It’s that time of the year again; with just a moderate size garden. my family and me are able to enjoy many fresh and delicious vegetables.

We are truly able to appreciate what fresh really means.

First off let me just say the great news is that anyone of us can have a go. No matter what size plot you have. From a window sill to large pots or a great big garden – growing your own Veg is fun and easy.


Back at the end of Feb with it being mild. I decided to get the ball rolling and start this yrs vegetable. Wholesome organic produce. Yummy

First off all Pots washed out, compost, and seed bought

This year I added a raised bed to the plot. This has turned out to be a great success. Hopefully over this year I want to add another three. Which will make the 4 yr crop cycle a little easier to manage. (Loads of info about the 4 yr cycle on Google)

more pics of getting every thing ready back in Feb

Lots of spuds.
Pink Fur Apple, Kerr's Pink, Vivaldi 'baby potato', Maris Bard,
Notice the pots aren’t full up with dirt. I’ll wait till the potatoes leaves are about 6” above the soil, then I’ll fill the tubs to the top with extra soil, this with cause the shoots to produce far more potatoes.

i forgot about the 350 upload limit.

DIY compost bin

I went looking in the big garden centre for one of them tunable compost bins and soon walked out the shop, when I found out how much they were trying to knock them out for. 119.00 quid. “Ye right, not on your Nelly” having the blue water but already in the shed, I got the gray matter working and came up with my own interpretation of the spinning contraption.
Works a treat

All that was back in February.

I let things settle till the first week in March then started planting.

And so many months on things are looking sweet.

Garlic and onions

Radishes. i think i may of grown too many in this small container

More Radishes…..Bloody snails are a nightmare

It’s definitely lettuce weather! I'm enjoying watching them grow. They just seem to love the rain were getting here.

Things have certainly moved on. The potatoes are coming along a treat

A mixture of eatables. we have a few strawberry plants a number of tomatoes and a container holding lettuce "those dam pesky snails are having a banquet"

I really do love all the different Veg in pots in the garden the easibility is great. I’m able to move them around the garden to catch the light better. Also the added bonus of being raised it hells the old knees out.

Lokking good there Topo
My last place only had a patio and sun till 2pm,didn`t stop me growing in pots,recycling containers,anything i could get my hands on! Got a little garden now,fekin love it.

Cheers dude yep its great when you work out space isn’t your enemy. All the best with your garden m8

Seems to be working like a champion, coming along great.

Oh just to say the video tape and cd disks around the pots stop any birds from eating your goodies.

Scares the shit out of them

Arr you start putting a thread together and the missus want to do a food shop. Well more pics to follow in a while when I get back

Looking good there m8, I like the compost bin! Have you thought of using companion plants like Nasturtians and Marigolds? My missus swears by them for blackfly etc

Also may be you can try to encourage birds, rather than discourage them, then they should eat some of those slugs and snails for you, if birds eating your crops are a problem then netting may help.....

Loads of folks growing veg this year..... we'll need a UK420 harvest festival photo comp!

I put a bird table in my garden four months ago and no results so far.

I put out Niger seed which blew all over my raised bed still picking seedlings out now also put two fat balls out,they remain untouched,the occasional Black bird lands on it but shows more interest to the seed blown down to the ground.

Still hopeing though.

Edit,like the idea of the harvest festival.

Thanks bilious
I’ve put a fair few worms in there to help speed things up plus they get the added bonus of being at the fair ground when I give the bin a spin. Never tried Nasturtians or Marigolds as a line of defense. will look in to it.

The pics where taken a number of weeks ago when the seedlings where smaller they’ve shot up now so i've had to remove the video tape n stuff i’ve come across a product for combating my slug problem. I found a 5 l tub of crushed shells that I will be putting around the base of the pots should sort things out.

Yep i'm up for this yrs comp the prize could be a pk of spring onions seeds

Do you have some trees in ya garden ratdog the birds love my garden cos it gives them some sort of protection I suppose “arr forget that I think i’m talking bollocks” they just seem to love my garden for some reason; I get all sorts of birds visiting...

Peas are growing fast now. They did seem to stall for weeks remaining small but in the last week they've shot up.

