My Tiny Plot

A few of you have been asking for an updated photo of the garden - well here it is. We’re in full swing here at mtp. The Peas have come and gone, we’re one row of potatoes down and currently munching through our 50th lettuce (or thereabouts). Everything is going really well with the new design. I have more than enough room to grow everything I want to - maybe just a smidgeon more lettuce? No?

Things that have gone well: Runner Beans looking fab on old-fashioned bean-poles, Sweetpeas that smell gorgeous, the biggest Strawberries in-the-world, Tomato jungle, Mange Tout for the first time, the promise of some corking Sweetcorn and 8 Queen Cox apples (still) on the apple tree!

Things that have gone ‘um’ not so well: Peas taking over the garden, ants eating the Pear buds (if I ‘ever’ find out where they live…), no Redcurrants ( I know not why), some onions going to seed, the usual Cauliflower debacle. 

Other than that my garden, like Mary Poppins, is practically perfect in every way and I love it.

Quite a few of you have been asking me how the garden is looking now after the redesign so I thought I would post a photo of how the garden is shaping up.
The squares on the left hand side of the garden get the most sun and so that’s where most of the vegetables are.

In the square on the left hand side to the top is the following:
Lettuce, Peas, Spinach, Spring Onions, Radish, Salad Leaves, Carrots, Leeks, Onions, Asters, Cosmos, Pears, Blackberry and Red Currant with Sweetcorn to come.

In the square below that is:
Onions, Shallots, Garlic, Potatoes, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blackcurrant, Basil, Lettuce and Spinach Beet.

In the square on the right hand side to the top is the following:
Runner Beans, French Beans, Potatoes, Cauliflower, Pak Choi, Mange Tout and Cornflowers with Courgette, Cucumbers and and Pumpkins to come.

Below that in the bottom hand square is:
Herbs (including, Chives, Basil, Sage, Thyme, Coriander, Parsley, Taragon), Rhubarb and Artichoke

Along the left hand wall is the following:
Peach, Grape Vine, Tomatoes, Cape Gooseberry, Gladioli, Iris and Apple

I also have Chili Peppers in the cold frame, two Blueberry bushes in pots and Sunflower seedlings in the Victorian mini-greenhouse.

Phew!

Started the planting yesterday. You can see in the photo that we’ve planted Box bushes in each corner, with some, as yet tiny, Lavender bushes as company. In the bottom left-hand bed you can see a row of Raspberry canes (Autumn Bliss), a Blackcurrant bush (Ben Conan), a small patch of strawberry plants (can’t remember what variety), two Spinach plants and a row of extremely healthy garlic plants.
In the right-hand bed you can see the beginnings of my herb patch (Rosemary, Thyme, Sage and Chives). Against the wall on the far left corner is my small but perfectly formed Peach tree (Peregrine). And right at the end of the middle pathway my two Blueberry Bushes (Chandler - could I be any more blue? - actually have to give Ryan credit for that one!) waiting for their pots.
After a trip to the garden centre today, there should be some stakes and wires going up tomorrow for the Raspberries and Pear trees (on order). It’s all happening now!

The garden is finished! Look at all that lovely bare soil just begging for some plants. Now we can get on with the best bit. I’ll try to keep posting photos regularly once I start the planting but it might be slightly more erratic since the planting may be done in fits and starts. But anyway I’ll keep you posted on how it’s coming along.

The landscaping is nearly finished. The middle seating area is all finished - and doesn’t it look gorgeous? All that’s left to do is to pound down the gravel in the remaining pathways and it’s all finished. By the end of tomorrow it will be planting time! I can’t wait.

At last the brick seating area is going down. It’s delicate work and so James and the crew have been working on it all day. They’ve made good progress and tomorrow will be finishing up the fiddly bits that require the bricks to be cut in half. Nearly finished!

Today the gravel arrived. As you can see the gravel was added to the pathways - although looks like there’s more to go in there as the membrane is still showing in parts. The middle square is to be laid with bricks over the coming days. We bought some bagged manure, three bags for each bed. I’m hoping this will go some way to improving the soil. However, we won’t be digging that in until the building work is done. I also bought two Blueberry bushes at the weekend too!

The landscapers don’t work at the weekends so they won’t be doing anything until Monday now. This is the last shot of the garden before they left on Friday afternoon. As you can see they have cleared all the rubbish away, dug over three of the beds and dug out the pathway at the end of the garden ready for the gravel which will be delivered next week. On Monday they will start to lay the bricks in the centre square to make the seating area. For me, it’s down to the garden centre to check out some plants!

All the edges of the beds are in! You can really see the shape of the garden now. It’s all very angular at the moment - but once the plants go in those straight lines will be softened. The weather is just about holding so there will be more progress tomorrow. Tune in!

The bricks and stone blocks are being laid. You can start to see the shape of the beds on the left-hand side as they are surrounded by bricks. There are still two palettes of bricks to lay so I’m guessing they will be working on that for the next few days. But it’s coming along very quickly. Every night when I come home from work I rush out to see what the difference is. I’ll keep posting a new photo everyday until it’s done. Very exciting!