This was my garden on Monday morning, about 20cm of snow, more than I can ever remember here in Enfield. And it's remained cold all week, so gardening has been out of the question.
So what else was there to do on a cold February weekend apart from pour over my seeds and plan for warmer days. So out came my seed boxes - I sort them by 'fruit and veg', 'herbs', 'flowering annuals/biennials' and 'perennials' - and I thought I'd see just how many I have got. Big mistake! To my horror - I thought I'd been really good this year - I found I had: 32 x fruit and veg, 15 x herbs, 20 x annuals and 17 x perennials, not to mention the four seed potatoes 'Swift' kindly supplied by Flighty. Where on earth am I going to put this lot?
I should be okay with the edibles as I have five small growing areas. Under the kitchen window sill there will be 3 lots of Tomatoes, Sweet Basil, Borage, Chives, Parcel and Watercress. The window box will contain tumbling Toms and Greek Basil. In the greenhouse I shall grow three types of spring Onions, Greek Cress, Chinese Mustard, Radish, mixed salad leaves and Lettuce. The shady border will house Raspberries, Blackberries, Beetroot, Nepeta, Tree Spinach and Parsley. And the main veg plot Potatoes, 3 types of Cucumber, Physallis, 3 types of Chillies, Garlic Chives, Passion Fruit, Mustard, Peas, Beans, Carrots, Courgette and 2 types of Strawberries.
I'll talk about the flowers another time, once I've decided where to put them all.
Georgie.
4 comments:
Apparently it was nearly 20 years ago since we last had this much snow in London!
I'm in admiration of just how much you're planning to grow in what is quite a small space.
Let's hope that it's a good season for everything to bloom and fruit.
Thanks for the mention, and for the herb seeds sent in exchange for the potatoes.
Now I must sort out all my seeds...! xx
Hi Flighty. I'm not sure I deserve your admiration, I just can't help myself! The thing is I cannot possibly hope to be self-sufficiemt in such a small garden but I love to grow as many of my favourites like Strawberries, Raspberries and Physallis as I can then use the rest of the space to experiment with one or two plants of things that takes my fancy to see how they fair. So as much as I love Garlic and Runner Beans for example, I don't grow them because they take up too much room for a decent crop.
G x
Wow! Your garden is well and truly covered with snow.
The snow around us has been here all week and it's currently snowing again! I'll have to watch the school's website as apparently they don't have any salt for the paths and the council don't have any to give them either, so they closed it on Thursday afternoon.
I experimented with runner beans last year and had a great crop. I used 3 containers and put 3 plants in each container, then put a stake in each container and made them into a wigwam. It worked a treat. Something to think about if you love runner beans!
Jo.
Hi Jo
Glad to hear you have found a way to succeed with runner beans. The problem I seem to have is that I find they need trying to the fence to stop them being blown over in high winds and being next to the fence they are at the mercy of the slugs who hide in the Ivy. :( That said I do have some half barrels now (which should be more stable) so I might give them another try next year.
G x
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