More seeds planted for germination!

I thought I'd get some peppers on the go.

Pepper (Giant Veg)
Pepper (Big Banana f1 Hybrid)
Chilli (De Cayenne) by Carters
Chilli (Cayenne F1 Apache) by Suttons

I really need to get the greenhouse up asap as I'll be running out of sill space very soon.

At last a break in the weather = good progress

After weeks of gales and heavy rain it's nice to have a weekend of sunshine. It was also a weekend when I had nothing else but working in the garden planned.

The two bases for the our greenhouse set up's were complete, it didn't take too long and I can only hope the greenhouses will be just as easy (although i can't see it).

The chickens were also enjoying the sunshine, that was untill Meana the dog got in and tried to kill one. The poor thing is now in the chicken hospital (aka the garage) recovering from shock, hopefully she'll make a full recovery.

Broad beans

We are just into Feb already and the Broad beans are making good progress. I'll start hardening them off soon and get them planted out.

I'm going to try and get some early carrots, Beetroot and cabbage. The carrots are going to be put into large pots and left in the green house and the beetroot and cabbage will be put into grow bags (not too sure how these will turn out but it's worth a go).

What's in

This will act as a little mental note for myself. I certainly haven't put a great deal of seeds in at the moment but the list is building up. I've tried to experiment a little also, I thought I'd try and grow some early dwarf beans in the heated green-house. I'm not sure if they will work out but I thought it's worth a little go.

7th January:

Broad-Beans (Bunyards Exhibition) in the route trainer
Dwarf Beans (The Prince) in the route trainer
Sweet Pea's (Mixed) In the route trainer

Cauliflower in propagator
Carrots (Amsterdam Forcing) in propagator
Sweetpeas in propagator

21st January

Beetroot in toilet rolls (Working on the recycling vibe)

22nd January

French Marigolds in propagator
Upright Lobelia mixed in propagator
Busy Lizzie in propagator
Ranunculus in small pots (Sealed with a plastic bag)


Where's the Greenhouse?

The first base was finished last weekend so I'm looking forward to building base two this coming weekend, that is if we don't get anymore of the rain we've been having. So fingers crossed I might have at least one greenhouse up and running in the next couple of weeks.

Time waits for no man!

It has been a bit of a hard weekend, I know what needs to be done, I have everything required all I need now is a little bit of sunshine and longer days.

This however is a luxury that I hasn't been granted, so in between the rain showers and until the light faded I continued to try and get the base down for what is to be the unheated greenhouse. I believe another couple of hours and the base should be complete, as you can see i only have another 10 or so flags to lay. It all went pretty well, the time and weather factor were the only set backs.

DT Browns have sent the majority of my seeds at long last (although I'm still waiting on the potato's, these should be with me this week). I've put some Broardbeans in to soak and I'll sow a number of different seeds this week. I know it's early but I thought I'd try and get a fly'er and see how things cope in the heated greenhouse. As I have never grow anything in this way or even tried to get such an early start it will no doubt be a learning curve.


After watching this weeks C4 programs regarding Chickens I've been looking at how to incubate eggs to expand our flock of 4. If I can get a steady supply I think we'll also start to breed some for meat purposes (watch this space on that one).

It's great to recycle - especially when it doesn't cost you anything.

After placing an add on the Gumtree website I managed to source out a free greenhouse. When you think about it you always see greenhouses looking sorry for themselves at the bottom of gardens weeds growing out of every corner. What makes it extra special thought is the fact that in this day and age you don't really get anything for nothing so it's nice when somebody says I won't use it so please take it and use it as it was intended. As you can see from the photo it's not in bad shape, it really just needs a good clean. The frame is nice and straight which is the main thing.

After finally getting it home I did have a few casualties so I'll need to replace a few panes of glass but all in all a successfull day. I'll just have to see if I can understand the plans I wrote to put it back together..........

Nice Bamboo next to the greenhouse.

Next up - digging the area and setting the footings for the greenhouses.

Blank Canvas!

Here you can see the garden in which we will be attempting to grow a multitude of vegetables. The two Greenhouses will be sighted at the bottom left of the picture, the new greenhouse will sit where the small shed now lives and the secondhand greenhouse will be sited to the right of the new one. Hopefully we'll be able to create a small patio around these . The Poly tunnel will be left of the existing raised beds (approx where the bonfire has been. I would like create brick outdoor beds but time is against us so I think we'll just use the wooden ones again (I think I'll square them up to make them more pleasing to the eye.

The chickens will be banished to the bottom quarter of the garden, you can spot them at the moment playing on the raised beds.

Where you can see some blue on the left hand side that is where I have dug out 3 compost bins. I've dug them all out of the banking and it seems to be working well.