In The Beginning
Having returned from a trip to Slovenia, I'm feeling even more inspired to turn my humble garden into a productive area this year. Most of the villagers there have their very neat vegetable gardens close to the house. I'm not sure I could take on a full blown allotment and they're in such high demand these days but have often planted tomatoes, courgettes and a few salad vegetables over the years.
This year I want to plant even more, so that I have a good supply of vegetables and maybe even fruit throughout the remainder of the year. I intend to outline my progress in my blog with information on what I'm planting when and how I get on. I'm not going to grow any major crops but want to plant fairly intensively and productively.
I live in Sussex on the south coast of the UK, so the soil is pretty chalky but enriched with my own home-made compost which gets all the prunings, weedings, clippings and cuttings from my garden as well as all the vegetable waste from the kitchen. Waste not want not. Last year I gave most of one heap to a friend for his allotment as I didn't need it all. He grows a huge variety of fruit and vegetables, so I'm not even going to try and compete on that scale. I have a double compost bin and cleared out one side earlier this year by giving most of it to a neighbour and shifting the rest into two large dustbins. One side of the composter was filled a few weeks ago and is now being left to rot down and the other side is filling rapidly but fortunately settles down just as quickly.
There's a large population of slugs and snails with which I'm going to be competing. I expect to be battling with them most of the year as well as the visiting cats, which take great pleasure in using any new areas of soil as their toilet! However, I'll be using environmental pest control as much as possible.
I've been reading a few articles about square foot gardening, so my idea is to have a 3ft x 5ft 'square' as the main veg growing area, maybe some smaller squares and several pots. The garden faces east and gets sun for most of the day from early morning until about five or six in the evening. The patio area where most of the pots will go is in sun until early afternoon - around 2pm.
Monthly Update for August
What's happening in the garden this month.
Despite the changes in weather over the summer, the garden has been growing like mad with the mix of rain and sunshine. The blueberries have been good, although not a huge quantity but enough to add to a few breakfasts and usually picking a few each day.Once the courgettes got going, I've been picking them regularly - while competing with the slugs and snails that have been taking a liking to the young fruits as they grow. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen up and I haven't been able to resist picking the first couple straight from the plant. I've picked my first broad beans and the runner beans are now starting to be harvested.
Other things have been disappointing. I've picked just one beetroot so far and have a couple more growing along with about three carrots! The lettuce has just about given me enough to pick a few leaves every couple of days for salads.
The cucumber which was planted quite late has a few small fruits coming through and the squash has finally taken off, so I'm hoping for a late harvest of those.
The Edible Garden Blog
I've created a blog to keep you updated on my progress with my new Edible Garden. You can read what's new, what's happening, my progress, failures and successes along with photos, by reading my blog. I'll be updating it on a regular basis each time I sow, plant or tend my growing garden.
Just click on any of the entries below to read about it in more detail.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byMaking Compost
Compost bins come in many shapes and sizes from a simple wire container to expensive, wooden bins with removable sides and lid. Many local councils sell plastic bins to encourage householders to recycle the kitchen and garden waste.
In the UK, 40% of household waste that ends up in landfill could be recycled as compost. There's something very satisfying about turning a pile of smelly, rotting kitchen waste into a wonderful rich mixture that feeds back into the soil the nutrients plants take out of it and is far better than adding chemical fertilisers.
If you don't already have one, you only need a small amount of space in your garden and it's easy to setup one up. Make one out of recycled wood, ideally two so you can fill one while the other is rotting down.
Place it on bare earth if possible and a warm sunny site will speed up the process. Keep it covered with either old carpet, a wooden lid or plastic sheet to keep in the heat and keep out the worst of the rain but compost needs air as well so don't cover it too tightly.
Put in - all kitchen vegetable waste (uncooked), teabags, coffee grains, hair, fur, shredded paper, animal bedding, egg shells (crushed), grass cuttings, prunings, clippings, avoid too much citrus waste.
Don't add - meat or fish, persistent weeds, cooked food, woody stems (unless shredded)
Water it in summer or if it gets very dry.
Turn occasionally to help the composting process.
Add a layer of grass or soil every now and then to keep a good mix of wet and dry and to stop it becoming too slimy. Torn up cardboard and paper will also help.
Turn it every few weeks to speed up the process. It will take a good six months to a year for good compost to rot down so having more than one bin definitely helps.
Sit back let nature do it's thing and enjoy the results in a few months time.
Gardening jobs for June
What you should be doing in the garden this month.
- Mow the lawn regularly - leave if the weather is very dry.
- Keep dead-head roses - they may flower again later in the year.
- Dead-head and remove flowering growths on herbaceous plants.
- Water vegetables regularly in dry weather (every day if necessary)- in the evening to conserve moisture.
- Protect fruit bushes from birds.
- Continue sowing salad crops.
- Take cuttings of any shrubs and herbs you want to propagate.
Recommended Books on Gardening
My personal favourites
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 10/15/2008)
All New Square Foot Gardening
Amazon Price: $13.59 (as of 10/15/2008)
Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 10/15/2008)
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible: Discover Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 10/15/2008)
The Edible Garden - Recommended Links
- The Edible Garden
- My blow by blow account of what's happening in my Edible Garden - successes, failures and photos.
- BBC Gardener's Question Time
- A source of knowledge from this long-running BBC Radion show. Listen to it online.
- Crocus - gardeners by nature
- Gardening related advice, information and products.
- RHS Online - gardening for all
- The ultimate authority on gardening.
- Square Foot Gardening
- The original website for square foot gardening - how to do it, how it works.
- Sussex Nature Notes
- My other blog on what's happening in and around Sussex.
Great Gardening Stuff on CafePress
Reader Feedback
what do you think would be the best way to protect my edible garden from dugs and birds?
Thanks
Posted August 06, 2008
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