June 2017

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2nd June

Dave has been collecting planks for us, to replace all the old rotten wooden borders. Just look and see what he has found in a barn clearance he recently did.

 Wow, what amazingly strong and heavy duty borders they will create.

That's it for now. Mr S has got a job to do, stripping the old and replacing with new planks.


3rd June


Ready to replace the old borders, here we go.

  
They are so heavy, definitely a job for two strong people.

The courgette, pumpkin and squash bed is almost done.

A friendly LG gardener gave me a rake out of his shed, and said you'll not find one like this one anywhere....'cos I made this'.

Wow, how amazing is that.

He then gave me a brand new hoe, which he said he never used, so I could put it to use in my garden. An old rake and a new hoe, how about that. I now need to learn how to use such gardening tools.

Well, I raked this bed, and would like Mr S to make an Asparagus bed in the middle for some some asparagus I have started from seed in the conservatory. They are almost ready to be planted out now.

And here we have it.

The asparagus take three to four years before they can be harvested. I was telling my son this and he looked at me and said and the lease on the LG is for two years. Hah! No there is no lease, we have it now for as long we can manage.

There are some LG tenants who have been her for 37 years. Gosh, can you believe this ? I find it hard to believe.

Well at this stage of my life, I would love to think I have 37 healthy years ahead of me...

So, this is almost ready now for my asparagus to go in.


4th June



Ok, levelling my asparagus bed.

 And they are in...

Now I have to wait for 3 to 4 years before I can enjoy this crop.



4th June

Dwarf pear tree has pears on it.

Planted chard from seed and they have begun to come through.

This is the bed I created with broccoli and brussel sprouts last week. After having looked after the shoots in the conservatory and then repotting them and hardening in the garden before putting them in the LG bed...all been eaten away. This made me so sad and upset...

Potatoes are doing great, and have really filled all the bed where they were planted.

Peas and few mange-tout looking quite healthy.

 Broad beans looking good.

 The courgettes, pumpkin and squash bed is beginning to take off.

Asparagus not looking too healthy, but i think they will be ok.

11th June

Peas and mangetout are beginning to show.

Broad Beans looking quite healthy

Courgette, pumpkin and squash bed is beginning to flourish

18th June

A handful of strawberries from the strawberry tower

22nd June

I think the courgette are going to take over again like last year

Chard is really taking off and I also planted kale seeds next to it at the same time and as soon as the plants came through the soil, they were eaten like the broccoli and sprouts to the ground.

This year I put in some sweet corn seeds and look, a success.

Sweet corn

27th June

For the last few days we have had lot of rain. Great for the LG.

Visiting the LG today just showed how much everything had grown just over a week.

At the same time the whole area has sprouted weeds. Today is weeds pulling day.

Weeding

Weeding

Strawberry bed - wow ! Just covered in runners and plants

Chard and spinach
 is ready for its first harvest

Today I picked 1kg 700g of chard

700g of spinach

All so fresh and organic.

Only a handful of strawberries from a huge bed

White radish

30th June

Although most of the broccoli and brussels plants were eaten to the roots, some are beginning to show signs of life. So, I decided to pull them up and put them in the soil and cover the surrounding soil with ground covering. This will hopefully keep the slugs and weeds at bay.  Next, I covered the area with a net, to keep animals away.

Peas look so healthy

Not many but, are ready for picking

May

May 


13th May

Planted courgettes in the prepared bed

20th May

                                                   More broccoli and sprout plants planted

 Replacing the old wooden panels with new solid ones 

to create neat borders around the  beds

Raspberries taking off

Strawberries plants looking healthy in the bed. Many seem to have blossomed, hopefully with many strawberries to come.

Chives heads looking so colourful

24th May

Flower bed

Winter onions looking good

Coriander and spinach

25th May

Visit to the LG and this is how it is looking towards end of May.

The dwarf fruit trees are looking really healthy.

This whole bed is being devoted to rows of courgettes, pumpkins, butternut squash and round squash.

26th May

 So many weeds are cropping up everywhere. We spent hours weeding today.

Some of these onions are almost ready to harvest. These were planted last November as winter onions.

April

April

After Kerala everything appears to be so cold and barren back at home. I looked at my broad beans and took them to the Leisure Garden.

2nd April

Put the broad beans into bed two. They were planted in pots in the cold frame in January and now are hardy enough to go out into the soil.

3rd April

Potatoes had begun to sprout at home. Decided to put them straight into a bed at the LG. if they work, fine: if not, no loss.

March is still cold and not much to do at the LG at the moment apart from getting the beds ready and tidy up.

 Getting the frame ready for the raspberries

 Dwarf pear tree just coming into bud

Bed ready for planting

Lovely blue March sky

5th April

I had decided not to put potatoes in this year, then could not resist them. I love potatoes cooked in any form.

Bed two is the only bed where the ground is very hard unlike the other beds. Decided to use this bed for the potatoes as the potatoes will break up the soil.

Preparing the bed for the potatoes

Ready for planting

Friendly visitor

17th April 

The weather has  not been too good to spend time at the LG. Today was a good day, so decided to put some purple sprouting broccoli and brussel sprouts that I had propagated in the conservatory and butternut squash.

Brussels and broccoli planting

butternut squash

The strawberries in the strawberry tower did not work well last year. Decided to move the strawberry towers to the back of the garden and planted some more plants in them.

Strawberry towers

25th April 

Dave moved some pallets that we had collected to the LG and together with Mr S, erected one compost box. Need few more pallets to create three compost boxes.

Fixing the pallets

  

and here we have one complete compost pallet box.

Looking good, just need to have some panels of wood to enclose the gaps.

Come to watch

Raspberries looking good.

30th April

Time to tidy up the beds.

Replacing old rotten wooden panels.