Tag Archives: Riased beds

Sowing is sweet during lunchtimes

Posted on by
Reply

As we’re working from home we do have a bit of an advantage that we can do a litle bit of gardening at lunchtime during good weather. Today as it was on the warmer side we decided to sow a few more seeds. The kitchen window has become a little crowded so we utilised some spare space in the raised beds under plastic out in the back.

The second covered raised bed is starting to fill up too. The celery cut from the base is starting to grow, those volunteer giant garlic bulbs are doing well and we have some parsnips in the middle so we decided to put some pots of sweet peas either side. Hope they like the heat under the plastic as we haven’t had decent sweet peas for a few years now. The below pic is going back a few years but it is inspiring us to have some sweet peas back in the garden again.

Life on the wild side

Posted on by
1

It’s going to be hot this forthcoming week, we’re looking at nearly 30°C in SE23 and we think the garden is going to enjoy it. So get the watering, weekly feed and any fiddling with a hoe out of the way early and then park yourself in the shade and enjoy the weather.

The courgette/zucchinni plant we stuck in a pot as we couldn’t find any space (above) is doing well, giving us some nice flowers. The area around it with the raised beds of potatoes (below) are also on their way but impatient as we are, we keep looking around the plants and still only getting golf ball sized spuds.

The one raised bed of tomatoes are now setting fruit and we’re checking that there’s no side shoots forming and tying the main stalk to the support canes when we remember.

And on the wildlife tip, we’ve put another “pothole pond” down the wild bit (below) after being influenced by Bill Shimmers’ great pond here. We stuck some wood leading into the water after Bill mentioned in his reply of our effort on Twitter. “Any water body adds extra wildlife habitat to a garden. One thing I always include, any steep sided ponds need a sloping shelf or ramp to allow critters to get out as well as in. Stones or branches will do.” Our one is not exactly steep but we’re including the sticks to add further disguise to the former B&Q product container.

And in our main pic this week are the inhabitants of our pond, well part of the mob that are in there at the moment. And the big question is where do they disappear to? Enjoy this great weather when pondering on that thought.

Where’s the buds, bud?

Posted on by
Reply

Things are certainly up and down in the garden at the moment with the mad mix of weather continuing into July. One thing I have noticed is that the two tomato plants in the raised bed behind the salad patch are looking well healthy with strong growth and lots of green, too much green in fact as there’s no sign of any flowers yet!

I am more than certain it’s to do with the fertility of the soil (it mentions in one of my gardening books that a high nitrogen content causes more leaf than flowers). The raised bed was supposed to be filled with a good mixture of top soil with compost from the heap. I think I must have overdone it on the compost as the Tomato plants in other parts of the garden are doing well with flower trusses forming. Ah well, you win some you lose some and with this gardening lark it’s all about learning isn’t it?

Also here’s how the root veg bed is looking (with another couple of Tomato plants at the rear). There’s a few spaces here and there where the sowing earlier in the year didn’t take but I’ll resow and fill in the gaps on the next root day.

On the subject of Tomato plants, I was down the Walworth Road on Sunday and visited East Street market looking for old records and passed a road off the main drag (about half-way down towards the Old Kent Rd) where there were plant stalls. There was a mixture of veg and bedding quite cheap and at the end of the row an old man was selling what looked like rejected plants even cheaper. The plants looked a bit past their sell-by date and were parched to say the least and I don’t think I would have taken a chance as the plants on the other stalls were a bargain anyway.

Incidentally, I spent a whacking £1.80 on a pile of pop/reggae singles from the 70’s (including Bob and Marcia’s Young Gifted and Black, Harry J All Star’s Liquidator and the Detroit Emerald’s Ghetto Child) from a stall where they were playing the latest pop hits from Jim Reeves and Wizzard. Brilliant!