The raised beds which I am using for herbs, small salad crops and raising plants had a good helping of manure in the winter and all the plants are benefiting from this. Raised beds are so easy to tend and can easily be made from scrap wood. You just have to be careful that they do not dry out, especially along the edges.
The cheap fruit trees that I purchased a while ago are sprouting plenty of shoots, apparently most newly transplanted trees die from lack of water, so I have kept them well watered while they are settling in.
'Bramble,' our Springer is always ready to help out in the garden, and loves to pose when I am out taking photos. She is wonderful company and has soon learnt to use the paths in-between the crops, well most of the time.
The flower garden is Mrs TK's domain and her lupins are looking wonderful, as are the rest of the flowers. Unfortunately, at this of the year, with hedge cutting and lawn mowing and work, there are just not enough hours in the day to keep everything in perfect order, but then again, we are not really that sort of gardeners.
The joy of gardening to us is enjoying the fruits of our labour, so last night we had our first feed of strawberries dipped in hot chocolate in Mrs TK's new little fondue that she had for her Birthday.
Interesting... my dogs always seem to use the paths on my allotment instead of trampling over the beds.
ReplyDeleteSome great shots there Steve. You seem to be ahead of us, we have had no rain and a hosepipe ban has been implemented as well! Global warming or just seasonal weather patterns? Good to see Bramble keeping an eye on you too!
ReplyDeleteIts just the cats that are a problem Matron,I appreciate their toilet habits, but not in the middle of a seed bed!
ReplyDeleteHi Andy
We did have a very long dry spell, then luckily enough we had a good few showers a few weeks ago, that with the warm weather has really pushed crops on.
Bramble is banned from the poly-tunnel now, she has not quite learnt to use the paths in there.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteWith all the dry weather and the tendency of raised beds to be comparatively drier (we have raised beds too) mulching is very good at keeping in moisture. You say you are doing lots of grass mowing: grass cuttings make a super mulch, applied weekly in thin sprinklings. We got this idea from Bob Flowerdew's No Work Garden and now can;t get enough of them, taking grass cuttings from three neighbours in addition to our own. The strawberries look great, I'm envious!
Hi Stuart
ReplyDeleteI have been using the grass cuttings around the fruit trees. But the raised beds are full of tiny seedlings so so not need it at the moment, you have to be a little careful with grass cutting and not but them too thick at a time. But like you say mulching is perfect to keep the soil from drying out. The strawberries are going mad now, looks like strawberries every evening for a while!
Hi Stuart.
ReplyDeleteI have been using grass cutting around all my fruit bushes,the raised beds a full of seedlings at the moment, but when I larger plants I will mulch around them.
Steve