Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary 2010

Gardening to 'grow your own food' from square foot to half an acre !!
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jannie
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Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary 2010

Post by jannie »

Story so far !!!...
Last May after finishing the conversion of our Holiday Cottage to our beautiful home, the conversion from 'Easy Maintainance' to 'Productive Plot' began with delivery of greenhouse. Hubby is not convinced that we'll still grow our own into our golden years so insisted that said greenhouse can later be converted to gazebo, hence I have a posh octagonal ceder greenhouse. :oops:

The greenhouse and a decked area stand on the site of an old garage and the driveway along side the cottage, which led to the garage, now has a 3mtr x 1mtr
raised veg bed, a log store with guttering connected to an old beer barrel for rainwater, 8 half beer barrels and a row of potato sacks..
I have planted the barrels up with strawberries, blueberries, rasberries, gooseberries and blackberries... So far the veg bed has cabbage, spring onions and garlic. The potato sacks are in the greenhouse for the next couple of weeks to give them a head start along with mixed salad leaves leaves a selection of herbs and some tomato plants that I've pricked out to try and get some early crops.. I have sown more seeds yesterday in case they fail but so far so good.
Also on window sills around the house are peppers, chillies and cucumbers.
In the autumn I planted a Cherry tree, 3 in 1 apple tree ( already got 3 year old cox ) Victoria plum and Pear tree. Gosh I can't believe how much I've planted when think about it.
Now what else should I be doing }hairout{
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perchy
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

Post by perchy »

Phew Jannie, "what should I be doing next" cup of coffee and put your feet up I reckon. {rofwl}

I have loads of seeds (still in packets in the kitchen drawer with TO DO written on them) you have inspired me, I shall now take them down to the greenhouse, if the girls will let me in yike*
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

Post by llbigbird »

wow you have been busy........anything left for the summer lol >mmm<
jannie
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

Post by jannie »

This is my driveway before

Image

and this is my driveway transformed into grow my own patch.. :-D

Image

I thought the drive was such a waste of space before..
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stace
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Post by stace »

Jannie that looks Gorgeous )t'
Bev xx


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mercymee
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

Post by mercymee »

It looks really pretty and so productive!

It was clearly time you got into the garden more, you're both very pale!
jannie
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

Post by jannie »

Thanks so much, I just hope that my pics will inspire those who think they have no room to grow their own, as I said, this was all wasted space )t'

Ha Ha mercymee.. the guys in the picture are the one's who demolished the garage...thought I'd better keep them anon.. 8)

I've sown some carrots, parsnips, cauli's, kale and courgettes this week. Hardened off 80 cottage garden perenials to make room in greenhouse.

I've also got summer bedding growing on in the greenhouse, they are a little ahead of where they should be but thats ok, I can always cover them with fleece if they have to go outside a bit early..

I'm loving having my greenhouse this spring, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not growing commercially anymore.. {rofwl} Still, any surplus plants are going down the scout hut to raise some much needed funds. )t'
jannie
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

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Had hubbies company in the garden today so got some of the heavy work and cleaning up done.. It is a bit of a rarity so I made the most of him!!!! )grin2( He put up a trellis for the new Morello cherry whilst I scarified the lawn and reseeded the bare patches.. Then I left him to power wash the decking while I went into the nice warm greenhouse :oops: to do some potting on..
The bedding plants are coming on really well, I potted on to 3'' pots - 200 Impatiens 200 begonia, 100 trailing lobelia and 50 geraniums.

Last week I had to sort out my herbs. My lovely terracotta herb pot shattered with the hard winter so I've replanted them into a large plastic container for now. I will have to sort something more permanent for the young plants I'm growing on. I like the tiered pots as they fit into a corner outside the patio doors - easy to pop out for a few, but will have to find something thats going to last longer than one winter. confused>
Noticed 4 courgettes have germinated )c( had to buy plants last year as they all failed... Could really do with some sunshine now as everything else in the garden seems a bit slow.....
jannie
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

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Yesterday was a good day in the garden, lovely warm sunshine to enjoy and a good crop of broad bean and pea shoots to admire :-D .......... This morning I went out to for a little walk to check on their progress and.........they are all gone... yike*
the shoots are still there lying on the top but there are holes where the beans were... {cry} . it must be mice as there is netting over the top and there are no slug trails. So I'm off to the greenhouse to plant some more in cells and they will stay in the greenhouse till I'm sure they're too big for the little monsters to find any beans in the ground.
Oh !!!! and the humane mouse trap is going to be put out tonight....... )gr:
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stace
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Post by stace »

OhJannie how annoying for you, its not easy keeping everything off them is it. Did you catch anything?
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jannie
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

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No stace, the mouse trap was empty this morning. :? .. so either they have stashed my beans and peas, and they are keeping their heads down for a few days, or they're too stuffed to come out.. )gr:
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stace
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I can see them now rolling around on their backs laughing at you, stuffed {rofwl}
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jannie
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

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)c( Caught a mouse this morning - so confirmed it WAS a mouse that stole my beans and peas )gr: I've reset the trap in the raised bed as he's probably told all his relatives where to find them ... {warn}

Hubbie's had a few days off so we've managed to get rid of the stump of a large pine tree we felled a couple of months ago... I can't believe the area it's left for planting veg....I'm sooo excited that I have a veg patch as well as the raised bed and pots.... I've turned all giggly {rofwl} ....... time to get serious now and plan what's going to get planted in there confused>
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

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Caught 2 more mice this morning, that's a total of 6 in 3 days yike*.... so I think it's safe to say we have a problem with mice. My own fault, as I found a nest of 4 babies in the log store last october and didn't have the heart to take them from their mum :oops: the log store is close to my raised veg bed so I've provided rich pickings for them.... I have taken a chance and resown some beans in the holes the mice left behind hopefully they'll go for the trap before the beans.. )sh If they do, it means I will have spare plants to go in the new patch.

I've decide that my new veg patch is going to be planted on the lines of 'The Edible Garden'. Hubby has already put a trellis up at the back and I've planted a morello cherry which I'm training in a fan. There is an apple and dwarf pear tree to the sides and the patch I have to plant is approx 8' x 5'.... Yesterday I planted a sage and a rosemary and a few clumps of dafs that I had in pots, so it's starting to take shape.. :-D
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Re: Jannie's Grow Your Own Diary

Post by jannie »

This is my first crop of mixed salad leaves before I picked them for lunch today.. :-D

[url]Image[/url]
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