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Published: April 30th 2011
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So I thought I'd keep anyone who's interested up to date on the progress of our newly planted raised beds here in sunny Taunton. Work on the proposed garden began months ago, when the idea was first conceived. Raised beds would be the challenge, and a lot of people (housemates, friends, family and international visitors!) would lend a hand to get the project underway!
The building... It started with the construction of the red brick wall, to hold the raised bed in. There were wheelbarrows, bricks, cement, walling lines and plenty of cups of tea! Once the wall was built, then came the challenge of filling in the raised bed. This was a bit of a stumbling point in the action plan, as we had to wait for the right materials to become available! Through freecylce we found some hardcore (bricks and rubble) to place at the bottom, and then found some top soil and compost material to put on the top. Toms van was on hand to transport the filling from various sites around Taunton. There was a lot of carrying, wheel barrowing and digging in the hot sun to get it all ready for planting. We left
it to settle for a week or so before putting anything into the ground.
The planning... Each of us came up with a wish list of what we wanted to grow in our back yard. The plot isn't very big (1mx8m), and some veggies need quiet a bit of space to grow. Laura wanted sunflowers, Tom some expensive vegetables to save money. We investigated asparagus, which takes 3 years to produce anything, that's a lot of waiting so that idea was abandoned! I wanted something simple - salad and herbs - high success rates!
The planting The day finally arrived. We gathered the seeds packets we had collected, laid them in the correct order and the spacing was figured out. We started on the sunny side of the plot where the sun reaches early in the morning and late in the evening. Using various techniques we made holes or mini trenches in the ground. Firstly we planted the pretty stuff, flowers which would be easily seen from the house, and would attract some form of flying insects (preferable butterflies!). After this we planted quiet a large amount of mixed salad - much
to my delight. We also replanted lettuce I had growing in a pot from my previous grow your own attempt - just to put something living into the ground, a head start if you like! From there we planted a variety of herbs and vegetables, depending on where we thought they should go, spacing them out as detailed on the seed packets (see garden plan!). As the light began to fade head torches were brought out to try and position the TINY almost invisible seeds!
As we progressed through the garden, we soon realised we needed to label our little rows of seedlings or there could be some confusion over what we were going to be eating! Laura came up with a great idea of using old plastic bottles as garden signposts - detailing what was planted where - reduce, reuse, recylce!
We took a well earned break (some where near chives or mint) and packed up tools for the night. We gently watered the dry soil before getting cleaned up.
The next day involved a visit to the garden centre to get the remaining supplies. We got hold of some seed potatoes, (kestrel and rocket) which
we would need to leave to chit - or bud, before putting into the ground, parsnips and a mushroom growing kit (I'll explain later!). We decided to replant some potted plants (strawberries and a bay tree who weren't looking very healthy) into the beds also, to give them a better chance of surviving.
While planting the various seeds in the raised bed, I siphoned off some spare seeds for my "portable" veggie garden, which will hopefully find a home with me on my next adventure.
The progress... Since the initial planting we've had a few new additions to the garden. I've recently started working on an organic farm and have "rescued" a few plants which would have otherwise been weeded out as unwanted. We now have some runner beans and tomatoes growing in pots off to the side. I think it's almost time to put the potatoes into the ground and the mushrooms seem to be coming on nicely. The mushroom kit is interesting; it comes with some spawned compost (sounds dangerous) and culturals. You mix the two together, keep them watered and out of any draughts and fingers crossed you get mushrooms in
a few weeks!
We've been taking it in turns to water the beds as it's been very dry here over the last few weeks. Today I saw the first signs of new life in some of the rows. The mixed salads, rocket and mixed flowers have started pushing their way through the soils - in less than a week - well done little ones! It's very exciting to see what will happen over the next few weeks! I'm getting hungry already!
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