The preparation continues!

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Wow, people are reading this! I actually feel obligated to write it now, lol. A good thing!

Well, now that the weather’s starting to warm a little (we actually got into double figured yesterday!) I’ve been out in the garden with my shiney new hoe, a hand-held fork and a giant nappy (I don’t have anything else to kneel on at the moment, and while the weather may be warmer it’s still far from dry). I’ve been working on pulling up the turf mat the last occupants put down; it’s uneven, ugly and depleted of all neutrients. I’ve been digging and de-rooting/de-stoning the earth as I’ve been going, and while I’ve still only done about 1/6th of the garden, I’m making progress.

I’m also making plans for what to do with the plot; it’s split practically in half, one half lawn (with a little flower bed) and the other half currently covered in gravel on a black tarp, which I plan to pull up, ‘pot’ the gravel (I don’t know if it’s a trick anyone else uses, but my mother in law tends to fill large pots with gravel, then a few inches of soil, and grow verious flowers and herbs in them by the front door. The sheer weight detters vandals and is good drainage in the big pots, and it means you’ve always got gravel at hand if you need to top up the stuff in the driveway!) anduse the revealed space as the vegetable patch.

The garden’s quite big; the gravel is about 18 foot long, followed by the lawn which is about 15 foot long, and a little flower bed against the house. On the north and east edges, there’s a simple wooden fence about 6’ high. On the westen side is a 2’ cement path, with a 6’ wide patio, including a 6′×8′ shed, a compost area, and a little table-and-chairs spot in a sunny corner by the house. There’s also plenty of room for pot plants and a little PVC ‘greenhouse’ if I want. The whole thing’s about 30’-35’ long at various places.

I’m planning to split the vegetable patch in three beds with a path along each fence. The beds will be 5′×17′, which I’ve split into 5 patches of 3′×5′ and one patch of 2′×5′. This seems to be a pretty good size for the smaller crops (onions, garlic, scorzonera and salsify, etc) without seperateing the 5′×17′ beds for the larger crops, like squashes and potatoes, which can simply be grown across several of these smaller beds. I’ve started thinking about where I’ll put what, and looking through the seeds I’ve bought and been gifted.

I’m also planning the borders, pots, front garden, etc. The front garden will probably stay barren or maybe have a couple of little fruit trees. It’s south facing and so gets some good sun, and it’s a good size for a little bit of a garden, but we’re in a little cul-de-sac in a….not a bad area, but the sort of area where kids getting into your garden and wrecking it all is a problem. Or I might grow carrots out there or something; something that doesn’t look like something worth vandalizing, or I can put a couple of trellises up next to the front windows (where we can always see them) and grow some vines. Something like that. Speaking of, I have 3 raspberry bushes planted in the flowerbed at the back, and I’m thinking of spreading wildflower seeds on the lawn, once I’ve finished rehabilitating it.

I’m looking into companion planting, too, mostly for the sake of my poor Tumbling Tom’s; they don’t like the at the moment. I remember my nan (who loved ‘the food of the med’) always swore that tomatoes and basil helped each other grow, and kept the tumbling type (tomatoes that is, not basil) in a windowbox with basil inbetween the plants. They always grew really well, and were right outside the kitchen window, too!

• 17 Feb, 2009
• 4 likes

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