A garden isn’t a garden with out the sweet stuff Apples and Cherries

Not sure I’ll get any cherries this yr but I certainly should for next yr.

No trees in my garden,but i do have a long tall bushy hedge,i get visited by male and female Blackbirds and that`s it at the moment.

Hi : )
Just a quick word on the wondrousness of copper tape for deterring snails and slugs.
I have a hosta, which, by this time of year, usually looks like it has lace leaves.
This year i put copper tape around the pot, gives the pesky things a slight shock if
they try to slide over it, and my hosta has whole leaves with no holes
Your garden looks lovely, nothing better than eating veg you grew yourself
Unless it's smoking fine weed you grew yourself
Regards
Owlz

Cheers for the tip on copper dude…but afraid it would cost a fair bit to cover the amount I need. Plus if some scally sees it he’ll have it away…

i'm hoping these crushed shells work

Well times moved on and we’ve been eating some of our spoils…the young crunchy lettuce. In between two slices of bread with a little extra virgin olive oil dribbled over and a slice of Bavarian cheese. Totally scrumshus.

Carrots and potatoes

Looking forward to eating a few podded peas in a couple of weeks… along with the strawberries.

A poppy plant that appeared this yr. sure a bird must of dropped a seed

Hey with this poppy plant is it possible "wink" "wink" a little opium or is it just a certain type of poppy

Top Bannana effort Topo,

Planting Nasturtium and Marigolds as companion plants works well, I do it every year I think I read that a clump of chives is also good. Looking at your first pictures I would put some sort of protection over all those canes sticking up, a small ball of gaffer tape perhaps.

We use crushed up Mussell shells around our Hostas that seems to work, looks OK as well.

Getting birds in the garden is great but it takes a bit of time, they probably take a season to get used to new feeding areas, they have to be confident there not going to pounced on, my wife is the bird expert but I think the idea is to have an open area at one side of the feeder and a hedge or a tree close by so they can land and have a quick look around, a bird bath is a good idea too.

It's our allotment day tomorrow if you want I'll stick a couple of pics up, including what Poppies can do if you let them seed around, I think it must be a good Poppy year, some of the fallow fields I've seen are covered, very nice to look at though.

Good luck with your growing,

JOM

Cheers JOM the crushed shells im using seem to be combating the snail infestation.

I do keep meaning to put some tennis balls on top of the canes but just keep getting cained myself and forgetting

“grabs coat and calls a taxi”

having cover in your garden does attracts the birds. I get al sorts of birds throughout the yr visiting the garden.

I have noticed this yr an increase in the number of butterflies, ladybirds and a larger increase in bees around the garden. After reading Danzig topic on keeping bees i'm seriously thinking of starting a hive or two next yr. it’s something I’d like to give a try.

Would be nice to see some pics of your veg down the allotment also m8

Tennis balls on sticks,


That's for attracting door mice, I'm off on a tangent again, strange sort of day.........OK just read back..

If you want a punt on a cheap birds nest, cut up an old football an stick it in a tree and face the hole North.

Budlea is the bush to get the butterflies in your garden, they can't resist, mostly at the end of the season, I'll try and remember to take the camera tommorow and stick some pic's up.

JOM

That Carrot looks ready for the pot mate You`re definately making good use of your plot my man.

Looks like Carrots for tea!

Was pulled up just after taking the pic ratdog. Washed and munched raw …so much easier growing in buckets m8… may not get the size that would be got growing in the ground but this style suits me.

Good idea with the balls JOM
Why face north?
Have a few hollowed out cocoanut husks that I got from the garden center a few yrs back nailed to a few trees that the birds use shall just pop over to your thread and have a ganders at the goodies

According to the boss you face "bird balls" North so they are cool and out of direct sun.

Reading in the paper this week it's much better to cook Carrotts whole and cut them after cooking, this reduces the surface area and "leeching" of the good stuff,

JOM

Yeh I just read that....makes sense really.......we steam all our veg now but whole carrots will
have to be boiled I rekon....Ive got enough spuds goin to feed the world but no carrots......M.....