Tuesday 12 May 2015

Vegetable beds

Welcome to Jackie Rockett via Bloglovin and Michelle Palmer via here.

Almost done! All the raised beds and most of their protective net tops have been painted black and very nice they look as well. DB helped with the net tops as my back was once again pinging from being on my knees for 4 consecutive days, at odd angles, but thankfully, it isn't painful.

Here they are in all their shiny black glory. Greenery seems to look much better against black than the previous dull brown don't you think? This is bed one, completely finished:
Currently growing in bed 1:
Two half rows of different lettuce. One long row of carrots - not showing yet. Two rows of radish (I planted the thinning's and so far they are growing well) and a few peas. Freshly sown are some more radish, carrots and Florence fennel.
In bed 2:
Three rows of crimson flowered broad bean, a slightly thin area of peas (more peas have been pushed into the gaps). The two seed trays contain flowers seedlings of things you can't normally buy ready grown.

Bed 3:
Currently contains 8 potatoes. My seedling leeks, currently in Bed 1 will be put into here once the potatoes have finished.

Haven't bothered showing you the small bed 4 as hardly anything is showing in it at the moment. It does have spinach and beetroot seeds sown but very few are through!

The newly painted greenhouse bench on the patio has on it:
Seven tomatoes of two varieties, Bambino and Fantasia. In the big green tub are two courgettes (I know, two shouldn't be in there but I will try). I hope to encourage them to grow upright and they will be tied in as and if they go. They are the variety that grow cricket type ball courgettes.

The courgettes will be covered by fleece on cold nights and the tomatoes will go back into my mini green-house on similar nights.

Nothing to see down the driveway but yesterday I sowed my first climbing French and runner beans. Five of these tomatoes will end up down there, the other two will go into large pots.



15 comments:

  1. looking good. I think I may try and courgette in a tub.....

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    1. I've layered the tub with bought compost, home made compost, manure and blood, fish and bone!

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    2. A good idea, as courgettes are very greedy.

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    3. Hello honeybun, nice to hear from you. Only grown them once and one plant took up an entire raised bed!

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    4. Scarlet, yes I have and yes I did.

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  2. Looks really good and your veg is a head of mine. Won't be long before we can leave the veg out all night!

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    1. I think they are helped by the beds being raised, the soil drains quicker and the higher walls hold the heat for a while.

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  3. LOVE the black - inspirational....just off to gather seaweed for my kitchen garden..

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    1. Thank you. We can only gather dry seaweed from the tide line but we do it once a year and put it in our compost bin.

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  4. Every little bit helps, right ? I think I have put every conceivable thing in my compost including elephant poo from our local zoo ! I only gather dry seaweed from the tide line also...
    I recently made a cross country trip (1,100 miles) I stopped at several Starbucks at the rest areas as they give away their coffee grounds for free - got three bigs bags...put it all on my blueberries; such fun.

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    1. I had heard about coffee grounds. A lady who lives in Norway, says they put iron amongst their blueberries, as it rusts, the rust apparently makes the soil more acidic!

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  5. I heard about coffee grounds too - but I don't drink coffee!

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    1. We don't eat ground coffee and don't fancy going in a store to ask. Blueberries are fine at the moment.

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  6. The black looks stunning with the greenery - inspired!

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    1. Thank you, have been wanting to do it for ages.

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