Been awhile, but things are still growing.

Well, where to start? since that last post I've been getting involved with the garden, helping out the redoubtable Terry to plant loads of tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, green peas and parsnips..most of which turned into a feast for the slugs, which laid waste to most of the tomatoes and strawberries.

Ah well, there were lessons learned; next year we plan to put straw down for the strawberries and raise up the tomatoes.

BIG PLANTING DAY!

Fantastic day planting plum trees, espalier apples trees, herbs, shrubs.. and then everything watered using the NEW TAP!

Planting has begun!

A good day was had on Saturday with much garden progress, highlights include:

• Weeding the beds and planting tomatoes and courgette plants.
• Jerusalem archichoke have come again from last year, so weeded around to and moved to give space  
• Planted mangetout pea seeds along chain link fence bounary
• Laid second brick path up into Sue Godfrey garden 
• Variety of herb seeds sown in the herb bed 
• Tree pit for the plum tree dug 
• Bee and insect houses hung from the trees and shrubs (made of bamboo)  

And the REALLY good, is that we finally have a date for when Thames Water will connect the new tap... Saturday 24th May... so soon we will have water!

 
 

2013 gardening is GO!!

Wonky Prong 2013 got off to a cracking start today with a cold day of gardening action fuelled by freshly baked warm chocolate and banana muffins (thanks John!)

This is what it looked like at 11am:

And this is what it looked like at 1pm:

And this is what it looked like at 4pm:

And here's what happened between:

Cecily, Dan and Martin drank tea enjoying the brief moment of sun..
 

And John drank some tea as well..

And Ama also drank some tea..

Tidying up the Sue Godfrey Garden..

After having removed the chain link fence looks a lot better..

A hive of activity. The bottle greenhouse will go between Cecily and Dan along the back boundary of Sue Godrey Garden (between the green laurel bush and the coppery beach tree)..

New composting area: 2 compost and 1 wormery with new Olive tree to right in foreground..

Dug up Jerusalem Artichoke and Potatoes..  PAAARPPPP!!!!

Let's grow mushrooms!!

Thought would be fun to grow mushrooms. I've done a bit of research and to do this you buy the spores which have been impregnated into wooden dowells and then get some logs and drill holes and then put the dowells in, and the spores grow through into the log. Sounds like takes a while before you get any mushrooms, but then it takes years for the fungi to completely consume the log and so you harvest mushrooms for years!!

I've gotten some freshly cut logs from the guys cutting the trees (photo below) and have ordered some mushrooms.. so when they arrive I'll let people know and then we can a mushroom start-up session.

I've ordered these lions mare mushroom spores, which are meant to be very tasty and also really good for you. Link below..

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/all-other-vegetables/mushrooms/mushroom-lions-mane/bww3156TM

 

Weeding and thinning

In the rain everything's growing like mad (including weeds!) so we weeded and thinned out the dill and coriander.

And also took out the Swiss Chard which were looking a bit tired (and had started bolting) and replaced with some lettuce seedings.

Young gardeners enjoying Swiss Chard