Travel | Food | Lifestyle
We have started on our raised vegetable plot this weekend and it’s looking really good. We bought the wood set to make the frame from B&Qfor £17.95 (if I remember rightly) and it’s sat in the back garden for a couple of weeks now whilst we got Easter out of the way and waited for some decent gardening weather.
Well that’s not going to happen is it? It’s turned really cold and wet but we mustn’t complain as we’re already on a hosepipe ban and I’m kicking myself I didn’t buy a water butt before now which would have filled up nicely over the past week or two.
Anyway, the seeds have grown and the kitchen window is once again looking like a nursery, in fact some of my plugs I got from B&Q are getting too big for the pots and crying out to be replanted only I’m still a bit wary of night frost so keeping them in for another couple of weeks yet.
It was very simple for OH to put the planks of wood together as I watched :)
and once we had decided where to place it he then dug the earth over and removed the grass and roots from the soil.
I then emptied five 25 litre bags of compost on top and gave it a good dig to break up any lumps.
Now I just have to wait a little longer before my next step of planting but in the meantime look what the Spring has brought up so far
I have done quite a few of P&G’s exciting projects on the run up to the Olympics and I’m chuffed to pieces to be on this little gem as I’m up against Domestic Goddesque no less and well you know who’s going to win out of the pair of us don’t you?
Febreze are working to transform some of the capital’s most overgrown green spots into Febreze Fresh Havens, areas where people can breath happy and enjoy London’s outdoor spaces.
In each location the Febreze gardening team will be digging, sprucing and planting to create a safe environment and each site will also receive a maintenance grant to ensure it remains a haven of freshness for the future.
Now here’s where I come into it. I have been sent a Febreze Mini Fresh Haven planter and I am to grow plants and nurture them to magnificence.
Here, take a look at my kit. I was fascinated with the Miracle Gro compost. A hard dry disc in a bag BUT on adding water becomes a bag of nutritious compost.
Wow, I made my two bags up and tipped one in to cover the bottom. I then planted my Iris bulbs and a selection of varied sweet peas
I then added a top secret mixture of my own just to make sure the Domestic Goddesque would be put well and truly in her place (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) and then I covered the lot with my second bag of Amazing Miracle Glo
and to finish a good watering with my Febreze watering can. For the moment my planter is sitting in the porch, out of the threat of frost receiving lots of daylight and close to the Union Jack doormat which will remind all my seeds and bulbs that we’re working for the UK here, come on Britain let’s see the medals roll in this summer…I am nurturing you.
Just in case you were wondering Rosie took the photos whilst Billy played with the girls :)
Disclosure – Febreze sent me a planter kit – I am doing the rest I intend to get gold with my work ;)
I was pleased with our garden progress last year, we made a real dent in it and the Bosch Garden Makeover competition certainly provided us with some beautiful plants to look out for this year, I can’t wait to see them grow and fingers crossed flower too. On the whole I think we did pretty well and that’s why this year I’m hoping to make a vegetable garden.
Last year I grew tomatoes, I had too many in all honesty but they were delicious and I will be growing some more this year. I had a go at runner beans but they died on me and I had a few courgette plants that overtook the garden. I also planted a pumpkin for us to use at Halloween and on my return from our summer holiday I mistook it for an overgrown courgette and ate it! Yes it was tough but tasty. Hey I’m learning here!
So this year I have plans…
I intend to get my Other Half to knock me up a box like the one below I found on Boy’s Life and I will have a Raised Bed in which to plant my veg year after year, doesn’t that sound organised and doesn’t it look neat and tidy?
Or on the other hand we could nip down to B&Q as they are now selling Rustic Raised beds for £17.98
Last autumn I entered a competition on Domestic Goddesque’s blog and won! My prize was this fabulous Sylvester Bird Box, I made sure we put it up ages ago way before any birds were hunting for nests and now I have to wait and see. I sent Other Half up a ladder as high as he could go to avoid cat problems and we’ve put it in a sunny spot, fingers crossed.
In fact it won’t be long before I start planting seeds and turning the kitchen window sill into the Eden Project again, I was out yesterday whilst we enjoyed a fluke 16C and planted a few more bulbs for summer colour and I filled my tin bucket once again with primroses to add a splash of colour to the drab patio
There’s not really much to do in the garden in the winter is there? Well there probably is if you’re a fully fledged gardener but if like me, you’re not, well we haven’t even cut the grass! It’s looking long and in need but until either the expert next door neighbours get their mowers out then I’m waiting.
I also intend extending my herb garden this year which currently consists of a rosemary bush and some parsley. I’d like some chives and some basil, some oregano (pizza anyone?) some mint (Pimms) and some sage.
I am also pretty tempted to get one of those ‘Spud bags’ from the national newspapers. Grow your own potatoes in a sack on the patio. Am I taking on too much here? Running away with what seems on paper – a brilliant idea? Possibly, you’ll be told of progress or lack of as the year unfolds. I have however started composting. I treated us to a kitchen composter in January and now I need to set up part two of my recycling and get the compost ‘bin’ in the garden so I can empty this one into that one
Anyway, I have spotted shoots coming out of the earth meaning a short while from now we’ll have flowers again – can’t wait!
