baby trees , waiting to be planted into the wind break areas which help to protect the polytunnel, raised bed garden and forest garden from the strong easterly winds
We had a couple of hours of beautiful sunny weather this morning in between heavy summer rain showers...so I took the opportunity to do a bit of a pause and reflection about how my food growing this year was going...... I'm really pleased with how my polytunnel is performing now, and its made a huge difference to the length of the growing season. I feel like I have got the hang of what it can contribute to the growing here ....the drainage seems to be working well with stone and soak away pipe....the hotbed has done great in the cold spring for germinating modules of seeds on top of the bed and now is home to pots of tomatoes which have recently moved from out from windowsills in the cottage. The tomatoes always look terrible for a few days after the move out, but with a nice layer of 3 year old cow poo/straw mix topping their pots are now producing lots of healthy growth and flowers. You can see how the spinach has just bolted in the first bed...its going to be dinner for the chickens tonight, and that space will be replanted with a courgette plant Herbs in pots, overwintered in the polytunnel and now located just by the gate into the raised bed garden , for easy access. ....over wintered coriander going to flower now...lots more coriander planted among other plants in the raised beds to let flower...its a great bee attractor, and looks really pretty too! So, what am I harvesting from my garden at the moment?....3 varieties of radish, 4 types of salad/lettuce leaves, mizuna, wild rocket, nasturtium leaves, 2 types of kale, 2 types of chard, spinach, garlic leaves, mustard leaves, turnip tops, pea shoots, coriander, mint, parsley, sorrel, thyme, lambs lettuce, sage...some really lovely salads and stir fries being eaten... So all in all, the tweaks in my garden design are meaning that this years growing is really going pretty well...I'm sure that the improvement in the soil I've made especially in the last couple of years have contributed greatly to this. Very much looking forward to what ever challenges and woohoos the rest of the sumer and autumn brings now x
2 Comments
tony blackwell
18/6/2013 12:30:51 pm
just came across your blog today and its been good reading on this day filled with hard rain and thunderstorms...i'm very interested in permaculture and have just moved to a place with enough space for a garden...anyway i've enjoyed reading your blog today and look forward to more post...thank you tony
Reply
Katie
19/6/2013 12:29:24 am
Thanks for your comment Tony, good luck with your new garden and permaculture adventure x
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September 2015
AuthorKatie Shepherd |