Today – the weather gods having granted us a brief Israeli/Hamas style ceasefire before the hostilities resume tomorrow – I’ve been busy in the garden. Following your advice (which mostly amounted to ‘grow what you like to eat, duh’) I have planned out my planting, got some seeds ordered, and started digging. I’m doing my own half-arsed version of raised beds as I don’t really feel that my informal arrangement to have a corner of my landlord’s garden justifies the sort of semi-permanent construction that proper raised beds require (no doubt I’ll still be saying this in ten years’ time).
So, for the rabid gardeners among you here’s the progress to date, complete with planting plan in which you can see just how limited the range of my vegetable diet is:
Planting plan
(there will be garlic dotted about, and tomatoes in pots, and squash in the cold frame too)
And meanwhile I have also been planting these:
Yes, sticks. But not just any sticks, because these ones (if Homebase are to be believed) will magically turn themselves into raspberry canes. The last time I planted raspberries I paid a fiver for a bundle of canes in Woolies. As these produced enough fruit for us to have raspberries every day for a month each summer for five years, I think that that was pound for pound the best investment I have ever made. These cost ten quid on special offer, so perhaps the Bank of England would care to bung another couple of fivers my way, and I will see if I can repeat the trick? It’s got to beat toxic mortgages and bailing out car manufacturers as an investment, and I promise not to pay myself any bonuses, although I will probably eat all the profits.
Arghh Im jealous – my vegetables have to be confined to pot and troughs.
I can remember my Mum growing raspberries and the fun of netting against the sparrows. Now the sparrows have disappeared with everyone blocking up the holes in their houses.
Be really interested to see what happens – lets hope for hot summer and a large water butt full of rain…
We didn’t bother with netting because it was too traumatic if a bird got caught in them, and there were enough for us and the birds too. We’ll see how it goes this year.
And a hot summer would be most welcome, with or without the garden!
Good stuff – glad to see there’s not a veggie in sight beginning with ‘C’ (family in-joke, sorry). I was going to dig one of these today too but my cheap garden fork from local supermarket broke between the car and the back garden. Sigh – serve me right for being so cheap.
What no herbs?
Vache – absolutely, no point planting stuff I’m not going to eat…
cha0tic – the plot is a bit far from the kitchen for that! The herbs live in a planter outside our front door.
Looking good. I’m trying my luck at growing butternut squash this year, and maybe even some spinach if I feel adventurous.
I love raspberries! Happy gardening! xx
Sharon – I’ve got gem squash planned, rather than butternut, as you can’t seem to buy that in the local supermarkets. Spinach might be good too
Flighty – Thanks! Of course we won’t be eating any for over a year as they fruit on last year’s stems. But we can wait…
What do you mean, ten years’ time?
are you questioning my timeframe or my apostrophe placement?
That look like a lot of ‘snips!
Parsnips! Oh God, parsnips,how I remember parsnips! I simply can’t get them here. Give me a price and I’ll buy your whole crop!!!
R::B/Brian (you seem to be suffering from a split personality) – I like snips. If there’s a surfeit I’ll just make parsnip crisps out of them
Nick – can you not grow your own?
No, not in the garden I have. It’s (almost literally) postage stamp size, in the Dutch manner, and my other half thinks 3 flowers look prettier than 3 vegetables.
Ah, fair point. They’re not the most attractive of plants. Strange that you can’t buy them – do the Dutch feed them to the pigs, like the French do?
As far as I can tell the Dutch don’t grow them – even for pigs. Though having said all this, I did find a lovingly plastic-wrapped single parsnip in my local supermarket on Saturday – a first in my 18+years here! It’s now in my firdge.
A tip from a friend of mine was too heel them in so the earth is compact around them. Some might say otherwise but I thought I would mention it.There is nothing wrong with half-arsed, as that is my whole gardening concept and I still managed to grow food
Nick – you see, such is the awesome power of the blog… it has produced parsnips in the netherlands.
Lwarence – I may well give that a go.
[...] meanwhile, look what’s happened to my sticks, and even to my [...]
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