Monday 26 February 2018

Vegetable Garden Planning 2018

As the wind and freezing weather are lashing the house, my mind has turned to summer and what could be our harvests.  The garden is large here and the area we will be growing vegetables is nearly as big as our previous homes garden.  It is going to take a lot of planning as the wind is fierce here and comes off of the sea from 2 sides as it is a peninsula.

Dont you just love the picture above?  I would love this to be my garden.  I have grand plans for my tomatoes this year.  I would like to grow as many as possible so that we can make sauce for the winter.  Although passata is only 35p a cube from Tescos at present, I have to see what we can get out of the garden as Brexit will surely make food prices go higher, especially as my beloved passata comes from Italy.

I also need to look into the longer term vegetables such as my lovely greens, I know some people hate them, but I love brussel sprouts, kale, chard, cabbage - anything that is green really.  I will for sure be planting mizuna and escarole (frilly endive), both are a bit punchy for a lettuce.  I am very interested to see if I can grow water cress.  

Unfortunately the ground here is pure clay, I could throw pots from it.  It is deadly slippy and I have fallen and hurt myself several times in the last 5 months.  Once only inches from my neck and head I got up to find 2 huge pointed granite stones, if I had fallen any closer it would have been curtains for me.

The garden is still extremely over grown.  What we thought were weaping willow trees are in fact very old apple trees that are covered in brambles hanging over like ropes.  At the time of viewing the house this area was completely impenetrable, at present we do not know how many fruit trees we have but there are at least 12 apples and 8 pear trees.  Some are in a really bad state and have had limbs come down in the bad weather.

There is also a very large fruit cage that is all brambles.  I had thought about chopping it all to the ground and getting some chickens in to clean it out and add some organic matter to the area, but I am not into having live stock really (although I am sure the dogs would love to sit there watching them like they do at my sisters house.  I presume it is like TV for them, they dont like it when they cluck too loudly though... ha ha).

I am most looking forward to salad items and herbs coming up in the garden.  They are quite expensive in the shops.

What are you hoping to grow?  

edit: this was a scheduled post, I am not sure what I did incorrectly.

11 comments:

northsider said...

Hi Sol. If you lived near me we would bring the mini digger over and clear any overgrown areas for you. I suppose you could be laying paths, making raised beds, spreading much.. I look forward to seeing your veg plot pictures.

local alien said...

In the winter we grow lettuces, rocket, onions and sometimes potatoes. Our summer garden isn't really worthwhile. We spend a lot of money for the daily, sometimes twice daily watering. Summer vegetables are so cheap and fruit too. I grow more herbs and things like celery, oegano and parsley which we use almost everyday and are so handy to have outside the door.
Good luck with yours. Needs lots of preparation, tlc and compost! Our compost is not the best. winter it is mainly lemons, orange rind and coffee grounds and ash. Summer it is watermelon rind which takes over.

Elaine said...

Clay soil here...and bally dangerous stuff it is, too. Very scary.
Your garden sounds really exciting, hard work to come, but it will be fabulous. I bet the dogs are loving it. We'll just be growing the usual things, nothing special, but I do love eating absolutely fresh from the garden produce. In summer we eat according to whatever is ready in the garden!

The farm along the road from us used to grow watercress. It would be cut, taken by donkey to the railway station at the end of the road, then off it would go to London. I wish they still grew it! These days it is barley, sheep and cows.

Sol said...

hey Dave, We will have to get diggers in at some point as we have 2 huge ponds that need filling. One is far too close to the house as in it is less than 2 foot from the conservatory so you have to walk over a bridge to get into the garden. Looks kind of pretty but is not practical at all and very dangerous I have fallen in as has my sister. There is a very handy man a few doors down who has offered to help us. We need an area for bees :)

Hey Linda, that is good going to be able to grow lettuce in the winter. We are warmer than most of the UK here and have plentiful water falling from the sky most afternoons. We are also on a bore hole so it doesnt cost us to water the garden, just the upkeep of the solar panel to drive the pump. it needs a little attention every week to keep it in prime condition. We have no other water at the property apart from the stream at the bottom of the garden. We will have to bring in a huge amount of soil and cart it all the way down by hand in the wheel barrow.

I might even try and grow some onions! But more than likely I will grow walking onions as they dont need upkeep or to me replanted. They are self sufficient.

Sol said...

Hey Elaine, I dont think exciting is the word for it. Horrific maybe? lol we just keep hacking back little by little. We have some lovely tree ferns. And I found a lot of succulents, which I will have to learn how to look after but seeing as they are still there and that they have been left out in all weathers for 4 years they must be some tough plants!

Mac n' Janet said...

It feels good to plan our gardens, our seed potatoes go in soon. That's scary about falling.

Sol said...

Hey Janet, I dont have any seed potatoes I need to get on that. I am going to grow them in potato bags as the ground is too hard and I would never get them back out! Yes I really hurt my shoulder but when I got back up, the stones were right next to my head! dangerous

Jules said...

It all sounds a lot of hard work but very exciting too. We have the tiniest of growing spaces but I'm going to have a think this weekend as to what we will plant this year. X

Sol said...

Hey Jules, big or small garden it all needs planning. I dont want to miss anything out! Hope you are well

Tom Stephenson said...

You seem to have fallen foul of copyright...

Sol said...

THanks Tom, will have to look at what have done wrong as it is a copyright free site?