jam, we've been freezing much of what we aren't actually eating.  Will have to look at raspberry recipes in due course:

How Does My Garden Grow?

Quick update on the garden - the larger of the two greenhouses is coming on now - the tomatoes are growing apace as are the cucumber plants we put in, although I think we are a little later with it all than last year.  In the smaller greenhouse we may actually get some grapes finally - although the chillis and peppers have a lot of growing to go:

 

The potato plot is however doing very well for itself, and on the fruit front everything has gone a bit wild - expecting a bumper crop of strawberries any day now - plus the rhubarb is still going strong:

Will blog something about the other veg plot soon - it too is growing well, but then so are the weeds - will upload a photo in the next couple of days when I've had a chance to weed it properly!!

Fruit and Two Veg

We've had some lovely sunny weather over the last few weeks (see future post - will link in due course) although most days have had a slight chill in the air. As such we've held off doing too much with the vegetable patches - other than digging them over a couple of times.

The soft fruit is coming along nicely though - the raspberry canes are coming up all over the place this year, and the gooseberry, blackcurrant and blueberry bushes are all in flower. The strawberries are looking healthy enough, and should provide a bumper crop in due course.

The only issue is keeping some of the local wildlife out. As you may remember something had all the blueberries last year, and there are ominous small holes indicating that mice (? or similar) are burrowing in under the base boards. Did some re-fortification works last weekend, tying down the netting in all the places that a squirrel may have found its way in . . .

Made the most of the last of the really sunny weather yesterday to finally get some planting done in the garden - notably starting to populate the two veg plots. Martin got the maincrop potatoes (Maris Piper) planted up in the smaller of the two plots (the one we had sweetcorn, courgettes, and left-over peas in last year).

I cleared out the last of the weeds and old netting from the frame in the main veg plot, and dug in some fertiliser, before planting up my onion seedlings, some of which are beginning to look like spring onions at least!

Finally, this morning, as the rain finally returned, we planted up some peas. Mindful of last year's poor showing, we're trying a new approach. Using some of the old guttering (which we replaced last year) we've planted up our first row in the garage - once this is through and sufficiently established to ensure that the birds can't do much damage we'll transplant back into the main veg plot. Hopefully this strategy will work!

Got a few more things to plant up still - the tomatoes and peppers and chillies are coming on now, but not ready for planting on yet - and we've got cucumbers and spinach and some salad veggies to plant as well as green beans. In the meantime, at least the potatoes and onions will appreciate a little rain . . .

Getting Growing

As Spring finally seems to be here, it's been time to get thinking about the new growing season. It's been such a cold start to the year that we're a little later getting growing - but in addition to the onions / chillis - we do have a range of seeds (tomatoes, courgettes, peppers) planted up on the windowsill awaiting germination.

The onions are doing ok, although I'm a little unconvinced about whether these spindly little seedlings will actually turn into monster onions!

A couple of weeks back we also planted up four tubs of potatoes, which are now sitting in the big greenhouse and showing the first signs of life. Otherwise we've been digging over the veg plots, and yesterday I did some weeding in the fruit cage, clearing out lots of dead strawberry leaves.

Everything is looking good there - all the fruit bushes are putting on their first leaves, and lots of new canes are coming up round last year's raspberries:

Speaking of fruit, the rhubarb is also doing very nicely thank you:

Elephant Tomato and the Lone Blueberry

One of our first tomatoes - in our fine tradition of deformed produce. We've had a few more tomatoes since, all much more normal looking.

The Lone Blueberry is an even more tragic tale . . . We had (at one point) lots of lovely ripening blueberries - then, one day, they were gone, except for the Lone Blueberry sitting on a strawberry leaf. No idea what got them, as far as we can see the fruit cage is intact - our only thought is that some clever bird / squirrel squeezed itself under the flap of netting at the top, ate the lot, and squeezed its way back out again.

Ah well, you live and learn . . . next year we tie down all the netting round the top and keep our fingers crossed!

Growing Elsewhere

Outside of the greenhouses (big and small) we have the old veg plot, the new veg plot, and the fruit cage. In terms of progress here it's a bit of a mixed picture . . .

Starting with the old veg plot:
- the onions are doing ok, although note for next year, don't plant in a block as it makes it difficult to weed;
- the broccoli has yielded a good first crop (now in the freezer) and hopefully there'll be more to follow;
- unfortunately things aren't going so well with the potatoes - some of which actually look like they are dying back - although I suppose we can't judge until we actually pull them.


The peas, which were last year's success story, have also proved somewhat disappointing. Our main problem here was that something ate most of them (note for next year, plant them deeper) - the ones that are left are doing well mind you, and we've filled in the gaps with some green beans (carefully started off in the greenhouse and transplanted).


In the new veg plot:
- the success story (at least thus far) is the sweetcorn, which is looking good;
- in between the sweetcorn is some butternut squash, which hasn't done much at all yet;
- a subsidiary row of peas has grown thickly, but only to about 20cm high . . .



The courgettes are doing better - six plants in all, and we should hopefully be getting a reasonable harvest out of these.



Finally the fruit cage:
- the raspberries, blackcurrants, and gooseberries never really got anywhere this year - we've just harvested a handful of raspberries;
- more on the blueberry bush later, but it broadly seems to be be doing ok;
- the strawberries have proved most attractive to the local wildlife with numerous nibblings of the net - as a result we've had to refortify with wire netting (as pictured).



Even so, despite some nibblings here and there, the strawberry harvest is going very well, indeed; six plus large bowls and more to come - when this year's runners have established themselves, I think we're looking at strawberry jam in 2010.

Done!

The fruit cage that is . . . just hope it doesn't blow away overnight (it's a bit windy here just now!). All being well, the strawberries and blueberry should be safe now from marauding bunnies.