13 - 14th February

13^th February

It was last July that we ordered a pine shelf with 6 layers for the conservatory to go just inside the back door to keep tidy all those things that just seem to get to a position where they are lying around, messing up the place and getting in everybody’s way. Tonight, I assembled them and they look grand. The top 2 shelves are for seedlings. What about the mini greenhouse you may ask? Well, these shelves were thought of and ordered months before my wife had the thought to buy me that piece of equipment, and only a short while after I had moved trays and trays of seedlings from the conservatory floor to the outside world. This year I can start off seeds early in the conservatory where they will not be trodden on or run over by scooters, then move them out to the greenhouse whence I can sow others inside. The greenhouse can house far more than the conservatory shelves can so there will be no backlog there.

This week I received my second delivery of onion sets. I ordered 2 x 200g bags of setton and sturon, rather than 1 x 400g bag like last year. My thinking is that if I grow 2 varieties then I am hedging my bets in case one variety does not do so well. I will start these off in the conservatory in little plugs – my yoghurt pot collection - and if I do that next week sometime then it will be a good 7 weeks earlier than last year which means 7 weeks extra growth, plus more protection  from rabbits by the new wire mesh that I bought via ebay – 50m for £19.99 plus postage which still made it better value than anything I saw last year. The fact that I did not buy any mesh last year is testimony to how expensive it was.

Exbury Gardens, Hampshire

14^th February

It has been a good day for me and the garden. After breakfast, as my wife lay sleeping enjoying a well earned rest (I get my lay-in on a Sunday when she gets up with the boys), I got to work with a sheet of paper and planned out the allotment for this year. In section 1 will be carrots growing in loose soil in a new raised bed (hopefully), with space for a few flowers at the other end and a row of garlic. Section 2 will be leeks and section 3 will be onions, all in raised beds. Sections 4, 5 and 6 will be brassicas. The ones I aim to grow are the same as last year – sprouts, sprouting broccoli and cauliflower, but this time with some anti-butterfly netting! Section 7 will be courgettes and cucumbers, section 8 will be sweet peppers and pumpkins and section 9 will be crown prince and butternut squash and sweetcorn. Chard will be dotted about as will a few flowers.

Back home will be the strawberries, the usual herbs, a chilli or 2 and a few pots of salad leaves.

I was able to spend some decent time in the garden this afternoon. I finished sieving the compost in bin number 2 and mulching the border with it, and then I started emptying compost from the full bin number 1 into the empty bin 2, mixing it with sawdust, shredded paper and horse manure and giving it all a good stir. I’ll leave it at that for a while and add a week or two’s worth of vegetable peelings as that will add more nitrogen based green material into what is a pretty heavily laden carbon based brown material bin at present. Having a good mix promotes decomposition. The main thing is that I now have space in which to put the kitchen waste again.

Even better was that I have now crossed off a long standing item on my ‘to-do’ list in that I have not only assembled the shelves and put them in the conservatory, but I have also cleared out the space, swept and vacuumed and moved many toys, balls, plastic buckets and spades to the garage compartment of the playhouse. One can now walk freely through our conservatory to the back garden – apart from my exercise bike that is right in front of the door which was where the shelves are now but will be going upstairs (as soon as we’ve cleared that area!) What is more, for once my work was timed to perfection. Almost spookily, the moment I’d finished, my wife called to say dinner would be in 5 minutes – the right amount of time to lock up the shed and back door, get changed, wash my hands and sit up for a meal – perfect.