If at first you don't succeed...

My seedlings have unfortunately been taken by the strange weather we have been having. In an attempt to harden them off I put them outside....and they never made it back in! A very long bout of rain and wind removed their propagator tops and drowned them. so it is time to start again - hopefully tomorrow (unless I can squeeze in a bit of sowing before the rugby starts today!) I am determined to get a decent crop this year.

Plus - we have had a new fence put up. The garden is beginning to come together. Finally! Photos to come.

Stop...too much life!

Well, I came back from Scotland to find many of my seedlings 3-4 inches tall! Exciting, but I think they may be a bit lank/weedy to actually grow into anything worthwhile! Some will be ok...

I am hoping to get in the garden this weekend and re-pot some of my seedling, but rain is forecast and the greenhouse isn't up yet. We will see...

Oh, and my sprouting seeds were unfortunately passed their best when we got back. Better luck next time!

There's life!

I am please to report that already there are signs of life in my seed trays. Thyme was first to show, borage is there and a few others have just about started to show themselves. It's exciting to see your work come to life. i'm already looking forward to eating my home grown fruit/veg/herbs!

Beansprouts

Step 2 - the seeds are laid out and rinsed twice a day. I put these in my sprouter this morning and already they have started to...well...sprout!

The Urban Garden

A lovely site for gardening related gifts.

www.theurbangarden.co.uk

Sprouting Seeds

Unfortunately it was too dark after work to do anything in the garden tonight, but I have bought a seed sprouter and sprouting seeds to do a bit of 'indoor gardening'. Here I have Rocket and Mung Beans.

First step...soak seeds over night.

Now, this doesn't take a great deal of effort, but it's a start!

My Tiny Plot

Just found this fab blog.

http://www.mytinyplot.co.uk/

Great photos and very interesting!!

And sow it begns...

I did manage to get some seed sown yesterday. I planted Garlic Marco in pots outside and on my kitchen units I now have Ailsa Craig tomatoes, Jalepeno Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Basil, Parsley, Garlic Chives, Borage, Thyme, Ornamental Pepper - Firestorm & Coriander in mini propogators.

I also bought a mini Bay Bush (tree?) that is currently sitting on my window sill. And on Saturday I re-potted 5 Rosemary plugs i got on eBay and Majoram.

I am really looking forward to working in the garden, and am a bit gutted we're going to Scotland next weekend and won't be able to carry on! Will post more pics soon.

Photos

Here is the start of our patio. The retaining wall in the 2nd photo hold up our salad bed where we quite successfully grew lots of lettuce and rocket. (I loved how great the rocket tasted, and it was so easy!) and the pots along the wall were my first attempt at tomatoes. The ones we had were lovely, although we ended up with a lot more green tomatoes and several jars of green tomato chutney (a la Delia).

First Day (part two)

Several weeks ago I ordered a potato planting kit after giving in to my urges of wanting to find out how to grow these vegetables. They arrived last week and completely confused me; I have approximately 120 tubers and only 3 Potato barrels. I can plant 3 -4 tubers per barrel so the math just didn't add up for me. Since receiving my seed potatoes I have shamelessly been on the scrounge for tidy size buckets to enable me to grow as many of these as possible (Not liking to waste anything if I can help it). I have been promised some but as of yet none have materialised. I have been researching "growing potatoes" and have found out that there wasn't as much to fear about as I first thought. I have just put my earlies in to Chitt and am really looking forward to planting them and eventually eating them. I just hope that I can work the timings out successfully and don't end up with a mountain of potatoes in one glut. Last year I had some success in growing a small amount of Beetroot and Carrots and massive failures in my Swede and Cabbages. Not to be put off I may try the later two again to see if I can at least get one meal out of them. As Rhian mentioned the garden is a mess and is slowly being cleared, many weeks of digging to look forward to I think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the beginning...

The top photo shows the view from the top of the garden the first time we visited the house. Over 2 years ago! The little extension at the back was knocked down and a larger, double storey one built. The outhouses have also been knocked down.

The image below looks up the garden.

On the first day...

Today is the first day of the rest of our garden's life!
I wanted to keep a diary to see how it progresses and as a reference for next year, and I am hoping that putting it online and having other people see it will spur me on to keep it up to date and keep working. We will post photos of our successes (and failures) and look forward to comments, advice and help from other gardeners.
I am 25 and did a little bit of gardening last year (tomatoes and salads mainly) but I am hoping to spread out a bit more this year. Matthew (my fiance) and I moved into our house a year ago and the garden was a complete state...to be fair it still is, but we are working on it slowly and am hoping it will soon be a space we can enjoy and benefit from. We will have fruit, veg and herbs..and I'm hoping to sneak a few flowers in somewhere too.