Simple Raised Beds

The wife wanted to have her own herb garden. The constraints were that it needed to be near the house and it because that would mean it would be in 'our' area, it had to look nice.

So, instead of just digging some turf up and planting some herbs, I decided to make her a raised bed herb garden.

It's really basic, just made out of decking boards secured to stakes in the corners and at intervals down the sides.  I did have the original idea of using railway sleepers as I think they look lovely, with the rustic, weathered effect but they are rather expensive.

So all I did was to dig out the measured area, knock in some stakes and then screw the decking boards to the stakes.  I have to say they do look good and are inexpensive.  I did end up putting a small raised area on the end, which this year has had lettuce leaves in.  Next year we may look at extending the other way as we are trying to create seperate areas in the garden.  This one being our 'adults' area.

There has been talk about also making the vegetable area into raised beds, though I haven't decided yet.  Any suggestions?

The other thing I built which was very similar, though not a raised bed, was a large planter.

In our back garden there is a large metal manhole cover on the edge of the grass. It's an eyesore, but we can't do much with it.  I decided to make a planter large enough to cover it.  This was made in a similar way to the raised beds and from the same materials.  Therefore it hasn't cost much to make plus it blends on well.

Raised beds can work really well, though you do need to keep an eye on watering a bit more.  They do how ever look very attractive and provide focal points in the garden.

My veggie plot

The most important area in my garden is down at the bottom where I have my vegetable patch.  When we were looking to buy our first house, our first HOME, the garden was something very important for me to look at.  The garden we inherited with this house is ideal.  A blank canvas, but with an old neglected vegetable patch.

This first year was always going to be a trial year.  A year to see what I had to work with.  A year to learn about my garden and plan for the future.

The area that was already cleared as a veggie plot has been increased slightly but my plan eventually is to clear all the grass in that area apart from paths through.  Down there we also have the chickens and compost bins.

I started off by clearing the area of weeds and old leeks.  The ground was then dug over.  I started off putting a few seeds in wanting to see how things did, going for foods that we like.

Potatoes were an obvious choice. I started with two varieties, King Edward and Desiree.  Carrot seeds were sown in the form of early Nantes with some onions around the edges as I am a great believer in companion growing as a natural and organic way of pest control.

Next to the carrots I sowed some radish seeds for a quick crop.  The next seeds were something I have never grown before and don't know much about, Kohlrabi.  This is a member of the cabbage family.

Round the back of these I had some areas with turnips and sprouts.

The radish came up quickly as expected and were the first harvested crop of the year.  

These grew very well but we did find that the slugs really enjoyed them too.  The potatoes although sown over a few weeks, all ended up being ready almost together as the weather got better and the last lot came on quicker and caught the first lot up.

The carrots did well and we got a few turnips too. The kohlrabi were very disappointing and we never got to try any, although I am going to have another try at growing them.  The sprouts are still in and are growing, but also seem to have been attracting some interest from some sort of pests.

We have a couple of the small green greenhouses made out of plastic and polyethylene.  In these, seeds of cucumber and courgettes were sown in trays and potted on as and when they were ready.  We also purchased some tomato, pepper and strawberry plants.

The courgettes were eventually planted out down at the bottom the garden.  They attracted slugs in a big way and I seemed to be on slug patrol every night.  At one point I thought we'd lost the plants, ended up cutting off all the eaten leaves and hoping for the best.  All the plants grew back and had no more slug damage.  Of the six plants I had five provided lots of courgettes and two huge ones boarding on marrow size.

The cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers were all potted up or put in grow bags and stayed in the greenhouses.  The cucumbers did well.  Tomatoes were quite disappointing and the peppers are still producing.

We have also had strawberries hanging on the wall and have now taken runners from so we have more plants for next year.  We got a crop from the strawberries, but I think they will be going in the garden next year instead of in the troughs.

Lettuce leaves and herbs have also been abundant.

We have learnt lots about our garden and its visitors.  Plans are in place for next year.

But, to become self sufficient I need to have food growing through out the year.  So, there are more potatoes in, more carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot and fennel, with lots more to be planted.

This year has been a learning curve.  I hope to have better results next year.  But also feeds haven't been used much this year.  Over winter homemade compost is going the be added to the veggie plot and I'm already planning ahead.

I would love to know your experiences, ideas and tips, so feel free to leave them below or tweet me @jphillipsonlowe whether they be regarding gardening or blogging, still learning this blogging lark and any feedback is always welcome.
Thanks for reading.

Chickens

Having chickens has been one of my dreams for a long time.  When I half mentioned it to my wife as an idea to consider for the new house, I never thought she'd take to it so much.  So much so, the chickens have now become the wife's.

My idea was to get chickens at some point in the future.  My wife's idea was to get them as soon as winter ended.  In the end, we said hello to two new family members in March.  Apart from a couple of occasions, we have had two eggs everyday, which is good because we soon get through them.  If we're not eating them, the wife is baking with them.

