Getting Started...

February Half Term

Having decided last Autumn to scale back the allotment and hopefully run a quarter plot, I began planning my new 'Small Veggie Patch'.  Here's what I started with...

 

Just a tad neglected!  Last year the greenhouse stood here, but with plans afoot, it was moved to the other side of the garden and rotated by 90 degrees.

February was horrid, cold and freezing.  So I waited until April and the Easter Holiday.

 

The Easter Holiday

More snow!  Nothing achieved!

Late April...

Things speeded up this month, and on one very cool but sunny weekend things started to change...

 

The raised beds were less than half price at the local garden centre with a reduction for buying four!  I haggled!  Each are a metre square and took six bags of compost to fill...  I multi-purchased so had to share out as best as I could!
It took two weekends to get to this stage...

 

By the end of April the beds were planted up.  The plants are probably a little close, but my theory is that I can monitor them more closely and water more regularly than Mother Nature is at the moment!

The Greenhouse

The same weekend I also planted up The Greenhouse...

 

The green pots with water reservoirs are fantastic!  I used them last year and whilst away for a week over May Half Term, I arrived home to find tomatoes in excellent health!

 

The peppers in the large pots were grafted plants, a little expensive at £3.99 each but supposed to give more fruit that normal plants, we'll see!

The Garden

Spurred on by gradually warming weather, I tidied up the rest of my garden clearing beds etc...

 

I live in Hertfordshire at the north end of the M25.  The garden about 75ft long and this is the north side of my house, so the veggies are bathed in sunshine all day long and protected from frost by the neighbour's large conifers at the end.  This photo was taken looking south.