Tracey's Veg Garden Just another Vegblogs weblog 

My summer squash (free from vegseeds.net) is developing nicely a couple of the earlyer fruit dropped off and rotted but they seem to be producing really good quality fruit now, can’t wait for all the winter soups I’m gonna be making.

Small but perfectly formed

I’m very pleased with my sweetcorn this year, I have tried to grow before but have never managed to get them to produce the actual corn!! I think this was through lack of consistant watering.

This year though I have been on the case and made sure the plants have had consistant watering. From the advice I have read it seems that everyone tells you that they thrive on being very moist.

I must say that from what I have seen this year I don’t think you have to drown them in water but the soil does have to be kept damp at all times.

Although my plant are developing corn they don’t seem to be very tall which is a bit disapointing but onwards and upwards, I’m sure they’ll be tall and fruitfull next year.

This is just a quick post as proof that children do help in the garden!

I have given the kids a patch in the garden each to try and encourage them to get involved.

Here are the pictures:

Teenagers do come out of their rooms!

Planting radishes

I think it’s great and it may even encourage them to eat the radishes too!!!!

This week we have been busy on the farm this week just clearing and tidying, so I thought I’d give you some before and after shot’s so that youu can see our progress so far.

One of the first jobs I started was to clear away the bramble and ivy that have built up around the house and I’m quite pleased with the results, we have lots of Nastursium growing and use the flowers for our salads. We also have hollyhocks which will start to flower next year and lupins (the chickens have eaten those so the less said the better) hopefully they’ll be back next year when the chickens have been fenced off.

Before

Can’t wait till next year when everything flowering.

Aldo my veg patch seems to be doing well but I haven’t had any tomatoes yet as the chickens keep eating them. Despite this I have decided to grow them as bushes rather than pulling shoots off and messing around with them and they are looking really healthy.

This is when they first started growing.

Little plants

And now.

Big plants!

More updates to come, hopefully some pictures of some actual veg!

Bye for now bloggers

Well, I have planted, hoed and dug and there is still loads to do, this week we started to clear an area for our new polly tunnel. Here is a before pic of the area we have chosen.

There are a lot of bramble and other nasty weeds but hopefully we will have some brilliant during and after photo’s to upload once we get stuck in.

We are hoping to grow salad crops throughout the year once the tunnel is up and running and hopefully some other tasty delights as well.

As for other updates:
Tomatoes are growing well and looking very healthy, I have tried a different method this year and have let them grow as bushes, as yet I have tons of flowers but as yet no tomatoes (not sure if the chickens are eating them green though)

Garlic all died after the move but will try again this year.

Sweetcorn is coming on a treat and on the plus side the chickens don’t seem very interested in it!

Anyway, more updates to come.

Take care veg bloggers

As you will see from my previous posts I have recently moved to a location that has a LOT more space than I originally anticipated for. So all the vegetables that would have previously filled my modest urban garden now look dwarfed and a bit pathetic in my new surroundings.
Still I’m not complaining I’m just going to keep preparing my veg patch for over-winter and next years crops.
I do have one additional problem however and that is my new chickens.

Here chicky chicky

They are great and we get free eggs but they have eaten all of our strawberries and I’m sure will start nibbling at the tomatoes as soon as they get chance!!!
So I now have a new project, to chicken proof the vast veg patch I’m trying to create. As yet this project isn’t started but I will be sure to update you all when it is up and running!

Hi there bloggers, I have beeen very slack for the last few months on my Veg blog.

I do however have a very good excuse!

I have only just got back online after moving house to a very small small holding.

I now have a lot more space to not only grow my own veg but also to keep some animals, hopefully by this time next year we should be fairy self sufficient.

Anyway I have taken some photos of our new place and the work we have done so far. It is a big project both inside and out but we are making progres ( quite slow progress but it’s going in the right direction.

Anyway here is our new place

Home Sweet Home

It’s great we have about quarter of an acre all together, I know it’s not really big enough to be a small holding but it’ll do to get us started.

So far over the last 2 months I have started trying to lay out some kind of vegetable patch and even if I do say so my self it’s not looking bad.

My first Patch

One problem I have is that all the seeds I have bought or collected this year have been in mind for a much smaller plot! so you can imagine I have lot’s of patches to dig and not enough plants ready to fill them!

Anyway I’ll struggle on.

Here are some more pics of the areas we’ve tamed so far.

That’s it for now, hopefully now I’m back online I’ll be posting some more later today.

I’m getting really excited the garden now, it’s mostly prepped now for all my crops. I’ve decided to mix edible crops with flowers and try to do a bit of companion planting. As you can see from my front garden there are already established plants that I can’t bring myself to get rid of.

By the summer the lawn may have completely disappeared, I’m not sure yet. Watch this space. I’m hoping to Beans, Peas, Sweetcorn and Squashes on my front garden, hopefully the neighbours won’t nick too much on the way past!.

As I have a quite small space to grow all this veg I have decided to try the “Three Sisters” method this year. This is a technique that is used in South America and used to be used by native americans.

What you do is grow Sweetcorn, Beans and Squashes in the same space (usually in a square so that sweetcorn is self supporting), the idea being that the Sweetcorn will provide uprights for the beans to grow up and the squash will provide growd cover reducing the need for weeding.

That’s the theory anyway and hopefully I should be able to provide photo’s later in the year, I just need to get my sweetcorn going so it can take the weight of the beans.

I have also planted a wildlife flower mix in part of the garden in the hope to attract insects that will eat all of the pests in my garden, well at least some of them.

This is the space now:

All in all I just can’t wait for the threat of frost to go and for everything to take off in the garden. I have fingers and toes crossed that the weeds don’t take over and that all the hard work pays off.

As you will see from one of my earlier posts I planted my garlic in 2 different batches this year to see how they would get on.

The first batch I planted in October 2010 in my back garden which is quite damp and partially shaded in winter. They seem to be doing quite well.

Back garden Garlic

The second batch of Garlic I planted in the middle of January in my front garden and am surprised to see that that this Garlic seems to have nearly caught up with the earlier garlic.

Front garden Garlic

I think it’s really good to experiment with you veg growing because you can read all the books and magazines in the world, but this is no substitute for doing and seeing for yourself.

And I should have a years supply of garlic by summer this year BONUS. This should come in handy with all the tomatoes I intend to grow this year.

After having my name down for an allotment for over a year now I have decided to do a Tom and Barbara Good and transform my garden into my allotement.
The aim for this year is to not buy any vegetables from May onwards, and with limited space and no green house this really will be a challenge, so I’ve decided to share my experience with all.

My windowsill is now my greenhouse!

This is a picture of my make shift windowsill greenhouse. At the moment I have tomatoes, peppers (sweet and hot) and strawberrys growing here to try and give them a head start for the summer.
I planted the tomatoes and peppers in the middle of February in a seed tray with normal compost. They have since shot up so I have repotted them into individual pots to allow the enough space to grow. From these pots I’ll put them straight into the homemade pallet containers I have made, once the weather warms up a bit. I’ll also be using some Bags for Life filled with compost this years so keep your eye out for the pics at the end of April.

You’ll see a common theme developing through my blogs, that is that I don’t have a lot of money for my veg garden so most new additions ie raised beds or containers will be homemade or improvised somehow. I’ll try to keep you updated on these as well.

My Free Tomato Planter

Back garden allotement in development