Veg Patch

I was planning to record a little garden tour video for you… but every time I opened the front door it was either raining or super windy! So I nipped out in between showers and took some photos instead.

If you watched my Virtual Garden Fest videos last summer - it hasn’t changed dramatically. The biggest change to my little fruit and veg garden is my exciting new perennial bed.

I’ve had a lack of success over the last couple of years in the bed at the bottom of the garden. It’s a damp and slightly shady area, so annual veg just hasn’t thrived there. I liked the idea of filling it with perennials that might be happier in those sort of conditions - and I started with wild garlic!

I bought some plants (ie- bulbs in soil) from Herbal Haven and then some bulbs (in a bag) from The Moon and Furrow who were clearing a patch in their woodland. The plants are looking happier than the bulbs, but long-term I think they’ll all settle in and spread well. I’m planning to leave them to it this year - then hopefully I can start taking leaves for making pesto next year.

I also planted a thornless loganberry (I got a bare-root plant. Above right). I was initially planning to plant a blackberry because they don’t seem fussy about where they grow… but then I got nostalgic about eating loganberries from Dad’s allotment when I was little so opted for that. They’re a sort of blackberry/raspberry hybrid and it’s doing well so far, but I’m not expecting fruit for the first year.

But the thing I’m most excited about is this tree-spinach…

It’s so pretty! I haven’t eaten any yet because I’m letting it settle in, but hopefully it tastes as good as it looks.

It’s difficult to buy spinach not in a plastic bag and I haven’t had much success growing other types in the past due to bugs. I’m hoping that this is the answer and will provide enough so I can stop buying spinach in plastic.

I’m generally aiming to have very full veg beds this year! So far in my ‘other’ bed I’ve planted radishes, beetroot, cucumbers, courgette, runner beans and sweat peas. I also have french beans and peas on the go and extra courgette and cucumber plants to pop in if there’s room or the others fail (I did go a bit too early on them this year!).

I have cavelo nero growing in my brassicas bed along with some companion planting of dill and calendula. I also have some purple sprouting broccoli seedlings growing on the windowsill.

The garden in general is looking a lot wilder than usual - thanks to the hedgehogs. I’ve been avoiding doing too much cutting back so that I wasn’t disturbing them, but also to make sure they have plenty of cover.

I think that two of them (Haggis and Rodney) hibernated in the old box (above left). They’re now hopping in between our boxes and elsewhere and are occasionally sleeping in the new camera box (above right) during the day. The boxes are quite close to each other and we had planned to remove the old box once we were sure they weren’t using it… but they seem to like the manky old one so it’s staying put!

Haggis had babies in the old box last year and it seems to have at least one hog in it everyday so we haven’t been able to get inside to clean it out. I wonder if they like that one because it doesn’t have a base so any ‘waste’ will be self-composting?

The hedgehog’s side of the garden is particularly wild…

The base of the raspberries is a glorious mess of forget-me-nots, violets and yellow poppies - all of which have self-seeded. The strawberries seem keen to burst out of their bed and are merging with the japanese anenomes which create good cover for the old hog-box.

My herb bed is looking gorgeous at the moment - you can’t beat some beautiful chive flowers!

I treated myself to a blackcurrent sage which I’ve planted behind the herb bed so it has room to grow big (you can’t see it in the above pic). I don’t really cook with sage but this one smells amazing and has pretty flowers so I’ve wanted one for a while.

I thought I’d share a few pics from the back garden as well because the unfurling ferns are looking particularly sexy…

And project green carpet/fake lawn is coming along well…

Above left shows areas where I’m spreading some lovely mossy ‘mind your own business’ to replace patches that dyed off after the snow. It’s really happy in the shady, damp area near the back of our house, surrounding the bases of ferns.

Above right shows a sunny area at the top of the garden where I’ve removed a lot of ‘mind your own business’ because it was getting scorched and brown in the sun. Creeping thyme is spreading into these empty patches and will be perfectly happy getting baked in the sun!

Plastic mesh and a collection of twigs is mostly (but not entirely) discouraging birds from digging up the new bits and cats from using the empty patches as a loo.

I can’t wait for some sunny days so I can sit and knit in the garden whilst eating pretty spinach!