Lifestyle

The Greenside Up Veg Patch

April 1, 2012

My Vegetable Garden March 2012

Summer 2010

Hello from my new WordPress Blog! We’re still tweaking bits and pieces to the website and blog but as I’m impatient and shot this video on 31st March, I’m firing away and sharing it with you now before it’s too out of date. (For anyone new to my blog, I’ve just moved here from Blogger.)

To give you an idea of how a vegetable garden can transform in just a few short months I’m planning to add a monthly upload showing you my own garden. At the moment it’s looking a bit bare and overgrown but in a few weeks time I’ll be adding more seeds, supports and transplants. You’ll be viewing the garden highlights and lows (yes we all have those) and if all goes to plan, seeing how much food can be produced in a few beds.

Potatoes & Companion Plants – spring 2011

Over the winter months most of the beds were covered with cardboard or green manures to protect the soil and they’ve recently been removed or dug in. Most beds except the area where the carrots will be sown have had very well rotted manure or compost dug in to improve the drainage of our clayey soil and replenish it with valuable nutrients.

You may notice from the clip that the soil is looking very dry… well it is, though only on the surface at present after the dry winter. This year I’ll be using straw as a mulch to protect it and to help to preserve moisture.

Hungarian Grazing Rye Green Manure Overwintered 2011/12

In case you’re wondering, we don’t sell any of the fruit or veg we grow. We eat it raw, cook it,  store and freeze it, as well as donate some to neighbours who help out with watering occasionally (or give us manure!)

Mr G has done his bit with the digging and manuring and from now on in it will just be me tending to the garden as a working mum with three children (who I hope to bribe to help me…)

So that’s it for now, let me know if it helps which will encourage (or not!) me to update you in the months to come and also ensure that I keep up with it!

16 Comments

  • Reply monazwise@me.com Wise April 1, 2012 at 9:55 pm

    Dee,
    Fab video. You have so much growing space there.
    We just grow in the tunnel and immediately outside it and around it.
    I look forward to watching your videos as summer progresses.
    The chef just told me they are calling for snow on Tuesday!
    Love the new blog too. Very crisp and clean looking xx

    • Reply greensideupveg April 1, 2012 at 10:29 pm

      Mona thanks so much for your encouraging words. When I look at last year’s pics of this time last year the garden looked a lot worse! Yep, snow forecast this week, the sun’s been teasing us!

  • Reply Miss M April 4, 2012 at 8:45 pm

    Congrats on your move to wordpress. Your space is looking great ! That’s A LOT of room to grow. How many sq ft total, Dee ?

    • Reply greensideupveg April 4, 2012 at 8:54 pm

      Thanks Miss M. We’ve added to it gradually, started with one bed, then four, then got carried away! Good question, will have to go and measure …

  • Reply La Vie en Rose April 5, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    Hey Dee, your new address looks fab – love the little worm and ladybird! I just tried watching your video but couldn’t got a try again later message!! How are you finding wordpress? Couln’t you move your old blogger blog to new address? why?? I’m curious. Anyway, your new space looks lovely and very professional! Do I need to re subscribe for email updates??

    Sharon

    • Reply greensideupveg April 5, 2012 at 12:53 pm

      Hi Sharon. Thanks! I just clicked the video and it was ok, odd. I really like the cleanness of WordPress but am still learning where everything is. Ken from Eventmedia is doing an excellent job re all the techie stuff and will hopefully have all that sorted this week. All my old blog posts have moved to here and he’s working on whether/how subscribers will move too.

      If you want to ensure you don’t miss any posts in the meantime you could subscribe by email and unsubscribe if you find you’re getting double updates? I know I should have held off telling everyone until it was complete but I’m afraid my impatient streak reared it’s head 🙂

  • Reply Mike April 5, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    Love the new blog and excellent video tour of your gardens.

  • Reply Margaret April 5, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    Like your new blog, Dee and loved the video. What a lot of land you have. Lots of work there!

    • Reply greensideupveg April 15, 2012 at 6:22 pm

      Thanks Margaret 🙂 Yes the key is to keep on top of it and not worry overly if some of it gets a bit overgrown.

  • Reply La Vie en Rose April 15, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    forgot to update you on my sidebar!! but it’s done now!

    Sharon

  • Reply La Vie en Rose April 15, 2012 at 4:22 pm

    Hey Dee! just watched your video above – couldn’t last time – I’d say problem with my laptop!! It’s brilliant – like Dee’s Gardener’s world! You HAVE to do more – I can’t wait to see them come on! Love the groovy scarecrow and your heated bench – could you talk about that in the next one – how you use it! Really enjoyed this!

    Sharon

    • Reply greensideupveg April 15, 2012 at 6:23 pm

      I’m delighted you enjoyed it as have to admit to being slightly nervous of showing off my ‘warts n all’ garden! I’ll definitely make a note to talk about the propagating bench, perhaps even give it a blog post of its own…

  • Reply The Greenside Up Vegetable Garden September 13, 2014 at 11:26 pm

    […] you missed the first video clip in April I mentioned that the food produced here is for family and friends. We don’t sell the fruit or […]

  • Reply The Greenside Up Vegetable Garden - June 2012 September 14, 2014 at 4:38 pm

    […] here we are three months after my first video and it’s starting to look like a ‘proper’ vegetable garden once again. All the […]

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