After: Retaining wall
Before: Retaining wall
In November, we moved to our new home in Dawlish, Devon. The garden was a lot larger than I’m used to and required a lot of work to get it ready for spring.
Two extremely large Laurel trees had to be chopped back into modest sized shrubs, borders had to be dug and a large retaining wall and steps required rebuilding from scratch. I wanted to keep this project as green as possible, so I cleaned the mortar off the existing bricks that were scattered around the garden and used them in the construction. The entire project ended in a cost of about £25!
The previous occupants hadn’t does much with the garden and it had become a ‘green desert’ (as I like to call it), of nothing but a few dwindling shrubs and a emerald overdose of a lawn.
My Polycarbonate Greenhouse
Hardening off
The addition of the greenhouse has helped no end; a lovely polycarbonate greenhouse model that I’d recommend! Perfect! I used it during the colder months for growing-on practically everything for the garden. It is now being used to heat my cucumbers, gherkins, melons, peppers and aubergines.
Now it’s May and many of my hardy tender flowers and vegetables are slowly being introduced to the borders. Luckily, the soil seems to be in reasonable conditions, apart from millions of weed seedlings that I will continue to battle against into the foreseeable future.
Info: Hardening off involves placing young plants in a greenhouse during the night and bringing them out again in the morning to toughen up against the cool, spring temperatures and winds.
The veg plot is coming on well. It is now full! I have planted it up with plenty of salad crops, green-leaf veg, sweetcorn, runner beans, onions and garlic and (you know me), plenty of squashes (courgettes, pumpkins and summer squashes). All is going well so far with very few losses and hardly any slug damage due to the dry weather.
The only problem I’m having is of course, the dry weather itself. My three water-butts are nearly empty but we are currently using ‘grey-water’ to keep them from emptying completely. We are due some heavy rain this weekend, so fingers crossed!
I have also finished and cranked-up the irrigation system to water my hanging baskets. There are already a few baskets in place and I intend to make the most of the 80 foot of supply hose that I have secured under the eaves of my bungalow’s roof and hang even more. I’m including a veg or two in my baskets this year, including tumbling tomatoes (Losetto) and strawberries.