I have been procrastinating over getting the garden together since my last post, I kept putting it off, the weather wasn't good, I didn't have the seeds, I hadn't decided what I wanted to to grow, it was too much work, my feet hurt, Brothers and Sisters was on etc etc etc! The good news is I finally got around to it this week, thanks to the fantastic weather we've been having, I had no excuse but to get out there and get things started.
I have kind of made it sound like I have been doing absolutely nothing, but my little mini greenhouse already has some savoy cabbages, purple broccoli, and chili peppers which are sprouting and looking great! I think the breakthrough in terms of movement has to be the work I did in the garden on Monday. Since Sean installed the raised veg boxes, the layout has changed around a bit so I figured it was time to give the layout a little change around. As you can see from the photo above, I have added a little more structure by breaking the plot in two, which will hopefully mean I can make it a bit more pretty rather than the boring rows which left me with 25 cabbages last year!
The other exciting part of the garden is of course the fantastic raised veggie boxes! I decided to take Sean's advice and break the boxes up into square feet which will all be filled with different veg. I even marked it out with some string and thumb tacks to make it a little more visible until a little bit of growth starts. I did cheat a little by picking up some already grown seedlings of pak choy and some tender purple sprouting broccoli, from the garden centre just to add a little bit of colour at this early stage.
Apart from the ready sprouted stuff, I have sown, beetroot, rainbow carrots, red apache spring onions, spinach, and radishes all in the raised boxes, and some rooster potatoes, broad beans and peas in my newly established ground plot. The whole garden is really starting to take shape and I can't wait till things start sprouting out of the ground! On the other side of the garden I have some more space I'm prepping which is hopefully going to by a big pumpkin patch, with the hopes that were going to be able to pick our own pumpkins to carve for Halloween. Very exciting stuff! I went in to a fantastic little garden shop in the heart of Dublin on Capel St. the other day called Hacketts and they have a great selection of seeds, so I'm going to head in again tomorrow to pick up some Jerusalem artichokes and some more seeds to get going in the mini green house. Apparently Lidl have some great garden equipment at the moment so you might be able to pick up some good deals. April definitely is the month to get sowing, so if you are contemplating growing, do it sooner rather than later for some of the major veg. Also if you are interested in getting some raised veggie boxes yourself make sure to check out Sean's website patchworkveg.com, where he has lots of top tips for growing! Oh and if you have grown you're own veg garden before, what are you growing, and do you have any suggestions for interesting veggies I should be growing?