Before we could let the chickens move in, however, we needed to get ready for them.  This included reading up a lot and picking the brains of chicken owners, as well as building them a home and buying supplies.

We looked at many different coops and runs for the chickens, not really knowing which would be best.  In the end we found one we liked and sounded the best.  It got delivered flat pack and set us back just over £100.

Once I got it all put together, with help from my 8 year old boy, we saw exactly what we were dealing with.  The built in run and coop is lovely, sturdy and looks great...but we felt they needed more room.  The problem is, we want to have free range chickens, but with some restrictions.  For example, we don't want them roaming everywhere and eating veg.  Also, our neighbours on either side have dogs.  Chickens and dogs don't go.  The dogs on one side had a tendancy to jump over or come under the fence.  The other problem, is foxes.  We live in the country, with fields feet from our door.  We know there are foxes around, and have been told that they have been in the gardens before.  Because of this, protection was needed.

So, before we went ahead and got the chickens, a few things needed doing.  First of all, I took the simple step of blocking up all spaces at the bottom of the fencing.  We spoke to our neighbours about dogs jumping over and suggested some additions to the top of the fencing, which is a shared boundary.  They were really understanding and said as it was they're dogs, they would sort it.  The next weekend, wood and chicken wire went up on top of the full length of fencing.  The final thing I did, was to make a run.  Originally my idea had been to make a run that fitted on to the existing run and coop, but this wouldn't have worked well, as gaining entry wouldn't have been easy, plus we heard about the foxes capabilities, so opted for a large run all round the small coop and run so foxes would have two sets of wire to get through at night.

Few the next two weekends, I built an 8 foot square wooden frame and door, then covered it in chicken wire.  This means the chickens have quite a bit of space, but we know they are safe and not doing any damage.  Inside this run, we have their small run and built in coop, which has much thicker, fox proof wire.

As soon as our runs were ready, our farmer friend brought us our two chickens.  They have become favourites with my family and neighbours, all checking on them to see how they are doing.

My wife is in charge of them and goes down with our twins after dropping of my other son at school in a morning.  She cleans them out and changes any straw if needed, and feeds and waters them.  We read up a lot about their care, about how to check for mites, for example.  So when we found mites last week, we knew straight away what to do.  After about a week of treating them with an organic powder and spray, we seem to have got rid of them.

On an evening, I tend to go down and give them a treat and check they have food and water in the small run, before locking them in to it.  A bit later when it is dusk I go back down, and find they have gone to roost by themselves, and so lock them in the coop for the night.

In a morning on my way out to work, I go down and open the door to let them into the small run, then my wife goes down a little later and does her routine, before letting them into the large run for the day.

We love having chickens.  They seem to be happy, as they supply plenty of eggs.  We've even had a couple of double yolk eggs, or 'double oakers' as my son calls them.  We will be sad when anything happens to them, but no doubt we'll get some more, and think they will be a fixture in our garden for many years to come!!!!!

Composting

Well with yesterdays events putting me out of action, i have time on my hands, so time for another post.

Running with the theme of what we have done in the garden, and catching up with the last 9 months, the next project I did in the garden was to build some compost bins.

With our garden, I try to be a bit of a thrifty gardener not wanting to spend too much money if I can find a way of reusing things. 

The compost bins were always going to be one of the first jobs as I want to be as self sufficient as possible.  I also want our garden to be organic and as friendly to wildlife and nature as possible.

So, with that in mind, I managed to get my hands on some pallets that were basically going in skips before I got my hands on them.  So already I'm helping the environment.  Saving these pallets from pointless disposal and managing the find a use for them.

To start with I made one compost bin by fitting three pallets together by screwing the corners to each other.  I then fitted a small pallet to the front to stop contents spilling out. Since that first one, I managed to get hold of some more pallets and have managed to make three compost bins and a space for turf that has been taken up around the garden.

A couple more pallets are needed to finish them off, but we started composting as soon as the first was made.

Now to the composting.

General thought is that more compost bins that you have the better so you can turn and store, but obviously for a lot of gardens, space affects what you can do.  We are lucky with our space.  I really wanted three bins so that one is working, the second can be turned into and the third is ready to be used.

At the moment we have one bin nicely composting and is already to be used as a mulch, but a bit longer and we will have a good compost.  My plan for this is to spread it around different parts of the garden and especially in the veggie plot as a mulch for some plants and to add some goodness.  It will be put down when the frosts start coming so it will help protect the roots of more tender plants and shrubs.

We have a second bin that we are now filling and the third is empty but will be used when the second bin wants turning.

Turning is very important as it aerates the composts and moves it around and can kick start the composting process.  I tend to find that my compost heats up well, but when it cools down, I turn it and the process starts again.

