Looking Back At 2007

This post starts with a photo taken a couple of days ago on a frosty winter morning

This shows the veg plot as it stands now at the end of the year with winter getting underway.

We both knew that the garden would take a while to sort out but this can sometimes be a little disheartening. I think this is more to do with the size of the garden we have taken on and the amount of work we need to do. In my mind I have always thought that this would be a three to five year project. I suppose that part of this feeling could be the sections of the garden we have chosen to take on first. The fact that the recreational section of the garden nearest the house has been a little neglected means that we do not have a fantastic area to relax in by the house. Don't get me wrong, I think we have moved sections of the garden on fantastically.

What Went Right?

The year started really well with fantastic weather in the early part of the year. We moved on at a good pace getting the raised beds dug over and filled with some of the top soil from other parts of the garden.

Several of the crops were planted on time and gave us a reasonable amount of produce. These included:

• Early potatoes
• Garlic
• Shallots
• Broad beans
• Jerusalem artichokes

In fact, we are still eating the garlic, shallots and artichokes.

Several major jobs have been completed. These include the filling and digging over the raised beds for the first time. These may not sound major but they take about 12 hours each. The fruit bed took even longer as it is 2.5 times the size of the other beds.

The cordon fruit trees are in and the bed around them forms a good division between the veg plot and the rest of the garden. This looks so good that we are going to do something similar the other side of the path (the cordons only stretch across half the width of the garden at the moment).

The greenhouse was completed. Some of the work on the greenhouse could have gone better but we got there and it is stable and works. Yes, if I had to do it again I would do things differently. Remember, this was the first time I had done this so I think this went reasonably well.

What Went Wrong?

The weather! Yes I know that this is not in our control but boy did it make a mess of the middle of the year. We are grateful that the weather did not hit us as badly as some of the communities near here. Yes, our garden spent several weeks under a few inches of water but it was not several feet.

We did not plant some of the crops as early as we should have. This meant that they either failed or gave a very low yield. These included:

• Runner beans
• Peas

The runner beans low yield was baffling as the neighbours had a fantastic crop and a long season. Still, there is always next year.

What Is In At The Moment?

The planting for 2008 has started already. We have the first broad beans in the garden and they are 3-4 inches high and look to be doing very well. Close by we have the spring greens along with the late planted winter greens.

The fruit trees and bushes are all in the ground ready for the next year. This time last year they were in compost or were waiting to be ordered. In fact the fruit bed looks to be ready for the new year and should be low maintenance in 2008.

The rest of the planting for 2008 is a blank canvas.

Plans For 2008
There are several jobs that we know need doing in 2008:

• Finish leveling the paths
• The garage needs extending (we need storage space if we are going to grow a reasonable amount of food)
• 40m of fence at the end of the garden needs replacing
• A wildlife pond needs digging
• Build some cold frames

The next few days will also see us look at the plans for the rest of the vegetable plot. We can put in a firm planting regime now that the greenhouse is complete. This will be helped by the cold frames so I had better get those built by March :)

The fence is already underway. The old one had to be taken down as it was not stable enough to remain. The wood is here and just needs painting, if you can say 93 sq. m. just needs painting.

The wildlife pond and the levelling are complementary really as the earth removed will help with the levelling and also fill the raised beds.

Mark