It's Half Term - Part 2

The picture below shows the garden we inherited when we moved in. Within a fortnight, I'd ordered a new shed and replaced the rotten old one. We also had two massive pine trees at the back which blocked a lot of light and were stunting the apple trees growing behind them. We had them down quite quickly too and put almost all of them through my shiny new shredder. All the mulch has gone down under the orchard area and covered the bare weed suppressing membrane that was there. 


You can see the difference already, and with the new greenhouse in and two paths laid, it's time to get on with the hard landscaping of the new vegetable area. 

All the turf lifted so far is piled behind the greenhouse to break down over the winter ready to be spread as loam in the spring. 



Using the timber taken from our allotment, we built two raised beds which have taken a load more of the lifted turf. There will be more on this side in due course, but they can wait until the spring.


On the other side, the plan was for a more formal, pottager style veg garden. Given that I had to move the greenhouse a couple of feet to the right on the other side, my plan for a completely symmetrical pottager has gone out the window. 


After half a day of lifting turf by hand, we set about laying the slaps and dividing the area up. Three quarters of this side are complete and just the very top quarter still needs to be cleared come the spring. 

Two rhubarb plants were divided (I don't think they had ever been split before given their size). They are now behind the greenhouse in a new bed. You can see (below) in the back corner that I've put my red and black currant bushes in too. 



With this layout, I still hope to use my 4 year rotation and am going to try and keep the four quarters all slightly different. 

Against the fence on the right is my Tayberry and Loganberry that have been transplanted. Fingers crossed they make it. 

Here's the arial view....



So, after another two days, I've got onions and garlic in and broad beans sown. I've still got a little more autumn planting to go - since it's still October, I've still got time!











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