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Thursday 9 July 2009

the good life

When we moved to this house 4 years, we compromised a bit with things we wanted. Actually we compromised a lot! So we have no garage, no big garden and have had to have 2 separate
lots of building work to make it big enough!! But when I saw the fireplaces and sash windows, nothing else would do...
I have spent the last 2 years moaning about the small garden, and this year decided to embrace it. Okay so I can't have an orchard, or chickens, or a kitchen garden but I can do things on a smaller scale!!
So I set lovely husband the task of digging up the concrete path (only put in when we did the kitchen 3 years ago - not thinking about my carbon footprint for that one!!) and building me 2 raised beds - one for flowers and one for veg.
So thats the garden ticked off the to do list...until next door have rebuilt the wall you can see on the pics...imminent apparantly!!!
I'm definately not green fingered but I'm pleased with how things are looking.... We are never going to be self sufficient lol, but we will be able to grow enough to show the little boys that food doesn't always come from Tesco!


I planted a cherry tree and an apple tree, the apple tree and has no fruit on it, and this little red cherry was eaten by a bird! (this was taken a week ago and now nearly all the cherries are red so I am going to net the tree so the greedy birds don't get them all!)Again a week ago, this was what my little veggie bed looked like...a week on and you can't see the soil any longer. (you can see the sorry looking new apple tree on the left!)


We left it too late for planting so its all a bit random so next year I will start earlier and follow a guide I think. I have this Delia book that shows you how to plant a square foot garden - which maximises the space.

The tomatoes are doing well.... (not bothered if they don't all go red, I'll just make green tomato chutney!)


And......patience is a virtue obviously!! My pathetic strawberries are now looking like this .........well a week ago they were!! They went in the Pimms at the weekend :)

7 comments:

LissyLou said...

Your doing well!! Better than i would. The strawberries 'looked' yummy!!

Lace hearts said...

Claire, it looks fab - made me chuckle about the cherry, though. Your strawberries are doing better than ours. Much! xxx

Floss said...

What a super little garden - you have used the space so well. Enjoy the fruits of your labours...

Lalabibaby @ Dreaming of The Simple Life said...

Remember what they say about little acorns .... you have made a lovely start and that's what counts.

Sophie - Chez Sophie said...

Your garden looks fab, and I can garuntee it tastes better when you have grown it yourself.
Enjoy.
Sophie xxx

jo said...

You seem to be doing really well, at least everthing as grown and not wilted on you. I tried sowing some lettuce but the slugs got to them first!

{Love, Love, Love} said...

Everything is looking super!

Regarding only having a small amount of space, Carol Klein done a gardening programme (and a book to go with it) called 'Grow Your Own Veg' and part of the programme showed two ladies from RMS Wisley who grew veg in a 3ft x 3ft (I think) plot and if planted right, it was amazing how much could actually be produced from this bed; food for thought anyhow! x