The other thing I mentioned is about turf.  I don't like to waste anything.  When turf comes up I tend to relay some of it in paths in the veggie plot.  The rest goes into an area I made, where the turf is stacked on top of each other as tight as possible, grass down.  This will make a nice loam which can be used around the garden or added to compost to be used.  This process does take a very long time. I think around 18 months, but nothing needs to be done to it, just leave it piled up up out of the way.

Composting is a lot of trial and error and also a learning curve.  When I first started, I tended to just throw things in, whereas now i try to layer.  I found that before, I used to get ants nests in the compost, whereas now with it being layered, turned and heating up well, not too many ants turn up.

I would really urge people to compost.  It helps your garden, the environment and is a good way of disposing of a lot of your waste.

There are many books on this topic so I won't tell you how to do it, I just record my experiences.  I hope I can inspire other people.

Gardening accident

Well yesterday wasn't a good day.

I eventually got round to trimming our conifer hedge. But due to accidentally falling through the platform I was stood on, it didn't get finished. Instead a 6 hour trip to a +e ensued. After time spent waiting, being prodded, poked and other tests, an x-Ray and telephone conversations with a specialist, it was decided among other things, that I had fractured my cheekbone and got a haematoma under my eye and blood in my sinuses.

After threats of being sent miles a way to a larger hospital for treatment, it was eventually decided that I'd be sent home with strong pain killers and antibiotics and a outpatient appointment.

This morning at home I am sat in pain with one eye I can't see out of because of swelling and reflecting on my gardening accident and what could have been.

I am not put of in the least and will be gardening again soon...just out of action for a few while being waited on by my amazing wife. She was to my rock yesterday. Don't know what I'd have done without her. Love you xxx

Wind break

So far this year, we have made some big changes to our originally bare garden.  New fencing, conifers, compost heaps, new plants, bamboo screening, an archway and new shed, not to mention the wife's chickens.  These are the first things we started doing with the blank canvas.  Not all of the above are finished.  Some are works in progress based on time and financial constraints.

I'll touch on all these things in my blogs, i'm sure.

In this post i'll start with the conifers.

Our house is in a small village and set at the end of a cul de sac over looking fields.  The view is beautiful and for our first and hopefully only home, it is more than we could have ever wished for.  In the nine months that we have lived here, we have seen winter, spring and the summer and so have seen the majority of what our garden has to offer. 

One of the very first things we noticed about our garden was that we get no shelter from the weather.  Being the second to last house on our road, and with the neighbours and our fencing both being low, the back garden gets whatever comes over the fields.

So, our project in our garden came in the format of creating some sort of wind break on the left hand side of our garden.

We looked at several options, the first of which was fencing.  We did a bit of research into prices and found that to fence right down to the bottom of our garden would cost us in excess of £400/ £500 as it is a shared boundary and we were looking at £900 for the lot.  This was something we couldn't consider.  Having moved in to a house that needed some modernisation, we couldn't justify this sort of an amount.  Plus the upkeep of staining the wood every year or two.

So we decided on a more natural wind break.  Shrubs were considered, but with many having some sort of berries on and us having small children who would be tempted to eat said berries, we opted for conifers.

As I said in the last post, we have a conifer hedge seperating the garden, but this is a dark green cultivar of conifer.  We decided to go for a brighter colour and fast growing type, so opted for Gold Leylandii 'Castlewallan'.  As we needed so many, we bought in bulk from a garden centre, and chose three foot high ones.  These set us back around £100.  Admittedly this is not an instant windbreak, but there's less care needed, as for several years they will be left to grow, and in the future only a trim will be needed every year to keep them in check.

We would much rather look at plants than fencing or walls and with these conifers we will have some colour in the garden in winter.

When they were first planted, the conifers turned very golden brown.  At first we were worried that we'd lost them all, but by April/May time, the colour improved after a feed of blood fish and bone and now they are a beautiful golden green and looking very healthy.

Over the next few years they will grow and make an excellent wind break and give some privacy to our garden.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

For this first post, let me tell you a little bit about myself, family and our lives.

I'm James, husband to my beautiful wife and father to our 8 year old son and 18 months old twins.

We moved into our first home properly last December just before Christmas and it has been a whirlwind ever since.

When we first moved in, the garden was pretty much bare.  At the back of the house we have a long garden with a conifer hedge about two thirds of the way down with an archway shaped in the middle. On the far side the is a small area which was used as a veggie plot and lots of grass around.

Working back to the house the rest of the garden was empty except down one side where the was a bare strip which obviously has some sort of perennial plants, which we found out later in the year, were geraniums.

The front garden has a weeping willow in the centre and a couple of sorry looking roses in the bed against the walls.  There is also some hydrangeas under the front window.

Apart from discovering a couple of peonies when they appeared and a lilac at the very bottom of the garden, this was all that we had when we started. I hope to post regular updates on our progress, of which there has been much already. By the twilight of our first summer, the garden is already unrecognisable from the garden we inherited.  More projects are already being planned, with us looking forward excitedly to the future.

I hope you will enjoy seeing and reading about our progress as much as us.