What a difference a week or two makes!

Many things are finally growing in the garden.

My biggest successes are certainly the lettuces... My mother has taken a few seedlings down South as I am inundated with them... They are in serious need of thinning out now!

I also have a single parsnip plant... I hope that there will be more soon!

The sweetcorn are nearly ready to be transferred into the vegetable patch - all but one of the seeds germinated so I hope to have a good crop soon!

The herbs are growing from strength... I still have no idea what two of them are.

The fig tree now has leaves and the blueberry, blackcurrant, pear, cherry and strawberry plants have all got flowers - fingers crossed for some fruit!

I have now planted some tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and french beans ... I wait to see if they come up as the grow bags are ready...

A word of advice about horseradish...

Don't plant it!

Or at least don't plant it where I decided to...

My horseradish used to live in my raised herb bed until I tried to dig it up last winter and I realised that it had grown through the tarpaulin that had been laid and I couldn't get all the root up...

Well, it has started to surface again around my new patch of garlic that is growing in the herb bed... So we dug it up and it was turned into horseradish sauce... (See my post on how to make it on my crafting blog using the links on the side!)

I am going to have to keep an eye on this spicy pest ... I am now regretting planting the thing ... Maybe next time it has its own planter?!

A little bit of green...

I broke up for my Easter holidays yesterday to a grey sky and a dank weather forecast. This depressed me a bit as I can't wait to get out into the garden again...

Every evening I try and get out to see what the garden is up to but the last week has been manic so I have been a little lax about being able to peer at what the garden has been up to...

I am pleased to report there are signs of green from some of the seeds I planted a few weeks ago...

Two of the lettuce troughs are showing signs of life - but will definitely be in need of thinning out when bigger...


The herb pots are also growing though, stupidly, I cannot tell you which ones are sprouting as I forgot to label them so I look forward to the herb surprise!



The sweetcorn and spinach are still not doing anything but I will be keeping an eye on them....


Biggest success though has to be my garden mint. I thought I had well and truly killed it off last winter... But it is showing signs of life... Fingers crossed that it will continue to thrive!

Sowing the seeds...

I have finally got some crops in the ground!

And in some pots...

And in some troughs too!

So, today I managed to plant:

2 x rows of spinach in the vegetable patch
1 x tub of parsnips
2 x tubs of lettuce (two different types!)
3 x pots of herbs
1 x seed tray of sweet corn....

I am pleased. Especially as I can now hopefully see the fruits of my labour in a few weeks time...

Equipment and tools...

Because last year was the first year of gardening we only bought a handful of things to help us on our quest. This year we seem to have topped up our supplies but have a better idea what we need in regards to planting.

The first things that I will always grab for are my trowel, gloves and kneeler. Admittedly the trowel I currently use is about the third I have bought as I have learnt that buying a cheap one will not last. The gloves are fully washable but also disposable but the kneeler, although being made of foam and costing me a mere British pound is brilliant.

Everything else is just nice and not essential.

The other thing you need to check is that you have enough pots and ground for the crops you wish to grow... I usually fall significantly short but there is nothing that my local garden centre can't help with!

Sorting the seeds...

Buying new vegetable seeds is a bit of a habit but one that I try and curb. However, it does mean that when it comes to choosing what I could plant in the garden this year I had plenty to choose from...

Before I choose I always check for the best before date on the back of the seed packet as I am always given ageing seeds by family members so try and plant the ones that will go out of date by the end of the year.

Once this is done I divide the packets into a few categories:
- Outside vegetable patch and can be sown outside
- Outside vegetable patch but to be sown indoors
- Sown indoors and grow indoors
- Slugs favourite so to be planted in troughs!

The latter division is so I can try and be a slug-free zone this year as I hope to grow lettuce outside... Fingers crossed!

So ... The seeds are sorted ... Now to the planting!

Starting with the furrows...

I had a couple of hours to myself (which is a rare occurrence with a 6 month old daughter) so thought it was a perfect time to weed the vegetable patch which had got a little feral over the winter.

My husbands grandfather (my guru of everything green fingered along with my mother!) had given us an old rotovator which I hadn't used yet. So out it came... and after a good ten minutes of me working out how to start it it kicked into life - much to my amazement and shock but it managed to churn up the clay that is Yorkshire soil in no time at all.

It was then to the hard graft of picking out the weeds from the newly dug soil and then turning the patch into shallow furrows...

This was immensely pleasing and looked beautiful... My husband just gave me a withering look and just patted me on the head...

My furrows, to me, signalled the greatest beginning to what I hope will be a successful growing season...



P.s. The bushes that you can see at the back of the photo are my fig and blackcurrant plants which, by some miracle, are showing a bit of new life... I have yet to have fruit grow from these but maybe this year will be the year!