Well lets try and keep this up, I cant promise it will last but hey I will give it a great try, blogging can take up alot of time when you are a dyslexic! tip for any Dyslexics that stumble on my blog, just keep at it and write and read about stuff you love, sod what teachers tell you to read unless you are getting marked on it! There is nothing worse than reading / writing when you dont like the subject!

This little lot of pictures from my garden where taken today after what was my last mega mission in the garden for 2010. From now on its a little planting here, a little weeding there and just alot of minor stuff from week to week. The morning started early with me cutting back the weeds behind the fence, hoeing the weeds on the various plots and more weeding, got to love the weeding. Its really nice to see clear soil but  I just cant stand doing it. After weeding I planted some of my shallots, lettuce, monge tout, radishes, (red, white, lisbon) onions and cucumbers. I think there was more but its been a long day and I cant be bothered to think any more. I know there is no need for poly tunnels in June but due to the cats pooping on my plot I have had to do this so that they dont dig up my lovely little seedlings / seeds when covering it up.

Well this is all the trees, bushes and plants in there green wonderfully state for you viewing pleasure:

I can only hang my head in shame, lots of stuff has happened with the garden for months and I have not tweeted, written posts or even displayed pictures I toke a few weeks ago. So whats been happening?

1. weeding.
2. planting of tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, leeks, salsify, potatoes, chilli’s, pepers,berry bushes, beans, lettuce, radish and a few other seeds and herbs.
3. supports and netting erected to protect strawberries and to grow my bean and monge tout.
4. compost attacked and eaten by ratty, which has now been batted, I hope.
5. Irrigation system in place.

So quite alot going on, I am planning some pics and a new way of showing some of the classic fruit and veg and how they are looking throughput the growing season to help others see what they should look like & when, I hope this will help you if its your first time growing your own so you know your going in the right direction!

Next year I will be starting a little gardening advice application that will be online via this blog or it will be via a new site with a nice little iPad / iPhone app, depends on time really.

This littl post is to let you see what the garden now looks like. What is alive, what is not, what is nearly on the way out and so on.

In summary, tomatoes still going, cherry tom plants doing really well, loads of cucumbers, sweetcorn still going, potatoes are still going and much much more.

See for your self:

back from the dead parsley

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Back from dead parsley with the other hrbs! just cant kill em ;-)

Ok so I thought I would work out what has been spent.

• Cains £40
• Pots £20
• Propagators £40
• Greenhouse £20
• Compost £30
• Seeds £40

So about £190’s to get going. I have loads of seeds left so I think seeds could come down to £20. So £170’s is alot but apart from compsost and seeds they will be usuable for next year! What crops do I think I have got so far:

• Tomatoes to date: 50 * 12 / 15 (per punet of shop baught) = 40, 40 * £1 = £40
• Cucumbers to date: 80, 80 * £1 = £80
• Potatoes: (not yet all picked) 12, 1 bag, £3
• Chillis: 4, 1 pack, £3
• Peppers, 8, 2 packs, £4
• Dwarf beans, 200, 10 packs, £30
• Runner beans, 80, 8 packs, £24

So without any of my other crops, onions, spring onions, sweet corn, betroot, carrots and loads of all the other to pick we are looking at an income / savings of: £184.

So I have all the equipment, seeds and still more crops to come and they have almost paid for themselfs!

Say ne more.

I love gardening now, its a fact. But when me and Gemma went to do this, I had grass, weeds and Gemma thinking it would not work to contend with. But its easy to do, in the climate we face, once you have the kit, home grown is cheaper, healthier and better for you.

I know I sound like a hippie but its true, the first thing is that once you grow it, you eat it. I hate tomatoes and I now eat them! dont like them much, they taste ok from backgarden but to be honest, if we had not grown them, I would not eat them. The biggest cost is pots, properagators, plastic greenhouses and cains. Once you have them, the cost per yeild will be lower and lower till you break even and even make profit, it will happen. Seeds are cheap if you pick the right places to buy them. I would suggest B and Q for the packets of everything that means you pay 33 pence a packet. That or the pound shop. This year I got plant food for 99pence and wish I got loads more as it works, cheap and most of all every penny counts, these cost alot less than the big chain versions and miricle grow.

Pick the plot, make sure that you give the plot good time to grow weeds, de-weed then carry on till it gets the normal amount if its a really grassy or weedy part of the garden. Then plant away, feed and away you go. There is loads more to it but I am just trying to say, I can do it, it was poor ground and it still works. Just give it love, care and attention. If you dont enjoy it then dont do it again, try it with herbs and potted tomateos first. A little tip, grow the tomatoes in small pots in doors first. Once about 24 inches tall, transfer to a bigger pot, 7 or 8 inches and put outside. Once they grow some more, transfer the plant and pot to the lawn or soil. Use canes to prop up the plant and support with ties as it grows. Dont tie it too tight but enough to hold it up. The roots should go via the pots holes in the bottom, into the ground and blossom without planting them at all. Its what we did with the cherry tomatoes thise year. I did my ones late and they did not grow like the money makers but they are really going some now. Its the mistakes that I do now that will help me and the reader of this blog get better results.

So with all that I thought that some pics from my garden. well more artistic ones in this post will go nicely. I do have loads of other pictures of the crops in my other posts but to be honest these ones are testing out my new camera to see what it can do, plus develop my picture taking skills.

Enjoy:

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